Instructional Strategies and Freebies!: August 2017

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Fabulous Formative Assessment – What in Looks Like in Action

Formative Assessment is Not for Grading

I will say it again, formative assessment is not used for grading, but rather is an opportunity for students to learn and for teachers to fill in any gaps –before they are graded. Formative assessment is used before instruction to discover what students know and during instruction to find out students’ level of understanding and just how they are progressing towards a particular learning goal.

Because formative assessment isn’t used for grading, students are comfortable making mistakes and asking for help. They are free to do their work, without the cloud of a grade hanging over them. Evidence suggests that the best students use all information formatively. Struggling students, however, are more apt to have negative feelings after failure. These feelings often get in the way of student learning. For struggling students, the value of any feedback is lost – overshadowed by low grades. Formative assessment offers the opportunity for every student to learn to use and value feedback.

What Formative Assessment Looks Like in a Fifth Grade Classroom

Elizabeth Chapin-PInotti Story Clues + What I Know Equals Inference

Close your eyes and imagine you are a fifth-grade teacher and today’s learning goals include applying reading standards for literature, specifically: RL 5.1.1 and 5.1.2: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

This is a new skill for fifth grade and students are working on interactive notebook pages for the

novel the class is reading. In their reading, they have analyzed the text and participated in a “Prediction” Think-Pair-Share – to call upon skills they learned the previous year. You are scaffolding on this information to help your students understand “inference.”

As students work, you sit with Billy to discuss his notebook. You have a three-ring binder open to a page with the headings: Child’s Name/Date, RL 5.1 Making Inferences, Teaching Point and What’s Next for this Child? Farther down the page is a sticky note listing five students’ names. These are the five children you will assess today.

Your initial purpose is to follow-up on feedback you provided two days ago based on evidence elicited from an interaction with Billy; in that previous interaction, you determined he struggled with predicting – thus making inference difficult.

You: You are working on inference – you know – coming to a conclusion made by connecting what

Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti Inferring Worksheet from Fabulous Mr. Fox

you already know with the new information we’re reading in x novel.

Billy: Well, in the first chapter of the Fantastic Mr. Fox, the mean and nasty farmers eat things they raise: chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys. I know that foxes like to eat these things.

You: Good, so what can you infer from that?

Billy: I can infer that there will be some problem with the fox and the farmers chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys.

You help Billy recognize what an inference is and review his work. As you are working with Billy you are filling out your formative assessment binder.

After you circulate the room, you realize that many of your students just aren’t grasping the connection between prediction and inference, so you pull together a mini-lesson.

You’ve quickly and simply learned what students know and do not know, you have the information tucked away in your binder and should continue to refer to the information in your binder to drive instruction.

Formative Assessment Freebie: The Fantastic Mr. Fox
43- Formative Assessments for Classroom Use
FREE! 2nd grade NBT.1 Formative Assessment!
Book Two: 60 Formative Assessment Strategies

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Thanks,
Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti
#Chapin-Pinotti

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Can Formative Assessment be Fun? FISH! Play and Formative Assessment

Why Formative Assessment

Let’s face it – most students hit a point – around fourth grade – when they would rather interact with each other – than their teacher. Gone are the days of unconditional primary school love for us – and that is perfectly normal. Perfectly normal and a great way to engage them in formative assessment without them even knowing you are assessing.

Fish! Play and Your Classroom

Fish Play! taps into students' natural ways of being creative, enthusiastic and having fun. Play is the spirit that drives the curious mind, as in “Let’s play with that idea!” It’s a mindset you can bring to everything you do. (Fish! For a School Culture Checkup!)

This can be accomplished in a number of ways:

Circle Around Formative Assessment

Circle Around: A "Circle Around" is a game-type of activity that engages students by having them practice asking questions of one another. It is a great tool to use as formative assessment and it is easy.

Circle Around Goal: Make sure students understand an assignment or comprehend a reading and then produce work that demonstrates student knowledge.

Print out the Circle Around form and use it to formulate questions students should know after they've read a certain passage, completed an assignment etc.
Copy and distribute Completed Circle Around form to students.
Explain what the students are going to do - telling them to be prepared for one person in each pair to answer out after each round.
Divide the class into two equal groups. If there is an odd person out have that student be your helper and rotate them in after a few gos.
Have each group circle up - one inside of the other. Instruct the inner circle to walk clockwise and the outside circle to walk clockwise until you give a predetermined signal.
Like in musical chairs, vary the time between signals, so they can't predict when they'll have to stop.
When the signal sounds, something even as simple as turn - have students in the inner circle turn to face someone in the outer circle - that is their partner for the first round.
Repeat the activity until all of your questions are answered.

What You Should Look For:

Individual student understanding - and patterns for group understanding or misunderstanding.

Carry around a class list or gradebook (or a gradebook page from your computer and use it to check off what you hear and don't hear).

Important - the point of formative assessment is to formulate a plan to either move forward or work on reteaching any deficiencies you find.

Bonus - Extra Uses:

Use this activity when wriggly students have been seated for a long time.
Early finishers - have them come up with questions
Save paper - use as an oral assessment and post questions on board

Remember: learning isn't a race to the finish - if most of the students or even over 1/2 don't understand - reteach - using a different strategy. I will say it again - using a different strategy; because if the way you taught it the first time didn't work - why would it work a second time. If you need help figuring out a way to re-teach - I doubt you do - but if it is just one of those lessons - email elizabethpinotti@gmail.com for a 24 hour turn around.

Thanks for reading,

Elizabeth

See Samples:

ON TES Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Roald Dahl - Formative Assessments FREEBIE
ON TeachersNotebook Fantastic Mr. Fox - Formative Assessment FREEBIE