1. Formative Assessments
$11.4 Million
5-year award begins July 2010
Assessment Probes
Adapted from Vermont DOE document

2. What is a formative assessment. Provide characteristics and examples
Pair Share or Triads
What is a formative assessment. Provide characteristics and examples
How do you use assessment in the classroom. Please provide examples.

3. Role of Assessment “The roles for assessment must be expanded
beyond the traditional concept of testing. The use of frequent formative assessment helps make students’ thinking visible to themselves, their peers, and their teacher. This provides feedback that can guide modification and refinement in thinking”
(Bransford, Brown, and Cocking 1999).

4. Formative Assessment
Formative assessment occurs while knowledge is being learned. Summative assessment occurs at the end of a learning episode – for example, at the end of a course. (McMillan, 2000)
Formative assessments are all those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by students which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they engage. (Black and Wilam, 1998)

5. (image)

6. Vision for Assessment
At the heart of the instructional process is a clear understanding of what students should know and be able to do when the instruction is complete.

7. Assessment Probes
Purpose
To identify and address students’ common science misconceptions as identified in the science education research.
Each probe is designed to target one or more related concepts that cut across grade spans.
Use probes to examine students’ conceptions to inform teaching and student learning
Teachers/student collaboratively engaged

8. Assessment Probes
Format
Each probe consists of two parts—an engaging prompt (usually an ‘enhanced’ selected-response question) about familiar phenomena or objects AND an opportunity for students to describe their thinking or
provide an explanation for the thinking that led to their answer.
Teachers/student collaboratively engaged

9. Assessment Probes
Format
Part 1: Selected response distracters that include research-identified ideas held by students
Part II: An open-ended response that asks students to explain their thinking.
Teachers/student collaboratively engaged

10. Assessment Probes
Suggested Approaches
Select a probe that is related to a specific learning objective aligned with your lesson/unit.
Ways to elicit student responses
Have students write their ideas in response to initial prompt, followed by sharing and discussion of ideas.
Use the probe during small-group or whole-class discussions and listen carefully to responses.
Teachers/student collaboratively engaged

11. Assessment Probes
Suggested Approaches
Utilize good Questioning techniques to encourage discussion.
Avoid the ‘right answer’ approach. Allow students to discuss what they think…and respond to other students’ ideas. The explanations are designed to help identify what the most scientifically acceptable
answers are, as well as to clarify any misunderstandings that might exist.
Teachers/student collaboratively engaged

12. Assessment Probes
Suggested Approaches
Accommodate for differences in students’ background knowledge.
Allow students to cross out any item in the list that they are unfamiliar with.
You may choose to show an example of one or more of the objects in the list.
Some probes may be used as a card-sort. In small groups students sort cards into categories, meeting the criteria of the probe.
Some items may even be eliminated from the list for younger students who may not be familiar with certain words or examples (e.g. weight vs mass)

13. Assessment Probes Application of Probe-determined insights.
Suggested Approaches
Application of Probe-determined insights.
Analyze class data to determine the general level of understanding about the concept.
Analyze class data to determine the extremes and the variety of (mis)understanding about the concept .
Then it is up to you to decide upon the interventions that you might use for your particular curricular and instructional context.  
(Some suggestions are offered for each of the published probes.)

14. EXAMPLE OF AN ASSESSMENT PROBE
The wet jeans
Sam washed his favorite pair of jeans. He hung the wet jeans on a clothesline outside. An hour later the jeans were dry.

15. .
Circle the answer that best describes what happened to the water that was in the wet jeans.
A. It soaked into the ground.
B. It disappeared and no longer exists.
C. It is in the air in an invisible form.
D. It moved upward and formed clouds.
E. It chemically changed into a new substance.
F. It went up to the Sun.
Explain your thinking. What ideas do you have to support
your answer?

16. EXAMPLE OF AN ASSESSMENT PROBE
Ice Cubes in a Bag
You are having an argument with your friend about what happens to the mass when matter changes from one form to another. To prove your idea, you put three ice cubes in a sealed bag and recorded the mass of the ice in the bag. You let the ice cubes melt completely. Ten minutes later you recorded the mass of the water in the bag. Which of the following best describes the result? Circle your prediction.

17. .
The mass of the water in the bag will be less than the mass of the ice in the bag.
The mass of the water in the bag will be more than the mass of the ice in the bag.
The mass of the water in the bag would be the same as the mass of the ice cubes in the bag.
Explain to your friend why you chose A, B, or C. Describe at least one good reason to support your argument about what happened to the mass.

18. What could you learn about your student thinking from these results?.
Triads Discussion
With your group look at results in table 3 on page 20 of science scope handout.
What could you learn about your student thinking from these results?

19. Even students who chose the correct answer (C) used faulty reasoning.
What she learned
Students had trouble differentiating the idea of density and mass or weight and mass.
Even students who chose the correct answer (C) used faulty reasoning.
Other thoughts:
Where did these ideas come from?
What was taught during previous years?
Perhaps teachers from multiple grades would be interested in using similar probes and sharing the data as a way to developmentally target curriculum and instruction. .

20. Definition of Performance Assessment
A performance assessment is an assessment based upon an observation or judgment. Students engage in an activity that requires them to apply a standard, skill, or produce a product or performance. We judge its quality.
Adapted from Stiggins et al in Classroom Assessments for Student Learning 20

21. Performance Assessment Assess What?
Most appropriate to measure student reasoning ability, performance skills, and the ability to create products and performances.
It is not as effective in measuring knowledge acquisition.
Adapted from Stiggins et al in Classroom Assessments for Student Learning 21

22. References
Ariasian, P.W Classroom Assessment (2nd Ed.) McGraw Hill. New York, New York.
Bangert-Drowns, R.L., Kulik, C.C., Kulik, J. A. & Morgan, M.T. (1991). The instructional effect of feedback on test-like events. Review of Educational Research. Volume 6. Number 2. Pages
Black and Wiliam, D Assessment and Classroom Learning. Assessment in Education. Volume 5. Number 1. Pages 7-75.
Fuchs, L.S. & Fuchs, D Effects of systematic formative evaluation. A meta-analysis. Exceptional Children. Volume 53. Number 3. Pages
Keeley, Page Science Formative Assessments. Corwin Press.
Lantz, H. Jr Rubrics for Assessing Student Achievement in Science Grades K-12, Corwin Press, 2 (NSTA press)
Marzano, Robert Classroom Assessments & Grading that Work. ASCD. Alexandria. VA.
McMillan, J. H Basic Concepts for teachers and administrators. Corwin Press Thousand Oaks, Ca.
Marzano, Robert. J., Pickering, Debra, J., Pollock, Jane, E Classroom Instruction that Works. ASCD. Alexandria, Va.
Stiggins, Rick, Arter, Judith, Chappuis, Jan, Chappuis, Steve Classroom Assessments for Student Learning. Doing it Right – Using it Well. Educational Testing Service. Princeton, NJ.
Citation Information:
Keeley, Page, et al Uncovering Student Ideas in Science—25 Formative Assessment Probes. Arlington, Va.: NSTA Press. ISBN 22 22

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