I use my understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures to make sure that I create an inclusive learning environment that enables each student to meet high standards. This involves employing both formative and summative assessments in order to understand not only how my students are progressing and grasping the concepts I am presenting, but also how I am faring at presenting the concepts to them in a way that is accessible and meaningful.
As a teacher, one has to ask oneself: how are assessments more than mere measures of how close one is (or how far away) from passing or failing? How are assessments being used to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor their own progress, and to use this information as guides in their own decision making? How am I personally using assessments in my own instructional decision making?
For me, formative and summative assessments serve this purpose in different ways.
Formative Assessments:
The formative assessments that I use are for the purpose of gauging how well students are engaging with the content as I am presenting it. This is of two-fold importance: by participation in formative assignments, there is less intensity in pressure of performing for a 0 to 100 grade, so to speak. In this category, they have the opportunity to write reflective paragraphs, complete creative projects along the lines of a more flexible rubric, and share their own thoughtful perspectives. These assignments allow students to absorb knowledge and content material in a rising progression, leading to the eventual summative tasks. Two, the formative assignments allow me to judge, based on student engagement, participation, and progress, whether or not my own approach as it is unfolding is working to serve them and meet their needs where they are. Likewise, the feedback (and I will use “feedback” at this point because I feel it is a more accurate term than grades) the students receive helps them to monitor their own progress and guide them in their own decision making regarding how engaged they are with the material and what further supports they may need from me in order to attain overall mastery by the unit’s conclusion when the summative assessments begin to take precedence.
Formative Assessment Examples:
- “Every Antagonist is the Protagonist in His Own Story” Reflective Paragraph
A sample of a reflective paragraph assignment where students were tasked to consider how every antagonist is the protagonist in his own story, and explain how this was so in the case of Creon. This effort demonstrated both that the student was thinking abstractly about elements of the story, and that my methods of delivery were being successfully received.
2. Ancient Greek Funeral and Burial Research Assignment
In this assignment, students were tasked with researching Ancient Greek funeral and burial customs and beliefs to better understand Antigone’s motivations. They were to choose ten of the most interesting facts that they found, and in a class discussion, relate these facts to the motivations of the protagonist. The level of participation in selection of the facts, and the subsequent amount of students engaging in participation in the class discussion served to gauge both my ability to deliver the material in a way that was well received as well as student mastery of the material.
Summative Assessments:
Summative assessments serve to be the more official “checkpoints” so to speak along the way as well as the final word on not only how well students mastered the content, but how well I performed at delivering it to them. While formative assessments are qualitative, the quantitative data of summative assessments is much more definitive. In truth, summative assessments are somewhat less about judging students on a scale of 0-100 than they are offering me an opportunity to judge how well I was able to deliver the unit to them.
1.Ancient Greek Theatre and Oedipus Rex Quiz
A quiz was given at the earlier part of the unit to gauge student engagement and knowledge retention of Ancient Greek theatre and the story of Oedipus Rex. As I had never taught this particular play before, I wanted to make sure early on that my delivery of the material to the students was engaging. I was pleasantly surprised…grades were significantly positive. This indicated to me that what I was doing was indeed effective.
2. Pre-test / Post-Test Results
The largest example I can present in terms of the summative is in the form of the post-test was given to assess how much knowledge the students had gained by the conclusion of the unit. At the beginning of the unit, students were given a pre-test to assess how much information on the subject they were coming in with. The same test was given to them at the end of the unit to assess how much they had gained and retained.
My students had an average of 0 when they were given the pre-test. When they took it at the end of the unit, the average over all three sections was a 91.