Even before you decide to do what you do in-class (action steps), you should start thinking about how you will measure whether or not your students have learned anything. You will use formative and summative assessments in conjunction with learning activities to measure your students progress.
Evidence for learning is exactly what it sounds like. How will you know students learned something from this section of the lecture? What assessments can you implement to prove this? You can utilize formative assessments and ask students questions or discuss the lesson. You can also create a summative assessment, but that will most likely come at the end of a unit. This evidence of learning may simply be seen through an observation or students turning in an assignment for grading.
Assessment is important because it helps teachers understand what students know, what they need help with, and how to adjust lessons to support learning. It gives teachers feedback on their teaching and helps students see their progress. Good assessment makes sure all students get the support they need to succeed. It also helps schools track learning over time and make improvements.
Formative and Summative Assessments
Formative Assessments are assessments that monitor progress throughout a lesson or unit. They are often less formal and do not require a rubric, but a rubric can be used to gather data. Some examples of formative assessments include exit tickets or class discussions. Formative assessments happen during learning, like quizzes or discussions, to check understanding and guide teaching.
Summative Assessments are assessments that measure a summary of learning. They are often formal and require some kind of rubric. Examples of summative assessments are end of unit tests or standardized texts. Summative assessments come at the end of a unit, like tests or projects, to measure overall learning. Diagnostic assessments happen before teaching starts, helping teachers see what students already know. Using a mix of these helps create better lessons and support student’s needs.
Creating Rubrics
How to Create a Rubric
Creating a rubric is not as scary as it seems. List your standards, follow that with a description of the standard, then create 3 or more areas for level of completion with a description of what is expected to achieve that level. Some ideas are Great Job (they backed up their points with evidence, they cited their sources, they used age-appropriate grammar/spelling/structure, they had the necessary amount of paragraphs, and they followed the guidelines for an argumentative essay). Almost there (they used age-appropriate grammar but did not have the necessary amount of paragraphs ,or they provided evidence but did not cite their sources). Not Quite (they did not have the necessary number of paragraphs, their structure/spelling/grammar was not age-appropriate, or they did not provide evidence/cite sources). These are just some ideas, but here is a video for better understanding and it shares different types of rubrics:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How can I be intentional in my assessment and use the data-driven instruction cycle (assess, reflect, adjust) when I have so many students and no prep time? I don’t want to burn out.
This is a problem that most secondary and higher education teachers face. A few things that have worked for me is
- Choosing to only analyze one class per assessment (and rotate which class that is).
- Choosing not to do a deep dive analysis on every activity (pick and choose according to what you think is most important and when you have the time and energy to make changes).
- Create processes that allow you to answer a question once for several different students in several different contexts. For example, I created this FAQ in response to several students asking the same question as part of their course preparation reflection. My current students will be able to read this response to the question(s), future students will be able to read this response before they even have the question, and even students who are not in my class might benefit by looking through this FAQ.
Remember that you don’t have to make all of the changes and improvements to your instruction over night. It is a process. If you can improve a few assignments or activities each week or semester it will make a big difference several years down the road.