Sunday, September 20, 2015
Blog #4 Formative vs. Summative Assessment
Discuss the differences between Formative and Summative assessment (do a little research if you need to)? If you had to break it down into more workable terms, how would you define the two? Why are both important? Discuss what you learned, how you feel this idea affects students of varying needs/learning styles/disabilities, and the pitfalls of doing too much or too little of one or both. Discuss how it has felt to evaluate one another! Blog by Monday, 9/21 and respond by class time Thursday, 9/24.
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Formative assessment is used to monitor students progress and provides feedback for teachers to improve their teaching. Formative assessment helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses and shows them the areas that needs work in. Summative assessment is used to evaluate students learning at the end of unit. Summative assessments usually involves things like a midterm or a final project. Having both forms of assessments because some students do not perform as well in summative assessments and it is beneficial for those students to have the opportunity to have their learning monitored. It was hard to evaluate my peers because I did not want to be mean, but it was also beneficial because it not only assesses where you are, but also where your peers are, and if there are any discrepancies in understanding then you can fix it by talking through it during class.
ReplyDeleteI agree that evaluating one another was hard because I also didn't want to be mean to people on something they had worked on.
DeleteI believe it is true that some students do not perform well based on summative assessments and it is important to have both forms of assessment to correctly measure children's performance and comprehension.
DeleteI agree with your points on formative and summative assessment. I think you did a great job explaining what each one is and the benefit of each one.
DeleteFormative assessment help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work and it helps faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately. The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Both forms of assessment are important because some students do not perform well with summative assessments, and the Formative assessment gives students an opportunity to see what they need to work on and learn from their mistakes. I really liked evaluating my peers because it gave me the chance to get new ideas to use in the future and show me what I need to work on to help improve my work. It also gave me insight in how I should evaluate my future students.
ReplyDeleteI leaned more towards formative assessments when I was replying to this discussion mainly because I don't like summative assessments. I do see where someone could enjoy/benefit more from a summative assessment rather than an formative assessment.
DeleteI like how you used a personal experience to explain formative assessment and why you tend to lean more in that direction.
DeleteI believe it is important to put the emphasis on children learning from their mistakes through formative assessments and not focusing on making the grade through summative assessments. I agree with you.
DeleteFormative assessments are more designed so the teacher can see how the students are progressing with the classwork and subject. Summative assessments are where the teacher uses tests and finals to assess their learning throughout the class. I enjoyed evaluating each other because it gave me different ideas, but it also gave me a chance to see how each of my peers learn and use study tactics. You learn a lot about yourself but as well you learn about others.
ReplyDeleteGood point with the evaluating others comment. However, I don't like it as much. I find it hard to grade one another because I just don't want to be too harsh on grading someone.
DeleteI like how you said you learn more from evaluating others. I agree and think that it gives different perspectives because we all think so differently.
DeleteI'm with you when it comes to evaluating others, I just don't like it because it's hard to be critical. But like you said, it gives you different ideas, and you get to see how others learn and sort of gage where you are compared to your classmates.
DeleteThe main difference between formative and summative assessments is that formative assessments can be changed and approved upon, whereas summative assessments are final. Formative assessments are a great way for teachers to assess student progress and help them improve in a certain area or areas. Teachers are able to provide feedback and help students improve their score, where they can't do that with summative assessments. Summative assessments are the end product so to speak. Summative assessments test a students knowledge that they have obtained throughout the year and they normally follow a standard or two. I personally think both forms of assessment can be affective if they are used properly. Some students are good test takers and would perform well with a summative, where formative assessments allow students to physically see what they are doing wrong and fix those mistakes while receiving feedback from teachers. I thought it was good to evaluate my peers, although it wasn't easy because I don't like being critical. I really thought it was a good way to get other ideas though and assess how mine compared with my peers.
ReplyDeleteI liked your definition of the two types of assessments. I found your response to this question to be very helpful. I also said it wasn't easy to evaluate one another because of grading too harsh. I think it would be easier to get another classes work and have them grade us also.
