FAQ

I will be adding frequently asked questions received from teachers learning about Formative Assessment on this page.

How do Learning Targets and Success Criteria promote student involvement? LT and SC alone do not necessarily promote student involvement. Just referring to the LT and SC do not promote student involvement. What will help with student involvement is interacting with the LT and SC on a daily basis and planning for students and peers to assess themselves and each other as to where they are in their learning progression. Lessons also need to directly relate to the LT and SC and the goal is for students to be very much aware of the lesson and how it fits with the target.

I tried thumbs up and thumbs down with students, but I have found that is not reliable feedback from the students. What do I do now? Having students self-assess themselves on a regular basis may be something new for your students. Perhaps students do not understand the true reason for using this strategy or perhaps the students do not feel comfortable giving a thumbs down in the middle of class and in front of peers. Maybe a ticket out the door or have students hand in a number 1-4 to assess themselves quickly for the day. The other piece to think about is that in order for students to feel that they need to be honest with their feedback, they need to know the teacher will do something differently to help them understand the material better. Finally, student self-assessment is only one way to elicit evidence of student understanding. There is also teacher monitoring and peer assessment. Perhaps through peer assess and teacher monitoring (and being very transparent with students on what you are doing) students will get better at assessing their own learning.