The Research
The assessment of students is a natural part of the learning environment. Assessments are used to gauge both what the students are learning as well as how effective the teacher is presenting the information to the students. There are two forms of assessments that teachers use to assess their students: formative assessments and summative assessments.
Formative assessments are informal ways of the teachers observing what the students are learning and what they are still struggling with. The teacher knows what the students still need to know and can make adjustments to how the information is being presented from there. Examples of formative assessments include KLW charts, teacher observations, anecdotal record, and questioning, among other things (Class lecture). The teacher can also ask the students questions throughout the lesson to assess learning.
This is an important form of assessment. An effective teacher will constantly be watching and observing their students to see how they are responding to what and how the information is being taught. If the teacher is seeing stress or confusion on the faces of their students, then the teacher will need to change the teaching method so the students will understand what is being presented. At the end of lessons, the teacher can go around the room and have their students say one thing they learned during the lesson or have them ask questions for further clarification on a concept.
The other type of assessment, summative assessment, is a formal assessment. This is given at the end of a lesson, chapter, unit, etc. and it provides a summary of what the students learned during that time. Tests, quizzes, MCAS, and projects are examples of assessments that teachers use to gauge what the students have learned throughout a lesson, chapter, or unit. This should be paired with formative assessment so the teacher does not get to the end of the lesson and find out their students have no idea what was taught. If the teacher uses both forms of assessment throughout the lessons, then the students will be given a chance to voice their struggles and teaching methods can be changed.
Wong and Wong write, “The purpose of a test is to determine how well each student has mastered the objectives of the lesson,” (Wong and Wong, 250). Teachers need to write out the objectives before beginning a lesson so they know what exactly their students need to learn by the end of the lesson. Tests are great ways to see how well the students learned the objectives taught. These tools help teachers as they strive to teach their students in the best way possible.
- Wong, Harry K., and Rosemary T. Wong. The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher. 4th ed. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc., 2009. Print.
My pre-practicim placement is in a primary classroom in an elementary school and attached is my focused observation journal entry
My Classroom
I believe that there are a number of practical reasons for the use of both formative and summative assessments in the classroom. It is so important for the teacher to know where each one of their students is at all times. Using the formative assessment, I will be able to observe what each of my students are struggling with. This also plays into how well I know my students. If I know how my students learn best (according to Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences), then I can adjust my teaching to their strengths if they are having trouble understanding a concept.
The formative assessment is so important to incorporate often into the daily life of the learning community. As a teacher, it is my job to make sure I know when my students are struggling with something. I can use strategies like asking the students questions to gauge how well they are understanding the material being taught. I believe it is something that should be constantly happening because it also gives me (as the teacher) an idea about how well I am presenting the information in a way the students can understand.
As the name suggests, summative assessments are just a summary of what the students have learned throughout a section of information. This is also an important tool to use often in a classroom because it shows how students have grown over a course of time. As the research said, these forms of assessments are useful in covering the objectives that needed to be covered in the lesson. I believe that this should not be the sole basis for which students are graded. It is more than just taking a test and passing it. As my pre-practicum teacher told me it is not mastery of something that students accomplish at a young age. It is developing consistency within the subject area and being able to apply that to other situations and areas that build on what they have already learned.
There should be a balance between the formative and summative assessments. It is not helpful for the students to just have a test on something if the teacher has no idea if the students even understand the material or not. This is why the formative assessments should constantly be happening. It is up to the teacher to notice and ask questions to figure out when their students are struggling with something. This gives the teacher time to adjust what they are doing to give the students the best chance possible to understand the information being given. Tests or projects at the end of lessons or units further help to assess how well the students understood what was taught.
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