For most of the last 15 years, the approach to reform in schools has appeared to focus on almost eve

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For most of the last 15 years, the approach to
reform in schools has appeared to focus on almost
every aspect of teachers work except the one
that lies at the heart of their task-- the
conduct of learning and teaching in the
classroom. In addressing this core aspect
directly, the work of formative assessment is
bound to be radical in its effects. -Assessment
for Learning, page 102
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Tools for Formative Assessment Goals
To learn strategies for collecting evidence about
learning and... to later adapt instruction to
meet students needs.
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Tools for Formative Assessment Agenda

• Overview of the Day
• Formative Assessment Five StrategiesOne Big
  Idea
• Five Broad Strategies Activity Walk and
  Discussions
• Sticky Note Writing A Formative Classroom
  Strategy

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Tools for Formative AssessmentFor schedule and
descriptions see bright pink handout

• General Session 830-1010
• Break 1010-1025
• Morning Breakouts 1030-1200
• Lunch 1200
• Afternoon Breakouts 100-245 (includes 15 min
  break)

Please sign only ONE AM sheet and ONE PM sheet
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Formative Assessment
Assessment for learning is any assessment for
which the first priority in its design and
practice is to serve the purpose of promoting
pupils learning. It thus differs from assessment
designed primarily to serve the purposes of
accountability, or of ranking, or of certifying
competence. An assessment activity can help
learning if it provides information to be used as
feedback, by teachers, and by their pupils, in
assessing themselves and each other, to modify
the teaching and learning activities in which
they are engaged. Such assessment becomes
formative assessment when the evidence is
actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet
learning needs. Black et al., 2002
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Formative Assessment
Video Clip Do these strategies
Promote pupils learning? Help to modify the
teaching and learning activities in which they
are engaged? Result in adapting the teaching to
meet learning needs?
Video Clip 2346-3600
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Using Evidence of Learning to Adapt Instruction
Everything students do- such as conversing in
groups, completing seatwork, answering and asking
questions, working on projects, handing in
homework assignments, even sitting silently and
looking confused- is a potential source of
information about how much they understand.
Leahy, Siobhan Lyon, Christine Thompson,
Marnie and Wiliam, Dylan Classroom
Assessment Minute by Minute, Day by Day.
Educational Leadership, November, 2005 page 19.
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Using Evidence of Learning to Adapt Instruction
The teacher who consciously uses assessment to
support learning takes in this information,
analyzes it, reflects, and makes instructional
decisions that address the understandings and
misunderstandings that these assessments reveal.
Leahy, Siobhan Lyon, Christine Thompson,
Marnie and Wiliam, Dylan Classroom
Assessment Minute by Minute, Day by Day.
Educational Leadership, November, 2005 page 19.
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Five Key Formative Strategies
Dylan Wiliam, ESU 3 2006
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ONE big idea

• Use evidence about learning to adapt instruction
• to meet students needs.

This is the primary aim of formative assessment
Dylan Wiliam, ESU 3 2006
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Formative Assessment

• Three key instructional processes
• Establishing where learners are in their learning
• Establishing where they are going
• Establishing how to get there

Dylan Wiliam, ESU 3 2006
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Aspects of Formative Assessment
Dylan Wiliam, ESU 3 2006
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Feedback and Formative Assessment

• Frequent feedback is not necessarily formative.
• Feedback that causes improvement is not
  necessarily formative.
• Assessment is formative only if the information
  fed back to the learner is used by the learner in
  making improvements.
• To be formative, assessment must include a recipe
  for future action.

Feedback is information about the gap between
the actual level and the reference level of a
system parameter which is used to alter the gap
in some way (Ramaprasad, 1983 p. 4)
Dylan Wiliam, ESU 3 2006
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Light Bulbs
Show your level of understanding about formative
assessment with one of the three light bulbs
Green I can explain this to someone else no
problem Yellow I am fuzzy it would help to
talk about my thinking Red I am still thinking
and not ready to talk yet.
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Tools for Formative Assessment Agenda

• Overview of the Day
• Formative Assessment Five StrategiesOne Big
  Idea
• Five Broad Strategies Activity Walk and
  Discussions
• Sticky Note Writing A Formative Classroom
  Strategy

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Five Key Strategies- Walk and Talk

• Select a cut out from the middle of your
  table.
• Go to the chart that matches your cut out.
• Do the reading and activities at each station.
• At the 7 minute signal, move to the next area.

Source Leahy, S. Lyon, C. and Wiliam D.
(November 2005) Classroom Assessment Minute by
Minute, Day by Day, Educational Leadership, ASCD.
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Tools for Formative Assessment Agenda

• Overview of the Day
• Formative Assessment Five StrategiesOne Big
  Idea
• Five Broad Strategies Research Walk and
  Discussions
• Sticky Note Writing A Formative Classroom
  Strategy

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Sticky Note Writing A Formative Classroom
Strategy

• Use the five sticky notes on your table. Note the
  colors for each strategy on the next slide.
• Write down your understanding OR a question on
  each note. You can leave a note blank.
• Collect the notes, sort them by color and give
  them to the facilitator.

Dylan Wiliam, ESU 3 2006
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Five Key Formative Strategies
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Light Bulbs
Show your level of understanding about formative
assessment with one of the three light bulbs
Green I can explain this to someone else no
problem Yellow I am fuzzy it would help to
talk about my thinking Red I am still thinking
and not ready to talk yet.
21
Tools for Formative AssessmentFor schedule and
descriptions see bright pink handout

• General Session 830-1010
• Break 1010-1025
• Morning Breakouts 1030-1200
• Lunch 1200
• Afternoon Breakouts 100-245 (includes 15 min
  break)