Nicole Marek

EPS 513
February 13, 2014

Formative Assessment Final Paper
Formative assessment is being used in classrooms across the country on a consistent
basis. Most teachers use this assessment of learning as an adjustment to their teaching and
support learning during the learning process. They are to serve more as a practice for students,
and a guide for teachers, instead of using them as summative assessments and grades. Formative
assessments have the ability to check for understanding and relay to the teacher whether or not
the student fully comprehends the skill or concept and what problems they are having.
The learning question that I decided to focus on for the final paper was on the content
knowledge and skill. In my classroom, we are constantly administering formative assessments in
the form of you dos, exit tickets, no nows and We dos. My triad and I gather this data and
grade and review these assessments usually within 1-3 days from when it was given. Sometimes,
we do absolutely nothing with this data. Other times, we choose to pull students during lunch
that day or the day after to fix their papers and reinforce the skill until the student is able to get it
correct. This may include one on one instruction with the student, or even just returning the
paper with the feedback and having the student correct it on their own. There usually is not any
whole-class re-teaching and because of the ISAT coming up in the next few weeks, our schedule
seems to be full in review and teaching new concepts up until the day of ISAT. Even though
there may be no time for reteaching whole group lessons, we luckily work in small groups every
day based on RIT groups.
I believe that these small groups are one of the strengths that can come out of formative
assessment. These groups are based on their RIT scores taken from the NWEA and each of us
takes a skill such as foundational skills, geometry, measurement and data, and more. Students are
broken up into their groups with as many as ten students to as little as two students in each
group. Based on the DesCartes, we take these groups and develop objectives for the students. We
have two math groups and two reading groups every day, fifteen minutes each. This is also on
top of guided reading lessons, which are twenty minutes long, two groups each. In all, a total of
six math groups, six reading groups, and six guided reading groups are seen. Depending on the
students formative assessments, these are the perfect times to pull those individuals or groups
and review the concept or skill.
However, as simple as it seems, it doesnt always work out so perfectly. The three forms
of data that I decided to focus on were math you dos which we also use as our exit slips. The
exit slips were used on the unit of shapes- polygons, quadrilaterals, and three-dimensional
shapes. I think that the intended consequences were that the students were able to complete the
you do and answer all questions. With the students completing the you dos I was able to gather
data from these you dos which is the intended consequence so that I am able to see which
students are struggling with what. As far as unintended consequences, I see that students are
becoming only familiar with the test-taking format of multiple choice. This is something my
mentor and I have been talking about-making the student think outside of the box, and not have
them become comfortable and lazy with the format of how we want the students to practice-
ISAT format questions. Of course, my mentor wants every you do and exit slip to be the same
format as the tests they take such as NWEA and ISAT. Unfortunately, this causes the student to
not quite gain the underlying skills that the student really needs to require.
The three representations of data I chose were the you dos that the students completed on
their own throughout the shape unit. Day one consisted of teaching two-dimensional polygons;
day two consisted of teaching quadrilaterals and day three was three-dimensional shapes. The
math block for which we use as a mini lesson consists of 35 minutes. This leaves around a total
of 20 minutes for the I do and the we do. The last ten minutes is the students individual work
where they complete the you do, which is what we use as our exit ticket. The following bar graph
represents the data from day two on quadrilaterals. Each student present was listed and shows
their score out of a total of 5. Any score that was a 2 or below is failing. A score of 3 on the
assessment was a D and a score of 4 on the assessment was a C.

I choose to put Tuesdays you do data in the form of a graph so that I could determine and come
closer to the answer of my focus question. The students assessment data on quadrilaterals seem
to be less successful compared to the other you dos on Monday and Thursday. As you can see,
almost half of the students scored what is considered a D or lower on the assessment.
However, like I stated in the beginning of the paper, formative assessments are used to gather
data from the students or students as an individual to see where they are struggling and with
what. I wanted to take a closer look into my questioning regarding the skills and concepts of
identifying 2-D and 3-D shapes, so I broke it down by question. Here on this graph, we see how
many students missed numbers one through five. I think that by doing this, it was able to give me
a clearer view on if it was my questioning and something I didnt clearly explain in the I do, or if
it was only a few individual students who made simple errors and missed.

After I was able to look at this information, I realized that it was probably numbers one and five
that I did not give effective instruction on. It is also clear that I need to address almost all of the
students who took the assessment on my questions and what it is I wanted from them. The
interesting thing is that these two questions were the ones where students had to explain
themselves and how they got their answer. For example, number one displayed 6 shapes. The
students had to cross out the shapes that are not quadrilaterals. On the line below, the students
had to explain why they were NOT quadrilaterals. Most students had written that it was because
they did not have 4 equal sides. Well, in fact, the sides do NOT have to be equal, they just
need four sides in general. This tells me that while I was teaching my I do and we do I should
have asked more critical thinking questions, as well as modeled ways to show my thinking to the
class. It is also clear that I did not emphasize enough that the sides do not have to be equal. I
think that since almost half the students got it wrong, I could perhaps pair these students with the
students who got it right and have them explain to these students who missed them. This way, I
am not wasting any instructional time and it is beneficial to both the student who got it right and
the student who was still unclear- it is reinforcing that skill and idea in their head when you help
teach it to someone else.
As for number five, it asked the students to explain why they chose their answer for the
question above and how they know it is right. This again, is an explanation that students need to
know and be able to write down because it will benefit them in the future. If the student cant tell
you how they got their answer, or what they know, how am I able to measure the validity of the
test and the unintended consequences? Especially if the student can only answer in multiple
choice form, which is what all these questions are in. Next, I looked at my data from 3-
dimensional shapes, which was the most successful data of all. Below is a graph of the amount of
students that scored a 9/9 all the way to 0/9.

