Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers

Educator Module 14, Activity 8

Module 14: Embedding the Formative

Assessment Process in Lesson Planning

Extended Learning Activities

Background
In Module 14: Embedding the Formative Assessment Process in Lesson Planning teachers
learned how to design lessons to incorporate and support foundational formative assessment
practices during daily lessons, where teachers and students are eliciting and using evidence of
current learning. When teachers plan daily lessons to elicit evidence, teachers begin with the
standard, create aligned lesson-sized learning goals, articulate what students should be able to
do when they meet the goals, and design tasks and opportunities through which students
engage with evidence of learning. Learning new techniques for lesson planning helps teachers
consolidate what they are learning with as they adopt formative assessment.

An important idea in formative assessment is that the use of evidence by teachers and students
takes place in every lesson. When planning lessons, teachers consider how they will address
each of the five elements of the feedback loop during the lesson. As teachers begin learning
formative assessment, they often adopt one or two new routines at a time. Module 14 focuses
on how to plan for formative assessment lessons in ways that integrate these new routines, so
that students and teachers have many ways to engage in eliciting, interpreting and using
evidence.

In these optional extended learning activities, we offer three learning tasks teachers and
leaders may wish to engage with to advance their understanding of formative assessment
lesson planning. These learning opportunities can be done independently as individual readings
and reflection, or with colleagues. Guiding questions are offered to support individual
reflection, as well as to strengthen collaborative dialogue and increase shared understanding
for site-based teams.

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Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers
Educator Module 14, Activity 8

How to Use this resource

Teachers may select one (or more) of the following learning experiences to further explore
ideas and insights from this module.

• If you and your colleagues want to learn more about instructional routines that
support student agency through formative assessment, go to the first extension
activity: Supporting Student Agency through Formative Assessment.
• If you and your colleagues wish to further reflect on what is different from traditional
lesson planning, based on what you learned in this module, go to Activity 2: Reflection
on Shifts in Lesson Planning.
• If you and your colleagues would like to practice planning a lesson to integrate the
content learned in the module, go to Activity 3: Co-Planning a Formative Assessment
Lesson.

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Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers
Educator Module 14, Activity 8

Module 14: Extended Learning Activity 1

Supporting Student Agency through
Formative Assessment
Context
Module 14: Embedding the Formative Assessment Process in Lesson Planning introduces
strategies to plan lessons that integrate strategies to elicit, interpret, and use evidence during
learning. Formative assessment strengthens student agency when teachers establish daily
instructional routines that introduce, explicitly teach, and hone the skills of self-regulation and
metacognition. While some students come to school with these skills in place, many do not.
Formative assessment helps to address this gap by ensuring that all students have
opportunities to develop self-regulation, metacognition, and collective efficacy - all
foundational elements of student agency.

Students who exhibit agency do not exclusively rely on the teacher to carry the load of learning
– they regularly attempt new tasks, develop and use cognitive strategies to move learning
forward, and can select from a range of tactics to address a new learning activity. Agency is
supported by students' beliefs that they can positively influence events if they take an active
role in determining their own choices. Developing student agency is never done “to” students
by teachers; rather, it requires a new model of how learning takes shape, where learning is a
joint responsibility equally shared by teacher and students.

This optional extension activity can be done independently or in a collaborative group. Its
purpose is to give you the opportunity to explore how student agency develops through
formative assessment practices during daily lessons.

Time: 20-30 minutes

Learning Goal
• Explore the instructional routines that are the vehicle through which students deepen
the skills that are foundational to agency

Success Criteria
• Articulate the instructional strategies that support students to develop skills of agency
during daily lessons

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Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers
Educator Module 14, Activity 8

Task Directions
Step 1: Read Supporting Student Agency through Formative Assessment: New Instructional
Routines.

Step 2: Consider the techniques teachers use to introduce and support students to develop the
skills of agency. Discuss or reflect in your journal:
• Which of the techniques might you wish to build on to more fully align to ideas outlined
in this reading?
• Where might you be able to add some of these techniques in your lesson plans?

