GOOD

MORNING!

A SS E SS M E N T:
F O R M AT I V E & S U M M AT I V E
Teacher: SIMONA BOERU

W H AT I S A SS E SS MEN T ?
Assessment for learning is best described as a process
by which assessment information is used by teachers to
adjust their teaching strategies, and by students to adjust
their learning strategies.
Assessment, teaching and learning are inextricably
linked, as each informs the others.
Assessment is a powerful process that can either
optimize or inhibit learning, depending on how its applied.

P L A N N E D A N D C O M M U N I C AT E D

Assessment for learning should be built into

teachers planning as a part of everyday classroom
practice.

P L A N N E D A N D C O M M U N I C AT E D
Learning goals, teaching strategies and assessment
criteria should be carefully matched. Students should
know in advance what they will learn, as well as how
and why they are to be assessed. Teachers plans
should be flexible so that they can make changes in
response to new information, opportunities or insights.

P L A N N E D A N D C O M M U N I C AT E D
The planning needs to include strategies to check
students understanding of the goals they are pursuing
and the criteria that will be applied in assessing their
work.

P L A N N E D A N D C O M M U N I C AT E D

How students will receive feedback, how they will

take part in assessing their learning and how they will
be helped to make further progress should also be
planned.

P L A N N E D A N D C O M M U N I C AT E D

A teachers planning should provide

opportunities for both student and
teacher to obtain information about
progress towards learning goals, and
use it to direct the learning process.

VA LU E S A N D ATT I T U D E S
A B O U T A SS E SS M E N T
1.

Teachers value and believe in students.

2.

Sharing learning goals with the students.

3.

Involving students in self-assessment.

4.

Providing feedback that helps students

recognize their next steps and how to
take them.

VA LU E S A N D ATT I T U D E S
A B O U T A SS E SS M E N T
5. Being confident that every student can
improve.
6. Providing students with examples of what
we expect from them.

BALANCED CLASSROOM
ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

A tool used after

A process used by teachers

instruction to measure

and students during instruction

student achievement
which provides evidence

that provides feedback to adjust

ongoing teaching and learning
to help students improve their

of student competence or

achievement of intended

program effectiveness.

instructional outcomes.

SUMMATIVE
ASSESSMENT

S U M M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
Assessment of learning
is

a kind of measurement that takes place

to round things off or make a one-off
measurement. (Jeremy Harmer, 2007)

S U M M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
looks at past achievements adds
procedures or tests to existing work ...
involves only marking and feedback grades to
student is separated from teaching is
carried out at intervals when achievement has
to be summarized and reported.
generally taken by students at the end of a
unit or semester to demonstrate the "sum" of
what they have or have not learned.

W H Y I S S U M M AT I V E A S S E S S M E N T
I M P O R TA N T ?
While it is crucial that students work, abilities and
progress be tracked and assessed throughout the
entire learning process, it is also imperative that
teachers have proof of what the students have learned
during that process. It is the summative assessment
that is used to determine grades and future directions
for students.

W H Y I S S U M M AT I V E A S S E S S M E N T
I M P O R TA N T ?
Summative assessment tells both the teacher and
the student what areas are clear to the student, and
which will require more work. For summative
assessment to be effective and useful, the results of a
summative assessment need to be compared with
some sort of a standard; this could be within the class,
city-wide, province/state-wide, national standards, etc.

W H AT T Y P E S O F S U M M AT I V E
ASSESSMENTS ARE THERE ?

Summative assessment, or assessment of learning,

can take many forms. Here are some possible types of
summative assessments:

W H AT

T Y P E S O F S U M M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T S
ARE THERE?

End of unit tests or projects. When assessments

reflect the stated learning objectives, a well-designed
end of unit test provides teachers with information
about individual students (identifying any student who
failed to meet objectives), as well as provides an
overall indication of classroom instruction.

W H AT T Y P E S O F S U M M AT I V E
ASSESSMENTS ARE THERE?
End-of-semester/-year paper. If end of
semester/year grades are based on specified criteria,
they provide information on how well a student has met
the overall expectations for that particular period.

W H AT T Y P E S O F S U M M AT I V E
ASSESSMENTS ARE THERE?
Portfolios. When used as part of an evaluation of
student learning, portfolios provide evidence to support
attainment of stated learning objectives.

W H AT T Y P E S O F S U M M AT I V E
ASSESSMENTS ARE THERE?

Public exams. Some of these are: YLE, KET, PET,

FCE, CAE, CPE, IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC (Test of
English for International Communication) etc.

FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT

F O R M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
Assessment for learning
Taken at varying intervals throughout a
course to provide information and feedback
that will help improve:
the quality of student learning
the quality of the course itself

F O R M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
learner-centered, teacher-directed, mutually
beneficial, formative, context-specific, ongoing, and
firmly rooted in good practice" (Angelo and Cross,
1993).
Provides information on what an individual student
needs:
To practice
To have re-taught
To learn next

F O R M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
The goal of formative assessment is to
monitor student learning to provide ongoing
feedback that can be used by instructors to
improve their teaching and by students to
improve their learning. More specifically,
formative assessments:

F O R M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
help students identify their strengths and
weaknesses and target areas that need work
help faculty recognize where students are
struggling and address problems immediately

F O R M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
Teachers who engage in formative assessments give
continual, explicit feedback to students and assist them
in answering the following questions:
Where am I going?
Where am I now?
How can I close the gap between the two?2

F O R M AT I V E A SS E SS M E N T
In order to show students how to close the
gap between where they are academically
and where they want to be, teachers must
help students evaluate their progress in the
learning process and give them explicit,
descriptive feedback specific to the learning
task.

