Global Education Student Assessment Tools e

 

 

While it is not the only purpose, Assessment FOR learning is one of the most important purposes of assessment. While assessment OF learning has well established procedures; assessment for learning requires some theoretical ideas to be put into practice if the potential benefits are to be gained.

 

Assessment FOR Learning =Formative

 

Formative assessment is not a new idea to us as educators.  However, during the past several years there has been literally an explosion of applications linked to sound research.

In this evolving conception, formative assessment is more than testing frequently, although frequent information is important.  Formative assessment also involves actually adjusting teaching to take account of these frequent assessment results.  But, formative assessment is even more than using information to plan next steps.  Formative assessment seems to be most effective when students are involved in their own assessment and goal setting.3

 

Student involvement is anything you do that helps students:

• Understand learning targets

• Engage in self-assessment

• Watch themselves grow

• Talk about their growth

• Plan next steps for learning.

Student involvement looks like:

• Developing criteria with students

• Students using criteria and rubrics to evaluate the quality of anonymous work

• Students drafting test specifications based on their understanding of the learning targets they are to hit and the essential concepts in material to be learned.

• Students writing multiple-choice questions that match clearly specified learning targets

• Students talking about their growth, for example in student-led conferences

• Students planning their own next steps for learning

 

 

Summaries and Reflections Students stop and reflect, make sense of what they have heard or read, derive personal meaning from their learning experiences, and/or increase their metacognitive skills. These require that students use content-specific language.

■ Lists, Charts, and Graphic Organizers Students will organize information, make connections, and note relationships through the use of various graphic organizers.

■ Visual Representations of Information Students will use both words and pictures to make connections and increase memory, facilitating retrieval of information later on. This “dual coding” helps teachers address classroom diversity, preferences in learning style, and different ways of “knowing.”

■ Collaborative Activities Students have the opportunity to move and/or communicate with others as they develop and demonstrate their understanding of concepts.

 

Assessment OF Learning= Summative

 

Involves judging pupils' performance against national standards (level descriptions).

Teachers often make these judgments at the end of a unit of work, year or key stage.

Test results also describe pupils performance in terms of levels.

Carried out for the purposes of grading and reporting.