Increasing Engagement with Formative Assessments

 

I'm always thinking about how can I improve students learning without overwhelming them. We just finished up prioritizing standards last spring and it just makes sense to evaluate my formative and summative assessments that I administer to my classes.  Obviously, this is also the schools main building goal but making it my ICDP will make me focus on it even more.  Changing things can be hard but also rewarding and going back and looking at my completion data of formative assessment, and how I can be more impactful with less work seemed like a good place to start.  I believe that I give too much homework to my students, and how can I give less homework but provide more formative assessments in-class to grade their understanding.  I also want to tier my summative assessments and change the nature of my questions to challenge them to think more metacognitively. My overall concern is participation, I want students to participate more during in-class learning, and I would like students to be challenged more to think creatively and make connections to other world events.  Creating meaningful activities in-class may generate the outcome I'm looking for.

 

I do believe students will develop a better understand of course material if more formative assessments are given in-class.  I also believe that knowledge will spill over into their summative evaluation of the standards and create more in-depth thinking. When it comes to resources dealing with these topics there are a lot to look at.  Finding the best ones will take some time.   I have already received some resources from you, and will continue to ask other teachers in the building especially ones that are in my curriculum area. I will also search credible sources online.  By the end of the semester I will send out a survey to the kids to see if the in-class learning was effective for them and helped them also with their summative assessments.  I will discuss with my AIW team and curriculum team my summative assessments, and what I need to do to improve my questioning or the way I tier those assessments.  Overall, I believe that if I lessen the load of homework and bring it into the classroom not only will I see better participation but less stress in students which is also a main focus of mine!