K E Y E L E M E N T S O F F O R M AT I V E
A SS E SS M E N T
1. The identification by teachers & learners of
learning goals, intentions or outcomes and
criteria for achieving these.
2. Rich conversations between teachers &
students that continually build and go
deeper.
3. The provision of effective, timely feedback to
enable students to advance their learning.

K E Y E L E M E N T S O F F O R M AT I V E
A SS E SS M E N T
4. The

active involvement of students in their

own learning.

5. Teachers responding to identified learning

needs and strengths by modifying their
teaching approach(es).

W H AT T Y P E S O F F O R M AT I V E
A SS E SS M E N T S A R E T H E R E ?

Formative assessment, or assessment for

learning, can take many forms. Here are
some possible types of formative
assessments:

OBSERVATIONS
The more we know about students, the more we can
help them. Observations, sometimes called kid
watching, can help teachers determine what students
do and do not know. There are several instruments
and techniques that teachers can use to record useful
data about student learning. Here are a few:

OBSERVATIONS
Anecdotal Notes: These are short notes written
during a lesson as students work in groups or
individually, or after the lesson is complete. The
teacher should reflect on a specific aspect of the
learning and make notes on the student's progress
toward mastery of that learning target.

OBSERVATIONS
The teacher can create a form to organize
these notes so that they can easily be used
for adjusting instruction based on student
needs.

OBSERVATIONS
Labels or Sticky Notes: Teachers can carry
a clipboard with a sheet of labels or a pad of
sticky notes and make observations as they
circulate throughout the classroom. After the
class, the labels or sticky notes can be placed in
the observation notebook in the appropriate
student's section.

OBSERVATIONS
Whatever the method used to record
observations on students' learning, the
important thing is to use the data collected to
adjust instruction to meet student needs.

QUESTIONING
Asking better questions affords students an
opportunity for deeper thinking and provides teachers
with significant insight into the degree and depth of
student understanding. Questions of this nature
engage students in classroom dialogue that expands
student learning. Questions should go beyond the
typical factual questions requiring recall of facts or
numbers.

QUESTIONING

Paul Black, a noted authority on formative

assessment, suggests that "more effort has to

be spent in framing questions that are worth
asking: that is, questions which explore
issues that are critical to the development of
students' understanding." (Black et al., 2003)

FOUR CORNERS
Four Corners is a quick strategy that can be used
effectively in the formative assessment process for
gauging student understanding. It can engage
students in conversations about controversial topics.
The four corners of the classroom can be labeled as
Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly
Disagree.

FOUR CORNERS
Present students with a statement, like "All
students should wear uniforms to school," and have
them move to the corner that expresses their
opinion. Students could then discuss why they feel
the way they do. The teacher can listen to student
discussions and determine who has information to
support their opinion and who does not.

FOUR CORNERS
Another way to use Four Corners is associated with
multiple choice quizzes. Label the corners of the
classroom as A, B, C and D. Students respond to a
teacher-created question by choosing the answer they
feel is correct. They must be able to give a reason for
their answer.

OTHER EXAMPLES
Examples of formative assessments include

asking students to:

draw a concept map in class to represent their

understanding of a topic
submit one or two sentences identifying the

main point of a lecture

turn in a research proposal for early feedback

F O R M AT I V E & S U M M AT I V E
often means no more than
that the assessment is carried out
frequently and is planned at the
same time as teaching. (Black and
Wiliam, 1999)
provides feedback which
leads to students recognizing the
(learning) gap and closing it it
is forward looking (Harlen,
1998)
includes both feedback and
self-monitoring. (Sadler, 1989)
is used essentially to feed
back into the teaching and
learning process. (Tunstall and
Gipps, 1996)

assessment (that) has

increasingly been used to
sum up learning(Black and
Wiliam, 1999)
looks at past
achievements adds
procedures or tests to
existing work ... involves only
marking and feedback grades
to student is separated
from teaching is carried out
at intervals when achievement
has to be summarized and
reported. (Harlen, 1998)

F O R M AT I V E & S U M M AT I V E

THE GARDEN ANA LOGY

If we think of our children as plants
Summative assessment of the plants is the process of
simply measuring them. It might be interesting to compare
and analyze measurements but, in themselves, these do not
affect the growth of the plants.
Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the equivalent
of feeding and watering the plants appropriate to their needs
- directly affecting their growth.

FA C T O R S I N H I B I T I N G
ASSESSMENT
A tendency for teachers to assess quantity and
presentation of work rather than quality of learning.
Greater attention given to marking and grading, much of it
tending to lower self esteem of students, rather than
providing advice for improvement.
A strong emphasis on comparing students with each
other, which demoralizes the less successful learners.

C O M PA R I S O N O F
ASSESSMENTS
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Occurs at the end

Graded
Product
Evaluative Feedback
Periodic

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Occurs During
Instruction
Not Graded
Process
Descriptive Feedback
Continuous

SELF-EVALUATION
Where would you place your assessment practice on the following
continuum?

The main focus is on:

learning

Quality of
learning

Quantity of work/Presentation

Marking/Grading

Quality of

Advice for
improvement

Comparing students
individual progress

Identifying

THANK YOU!