TEXT GRAFFITI SELECTIONS
WIDA Focus on Formative Assessment
Assessment is an integral part of instruction and
an important source of reflection for student
and their educators. It can be the compass to
guide students toward learning and academic
achievement.
For English learners, accessing academic
achievement means not only having declarative
and procedural knowledge, but also the social,
instructional, and academic language associated
with it.
Instruction and assessment for English learners
should be crafted with two goals in mind. The
acquisition of knowledge and skills as well as the
development of academic language.
“To many of today’s teachers, assessment is
synonymous with high-stakes standardized tests.
But, there is an entirely different kind of
assessment that can actually transform teaching
and learning”
–Margaret Heritage (2007).
Within the context of a balanced assessment
system, we can explore language assessment and
what formative assessment looks like in the
classroom when it focuses on academic language
development.
Formative assessments should be in line with
other assessments in the school and district.
They should be a part of a balanced assessment
system so that different data can provide a more
accurate picture of students’ language
development.
Formative assessments should be connected to
the same language standards and learning targets
as summative assessments for language and
other assessments in the school/district.
Formative assessment should be embedded in
instruction. And, instruction should be dynamic.
Therefore, formative assessments should also be
dynamic, student-centered, and standards-based.
Formative assessments should evolve as students’
language evolves.
Formative assessments should provide feedback
to guide instruction. Feedback for academic
language development should be reflective for
both students and teachers to guide
instructional pathways.
Formative assessments should fit in to the reality
of the classroom. They should not feel “hard” to
fit in. There should be a seamless transition
between instruction and formative assessment.
If its feedback truly shapes instruction,
formative assessments don’t need to be forced
to administer but instead, a natural check for
understanding that will be useful to plan future
lessons.
Differentiating language on assessments is
important because it allows students to show
what they know. An on-going assessment system
for language progression helps alleviate a
“guessing game” for students and teachers to
know where support is needed in the process.
Some content assessments can center around
declarative (facts) and procedural (skills)
knowledge from the content area. Language
assessments concentrate on the discourse used
to make meaning of the declarative and
procedural knowledge.
Knowing words is not enough for English
learners to navigate academic language and have
access to academic successes. Students need to
be able to combine these key vocabularies with
other instructional language, following
conventions of the specific academic and
sociocultural context to ensure
comprehensibility and language control.
Formative assessment is a process. The process is
used by students and teachers during
instruction to provide authentic feedback. This
feedback is for both the students and the
teacher in order to adjust ongoing teaching and
learning to increase student outcomes.
Some formative assessments are spontaneous.
At any given point in a lesson, a teacher and/or
students may notice areas of challenge. Other
formative assessments are planned to
purposefully focus on learning targets.
A journal entry assignment for a student to selfassess her performance in math is an example of
a planned formative assessment. Homework
exercises, observation protocols, in-class
assignments and activities, as well as in-class/outof-class projects all fall into the category of
formative assessments.
The formative assessment cycle includes goals,
instruction, measuring, and feedback (with
reflection).
Formative assessments for academic language
development are focused on lessons’ language
objectives as measurable goals for progression.
For example, in a science lesson on evaporation,
with a language objective to focus on the use of
present tense verbs and the use of the words
“evaporate” and “condensation” an appropriate
formative assessment would measure these
aspects of the lesson in order to provide
feedback on them.
For “instructional tasks” to be a part of the
formative assessment process, there must be an
assessment tool that helps keep a record of
students’ and teachers’ feedback on language
development. Some examples are checklists,
rubrics, interviews, surveys, observations, and
anecdotal notes. They can be used by the
teacher and/or the student to assess and selfassess language performance during an
instructional task.
Assessment is about more than just “tests.”
There are some dangers with too much “testing.”
Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between
a balanced assessment system and tests. A
balanced assessment system, while encompassing
tests, goes beyond to include a variety of
assessment tools.