FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Sandi Yellenberg
Integrated Middle School Science Partnership
July 15, 2014
What type of misconception does this
represent?
For Additional Information
About Misconceptions
Making Sense of Secondary Science Research
into Children’s Ideas
By Driver, Squires, Rushworth &
Wood-Robinson
NSDL (National Science Digital Library) Strand
Maps
http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/
3 Types of Assessments
1. Diagnostic: Identifies and analyzes what students
already know and their line of reasoning – their
current understanding as well as their misconceptions
2. Formative: Provides teachers and students with
feedback about student learning without concerns
about grading. It’s only formative if it is used to inform
instruction.
3. Summative: Measures and documents how well
students have achieved a learning target.
*NOTE: Diagnostic becomes formative when the assessment data is used
to inform instruction.
Ideas about Formative Assessment
“Ideas about assessments have undergone
important changes in recent years. In the
new view, assessment and learning are
two sides of the same coin. . . . When
students engage in assessments, they
should learn from those assessments.”
National Research Council, National Science
Education Standards. (Washington, DC:
National Academy Press, 1996), pp. 5–6.
Say Something - Reading Strategy
Rules for Say Something:
1. In group of 2-4, decide who will say something first.
When you say something, do one or more of the
following:
• Make a prediction.
• Ask a question.
• Clarify something you had misunderstood.
• Make a comment.
• Make a connection.
2. If you can't do one of these five things, you need to
reread the material you are responding to.
Source: When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do. Kylene Beers, 2003.
Feedback is Critical to Success
Formative Assessment
Feedback is most successful when:
• It responds to clear and specific learning goals
• Students are committed to attaining the
learning goals
• It provides effective cues for accomplishing the
task
• It relates to students’ prior knowledge
Based on the work of Hattie and Timperley (2007)
Effective Feedback is:
• Task or Product Feedback: give a substantive
cue to accomplish task
• Process Feedback: cue prior knowledge to
help accomplish task
• Self-regulated Feedback: prompts the use of
metacognition
[Encouraging words like, “Good job, Try
Harder” are generally ineffective .]
Based on the work of Hattie and Timperley (2007)
What is your experience with Formative
Assessment Probes?
What is your experience with Formative
Assessment Probes?
Camping Trip
from: Uncovering Student Ideas in Science Volume (4
page 137)
Five friends were camping in the north woods. It was a clear night with
mild weather conditions. Sunset was a 9:14 p.m. Sunrise was at 5:22
a.m. The five friends wondered when it would be coldest as they slept
under the stars. This is what they said:
Colin: “I think it will be coldest right after the Sun sets.”
Bono: “I think it will be coldest at midnight’”
Jeri: “I think it will be coldest around 3:00 a.m.
Emma: “I think it will be coldest at the beginning of sunrise..
Kit:
“I think it will be coldest a few hours after sunrise.
Which person do you agree most with and why? Explain your answer.
Looking for Evidence of Understanding
In your explanation, did the you include:
CLAIM – Statement that answers any questions
on a topic.
EVIDENCE – Data or information that support
the claim.
REASONING – Justification that connects the
evidence to the claim, using a scientific
principle when appropriate, or showing how
other data do not support the claim
What are Page Keeley
Formative Assessment Probes?
• Questions that link a key idea to a researchidentified misconception.
• A probe reveals more than just an answer. A
probe elicits a response that helps teachers
understand students’ thinking and the ideas
that may impede their learning.
• Probes also engage learners, promote
metacognition, and encourage evidence-based
explanations and argumentation.
What Probes Can Accomplish:
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Elicit and Identify Preconceptions
Engage and Motivate Students
Activate Thinking and Promote Metacognition
Provide Stimuli for Scientific Discussion
Initiate Scientific Inquiry and Idea Exploration
Formal Concept Development & Transfer
Improve Questioning and Quality of Student Responses
Provide Teacher to Student Feedback
Peer and Self-Assessment
Provide opportunities for student reflection
Students’ need to know their ideas are
important, regardless of whether they are
right or wrong.
Create a classroom environment where
students feel safe to share their thinking.
Formative Assessments, like Probes can
help accomplish this type of classroom
environment.
What types of Probe?
Preconception form Every Day Experience
Ideas students bring to the classroom from
their every day interactions with the
natural world.
These idea make sense to them, based on
their experiences.
What types of Probe?
“Learned” Conceptual Misunderstandings
Content students learn in school that may
be misinterpreted by the students and
often goes unnoticed by the teacher.
Students make their own meaning out of
what is taught.
What types of Probe?
Intuitive Rules
“Common sense rule” applied in a variety
of contexts that are based on intuition or
logic that works with a different
phenomenon.
More A, means More B
Closer – Hotter
Opposites
Additive Reasoning
Types of Probes
Partial Conception
Student has some scientific knowledge but
has difficulty connecting concepts,
generalizing, or confuses one concept with
another.
Types of Probes
Generalization (over or under)
Using a rule or concept that applies only to
certain examples or not applying a general
rule or concept across all examples.
Types of Probes
Vernacular Misconceptions
Based on the way we use words or phrases in
our everyday language that have a different
meaning if science.
Thank You
• For more information, please visit
http://www.sciencepartnership.org/
• Contact sandra_yellenberg@sccoe.org with
any questions or concerns.
• Materials will be available _______