Formative+Assessment+by+Laura

Formative Assessment by Laura Seigle For my part of Fourth Tuesday, I shared various assessments that I use with my intermediate students. One was a General Rubric for all projects that I use both years of my looping fourth/fifth grade students. It pretty much covers all the basics and, once I go over it a few times, I do not have to waste time explaining it for the remainder of the students’ time with me. Sometimes, I adapt the rubric if a project does not fit the mold. Students have to turn in a copy of the rubric with parent signature where the student has circled/highlighted the indicators of the rubric he/she feels they have met.

Another was a Silent Critical Review which allows students to tour projects before scoring their own projects. This allows them to observe qualities of others’ work, both positive and less than positive, without mentioning the names of the producers of the work. In a crammed schedule, this provides an audience for all students, honoring their work, since it is impossible for them to share individually.

An additional form of assessme﻿nt is a Test Self-Analysis. Study guides for tests and test questions themselves are aligned with the analysis sheet- students complete this when they receive their test grades back. I do not go over test answers item by item, but ask students page by page what they have questions about. I also usually do a Partner Jeopardy for test reviews that incorporate the test questions and answers so that students will have a reading, writing, and oral review. I will send a new assessment- a Producer/Scorer Assessment - that I used recently. Partner project groups graded ONE other group’s project before they could score their own. (Students had to be far away from their own projects while the scoring was going on. No two groups scored each other’s projects- and there could be no discussion before or after between students. I had the final say when I scored it.) Producers had to defend the score they gave themselves if there was a discrepancy between the two scores, proving to me and themselves that their own score was correct. Amazingly, most groups agreed with the scorers’ grade of the projects, as did I. By taking their time to look at other’s work carefully as well as the peer appraisal of their own work, it helped students be more objective of their work. Key to this is confidence that students will not get mad at each other- a community of trust is really needed for this to work. It also is an avenue for an audience and honors student work.