High Leverage Teaching Practice (HLTP): Selecting and using particular methods to check
understanding and monitor student learning
Teachers use a variety of informal but deliberate methods to assess what students are learning during and
between lessons. These frequent checks provide information about students’ current level of competence
and help the teacher adjust instruction during a single lesson or from one lesson to the next. They may
include, for example, simple questioning, short performance tasks, or journal or notebook entries.
(TeachingWorks.org)
My first attempt at formative assessment was not as insightful as I had hoped it would be. I had wanted to know what the kids understood of the five roles of the President. They had just completed a day of stations and I wanted to know what they felt was the most important role and the qualification to become president. So I asked them to create a letter to the founding fathers about what roles and qualifications worked well, what did not and what would work better. However, students only had to pick one role and one qualification. Because students picked a role and qualification they understood well, the information I received was unhelpful for future instruction. I did receive some well crafted responses, but because of the way I designed the formative, they were useless. Upon reflecting about my attempt here, I realized that formative had to be planned along with the lesson, to include all aspects of the big idea rather than one specific piece of information or skill. Below is my formative followed by a few student examples.
Although both of these students did exactly what was required of them, they did not cover all five roles of the president, which was the goal of the lesson. These were two of the better examples I got, some were not formatted like a letter and some did not address either a role or a qualification. Because of the limitations of my formative assessment I could not understand what these students were struggling with, what concepts they did not understand. I knew only what a few of the students understood well, because they outlined nearly every role and qualification. This was only four of my sixty-three students though.
My biggest takeaway was a better plan for formative assessments, this first attempt was more of an add on than an integral part of the lesson. Therefore, it acted more like an extension activity rather than a formative from which I could get information on how to move forward. I also had a very narrow view of what formative assessments could look like. When I was taught about formative assessment, I thought that they needed to be lengthy assignments that required deep thinking, creative energy and a connection to other components of the content. I have since learned that formative assessment should be constant and flexible to check understanding in a variety of ways.
In this next lesson, we were learning about the different types of government. All of the students worked in small groups, dissecting stations that had information about each government type. Who leads the government, how does that person(s) come to power, how do they use their authority etc. In all there were thirteen types of government that were covered. We went over a few of the more difficult ones in class and when we came back the next day, I tested their understanding of the different types. I had the class divide into groups of 2-3. I assigned each group a type of government and handed them a package of gummy bears and a poster. Each group had to show how their government type worked using gummy bears, markers and a poster board without putting the name on the board. After each group had finished, I created a PowerPoint with pictures of each groups creation and we had a classroom discussion about each type as we tried to identify each one.
Below are student examples of gummy bear representations of types of government. These student representations gave me an insight to what the students understood about their assigned type. I had them explain it to me and questioned them about their choices to elicit and interpret their thinking in creating the example. Once I was satisfied, I took a picture and added it to a Powerpoint where the other twelve were. After I had all of the pictures on the slide, we had a group discussion about each one. Sometimes kids would jump to conclusions or defend wrong answers which opened up new avenues about how all socialist governments are dictatorships but not all dictatorships are socialist governments, and how all democracies are capitalist but not all capitalist governments are democracies. We were able to explore the diagrams and make comparisons. It also allowed me to take stock of individual and group understanding and misconceptions about the types of government. I could then launch a discussion or push students towards the correct information. This activity is a useful tool as a formative assessment because it allows for instant remediation with individuals and the class as it allows for me to give detailed feedback and data based instruction. This also shows how effective and necessary constant formative assessment is in the classroom. I believe that teachers should use formative like a thermometer, verbally checking their students multiple times throughout a lesson and at the end to ensure that teaching is effective.
Below are student work, the first two are representations of our democracy, following left to right, dictatorship, anarchy, feudalism, theocracy, fascism and communism.