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Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers
Educator Module 14, Activity 8

Module 14: Extended Learning Activity 2

Reflections on Shifts in Lesson Planning
Context
In Module 14: Embedding the Formative Assessment Process in Lesson Planning teachers
learned that in order to advance formative assessment practice, planning lessons that focus on
the relationship among learning goals, success criteria, and evidence-use is thought through
ahead of each lesson. Teachers come to formative assessment with extensive expertise in
planning lessons; however, integrating planning for and using evidence during a lesson is
typically a new practice. When planning lessons in formative assessment, teachers begin with
the standard, create aligned lesson-sized learning goals, articulate what students will be able to
do when they meet the learning goals, and design learning tasks in which students engage with
evidence during learning.

A critical part of this shift for students is teachers internalizing and planning for the shifts in
teacher and student practice in a collaborative environment. It is important for teachers to
explore the shifts for practice in how their daily lessons are developed as it will bring new roles
for themselves and ways of learning for students in the classroom.

This optional extension activity can be done independently or in a collaborative group. Its
purpose is more deeply reflect on what is different in formative assessment from traditional
lesson planning.

Time: 30 minutes

Learning Goal
• Explore how the formative assessment lesson planning process supports the student
role in formative assessment.

Success Criteria
• Articulate how the formative assessment lesson planning template elevates the student
role during learning.

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Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers
Educator Module 14, Activity 8

Task Directions
Step 1: Each of the first four formative assessment modules (modules 10-13) offered a
summary of shifts in the teacher and student roles related to the module topics. In this activity,
you will revisit the reflection document from Module 13, The Student Role in Formative
Assessment.
Step 2: Explore the teacher and student role shifts in the Module 13 Reflection document.
Identify 2-3 teacher roles and 2-3 student roles, and describe how these might be supported
during learning. Consider the following prompts:

• What structures would you have to have in place to address these ideas within your
lesson?

• How might you provide time to model, teach or provide feedback to students as they
are developing knowledge and capacity to strengthen the shifts you’ve identified?

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Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers
Educator Module 14, Activity 8

Module 14: Extended Learning Activity 3

Co-Planning a Formative Assessment Lesson
Context
In Module 14: Embedding the Formative Assessment Process in Lesson Planning teachers
learned how to plan lessons that require them to rethink how they prepare and think about
daily instruction and how students and teachers elicit, interpret, and use evidence. Teachers
come to formative assessment with experience in planning learning activities and lessons, but
the switch to integrating key components of formative assessment can be tricky. In this module,
teachers will begin to use the instructional routines from formative assessment to revise an
existing lesson plan.

This optional extension activity can be done with a colleague – who may or may not also be
completing this module - or in a collaborative group. Its purpose is to reflect on your lesson
planning practice and co-plan a lesson using what you’ve learned in this module.

Time: 30 minutes

Learning Goal
• Explore the key components of a formative assessment lesson plan.

Success Criteria
• Create a lesson plan using the Formative Assessment Lesson Planning template.
• Identify the next steps in shifting lesson planning practices to strengthen teacher and
student evidence use in learning.

Task Directions
Step 1: Work with a colleague to plan a lesson using the Formative Assessment Lesson Planning
template, on page 1 of the handout.

Step 2: Jot down notes or discuss with your partner what is similar or different from the module
content and your lesson planning process. Identify 2-3 areas of focus from the module that
you’d like to focus on in this lesson plan, emphasizing things you would like to do differently in
this lesson plan.

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Strand 3: Formative Assessment for Teachers
Educator Module 14, Activity 8

Step 3: Use the Peer Review Questions for Lesson Planning in Formative Assessment to guide
peer reflection and discourse to strengthen lesson planning techniques and deepen strategies
to support eliciting, interpreting, and using evidence during daily instruction.

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