What is assessment?
When a teacher uses gathered information to determine what a student knows and/or how a student can apply their knowledge, that teacher has assessed his/her student.
Assessment can be given informally or formally:
Informal
Information is collected from the class as a whole. Example: A teacher might ask the class to give a "thumbs up or down" to indicate their understanding of the material. When these answers are not recorded for individual students, an informal assessment will occur. |
Formal
Information is collected on each individual student. Example: If students were asked to take an individual test or quiz and write their names on their papers, or perform an individual activity such as a speech or project, formal assessment will have occured. |
Assessment can also be given before/during learning or at the end of learning:
Formative
Information from formative assessments is used to direct learning and teaching. Example: If students have been working on a project, and the teacher takes time to check their work in order to give them further direction or clarification in their project, formative assessment will occur. |
Summative
Information from summative assessments is used to analyze what students know and/or can do. Example: If a teacher were to grade a project or test at the end of a unit or lesson and use that information to assess how well students understood the material, summative assessment will have occured. |
Assessment is given for many different reasons:
1. Planning for instruction (Pre-test) or modifying whole-class instruction
2. Personalizing individual student instructional needs (Differentiation)
3. Providing feedback of student learning for students (who use that feedback to grow and learn) or parents (who then use that feedback to help their child excel)
4. Providing feedback of student learning for the school, nation, or world (This often involves giving a value to the knowledge a student learned or applied in a unit or lesson)
Ideas adapted from
Stiggins, Richard J., Judith A. Arter, Jan Chappuis, and Stephen Chappuis. Classroom assessment for student learning: doing it right -- using it well. Special ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007.