After looking at this data, my eyes went straight to that one individual who scored 0 out of 9.
This individual, MA, is not necessarily struggling in all math concepts. However, this is the type
of student that if you do not hold them accountable for their work and produce immediate
feedback and have them fix their mistakes, they will often slide by with no real motives to do
well in school and in their work. This is the type of student that I would pull during lunch and
work with one on one holding them to the highest expectations, letting them know that this is
unacceptable and that I know that they are capable of better work.
I think that what I got most out of the data workshops were all of the new and original
ideas from other brains that I would not have normally gotten. Sometimes, its possible for one
person to see something that I might have missed in analyzing my data. However, with the data
workshops, these co-residents of mine, who may even be struggling with similar data issues, are
more knowledgeable on how to approach the students or situation and even in ways that I can
find to reteach mini lessons to students, without using whole group time each day. Working in
these data groups also introduced me into new ways I can use my questioning. I brought in actual
you dos my students completed last time to class and my classmates were able to see the format
and the type of questioning. One thing I was able to share with them was my focus on
questioning. I wanted to be able to challenge students more in critical thinking and asked what is
a way I can do this, but still use the test-taking format to prepare for ISAT. There were so many
great ideas, and as you can see in my math you dos, Ive started to incorporate them. For
example, I only use test-format questions in my you do/exit slip. Even then, I am able to
challenge students and may throw in a quick question such as, How do you know that the
answer you chose is correct? This gives me an idea if whether or not the student is fully
grasping the concept and not just able to answer in multiple choice question format.
I think that I have learned quite a bit about my students learning and it goes with what
Ive been saying this entire time- my students learning cannot be assessed only by multiple
choice. That does not give me a true picture of whether or not my student fully can grasp and
apply this concept in other formats and in other ways. I want my students to be successful on the
ISAT, but I also want my students to have strong social and working skills so that it one day may
become use to them in the real world. Critical thinking is vital to a students success and I think
that with common core being integrated into our curriculum now, it is important for students to
not only be able to answer a multiple choice question, but to display their knowledge on how or
why and apply this knowledge.
If I had to choose one reading that I found very beneficial to my classroom and relevant
to myself it would be, The Power of Feedback, by John Hattie. I truly did not realize how
important feedback was to my students learning and their journey to learning until reading the
article and taking part in the discussion post. I think the biggest part for me was reflecting on this
piece. I asked myself, What type of feedback do I give to my students? Is it for the sake of just
grading and marking wrong or right? Or do I guide my students into thinking about what steps
they can take next? In the text, Hattie states Students may also develop effective error
detection skills, which lead to their own self-feedback aimed at reaching a goal. Such error
detection can be very powerful (p. 86). This statement alone created many thoughts on
whether or not my students knew exactly where they were headed. I have goals for my students,
but do I ever share these goals with them? I thought of this article after I reviewed my data from
the lesson about quadrilaterals. I remember in the article it spoke about not giving your students
a number to reach, but more of an obtainable goal, thats achievable for each and every of them.
First, though, they need to know where they are headed and what they have to do to get on the
right track. This ties in with pulling my small groups or pulling students during lunch. This
would be a perfect time for a private conference with the student to discuss goals and what it is
exactly they need to do be become successful. If students understand their own learning, their
learning will increase!
More questions that I might have reside in the power of feedback. How can I use
feedback to further enhance my small groups and have them create goals for themselves? My
feedback alone is something that I am working to improve on, because I do recognize its power.
Whether it is feedback on an exit slip or you do, I want to try to make it immediate, and I want to
make my feedback meaningful including next steps for the student. Private conferences would be
a great way to work with the student and have them become aware of their own learning. More
questions than from this develop into where can I find the time to do this for every student?
Whats next after small group work? I realize that small group work is beneficial to students, but
with time limits and constraints and with the ISAT coming up soon, how do I find the time to
incorporate this valuable feedback and have my students become aware of their own learning?
Better yet, how do I get my students to care about their own learning progression?
I see that with some ideas, I can use formative assessment as tools for the student to
become aware of their own learning. Keeping track of these tools, or you dos are one possible
way for me to begin this process. Part of me believes, that as a new teacher, I will try many
things in my career and see that they may not succeed. In having my students identify with their
learning goals and progression, I think that this is one of those situations where I must rely on
resources and what other teachers say works for them. I know that using my data and having
students become aware of their own data is powerful, and I will keep searching for ways in
teachers and resources to see how this can be done most effectively.