Formative Assessment
What would your students attempt if they knew they couldn’t fail?
Formative assessment is a powerful tool for improving student learning - indeed, it’s impact exceeds most other types of instructional interventions (Black & Wiliam, 1998). Short-cycle assessments are administered every two to four weeks before and after instruction. Baseline data allows teachers to adapt instruction to individual students or to an entire class, while data collected after is used to gauge the effectiveness of a lesson. Because they are ungraded, short-cycle assessments create a culture that welcomes errors where students know that their mistakes are not permanent.
After an interactive two-day workshop, participants will be equipped to:
- Create and implement short-cycle assessments using a four-step process
- Determine the difference between cognitive demand and cognitive rigor
- Analyze assessment results
- Provide specific and effective feedback to students
- Help students self-assess through holisitc scoring guides and success criteria