Change
Change
Teacher Student
Practice
Summer
Institutes
2013
Outcomes
2013 Summer Institutes | Changing Teacher Practice  Changing Student Outcomes
Design Studio Session
{Home Base: Building
Instructional Capacity}
{Presenters} Alex Kaulfuss, Anna Frost, Jody Cleven, Robin
Smith (East)
Engaging All Students Using
Formative Assessments
What is Formative Assessment?
 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 instruction outcomes
(CCSSO FAST SCASS, 2006).
Five Attributes of Effective Formative
Assessments
1. Learning Progressions
2. Learning Goals and Criteria for Success
3. Descriptive Feedback
4. Self and Peer-Assessment
5. Collaboration
Formative Assessment Model
Formative Assessment Plan
Grade Level:
CCSS:
Learning Targets
Criteria for Success
Collecting Evidence
Documenting Evidence
1. What gaps do you think students might have?
2. What will you do to address the gaps to move learning forward? (i.e. how will
you adjust instruction and what descriptive feedback will you provide?)
Decision Making for Results:
The Power of Cause and Effect Data
Using Formative Assessment Data

Work with PLC to complete a Formative Assessment Plan; identify clear learning
targets, criteria for success, evidence to be collected; write I Can statements

Design and administer brief common formative assessments (ex. Home Base test)

Collect, Chart and Review data with colleagues and students

Analyze strengths and obstacles

Plan next steps

Design appropriate strategies to re-teach as needed for students who have not yet
learned the material

Design and Administer formative assessment
The assessments best suited to guide improvements in student learning
are the quizzes, tests, writing assignments, and other assessments that
teachers administer on a regular basis in their classrooms…. To use
classroom assessments to make improvements, however, teachers must
change both their view of assessments and their interpretation of results.
Specifically, they need to see their assessments as an integral part of the
instruction process and as crucial for helping students learn.
Thomas Guskey (2003)
Design and Administer Assessment
 Work with PLC to design a brief common
formative assessment that is aligned with the
Standard
 Consider the cognitive demand of the standard,
the complete standard, appropriate format, UDL
principles, potential barriers to success,
appropriate rigor
 Determine criteria for success
Review Data with Colleagues
• What does the evidence show?
• Who has met the criteria for success?
• Who needs additional instruction?
• Over several weeks of instruction, what
patterns emerge? What do the patterns
indicate? How can you use this information
to plan for instruction?
“Mere collegiality will not cut it. Discussions about curricular issues or popular
strategies can feel good but go nowhere. The right image to embrace is of a group
of teachers who meet regularly to share, refine, and assess the impact of lessons
and strategies continuously to help increasing number of students learn at higher
levels.”
-Mike Schmoker,
“On Common Ground”
The Power of Professional Learning
Communities, 2005.
Review Data with Students
 Make students aware of their level of
mastery
 Help them take ownership of their learning
 Engage students in tracking their data
 Provide clear feedback
Plan the next steps
 Will you give a different formative assessment?
Can a student demonstrate learning in a
different format? Will a change in the learning
environment make a difference?
 Will you teach the material again?
 Determine how to form small groups for
instruction – can you and your colleagues group
across classes?
Design Strategies and Teach Again
 Design appropriate strategies to teach
concepts, skills, content as needed for students
who have not yet learned the material
 Use different materials, strategies; consider
Multiple Intelligences, learning preferences
 Consider technology tools
Administer Formative Assessment
 Use a new tool for formative assessment to
measure student learning
 Consider cognitive demand of the standard,
the complete standard, appropriate format
Activity