Assessing Student Learning

After you know what you want students to learn, consider:

How will you assess what students have learned?

Are you measuring mastery of or progress on each objective?

How will you monitor progress during lesson activities?

How will you interpret assessment feedback?

“Students actions – what they can do with their knowledge – is the link between objectives and assessments.”
(Reeves, 2011, p. 45)

Summative Assessment

"Summing up" learning

Summative assessment should come at the end of unit, or lesson within a unit, to determine whether students have mastered the learning objectives.

Summative assessments should align directly with the measurable objectives.
Design rubrics (clearly defined scoring criteria, either analytic or holistic) that align directly with the measurable objectives.
Provide students with clear instructions and the rubric.

Summative assessments are not used to inform current instruction or provide feedback to students during learning.

Summative assessments should come after some sort of formative assessment.

Summative assessments can be used to inform future delivery of the same lesson or unit so that teachers can adjust lesson delivery to better meet objectives.

Assessments should allow students to demonstrate mastery of the same objectives with differentiated products, as well as within the same rubric.

Formative Assessment

"Forming" knowledge

Formative assessment can be used during a lesson, or at the end of a lesson within a unit, to monitor student progress toward meeting the learning objectives.

Formative assessments should align directly with the measurable objectives.
Design rubrics (clearly defined scoring criteria, either analytic or holistic) that align directly with the measurable objectives.
Provide students with clear instructions and the rubric.

Formative assessments are used to inform current instruction so that the teacher can adjust if needed to meet learning objectives.

Formative provide feedback to students during learning about areas where they need clarification or more practice.

Formative assessments should be designed with an eye to how they are preparing students to be successful on the summative assessment.

Assessments should allow for differentiated products to meet the same learning objectives and same rubric.

Monitoring Learning

During & after lessons

It is important to integrate monitoring into your lesson plan to assess student learning informally throughout the lesson.

Use frequent and varied checks for understanding.
Circulate the classroom during instruction to ensure that all students are engaged and to vary the focal point of the classroom.
Provide multiple and varied ways for students to actively participate in the learning process.

Using data to inform practice

Use both formative and summative assessments to inform future instruction.

What was the rate (%) of mastery?
Were students proficient in the targeted skill by the end of the lesson?
Are there any gaps between the objectives and what was assessed?

Be flexible and willing to learn from every assessment process to improve your pedagogy.

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DIFFERENTIATING ASSESSMENT

Provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning.

Working toward each assessment, your lesson plan should provide multiple options for CONTENT, PROCESS, and PRODUCTS that students can deliver to meet the learning objectives.

Suggestions:

Provide choice whenever possible to maximize engagement and universal design for learning (UDL).
Are there multiple tools and methods provided for processing information? (e.g. handwritten, digital, graphic organizers, collaborative, assistive technology)
Are there multiple formats that assignment products can be submitted or presented in?
Have you provided creative ways for students to integrate technology and multi-media into their assignments to support digital literacy?