I've been thinking a lot about formative assessment. Specifically, I'm thinking of how/if it should be graded. As someone who has, more than once, had a learning curve that was slightly slower than or different from the one the teacher expected of me, I'm annoyed that formative assessment is often graded on how well a student meets the learning target. That seems to kind of miss the point, assuming that the point of formative assessment is to see how well the student is meeting the learning target, with the probable result being that they're not quite there yet. I've been trying to figure out how to work this, with the formative assessment I'm thinking of being things like exit tickets and journal entries. Do they get full credit if they do it? Should I attempt to make some sort of objective judgement of how hard they're trying? Do I just weight it pretty low so that it's low stakes if they're not quite where I want or expect them to be?
Right now, I'm tied to the way the school I'm interning at does it. They grade everything on a 5-point scale and differentiate between formative and summative assessment, weighting summative assessment more heavily (I think.) The numbers correspond to a set amount of improvement:
0: no evidence of learning
1: needs improvement
2: is improving
3: meets expectations
4/5: exceeds expectations
So, I have to give a number grade on formative assessment, and since most of their grades fall under this category it can affect their grade pretty significantly. How do I fit my ideas about formative assessment into this system, friends?
I like the idea of using a four/five point scale. It seems to lend itself much more easily to grading, and it's quite impressive your school uses such a system. I am curious, though, how your school might handle course grades: are they done on the same four/five point scale?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like one of the odder things to do is to transpose a very nice grading scale to the one that we all complain about.
Also, on a personal note, I can relate with feeling slightly behind the ball everyone once in a while, and I do think that calls into question how such a thing should be assessed.
I think the first part of making formative assessments work for you is to be honest as you look at your purpose in using them. If you are only using formative assessment to get a picture of how well students are grasping concepts then low stakes and effort grades should fit your needs just fine. If you are wanting to use formative assessment to give a grade that is dependent upon how well they are learning the material, like a quiz or something similar to the example above, it is going to be far more high stakes for those that are struggling. I think that the most critical part of forming an assessment plan is to really take some time to put your educational philosophy regarding assessment on paper and find a way to assess that falls within your system of beliefs. I could see it becoming very tiresome to use a grading scale that goes against what you believe.
ReplyDeleteDory -- Your question about how to assess formative assessments is one that I struggle with as well. Since it is impossible to truly know how much effort someone puts into an assignment, I've always tried to find more objective ways to give credit. But then sometimes I feel like I get in this trap of deducting points in punitive ways, which also doesn't seem right -- especially since I want to provide students with lots of opportunities to practice and try out new ideas and skills without being evaluated. Basically, each question leads to a new one!
ReplyDeleteI have been finding myself struggling with this a lot. My mentor teacher will hand me a stack of papers and say "grade them" she has me determine how much an assignment is worth and how the grades will be distributed. With the smaller assignments I find myself thinking the same thing regarding grading it on a low scale. I do a 3 point scale for most and I found that I am doing this in my unit as well. 1 point for doing the assignment, 2 points for following instruction, and 3 points for depth of understanding/reflection. I feel like it is working for me.
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