5 Fabulous Formative Assessment Strategies

5 Fabulous Formative 

Assessment Strategies     

Leadership strategies for implementing best practices for all learners include mediational strategies that promote intentionality, with two levels to build in. Teacher leaders know first and foremost that they are concerned about the quality of the interaction, on multiple levels happening simultaneously. 

What the students are doing speaks volumes. Second to the verbal cues for communication requested, visual signs and facilitation from the teacher inform the students of the desired direction. For example: “Here's the essential question” or “The reason that we are doing this is…” The level of interaction serves as means of formative assessment that drives personalization of instruction for all learners.

In these ways, the teacher becomes a mediator who persists in inviting the student(s) to overcome natural resistances and distractions. It is imperative to build on his or her interests to capture the student focus. Within this blog post, we will share mediational strategies that promote intentionality with purposeful direction as well as tactics to promote intentionality and reciprocity. Listed below are five FABULOUS formative assessment strategies to promote successful inclusion within your classroom.

STRATEGY 1: Mediational Strategies That Promote Intentionality

Strategies for supporting all learners through implementation of state-adopted academic standards and the state-adopted assessment systems     

●      Strategy Name: Posted goals and objectives for a lesson

●      Strategy Explanation: A mission (purpose) statement in the lesson

●      Implementation: Content, Language, and Social Objective (COLOSO)

●      Ways to monitor strategy for success: Verify, review, and correct entries into student learning blogs or journals

STRATEGY 2: Tactics to Promote Reciprocity

Instructional practices for English learners, exceptional learners, moreover, gifted or talented learners  

                                                                                 

●      Strategy Name: Checking Previous Vocabulary Knowledge

●      Strategy Explanation: Teach vocabulary before starting the lesson.

●      Implementation: KWL Chart, Graphic Organizer,
Thinking Maps

●      Ways to monitor strategy for success: Observation review of (L) and have students write sentences with the new vocabulary in their journals.

STRATEGY 3: Deep Differentiation Through Needs to Know Strategy       

When students are challenged to start with what they know, their levels of interest rise.

●      Strategy Name: 3-2-1                                                                           

●      Strategy Explanation: Record comprehension and summarize learning.

●      Implementation: Students list three things they know, two things they find interesting, and one thing they do not understand

●      Ways to monitor strategy for success: Review the students’ responses

STRATEGY 4: Mediation of Meaning

Students seek to make sense of new information that is clear and precise.   

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●      Strategy Name: Exit Cards

●      Strategy Explanation: Assess where students are in their thinking and what they have learned from the lesson.

●      Implementation: Students provide answers and complete an “Exit Card” to three questions chosen by the teacher.

●      Ways to monitor strategy for success: Review the tickets

STRATEGY 5: Moving Learning Forward

Students seek to make sense of learning goals and receive guided feedback toward deeper learning by additional tasks.                                                                                        

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●      Strategy: Providing Feedback

●      Strategy Explanation:  Provide a recipe for future action

●     Implementation: When the learning is not on track we provide feedback to move learning forward by scaffolding by providing additional activities for moving the student from the current state to the goal state.

●      Ways to monitor strategy for success: Provide feedback, which directs to purpose and identifies additional activities to move learning forward.

As teacher leaders facilitate, they are in a continual process of formative assessment. The teacher becomes a mediator who listens deeply and observes carefully to understand what each student's individual learning needs are. Instructional steps are directed by the interactions between the student(s), as well as by the quality of these interactions. The visible learning that takes place as students develop higher critical thinking skills and integrate multiple modalities informs decisions for next instructional steps. As we listen to, understand we help our students to grow. When students come up with their plan, then there’s typically more buy-in to the learning. Listening in these ways allows them to think about the means to find the issues and solve them on their own. Classrooms that successfully include fluid formative assessment strategies are designed to welcome diversity and to address the individual needs of all students.

Image Credit

pixabay.com free images. (2016). Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/photos/?image_type=&cat=&min_width=&min_height=&q=teacher+student&order=popular

References to Text

Picard, D. (2015). Teaching Students with Disabilities. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/disabilities/

Stronge, J. H., Richard, H. B., & Catano, R. a. N. (2016). Qualities of Effective Principals . Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108003/chapters/Instructional-Leadership@-Supporting-Best-Practice.aspx

 Teachers First. (2016). Meeting the Need of Gifted Students in the Regular Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.teachersfirst.com/gifted_strategies.cfm