DeleteThe point where you said that formative assessments are changeable is important. I think that is where students learn best because they can correct their own work and learn from it rather than just seeing a flat grade. I also agree that if used properly both assessments can be valuable. However, I think we as teachers need to do more of explaining good test taking skills etc. Personally, I am not a good test taker and so formative assessments are good for me. Other students may wish that they could just take summative tests and be done with it so I think it also goes back to differentiated instruction.
DeleteYou have good definitions of formative and summative assessment. You definitely helped me understand the difference between those two.
DeleteFormative assessment is an assessment that teachers use to see where their students are at and that the students can always go back and work to make their score better. While summative assessment is final, it is often the end of the chapter test and then you move onto the next major topic. It is important because with this score teachers are able to see how much the children learned from that whole unit of lessons and topics. Having a lot of formative assessments can be good for students because if you know you did not do so hot on a certain assignment you can always work harder and get a better score on the next. While on summative, it is a lot scarier for students because it is the final and usually they are in the forms of tests. They are still important though for them to take even if they may or may not be the best test takers. Evaluating each other has been fun and helpful because I have been able to see other student's ideas for responses. It is still a little stressful thinking about that all your classmates are grading your work.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that formative assessment is good for students so they can go back and work on their scores. I also think it is important because then the material that they struggles with they can continue to work with the information until they understand it. I also like how you pointed out that evaluating each other is helpful because you see other student's ideas. This is very important part in learning is learning from others. It helps expand ones ideas and ways of thinking.
DeleteFormative assessment is an assessment that helps give teachers an idea of where his/her students are during or after a lesson is given. This type of assessment is where students have a chance at revising their grade to make it better. Then a summative assessment is one that makes sure the student retained the information from the whole chapter or semester. These types of grades are more final and not normally up for revision. They both are important because giving students formative assessments is good for the teacher because they can see if a subject needs more review time if a large portion of the class is not understanding, or they are able help individual students who are really struggling and give them additional help. Summative is important because the teacher needs a final assessment to know where the students are after learning a whole unit. I feel like more students will enjoy the formative assessments because they have to ability to revise them and their grade is not final, while summative might be harder for more students because it is a lot of information and they only get one chance to take it. This adds on a lot more pressure to the students and only certain students will favor to these types of tests while others stress out or even do poorly on them. I think a teacher still needs to do summative assessments but should limit them to only a few and do more of formative assessments to give the students the most opportunity at working with the information to raise their grade.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that teachers should try to use more formative assessments rather than a lot of summative assessments. The students would like that much more and it will be a lot more helpful for the teacher because they would be able to gauge where their students are at in their learning. I also agree with you that summative assessment still has its place in the classroom.
DeleteFormative assessment is given to monitor what and if the student is actually learning something. This type of assessment can be used by teachers to improve their teaching and students can use it to improve their learning. A type of formative assessment would be to have your students draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic. A summative assessment is given to evaluate student learning at the end of the lesson, by comparing it against a standard. Examples of this includes a midterm exam, a final project or a paper. Both of these types of assessments are important because a student might not do as well on a summative assessment due to anxiety and nervousness but they might still be learning the information very well. Giving them an assessment in a formative way will give them a chance to prove it to the teacher that the student knows the information. I feel this idea of two types of assessments lets students who learn in different ways, have the ability to show what they have learned, in whichever way they would like. Doing too many summative assessments could make the students anxiety levels higher and make it harder for them to learn the information because they are too busy worrying about the test coming up. I have a hard time evaluating others because I don’t want to be grading too hard. I would rather get assignments from other classes so we don’t know the students but that’s just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI like how you gave examples of what the different types of assessments are. I also agree that both types of testing can be valuable. I also respect your opinion of getting other assignments, but I think making it anonymous helps and I also think it's valuable to look at others assignments etc. because we all think so differently and learn so differently that it's nice to get feedback from others.
DeleteYour examples are very helpful. Adding Coles definitions with your examples were very helpful. I like Andreas point of keeping them anonymous. Its hard keeping the difference between grading hard and just evaluating and allowing for expansion on their previous work.
