Formative Assessment for English Language Arts

A Guide for Middle and High School Teachers

Amy Benjamin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138171954
• eBook ISBN: 9781317924166
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book demonstrates how formative assessments, unlike standardized tests, provide the kind of communication between teachers and students that help teachers make instructional decisions to improve student performance.

Part I

Foundations

1

About Formative
Assessment

Formative assessment is assessment that is meant to guide both teachers and students toward the next steps in the learning process. Formative assessment differs from summative assessment in that summative assessment has an air of finality. When we think of summative assessments, we think of unit tests, final exams, standardized tests, entrance exams, and the like. Although any assessment instrument may be used as formative assessment (to guide learning), those just mentioned are usually used more for ranking and sorting students than for informing them (and their teacher) their learning needs. Thus, the difference between formative and summative assessment depends largely upon how the results of the test or project are going to be used.

There’s another difference, and that has to do with the attitude that students have toward formative assessment: formative assessment does not result in a grade “that counts.” Therefore, students approach it with less anxiety, competitiveness, and defensiveness. The downside is that some students might not do their best on formative assessments, believing that they “don’t count.” The unfortunate view that students should give a school-time task their best shot only if it will figure into their report card grade is ingrained in our society and works against a more authentic view of what education is really all about.

Formative assessment leads to follow-through; summative assessment ends with a grade. To understand the difference between formative and summative assessment, you need to undergo a paradigm shift in what assessment in school is all about. Traditionally, we think of assessment (testing) as a means of putting “closure” on learning, as though learning is something that should have closure. Figure 1–1 further clarifies the difference between formative and summative assessment.

Earlier, I said that any assessment can be formative assessment. Whether an assessment is formative depends on how the teacher and student are going to use the results. Consider this example: A student takes a traditional spelling test. She gets four words wrong. If this assessment is to be used formatively, the student would be expected not only to learn the misspelled words, but, more importantly, to employ an effective method for learning them. For example, the misspelled words may conform to a rule that the student needs to learn, or they may fit into a pattern of words that are spelled similarly; they may be exceptions to a rule; they may be learned through a visual or mnemonic. The point is that the traditional spelling test—any traditional test—may be turned into a formative assessment by including a meaningful follow-up component, one that goes beyond mere correction of wrong answers.

Figure 1.1. Formative and Summative Assessments Compared

	Formative Assessment	Summative Assessment
	Student is aware of the questions	Questions on a test are surprises to
	throughout the assessment process	the student
	Timing is flexible	Student must perform within time limits
	Teacher’s feedback is commentary and/or letter or number grade	Teacher’s feedback is a letter or number grade
	Evaluation is used to guide future learning	Evaluation is used to rank and sort students
	Considers the students zone of proximal development	Does not consider the student as an individual learner
	Test or task may be flexible	Test or task is not flexible
	Student is involved in self-assessment	Assessment by teacher or outside agency only
	Sets reachable targets for future learning	No direct follow-up; when it’s over, it’s over.
	Results are not used as a report card grade	Results figure in to the report card grade

Learning should be cumulative. One of the differences between the curriculum and mindset in an English class and one for other subjects such as science and mathematics, is that we often see the study of a work of literature as being “over when it’s over”: We’re done reading Romeo and Juliet, so if X number of students failed the unit test, it’s over now, and we’re moving on to the poetry of Emily Dickinson? But what was the purpose of reading Romeo and Juliet? Was it simply to learn the plotline? I hope not, because that would fail to use the many other learning opportunities inherent in Romeo and Juliet, learning opportunities that are going to make a student better in understanding all future literature. All literary experiences offer the opportunity for becoming better readers, sharper observers of literary subtleties. So, the question is: What do the students who did poorly on the Romeo and Juliet test tell me about their understan...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Foundations
• Part II    Applications
• Part III   Performance Tasks
• References