Assessments for Learning
Week 4 Discussion 1
Key strategies from the video:
Clarifying for understanding
Show examples
Providing feedback
Activate students as learners
Activate students as their own learner
Your own ideas about both formative and summative assessments
Formative assessment is a powerful instrument used for planning differentiated instruction for children spanning various learning levels. Formative assessment provides the information needed for me to monitor progress, adjust daily instruction to meet ongoing needs and differentiate instruction to ensure that all children meet or exceed their grade level expectations. Summative assessments are used for grading how much a child knows about a particular lesson given. Summative assessments results are often recorded as scores or grades that are then factored into a child’s permanent academic record. In other words, formative assessments are often said to be for learning, while summative assessments are of learning.
How both sets of ideas could be implemented to create an effective classroom environment
As a Pre-K teacher, I plan activities to stimulate exploration and learning which provide multiple opportunities each day to observe emerging learning. Formative assessments allow me to provide unique opportunities to embed daily instruction in a playful, low-stress setting, which will in turn help me to sequence future instruction to provide the next instructional step for each child when learning various skills like Number Sense. I start with a story about counting/numbers and then we do finger plays as an added step then ultimately there is discussions. I will note children who contribute to our counting discussion and who demonstrate conceptual understanding of why counting is important. I don’t use summative assessments for the age group that I work with (Pre-K) because their learning does not currently use a grading system for learning.
Be sure to include examples to illustrate and support your ideas.
Self-Regulation
- Anticipates clean-up
- Focuses attention in busy classroom
- Suggests sharing
- Explains reasons for rules
Understand and use simple and complex words to describe relationships
- Identifies things that are smaller, larger, etc. than a __
- Is able to follow command to sit next to/ behind/in front of
- Labels things as being bigger/heavier/faster than other things
References:
Michael Rystad Webb2.svedala.se/utbildning Assessment for Learning video
Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.