DeleteI really like your examples too. I think your point about how a student may be a bad test taker and might not do as well on summative assessments due to anxiety or other factors but still might be learning the information well. I think its important that we account for them, because some students might just be really good test takers and only focus on the stuff they know is going to be on the test. So I think its important to throw in some formative assessments every now and then.
DeleteFormative assessment uses diagnostic testing which is a range of formal and informal assessment that teachers use during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student's attention. It tusually is without a grade for the students and teachers. Summative assessment uses outcomes and often has a score such as a standardized test. Both are so important because some students (like myself) are not good test takers, however that doesn't mean that they don't understand or have good work that can be shown elsewhere. A formative assessment helps students express themselves in a different way without feeling pressured about a grade, instead they just perform to the best of their ability. This affects students varying needs because some students like testing rather than making a project, some need hands-on through different formative assessments, some need to be able to write a paper. Differentiating the instruction and methods of assessments are vital for the students' learning process. However if you don't do enough testing in class, the students won't be prepared for standardized testing because they may not understand the testing strategies. If you do too much, the student may not benefit because many students don't learn through tests. It's the correction part that helps them learn.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly where you are coming from with the not good test taking. I have trouble with that, but I can be really good at work when I'm aloud to be creative. I think a good idea if you are going to give tests then you should allow for corrections for students to learn from their mistakes.
DeleteThese are some real good points. I especially liked your point that if you don't do enough testing, then students won't be prepared for the standardized tests and if you do too much, students may not benefit from it. I think it goes back to just knowing your students as well as possible to judge that. But I'm with you, I think they can both be beneficial, if used properly.
DeleteFormative assessment helps students and teachers see what the student needs to work on and improve on. Summative assessment is an assessment that tests the knowledge of the students at the end of a unit. Both are important because they each give helpful feedback to both the teacher and the student. I think that students with dissabilities are not treated as fairly when it comes to Summative assessments. I think formative assessments benefit students with dissabilities and even students without dissabilities. Not everyone is a great test taker and I don't think someone should be tested to see how knowledgeable they are by a test. There are other various ways to see how much someone knows about a subject. I think teachers should strive to do as few Summative assessments as possible and enforce more formative assessments. I haven't liked evaluating one another very much but I realize it's a skill I will need to master when I become a teacher.
ReplyDeleteI like how you spoke about how students differ in taking tests and it is not necessarily fair to poor test takers to constantly inflict summative assessments.
DeleteI like that you motioned students with disabilities and how summative and formative assessments may affect them.
DeleteI like that you take notice in the different test taking abilities and that you recognize that you cant judge someone based on their test taking ability.
DeleteFormative assessment including diagnostic testing is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures conducted by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. Summative assessments are used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period—typically at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year. These techniques are both designed to measure and evaluate performance. However, formative allows students to revise and learn from their mistakes, while summative assessment does not. This could benefit children who do not test well or get extremely nervous or anxious while test-taking, but still allows them to learn and grasp concepts. I like the idea of formative assessments and believe that these help students more in the long-run, rather than focusing on a grade and encouraging students to simply memorize material rather than learning from it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that formative assessments help students in the long run as well and not focusing on so much as what grade you get but what you are actually getting out of the assessment.
DeleteI like how you focused more on the long term results rather than then right now results, students do not learn things right away, they need to practice.
DeleteI really liked your perspective on the different assessments. I think that you are the only person that touched on the long term affects. It really gave me a new perspective on formative assessment.
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ReplyDeleteFormative assessment is a way to understand how a student is reacting to the learning style presented by the instructor during, or mid-way through the lesson. Summative assessment is an assessment at the end of the lesson and is primarily used to test the knowledge learned over the course. Unfortunately, summative assessment are inherently a stressful, high-stakes environment that negatively effects student performance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that summative assessments can be stressful for students. But it is still needed, only if teachers could make it less stressful for the students with still being able to get the information they need from the students.
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DeleteI think you make an important point that a summative assessment makes for a stressful and high-stakes environment and that it can negatively affect students. I agree with this because students have to make sure the know and understand all of the material that was taught and this can be stressful. However, summative assessments are necessary but maybe a teacher should use them as least as possible.
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