The One-Right-Answer-Mentality (Part Two)

Formative and authentic assessments as creativity builders

At the risk of grossly oversimplifying the wonderful work by Benjamin Bloom, Robert Marzano, Paul Black, Dylan William and other scholars, I would simply say that summative assessments, especially standardized tests are about ranking students (and their schools, teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, departments of education, ad infinitum). Formative assessments are tools designed to help students grow.

Formative assessments provide feedback to the teacher in real time so that they can, as Madeline Hunter used to say “monitor and adjust.” They let the teacher know where a student is proficient and where that student needs more help or practice. Unlike a summative assessment, no student is labeled a permanent C student or not performing at grade level. Intrinsic rather extrinsic motivation increases. They increase students’ self-knowledge and sense of personal responsibility for their own learning. The focus and philosophy is on growth with the understanding that time needed to master a skill is the variable, not a student’s genetic ability. It’s the kind of assessment I want my grandchildren’s teachers to use. Please.

Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (Nicol 2006) summarize seven principles of good feedback which is at the heart of formative assessment:

1. It clarifies what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);

2. It facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning;

3. It provides high quality information to students about their learning;

4. It encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;

5. It encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;

6. It provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance;

7. It provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape teaching.

It is, in essence, an informed dialog between the teacher and the student about what that student knows and can do. And it can be about conversations between and among students related to their learning as well - building relationship as opposed to destroying them as Kohn warns the competition inherent in extrinsic motivation - scores on tests - tends to do.

Authentic assessment, assessments that rely on performance, application of skills and knowledge, and collections of student work (portfolios), when used as intended are a powerful form of formative assessment. Authentic assessment means passing the driving part of the driving test not just the written test. And aren’t you glad people aren’t allowed to drive until they can demonstrate they can steer, brake, and drive on the correct side of the road?

Formative assessments can be done in a variety of ways. Judith Dodge, in her short, readable and informative guide 25 Quick Formative Assessments for the Differentiated Classroom (Dodge, 2009) categorizes four different types of formative assessments.

• Summaries and Reflections Students stop and reflect, make sense of what they have heard or read, derive personal meaning from their learning experiences, and/or increase their metacognitive skills. These require that students use content-specific language.

• Lists, Charts, and Graphic Organizers Students will organize information, make connections, and note relationships through the use of various graphic organizers.

• Visual Representations of Information Students will use both words and pictures to make connections and increase memory, facilitating retrieval of information later on. This “dual coding” helps teachers address classroom diversity, preferences in learning style, and different ways of “knowing.”

• Collaborative Activities Students have the opportunity to move and/or communicate with others as they  develop and demonstrate their understanding of concepts.

Thankfully, Dodge includes step-by-step instructions on specific activities that help teachers conduct these assessments.

Technology and formative assessment.

One of the most exciting ways I am seeing technology being used in today’s classroom is a communications tool - and formative assessment is about establishing dialogs, remember?

1. Student response systems. Whether dedicated devices like Senteos used with interactive whiteboards or personally owned student devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, netbooks) with response systems applications or using web-based feedback tools, immediate results can shown to the entire class or just viewed by the instructor. Among the more popular free tools now available are Socrative, PollEverywhere, GoogleForms, and  GoSoapBox.

2. Cloud-based tools used for collaboration and feedback. GoogleApps for Education among other products is an effective means of sharing work and providing comments.

3. Brainstorming tools. Nifty tools like Padlet, Mindmeister, and TodaysMeet allow online sharing of plans and ideas in real time. Tired of those sticky notes falling off your whiteboard?

4. Web-based creation tools. Animoto, Prezi, Wordle, VoiceThread and a multitude of infographic creators like Creately make professional-looking graphics and presentations relatively simple. Although we need to rememeber that just because something looks nice, doesn’t make it creative.

5. Cameras and microphones used to record performances. Many schools choose tablet computers rather than laptops for a simple reason - their built-in cameras and microphones let children communicate with photos, movies, and audio. But when kids record their own actions, these devices become formative assessment tools of the highest order. Hey, watching myself give a talk once when I played with the change in my pocket, improved my public speaking skill. Now that I always present with empty pockets.

6. Differentiation of instruction by providing digital learning materials that fit a variety of learning styles and reading abilities. Used in conjunction with content/course management system like Moodle, e-books, full-text data-based, and Open Educational Resources like Khan Academy provide rich materials and lessons for any ability level of student, both at school and at home.

7. Using online storage areas to curate, collect and share student work that becomes a portfolio.

Let’s go back to George with whom yesterday's blog post started. Had he the opportunity to explain to his teacher why he drew that carrot on his test page, his teacher would know that he understood the question, that he knows the properties of rabbits and their eating habits, and that he had the personal courage to offer a better, possibly more accurate answer to the question. George may possibly have felt supported in his divergent thinking rather than being penalized by it.

And he may be motivated to challenge authority in the future through a creative act or product.

Other ideas about using formative assessments to increase your student's creative risk-taking chances?

How do you use technology in day-to-day assessment of student learning?

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