Session 15: The Teacher's Role in Formative Assessment
25 minutes
discussion-based
Purpose
Participants bring in previous experiences with teaching to the workshop. We want to leverage those experiences and help participants consider how they apply their teaching expertise to CSP. One way they can do that is by using the strategies they already use to formatively assess students. Participants who are new to computer science can easily get focused on teaching the content without thinking about who is learning the content in the room. Formative assessment can support teaching and learning.
This session also helps set the tone for the next lesson planning session, and how they will be formatively assessing throughout the lesson.
Objectives
- Participants have a list of formative assessment strategies they can use in their classrooms and in their TLO lesson.
Supplies & Prep
Room Setup:
- Normal breakout room set up
Facilitator Supplies:
Participant Materials:
- Notebooks
- Laptops
Agenda
Brainstorming Formative Assessment Strategies (22 minutes)
Formative Assessment in the Curriculum (3 minutes)
Facilitation Guide
Brainstorming Formative Assessment Strategies (22 minutes)
Facilitator Tip
We want to push participants to think about their role as the teacher to constantly be “formatively assessing” students. Most participants will think of “exit tickets” as a formative assessment right away, but formative assessments can also include things like asking students a line of questions to understand what misconceptions they hold.
(2 minutes) Getting started
Remarks
While implementing the curriculum and building an inclusive classroom are both roles you play in the classroom, we also know another role you play is as an assessor in the classroom. Today we are going to break assessment into two different categories: summative assessment (“assessment of learning”) and formative assessment (“assessment for learning”). We know that everyone has different definitions around assessment that you may use in your schools and for some people but for our purposes today we are going to define these as follows:
- The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning.
- The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. (citation: definitions from CMU)
Finally, today we are going to uncouple “assessment” and “grading,” while some assessments may be used for grading, not all are. We will have time to talk about assessment and grading on Friday, because we know that is important too.
(20 minutes) Focusing on formative assessment
Remarks
We will have time to think about summative assessment later today and again on Friday, but right now we are going to focus on formative assessment. You likely already have a set of strategies you use in your classroom to formatively assess students.
(2 minutes) Prompt: Let’s brainstorm strategies you currently use. Make two columns. In one column write formative assessment strategies that give YOU, the teacher feedback, and in the second column, document strategies that you use that give students feedback. It is possible that some strategies go in both columns.
Remarks
Let’s hear 1-2 ideas from the room. What would you put in one of these columns? (Wait for an answer. We want to give people and idea of what goes each column.)
| Formative assessments that give YOU, the teacher, feedback | Formative assessments that give students feedback |
|---|---|
(4 minutes) Prompt: Add more to these lists as you brainstorm with your partner.
Facilitator Tip
If this discussion feels short or quiet, suggest that participants think back to the model lessons. What formative assessments took place during those lessons?
(11 minutes) Whole room share-out. Encourage participants to add any strategies they like to their lists.
Remarks
(1 minute) Many of these strategies you can also use in CSP.
(2 minutes) Prompt: Now that you have your lists, let’s categorize these a bit further. Star strategies that might require pre-planning (such as providing a quiz) and put a smiley face next to which strategies you can do in the moment without any planning (such as a “thumbs up to thumbs down” instant assessment).
Formative Assessment in the Curriculum (3 minutes)
(1 minute) Formative assessments built into the curriculum
Remarks
As you likely saw as you were exploring the lesson yesterday during the lesson planning time, there are some formative assessments built into the curriculum:
- Frequent check-ins with students through discussions
- Activity guides that can be collected and reviewed
- Check for understanding (in Code Studio, at the end of the lesson)
There are many places where you could add your own assessments also depending on your teaching style.
(2 minutes) Wrap-up
Remarks
You may have noticed, you can be constantly formatively assessing students in the classroom. As you think about planning your lesson in your next session, consider how you might want to incorporate formative assessment in your lesson. These don’t need to be “big acts” of formative assessment, but can be little questions you plan to ask individual learners as they are working or small “thumbs up to thumbs down” assessments to know if learners need more time.