Diagnostic, Formative & Summative Assessment

Diagnostic:
Diagnostic assessments are tools we can use to see where students are at at the beginning of a unit both in terms of skills, learning style preferences and interests. It's not always the case that we can use the interests or preferences completely, but they are great starting grounds that when used can better engage students. (Consider using a Google Form to gather input if you're interested in having data organized and stored in one location.)

Formative:
Formative assessments are tools to help teachers track learning, offer feedback for students, and guide instruction. This suggests FA are for the benefit of BOTH the teacher and the student.

• FA should help the teacher be able to adjust instruction according to students' progress
• feedback from it should help the student understand specifically what they have done well and what they could do next time to improve

Consider these research-based Seven Practices for Effective Learning as the basis for formative assessments used with students or ASCD's Core Six Practices for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core.

Formative Assessments contrast with work that strictly gathers or collects information...perhaps notes...because notes don't necessarily give evidence of student learning. This compares to seeing how students interact with and use content that gives us insight into their learning. FA lets us know what students are learning and to what degree they are able to act upon what they know.

Using FAs strategically requires a clear standard or goal that students are trying to master...because then the FA are simply stops along the way of a reaching a particular destination.

Examples of Formative Assessments
1. Observation, Questioning, Discussion, etc. Offers examples on these and other topics and gives links to further ideas
2. 25 Quick Formative Assessments. This is a sample from a Scholastic book of the same name. The excerpt includes writing-related formative assessments.
3. 56 Examples of Formative Assessments. This is setup as a conference presentation with the basic ideas.
4. Collects end of class student feedback via  Stoplight Method.
5. Formative assessment examples organized around the time it may take to learn and implement them.

Guided Groups can work as a strategy for differentiating instruction. After instruction has happened and a task assigned, the teacher asks students to identify whether they are feeling:
A-not sure what to do next...need to have the lesson retaught
B-Just need a couple clarifying questions answered then I'll be good to go OR I just want to hear part of it explained again
C. I understand the lesson and can get to work independently
View this idea in a middle school classroom for English Language Arts.

Another way to work this is by using their exit slips to group students dynamically. In this example an Algebra teacher groups her students the next day based on what they need to work on according to their exit slip.

In terms of grading, FA don't all need to be graded. Select FA that may demonstrate growth toward the end goal...those could be graded. All FAs will be used to inform instruction, they just don't all need to be graded.

Options for grading...
1. Sorting instead of grading. For example, a group of assignments might be submitted, then sorted according to what students need help with. Perhaps a pile of students who need work on using details to support their ideas, while another pile might be one where students need to focus on contrasting their ideas against others'.
2. Selective feedback. Perhaps you need feedback on a particular skill for a formative assessment. You only give feedback on that aspect of the assignment.

There is debate about what percentage of formative assessments should be graded...from those who think none should ever be graded to others who acknowledge that some students need extrinsic motivators.

1. Formative Assessments Should Never Be Graded (NWEA) and Andrew K. Miller's Edutopia Courageous Conversations: Formative Assessments and Grading.
2. What Research Says about the Value of Homework (Center for Public Education)

Summative:

Summative Assessments (performance tasks, final exams, culminating projects, and work 

portfolios) on the other hand, capture a student's learning at a defined moment in time.

1. Rick Wormeli talks about the importance of Formative Assessments as they relate to Summative Assessment.