Using Formative Assessment To Guide Instruction Dawn Mitchell Spartanburg Writing Project 2013

*Assessment Chalk Talk: When you hear assessment, what comes immediately to mind? What is it’s purpose in the classroom? How do you use assessment data?

“What was once educationally significant, but difficult to measure, has been replaced by what is insignificant and easy to measure. So now we test how well we have taught what we do not value.” - Art Costa

*Rubric Assessment Activity - *Please read the following student writing sample and assess it using the rubric provided.

Jeremy’s Writing

“… well meaning teachers hope students will get better at prompt writing by simply writing to a different prompt everyday. In writing workshop, teaching should focus on good writing in any genre. The challenge is to teach writing well, and then teach children to transfer that learning.” Janet Angelillo Writing to the Prompt

What do you notice about the students’ writing? *What questions do you have? *How would you describe this experience? *Do you feel you were able to effectively assess this student writing using the information you had and the rubric provided as an assessment tool? Why or why not?

“Teachers should become acquainted with elements of writing in various genres, students’ home languages, and their lives outside of school. They should address the writing context during the assessment, focusing on the writer rather than on the assessment tool.” – Lucy Spence Discerning writing assessment: Insights into an analytical rubric. Language Arts, 87, 337-348.

*Assessment Discussion - What assessment practices are effective / Why? What assessment practices are ineffective / Why?

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” -Peter F. Drucker

Formative Assessment Examples Conferencing Possibilities: Individual Informal, Individual Formal, Small Group, Peer… Conferencing Notes: See examples from Hindley, Tovani, and Ray Conversation Calendars – See Tovani Thinking on Paper: Authentic Student Work

When Do Assessments Work... When We Actually Use Them to Guide Our Instruction! What can we do to make our assessments more effective? *Using a variety of formative assessments to guide instruction. *Using the summative assessment data as another indicator to help guide our instruction would be helpful. *“We keep weighing the pig to make him fat – let’s feed the pig.”

“Classroom teachers must develop and trust their own professional knowledge and theories of learning for assessment. Student writing should be read holistically, focusing on the meaning the writer is communicating.” - Lucy Spence

Resources Angelillo, Janet. Writing to the Prompt: When Students Don’t Have a Choice. Heinemann, 2005. Hindley, Joanne. In the Company of Children. Stenhouse, 1996. Ray, Katie Wood. Study Driven. Heinemann, 2006. Spence, L.K. (2010). Discerning writing assessment: Insights into an analytical rubric. Language Arts, 87, 337-348. Tovani, Cris. So What Do They Really Know: Assessment that Informs Teaching and Learning. Stenhouse Publishers. 2011.