While many teachers assess their students after a project is finished, it is also necessary to assess them throughout the project cycle. Formative assessments helps to check in on the students so the teacher can adjust the project accordingly. A summative at the end of a project is helpful in evaluating the project as well as giving the students a final grade.
Planning for a summative assessment involves three very important steps - objectives, evidence and activities. When planning for a project, teachers need to determine what the students will learn on completing the project. The next step is to determine what would the students need to demonstrate learning. Lastly, activities must be designed or picked in order to help students acquire the required learning.
There are many options for summative assessments, but there needs to be a "natural fit" between objectives, activities, and methods for assessment. Some summative assessments teachers used are school-wide while others are in-class.
Formative assessments enable teachers to guide students to the right path with the already existing objectives and goals in mind. It helps to make adjustments to get the required results. Create a timeline following the arc of the project. Set up milestones and check-ins. Lastly, be sure to add main aspects along the arc to reflect the learning process.
Some of the assessment options teachers can use are brainstorming to know what students care about, coffee talks involving differentiated attention, and concept maps showing relationships between ideas. There are tools that are designed or useful for each assessment options. Some are whiteboards, Evernote, Prezi, and Lucid Chart.
Rubrics helps students understand how their project is being graded. They are also a means for teachers to grade fairly.
This chapter helped to brainstorm ideas for how to assess students throughout our lesson, not just at the very end of it. Using rubrics and formative assessments are crucial in making sure that students will know exactly what you want from them.
Tessa, I liked that the book gave us ideas of how to do both formal and summative assessment and what it looks like. This gave me good ideas on how to go about giving projects to my students in the future. I also like the idea of rubrics allowing teachers to help us grade fairly.
ReplyDeleteGreat job mentioning all of the options and tools available for summative and formative assessments! I did not know there were so many ways to do this. I think that you bring up a good point that students should know how their work is going to be graded, as well as teachers to be fair. Great post!
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