After several engaging discussions with my PLN on the roles of formative and summative assessment, I felt the need to get some ideas down on pap…well, get some ideas down.
Practice FOR learning
The nature of formative assessment is that it is FOR learning. I prefer the term formative practice, because to me that is the heart of formative assessment. I use a sports analogy to explain to students how our classroom works. Formative practice is just like training for any athlete. Formative work is low stakes when taking a risk to learn something new. Failure at first is expected, but equally expected is a rise from it to find success. If an athlete doesn’t do the work to improve and get better, they are not going to perform when it is game time. The same is true of the learners in my classroom. If they have not practiced their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in Spanish, the summative assessments will not show proficiency or growth. Feedback is the key to learning during formative practice. Scores, numbers, and letters are not necessary and can be in fact detrimental during the practice phase.
Show me the learning!
Summative assessments ‘sum up’ the learning and put it all together. In the sports reference, the summative assessment is the game, meet, or competition. Time to show what you can do and what you have been working toward. There are those that argue that if you have been collecting evidence with the formative work that a summative is not necessary. I disagree with this for several reasons. I feel that the summative assessment is the time to synthesize concepts, ideas, and understandings and apply them. A summative assessment also gives additional evidence of what the final score, rating, or grade should be. Evidence tells the story of a student’s growth and achievement and eventually drives grades. The more evidence, the better in my opinion.
Chatting about standards based learning and grading ignites my passion as an educator. I want to create the best learning environment possible for my students and I love the way my PLN challenges me to ‘bring it’ each day. October is Connected Educator’s Month, and I would not be the teacher I am today without so many of the inspiring people I have met on Twitter.
How do you use formative and summative assessment in your classroom? Leave a comment and keep the discussion going!