Integrating+Assessment+for+Learning

=**__1.0 Definition of Assessment FOR Learning __**= toc -**Assessment reform group 2002**
 * “Assessment for learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there”. **

In striving to make assessment for learning more extensive, consistent, and effective, schools have goals for each aspect of the learning community. Each //child// should know how they are doing in school, what they can improve on, and how they can reach that improvement. The journey towards improvement should have many support tools the child can use. Every //teacher// has the means to judge their students’ accomplishments, understand the progress being made, and know how to motivate children to move forward and reach their full potential. Each //school// should have a structured system that is used for making meaningful assessments of each student. With this, progress should be tracked and used for future learning goals. Every //parent// should know how their child is doing, what their improvement goals are, and how they can work with the teacher to support the child in their learning.

**1.1 The Principle **
The benefits of assessment for learning are central not only for effective learning, but for effective teaching. The main principle this assessment uses is that students will improve the most if they know and understand the aim of their learning, where they are in relation to that aim, and how they can successfully reach that aim. This principle develops the skill of self-assessment, which is a main component of assessment for learning.

**1.2 Good Assessment **
An effective teacher knows how to incorporate many aspects in their assessment strategies, such as being accurate, fair, reliable, useful, focused, and continual. To attain and keep an idea of how students are progressing towards their learning goal, a teacher should have three streams of assessment: == to their parents and future teachers. External testing is used in this assessment. Reference: []
 * Day-to-day, where learning objectives are well-known in the classroom, self assessment is implemented, and immediate feedback is given.
 * Periodic, which gives a wider look at subject progress.
 * Transitional, which provides formal recognition of student’s achievements, and is reported

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Reference: [|www.annedavies.com/assessment_for_learning_ar.html]

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=**__<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2.0 Issues in Assessment for Learning __**= <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Many schools have problems implementing assessment for learning because they have very few resources. A large portion of school resources are directed towards standardized testing, which leaves little for day to day assessment. <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Here is a little [|song] to reinforce this issue... <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">With the focus on standards taking place, many school boards are assessing whether standards have been met through high stakes assessments. They use these results to rate schools’ success between jurisdictions (i.e. SAT scores between states). Many post secondary institutions use high stakes assessment results in order to screen acceptance into programs. <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">High stakes assessments can “motivate” students. In some cases this works, with students studying harder and eventually learning more, but this is only in //some cases//. There are also students who react to this “motivation” by shutting down and simply giving up. <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Reference: []

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Assessment for learning” has been around for over a decade, but some teachers are still not using it. According to the Learning How to Learn (LHTL) project inEngland, only 20% of teachers are effectively assessing for learning. It seems many teachers understand the theory but not all of them can put it into practise effectively. Simply doing assessments throughout a unit is not enough. Teachers need to understand how to interpret their results and how to efficiently modify their teaching to account for those results. <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Many teachers were adding new and different forms of assessment to their lesson plans but had difficulty in changing their lessons according to these assessments. <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Reference: []

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">When using assessment for learning, action needs to be taken as soon as the teacher sees the results of their assessment. An example of this from the //following article// discusses a class doing a science unit on the life cycle of stars. Teachers found out, through assessment for learning, that the students believed that only the stars in the Milky Way were visible with a telescope. To address this issue, teachers provided students with further web-based activities surrounding this subject. They followed up the activity with a written prompt to see what students had learned. <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Teacher feedback also needs to be specific. When giving feedback to students, if the comments focus on their abilities rather than their progress, it will not help them to reflect on their learning. If comments are too vague or generalised, they will also not be able to reflect on their learning or know how to proceed in order to achieve more. <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Reference: []

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=<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**3.0 Assessment for Learning Activities**__ = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">OBSERVATIONS: Make notes during a lesson while the students are working. You can take notes of how they work together, conversations you have with them, or any other thing you observe while they are working. Notes can also be made after the class. You can have a folder for each student and place your notes inside. This is particularly useful in high school when you have multiple classes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">QUESTIONS: Asking questions that allow deeper thinking on the student’s part allows you to discover the degree of the students understanding. These questions are not about recalling facts or numbers but relating these facts into everyday problems.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">EXIT/ADMIT SLIPS: Exit slips are used at the end of the class to determine what the students understand, what they need more help with, and what students need much more instruction. Students are given five minutes to answer a set of questions that correlates to the day’s lesson. Admit slips are the same as exit slips but they occur at the beginning of the class.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: Visual models allow students to organize information. This information can come from the lesson, textbook, or from brain storming activities. Examples of graphic organizers are the following; Venn diagram, brainstorming web, mind map, chain of events, summary star, and concept map.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Types of Graphic Organizers]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">PEER/SELF ASSESSMENT: Peer-assessment encourages students to see their fellow classmates as resources and this helps create classroom community. Students can use their peers to check the quality of their work or for brainstorming suggestions. With self-assessment students are involved in setting goals. Through reflection of these goals students can become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">INDIVIDUAL WHITEBOARDS: Ask the students a question and have them write their answers onto the whiteboard. Once everyone is done have them hold their boards up. This is a quick way to determine who understands and who still needs help. Whiteboards are a good tool to receive immediate feedback as both a teacher and a student.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">FOUR CORNERS: Each corner of the classroom represents an opinion, for example strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. Give students a statement and have them move to the corner that represents their opinion. Once everyone has moved to their corner have students discuss why they hold that opinion. By listening to their discussions you can determine which students can support their answer and those that cannot.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">PRE-READING QUIZ: The quiz can be completed online or in class. Results from these quizzes give students feedback on what they can approve upon and also help them make appropriate goals. Results can also be used to determine what content needs to be covered in a unit. Since this is a pre-reading quiz students should be given opportunities to re-write the exam with no penalties to determine if they have approved.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">ONE MINUTE PAPER: Same as an exit slips except they are given one minute to respond. One minute papers can also be used anytime during the class.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">THINK-PAIR-SHARE: Give students a minute to jot down answers to a proposed question. Once the minute is up have students pair up with a partner and have them discuss their answers with each other. From here you can expand groups to four or more. This allows students to self-assess and allows you to observe while groups are discussing.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">JOURNALS: students periodically write their thoughts and feeling about their progress in class. Students can add what they like and don’t like about certain class activities. They can also include areas their struggling with. This allows you to determine how effective a lesson plan was and revise when necessary.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">3.1 Assessment For Learning in Action
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">This video shows interviews from various teachers who use assessment for learning in their classrooms

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">media type="youtube" key="rL54bfmZPzY" height="315" width="420"

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">References: [] [] [|http://www.ehow.com/about_5419008_types-formative-assessment.html]