Chapter 8, page 189
Third, in traditional assessment, the teacher does not systematically use information from the tests
to change their teaching. The assessment is usually done at the end of the unit, so that there is no chance to
use this information to help students, because the unit is over. But in formative assessment, students are
assessed not just at the end of the unit but at times before the end of the unit, so that the teacher can use the
information gathered from the assessments to make mid-course adjustments in instruction. For example, the
teacher described in the previous paragraph has gained valuable information from a mid-unit quiz that she
can use to revise her instructional plans during the rest of the unit. From her careful analysis of students’
difficulties on the mid-unit quiz, she knows that she need not spend any more time on dates, as most
students have mastered the dates. But she must focus intensively on helping students understand the causes
of the Great Depression, because few students understand the causes in any depth.
In short, the key to formative assessment is to carefully analyze students’ work (on tests or quizzes,
on homework assignments, and in group work and class discussions) so that teachers can identify very
specifically what students’ strengths and weaknesses are. Then the teachers use the results of the analysis
to adjust their instruction.
An Example of More Complex Plan to Use Formative AssessmentIn the previous paragraphs, we have considered a fairly simple example of formative assessment.
In this example, a teacher analyzes students’ work on a single mid-unit quiz in order to adjust instructional
plans for the second half of the unit. In this section, I’ll present an example of a more complex plan to use
formative assessment. The following pages provide a detailed example of how social studies teachers might
use formative assessment to identify students’ learning difficulties and to adapt their instruction to address
these difficulties.
This more complex example also revolves around a unit on the Great Depression. Suppose that a
team of social studies teachers is developing and teaching a six-week unit on the Great Depression. The
students examine a variety of original documents (written documents, photos, some early films) as well as
read historians’ interpretations of the events. Students write their own histories of the events, presenting
arguments explaining their ideas. The students turn in essays at the end of weeks 2 and 4 so that the teacher
can assess how well they are mastering each learning goals of the unit. The students also take quizzes at the
end of weeks 2, 4, and 6 so that the teachers can assess students’ conceptual understanding of the Great
Depression.
The teachers want to develop a formative assessment system that they can use to systematically
track learners’ progress during the unit. The first step in developing such a formative assessment system is
is to identify the core learning goals for the unit. The teachers decide that they would like to focus on two
learning goals involving learning to write historical essays and two learning goals involving understanding
of the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
The teachers decide that they will focus on two learning goals involving strategies for writing
historical essays:
Learning Goal #1: Argument construction. Students learn to construct good arguments in their writing.
Learning Goal #2: Considering counterarguments. Students learn to address counterarguments to their
own position when they are writing.
The teachers will evaluate how well students are using these strategies using the essays that students write.
In addition, the teachers identify two content goals that they want their students to master:
Learning Goal #3: Consequences of the Great Depression. Students will understand a wide range of the
consequences of the depression.