Formative assessment … How do we have students involved and why.

Home Page

Measurement of success

Have a question or comment?

This exercise gives the teacher the opportunity to have some exciting dialogue with the students about what they are going to do and how will they measure success. Questions can be raised about their previous knowledge of the engineering design process, what do they do if they make a mistake, What goals should we be looking to achieve, how do I work as a team member, How am I going to learn and so forth.

This time is a great place to follow up on students responses to encourage clarity and enforce their thinking skills by asking questions such as:

Can you restate that?
Could you clarify that further?
What are some alternatives?
How can you defend your position?

Formative assessment … How do we have students involved and why.

Assessment is Learning

When students know about the goals of instruction, they can give the teacher evidence about their own understanding in relation to those goals. The more students can take on the role of self-assessment, the more they can move toward being able to decide their own next steps.

Path to Self-assessment

Year	Tasks
K-2 grade	Understanding vocabulary; tasks, goals, reviews, test, evidence
3	Role play using the words; feedback, gathering, observing. Ask them “What have you learned from your mistakes?”.
4	Teacher build simple Assessments and rubrics with the students
5	Student is setting simple goals and self assessments.

Student Self-Assessment

“Student participation is a key component of successful assessment strategies at every step.
If students are to participate effectively in the process, they need to be clear about the target
and the criteria for good work, to assess their own efforts in light of the criteria, and to share responsibility in taking action in light of the feedback.”
National Research Council. Classroom Assessment and the National Science Education Standards. (Washington, DC.: National Academy Press, 2000) p. 1

Project Zero ... Harvard Education Graduate School
Assessment is not just a method for measuring students' thinking and understanding of a particular subject. Assessment can be a powerful approach for teaching thinking as well. Teaching thinking through assessment helps set standards for the types of thinking performances that lead to deeper understanding.

Thinking-centered assessment provides information on students' understanding performances by highlighting both the strengths and the weaknesses of students' thinking. Such information is crucial for helping teachers develop follow-up lessons and instruction.

Teaching thinking through assessment helps provide teachers and students with a common set of tools they can use to communicate and articulate their ideas about what's good and not so good about their thinking. Teaching thinking through assessment helps teachers consider and specifically target the types of thinking they value in the lessons and projects they develop.

Teaching thinking through assessment gives teachers a number of thinking-centered lenses through which to examine students' thinking and understanding performances. Employing a variety of thinking-centered assessments also helps students’ better gauge how well they are thinking and learning.