Using Formative
Assessment to
Increase Student
Achievement
Nikkie Duin
Jenni Scholla
Today’s Goal
I can create effective
formative assessments using
best practices resources.

Introductions
 Name, what you teach, where you are from.
 Stand up and make a Formative Assessment
spectrum line of understanding and use of
Formative Assessments.
Assessment Sort
 Take the
Assessment Descriptions and sort them into two
groups.
 What could you name the two groups?
 http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-
instruction-learning-styles-video
Why use Formative Assessment?
The purpose of Formative Assessment
must be, 1st and foremost, to inform
instructional decision making.
In
the words of a teacher, “If I did not use
these assessments, I wouldn’t know what
my students need and what to teach.”
Common Formative Assessments by Larry Ainsworth & Donald Veigut
Formative Assessment Article
 Go
to formativeassessment wiki and read.
 Make a non-linguistic representation with
your table group.
Nikkie’s Class…
 68%
ELL
 70% of our Building is on Free or Reduced
Lunches
 8 summer birthdays
 20 kids to begin the year…
 Only 4 kids could write their name in any
legible format at the beginning of the year.
 EVERY STUDENT WAS PROFICIENT IN READING!
Jenni’s
 18%
ELL in the classroom; 1 in 3 students were
on an IEP
 88% of our building is on Free or Reduced
Lunches
 Lowell met AYP in both reading and math
(showed most growth in math, which was our
common formative assessment focus)
 Students who were not proficient on the
Dakota STEP test, only missed the cut off by 1
or 2 questions – closing the gap.
Data Driven Instruction has 5 steps:
Charting of student performance data
2.
Analyzing the data
3.
Setting a goal for improvement
4.
Selecting specific teaching strategies to meet that goal.
5.
Determining results indicators to gauge the effectiveness
of the selected teaching strategies.
CAST Results!!!
1.
1. Chart Student Data
 Check lists
 Spreadsheets
 Data Wall or Data Board
 Googledocs www.docs.google.com
2. Analyze Data
 Examine
your data
 Where are my students?
 What evidence do I have to know that?
 What do I plan to do about it?
 Our
district tends to be “over-testing,
under assessing” students and often
“data rich and information poor”.
3. Setting a Goal for Improvement
 Set
a time frame for teaching strategies to
push students that are not proficient.
 Set a power standard goal based on
assessment.
 Such as, “In five weeks I will have 80% of
my class proficient in rhyming.”
 Meet weekly to see how progress is being
made to meet the goal.
Selecting Specific Teaching
Strategies
 Choice – Increase Engagement!
When we see a choice, our brain chemistry
changes.
 Students feel positive and motivated.
 Students feel more in control.
 Our brains release endorphins that promote
a general sense of well being and
confidence.
Teaching Strategies
How are we teaching?
 Lecture
 Reading
 Audio Visual
 Demonstration
 Discussion
 Practice by Doing
 Teaching Others/Immediate Use
STUDENT RETENTION AFTER 24 HOURS
5%
10%
20%
30%
50%
75%
90%
Teaching Strategies - VAKT
 Visual
 Audio
 Kinesthetic/Tactile
 Equals
20%
20%
75%
____
105%
Determining Results
 Weekly assess students to gauge the
of selected teaching strategies.
 Start process over!
 CAST RESULTS!!!
effectiveness
BREAK
 Please
be back in 15 minutes.
 Teacher’s
Lounge on Bottom Floor (All the
way down the stairs) has pop machines
Effective Instruction
 Go
to Wiki to find additional resources
 Count off by 7 to make small groups for
discussion
 Concept Map on Instructional Practices
Putting it ALL Together

Common Formative Assessments: How to Connect Standards-Based
Instruction and Assessment by Larry Ainsworth and Donald Viegut (pg.
39)
Classroom Examples
 See
Wiki
Lunch
11:30-12:30
Teacher Work Time
 You
will be required to add additional
resources to the Formative Assessment
Wiki
 At
the end of the day we will be viewing
and commenting on the resources you
created.
Analyze Work Samples
I
can create effective formative
assessments using best practices
resources.
 View
teacher samples of formative
assessments and look for examples of best
practices for instruction.
Where do we go now?
 Questions
 Share
new ideas?
 What additional support do you need?