Formative Assessment Home

Author:Kristen Mogavero

Formative Assessment and You

An important aspect of being an educator is the assessment of the learning objectives of your course. Most educators today rely on summative assessment to determine the effectiveness of a unit or course, but by the time this assessment has been given and analyzed the class has moved on. Feedback loops which allow educators to check for and confirm understanding DURING the learning process, and not at the end of this process, are closely tied to teacher effectiveness and student outcomes (Black and Williams, 1998).

Surveys have shown that approximately 50% of states do not require educators to undergo formal training for assessment - leading to ineffective assessment practices in the classroom. Appropriately designed assessments are useful to students, teachers, and the instructional process (Scherer, 2016).

What will I learn?

By the end of this mini-course you will be able to:

1. Define formative assessment
What is formative assessment? Why should I use formative assessment in my classroom?

2. Design a customized formative assessment using the Kahoot platform
What is Kahoot and how can it help me to effectively implement formative assessment?

3. Collect and analyze formative assessment data
How can the data from formative assessment be used to direct future instruction?

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the Theory of Formative Assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation And Accountability, 21(1), 5-31.

Scherer, M. (2016). EL Essentials on formative assessment (1st ed.).