Informative Assessment
Success for ALL
Informative Assessment is…
 According to W. James Popham
– “Formative assessment is a planned process in
which teachers and students use assessmentbased evidence to adjust what they’re currently
doing.”
 According to FAST SCASS (State Collaboratives on Assessment
and Student Standards)
– “Formative assessment is a process used by
teachers and students during instruction that
provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and
learning to improve students’ achievement of
intended instructional outcomes.”
I CAN NAME Informative Assessment
activities.
YES
MAYBE or A FEW
NO
Getting Started…
With your table
group, brainstorm a
list of formative
assessment
activities you
currently use with
your students.
What Research Says about IFA…
1. Informative assessments are ongoing assessments,
reviews, and observations in a classroom
2. Teachers use them to improve instructional methods
3. Informative assessment feedback can improve student
learning
4. Informative assessment enhances intrinsic student
motivation
What Teachers Say about IFA…
In what ways did
the teachers
change?
What observations
did these teachers
make about their
students?
Review your group’s list of IFA activities. Do the
activities reflect the information you are hearing?
Revise as needed.
I know the PURPOSE of Informative
Assessment.
YES
MAYBE
NO
Informative Assessment
The Purpose of Informative
Assessment is TWOFOLD
1. To move students’
learning forward
while their learning is
still in the process of
developing
2. To inform the
teacher about the
effectiveness of
instruction
Gathering Thoughts
• On a post-it, write your thoughts about the
purpose of informative assessment
• Group members share thoughts (2 minutes)
• Table groups share with one other table
group
=
+
+
IFA Activity List: Revise as
indicated…
Review your group’s list of Informative
Assessment activities.
Do the activities listed align with the
purposes we just reviewed?
Benefits of Informative
Assessment
polleverywhere.com
Respond by rating yourself on
a scale of 1-5
# 1: I can name benefits of
Informative Assessment
for teachers.
#2: I can name benefits of
Informative Assessment
Let’s use your cell
for students.
phones as a tool…
What Are the Benefits?
1. Groups create a Venn Diagram of
Teacher/Student benefits from informative
assessment
3.
2. Groups share
listed benefits of
informative
assessment for
teachers and for
students
Teachers can:
What Research says:
Teacher Benefits
– Determine skills and standards students already
know and to what degree
– Decide what minor modifications or major
changes in instruction they need to make so all
students can succeed in upcoming instruction
– Create appropriate lessons and activities for
groups of learners or individual students
– Inform students about their current progress in
order to help them set goals for improvement
What do you have written on your T-chart
that is different but also works?
What Research says:
Student Benefits
Students can:
– Be more motivated to learn
– Take responsibility for their own
learning
– Become users of assessment alongside
the teacher
– Learn valuable lifelong skills such as
self-evaluation, self-assessment, and
goal setting
Informative Assessment
Techniques… we have used…
• Thumbs Up, Thumbs
Down, Thumbs All Around
• Cooperative &
Collaborative Learning
• Polleverywhere.com
• Think, Pair, Share
• Numbered Heads
Together
Additional
Informative
Assessment
Techniques…
Handout
Self-Check on Continuums –
current self-assessment
Quantity of work/Presentation
Marking/Grading
Comparing students
1
Quality of learning
Advice for improvement
Identifying individual progress
Clearer, deeper understanding can be
accomplished by asking people to
declare their position relative to a
premise, defend it with reasons, and
then be expected to stand more
firmly on solid ground, or if indicated,
adjust their position to align with new
information.
#1 - Agree or Disagree?
Using benchmark assessments two to
three times per year is informative
assessment.
I ________ with this statement because
__________________.
Think, Pair, Share
Partner with
someone you
don’t know yet
and share your
answers with each
other.
Informative, Interim, Summative
How and when is the
information used?
Who is seeing and using it?
Thomas Guskey elaborates on both these criteria in
Ahead of the Curve, Chapter 1 entitled: Using
Assessments to Improve Teaching and Learning
Discussion Points…
 Use assessments as sources of information for both
students and teachers
 Assessments provide teachers with specific guidance in
their efforts to improve the quality of their teaching
 Using high-quality corrective instruction is not the same
as reteaching, which often consists simply of restating
louder and more slowly
 What better learning-to-learn skill is there than learning
from one’s mistakes? Mistakes should not mark the end
of learning; rather, they can be the beginning.
REVISIT #1 - Agree or Disagree?
Using benchmark assessments two to
three times per year is informative
assessment.
I ________ with this statement because
__________________.
#2 - Agree or Disagree?
Informative assessment has no
impact on student learning or
achievement.
I ________ with this statement because
__________________.
#3 - Agree or Disagree?
Motivation to learn
Students won’t ‘buy into’ actually increases
informative assessment when students
I ________ with this statement because see the gap
__________________.
between what
they thought they
–classroom culture
– competition vs. individual growth knew and what
– tests vs. checks for understanding they actually
know.
– improvement vs. evaluation
–quality feedback
#4 - Agree or Disagree?
Teachers won’t use informative
assessments if they cannot grade
them.
I ________ with this statement because
__________________.
THE DIFFERENCES
INFORMATIVE
Continual Improvement
Carried out while learning is in
progress—day to day, minute by minute.
Focused on the learning process and the
learning progress.
Viewed as an integral part of the
teaching-learning process.
