Formative Assessments: Assessments for LearningAssessments that happen during the process that provide information to adjust teaching and learning while they happen. Examples of this type of assessment are:
Summative Assessments: Assessments of Learning
Assessments that gauge student understanding of a learning target at a particular point in time. Usually this is the last assessment of a LT. Examples of this type of assessment are:
- Verbal check-ins
- Journal
- Exit slips
- Pop quizzes
- Classroom observation.
Summative Assessments: Assessments of Learning
Assessments that gauge student understanding of a learning target at a particular point in time. Usually this is the last assessment of a LT. Examples of this type of assessment are:
- End of semester exams
- Project presentations
- End of unit projects.
Designing Assessments to Do What You Want |
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Assessment Methods
Target to be Assessed
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Knowledge Learning Target
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Good match for
assessing mastery of elements of knowledge. |
Good match for
tapping understanding of relationships among elements of know– ledge. |
Not a good
match—too time consuming to cover everything. |
Can ask questions,
evaluate answers and infer mastery—but a time-consuming option. |
Skill Learning Target
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Not a good match. Can assess mastery of the knowledge prerequisites to skillful performance, but cannot rely on these to tap the skill itself.
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Good match.
Can observe and evaluate skills as they are being performed. |
Strong match when
skill is oral communication proficiency; not a good match otherwise. |
Creating a Product Skill Learning Target
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Not a good match.
Can assess mastery of knowledge prerequisite to the ability to create quality products, but cannot use to assess the quality of products themselves. |
Strong match
when the product is written. Not a good match when the product is not written. |
Good match.
Can assess the attributes of the product itself. |
Not a good match.
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Reasoning Learning Target
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Good match only
for assessing understanding of some patterns of reasoning. |
Written descriptions
of complex problem solutions can provide a window into reasoning proficiency. |
Can watch
students solve some problems and infer reasoning proficiency. |
Can ask student
to “think aloud” or can ask followup questions to probe reasoning. |