Classroom Summative Assessment Free Essay Example

Classroom assessments can include a wide range of options – from recording anecdotal notes while observing a student to administering standardized tests. The options can be roughly divided into two categories – formative assessments and summative assessments. Formative assessments are on-going assessments, reviews, and observations in a classroom. Teachers use formative assessment to improve instructional methods and student feedback throughout the teaching and learning process.

For example, if a teacher observes that some students do not grasp a concept, she or he can design a review activity or use a different instructional strategy.

Likewise, students can monitor their progress with periodic quizzes and performance tasks. The results of formative assessments are used to modify and validate instruction. Summative assessments are typically used to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs and services at the end of an academic year or at a pre-determined time. The goal of summative assessments is to make a judgment of student competency after an instructional phase is complete.

For example, in Florida, the FCAT is administered once a year — it is a summative assessment to determine each student’s ability at pre-determined points in time. Summative evaluations are used to determine if students have mastered specific competencies and to identify instructional areas that need additional attention. Testing, especially any sort of standardized testing tends to get a bad rap. Teachers complain that they spend too much time teaching to a test. But assessments do have value, and an important place in our learning structure.

By measuring what students are learning, we as teachers can look at how we are approaching different subjects, materials, and even different students.

The handy infographic below takes a look at different types of assessments and their attributes and questions. Keep reading to learn more. All About Assessments There are many types of assessments: diagnostic, formative, summative, norm-referenced, criterion-referenced, and interim/benchmarked are the types overviewed here.

There are five main question types: multiple choice, constructed response, extended constructed response, technology enhanced, and performance task. Three main delivery methods of assessment: paper and pencil, online, or computer adaptive testing (which uses an algorithm to adapt to a user’s responses). Scoring can be done by hand, by computer, or distributed scoring. With the release of the National Science Education Standards, the issues of why, how, and what we, as teachers, assess in our classrooms will become a major challenge in the multifaceted science reform effort currently underway.

As educators are changing their ideas about what constitutes exemplary inquiry-based learning, and recognizing that science is an active process that encourages higher-order thinking and problem solving, there is an increased need to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Classroom assessment techniques are focusing on aligning assessments more closely with the instructional strategies actually used with children. The Nature of Assessment Assessment can be defined as a sample taken from a larger domain of content and process skills that allows one to infer student understanding of a part of the larger domain being explored.

The sample may include behaviors, products, knowledge, and performances. Assessment is a continuous, ongoing process that involves examining and observing children’s behaviors, listening to their ideas, and developing questions to promote conceptual understanding. The term authentic assessment is often referred to in any discussion of assessment and can be thought of as an examination of student performance and understanding on significant tasks that have relevancy to the student’s life inside and outside of the classroom.

The increasing focus on the development of conceptual understanding and the ability to apply science process skills is closely aligned with the emerging research on the theory of constructivism. This theory has significant implications for both instruction and assessment, which are considered by some to be two sides of the same coin. Constructivism is a key underpinning of the National Science Education Standards. Constructivism is the idea that learning is an active process of building meaning for oneself. Thus, students fit new ideas into their already existing conceptual frameworks.

Constructivists believe that the learners’ preconceptions and ideas about science are critical in shaping new understanding of scientific concepts. Assessment based on constructivist theory must link the three related issues of student prior knowledge (and misconceptions), student learning styles (and multiple abilities), and teaching for depth of understanding rather than for breadth of coverage. Meaningful assessment involves examining the learner’s entire conceptual network, not just focusing on discreet facts and principles.

The Purpose of Assessment Critical to educators is the use of assessment to both inform and guide instruction. Using a wide variety of assessment tools allows a teacher to determine which instructional strategies are effective and which need to be modified. In this way, assessment can be used to improve classroom practice, plan curriculum, and research one’s own teaching practice. Of course, assessment will always be used to provide information to children, parents, and administrators. In the past, this information was primarily expressed by a “grade”.

Increasingly, this information is being seen as a vehicle to empower students to be self-reflective learners who monitor and evaluate their own progress as they develop the capacity to be self-directed learners. In addition to informing instruction and developing learners with the ability to guide their own instruction, assessment data can be used by a school district to measure student achievement, examine the opportunity for children to learn, and provide the basis for the evaluation of the district’s science program. Assessment is changing for many reasons.

The valued outcomes of science learning and teaching are placing greater emphasis on the child’s ability to inquire, to reason scientifically, to apply science concepts to real-world situations, and to communicate effectively what the child knows about science. Assessment of scientific facts, concepts, and theories must be focused not only on measuring knowledge of subject matter, but on how relevant that knowledge is in building the capacity to apply scientific principles on a daily basis. The teacher’s role in the changing landscape of assessment requires a change from merely a collector of data, to a facilitator of student understanding of scientific principles.

The Tools of Assessment In the development and use of classroom assessment tools, certain issues must be addressed in relation to the following important criteria. A. Purpose and Impact— How will the assessment be used and how will it impact instruction and the selection of curriculum? B. Validity and Fairness— Does it measure what it intends to measure? Does it allow students to demonstrate both what they know and are able to do? C. Reliability— Is the data that is collected reliable across applications within the classroom, school, and district?

D. Significance— Does it address content and skills that are valued by and reflect current thinking in the field? E. Efficiency— Is the method of assessment consistent with the time available in the classroom setting? There is a wide range of assessments that are available for use in restructuring science assessment in the classroom. These types of assessments include strategies that are both traditional and alternative. The various types of alternative assessments can be used with a range of science content and process skills, including the following general targets.

Declarative Knowledge— the “what” knowledge Conditional Knowledge— the “why” knowledge Procedural Knowledge— the “how” knowledge Application Knowledge— the use of knowledge in both similar settings and in different contexts Problem Solving— a process of using knowledge or skills to resolve an issue or problem Critical Thinking— evaluation of concepts associated with inquiry Documentation— a process of communicating understanding Understanding— synthesis by the learner of concepts, processes, and skills.

Assessment can be divided into three stages: baseline assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. Baseline assessment establishes the “starting point” of the student’s understanding. Formative assessment provides information to help guide the instruction throughout the unit, and summative assessment informs both the student and the teacher about the level of conceptual understanding and performance capabilities that the student has achieved. The wide range of targets and skills that can be addressed in classroom assessment requires the use of a variety of assessment formats.

Some formats, and the stages of assessment in which they most likely would occur, are shown in the table. ASSESSMENT FORMATS FormatNature/PurposeStage Baseline Assessments Oral and written responses based on individual experience Assess prior knowledge Baseline Paper and Pencil TestsMultiple choice, short answer, essay, constructed response, written reports Assess students acquisition of knowledge and conceptsFormative Embedded AssessmentsAssess an aspect of student learning in the context of the learning experience Formative.

Oral Reports

Require communication by the student that demonstrates scientific understanding Formative Interviews Assess individual and group performance before, during, and after a science experience Formative Performance Tasks Require students to create or take an action related to a problem, issue, or scientific conceptFormative and Summative ChecklistsMonitor and record anecdotal informationFormative and Summative.

Investigative Projects

Require students to explore a problem or concern stated either by the teacher or the studentsSummative Extended or Unit ProjectsRequire the application of knowledge and skills in an open-ended settingSummative PortfoliosAssist students in the process of developing and reflecting on a purposeful collection of student-generated data. Formative and Summative It is clear that different kinds of information must be gathered about students by using different types of assessments.

The types of assessments that are used will measure a variety of aspects of student learning, conceptual development, and skill acquisition and application. The use of a diverse set of data-collection formats will yield a deeper and more meaningful understanding of what children know and are able to do, which is, after all, the primary purpose of assessment.