Collaborative—Teachers and students
know where they are headed,
understand the learning needs, and use
assessment information as feedback to
guide and adapt what they do to meet
those needs.
Fluid—An ongoing process influenced by
student need and teacher feedback.
Teachers and students adopt the role of
intentional learners.
Teachers and students use the evidence
they gather to make adjustments for
continuous improvement.
vs. SUMMATIVE
STOP
Carried out from time to time to
create snapshots of what has
happened.
Focused on the products of learning.
Something separate, an activity
performed after the teachinglearning cycle.
Teacher directed—Teachers assign
what the students must do and then
evaluate how well they complete the
assignment.
Rigid—An unchanging measure of
what the student achieved.
Teachers adopt the role of auditors
and students assume the role of the
audited.
Teachers use the results to make
final "success or failure" decisions
about a relatively fixed set of
instructional activities.
Remember…
If the assessment occurs after the learning
is complete, and is used to give a grade or
provide a final measure of student results,
it is summative.
An assessment becomes informative based
on:
How and when the information is
used, and
Who is seeing and using the
information
Connecting UDL and IFA…
Use your UDL Guidelines resources
– Focusing on Principle II.
Which Checkpoints could be used to
scaffold more assessment buy-in from
students without grading them?
Be ready to explain your findings.
Self-Check #2 -where you target to
be in 6 months
Quantity of work/Presentation
Marking/Grading
Comparing students
2
Quality of learning
Advice for improvement
Identifying individual progress
Informative Assessments Used
•
•
•
•
Self-Evaluation
Misconception Check
Think, Pair, Share
Think, Pair, Share, Squared
Activity List: Review, Edit, USE!!!
TASK #1 - Take a look at your
original list of IFA
techniques. Review &
revise.
TASK #2 – Choose 1 IFA technique and
explain how you could use it to increase
UDL in your classes.
DuFour: 4 Critical Questions
1. What do we expect students to learn?
– (Need: Clear learning targets)
2. How will we know if they are learning?
3. What will we do when students are already
proficient?
4. How do we respond when students don’t
learn?
Using Informative Assessment
to Drive UDL
Each table choose a minimum of two
UDL Checkpoints
Chart the Checkpoints and what they
have to offer towards narrowing
“learning gaps”
Checkpoints to analyze…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
6.1 Guide appropriate goal setting
6.2 Support planning and strategy development
6.3 Facilitate managing information and resources
6.4 Enhance capacity for monitoring progress
7.1 Optimize individual choice and autonomy
7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity
8.2 Vary demands and resources to optimize
challenge
• 8.4 Increase mastery oriented feedback
Filling the GAPS…
GAP
PURPOSE
of
Informative
Assessment
Just right
learning
target
CSO
Three Central Questions from:
Advancing Formative Assessment in
Every Classroom
1. Where am I going?
(Brookhart and Moss)
– What will I be able to do when I’ve finished this
lesson?
2. Where am I now?
– What idea, topic, or subject is important for me to
learn and understand so that I can do this?
3. What strategy or strategies can help me get to
where I need to go?
– How will I show that I can do this, and how well will I
have to do it?
DuFour: 4 Critical Questions
1. What do we expect students to learn?
– (Need: Clear learning targets)
2. How will we know if they are learning?
– (Need: Balanced assessment system)
3. What will we do when students are already
proficient?
4. How do we respond when students don’t learn?
“What evidence will I
accept?”
Balanced Assessment System
“To maximize student success, assessment must
be seen as an instructional tool for use while
learning is occurring, and as an accountability
tool to determine if learning has occurred.
Because both purposes are important, they must
be in balance.”
From Balanced Assessment: The Key to Accountability and Improved Student
Learning, NEA (2003)
What is the difference
between assessing and
grading?
What feedback are you (the teacher) trying
to give (1.) your students and (2.) yourself
when you grade that assessment?
Post-Video
Table Questions
Descriptive or Evaluative Feedback?
You made
some simple
mistakes
multiplying 3digit numbers.
Let’s Play MORE with UDL…
Before-During-After Instruction
1. Review the actions taken at each stage of
instruction while implementing UDL (see handout)
2. With your new group, choose a minimum of 3
actions you use the least
3. Develop and chart IFA/descriptive feedback
activities that will support the use of the chosen
UDL actions.
BRINGING IT HOME NOW…
How do I apply formative
assessment to MY lesson plans?
Use your modified
lesson plans from the
UDL session and the
Formative
Assessment Activities
handout to answer
these ??s.
What formative
assessment activities could
be incorporated into your
modified UDL lesson plan?
How would you identify
the formative assessment
data and where would you
record the results?
Self-Check #3 – where you target
to be 1 year from now
Quantity of work/Presentation
Marking/Grading
Comparing students
3
Quality of learning
Advice for improvement
Identifying individual progress
DuFour’s: 4 Critical Questions
1. What do we expect students to learn?
(Need: Clear learning targets)
2. How will we know if they are learning?
(Need: Balanced assessment system)
3. What will we do when students are already
proficient?
(Need: IFA, UDL, DI and enrichment activities)
4. How do we respond when students don’t learn?
(Need: IFA, UDL, DI and intervention activities )
EXIT SLIP
What have you learned today about using
informative assessment that will enable you
to strengthen your instruction?
Red = Something I need more
help understanding
Yellow = Something I am
understanding pretty well
Green = Something I feel good
to go and ready to use