the advice of the teacher to rewrite her story making the suggested changes in regard to word choice.
Figure 1.9: The formative assessment cycle.
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Figure 1.10: Reflection exercise for the formative process.
This reflection can change depending on the focus of the lesson. Sentence structure, topic sentences, concluding paragraph, or any aspect of the piece can be evaluated in this way so that the student reflects on and makes suggestions for his or her own improvement. It is important to read through the reflections so that if misunderstandings occur, the teacher can provide clarification.
Summative Work
When students have had ample opportunity to practice skills and have demonstrated their ability to apply them, summative work is used to provide evidence of their understanding. Students are asked to use their new abilities as they encounter new and different situations. Summative work should be assigned when teachers are confident that students are able to provide a comprehensive demonstration of their understanding. While formative work has provided opportunities for students to practice and for teachers to adjust lessons to meet the needs of individuals and the entire class, summative work verifies that students have reached the targets set for them.
Summative work is used to assess students at any point at which they have the prerequisite skills needed to experience success. Most often these assessments take place during class time. However, students are also regularly engaged in summative projects and performances for which the work is done outside of the classroom. This factor becomes important in chapter 5 when we discuss whether or not homework should impact a report card grade.
Summative work can evaluate a narrow set of knowledge and skills or may incorporate learning from a variety of lessons. For example, teachers can assign a cumulative project or performance task that encompasses multiple standards and extensive content from an entire semester’s worth of material. Or, consider the earlier example about the American Revolution and building background knowledge. After completing the unit, students might demonstrate their understanding of this period in history by creating a way to illustrate the causes and effects of the revolution—perhaps via a video, PowerPoint, visual display, or song. The important thing to understand is that it is not the time and place that the work is completed but the purpose of the assignment that signifies the intent of the performance. Is the work intended to be formative, to provide the students with the opportunity to learn more about a topic or practice newly introduced skills? Or is the purpose for students to demonstrate their understanding of the knowledge and skills that they have acquired? The purpose makes a difference, especially when we consider grading.
Figure 1.11 (page 16) illustrates the difference between formative and summative work assessment.
Figure 1.11: Comparing formative and summative assessment.
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The formative assessment cycle (see figure 1.9 on page 14) can be used with summative work as well. Because the goal is for students to learn the standards and gain the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve grade-level success, even summative work needs to be evaluated with an eye on the formative process. Although the intent is that students have had ample practice opportunities and therefore are ready for summative work, that is not always the case. When students struggle, teachers need to analyze the data and formulate a plan to address individual or small-group needs. A response to the results is necessary if the data indicate that students require additional instruction or practice in order to be successful. This is doable during most of the school year. However, this might not be possible at the end of a course or year. That said, the teacher should analyze the results to see what changes might be made prior to the next time the same content is assessed, even if the instruction is with a new group of students.
Final Thoughts
As previously stated, student work should be categorized by purpose, not location. Figure 1.12 is a review of those purposes and when the work should be administered.
Teachers should provide students with multiple opportunities to practice a new skill or work with new knowledge so that students are not given only one opportunity to demonstrate understanding within units of study. When deemed appropriate, students are given the opportunity to apply what they have learned in a format identified and structured by the teacher. Performance tasks, quizzes, and projects are a few common methods of assessment used for this purpose. Summative assessments should occur at the end of a few days, a week, or longer, depending on the content being addressed. This allows students to prove they understand small chunks of content prior to being asked to demonstrate understanding on large amounts of content.
Figure 1.12: Purposes of student work.
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Figure 1.13 (page 18) provides a flowchart of the instructional cycle. Learning starts with pinpointing the standards and content to be addressed. The teacher then identifies the knowledge and skills necessary to a successful experience and constructs an ending summative experience. The instruction, formative work, and summative work approaches then begin. The two arrows between instruction and formative work indicate that formative work guides instruction and the two alternate as needed to accommodate student success. When students have been given adequate learning and practice experiences, it is time for summative work. At this point, most students should experience success; however, some students may require additional instruction, practice, and another summative assessment. While another summative experience may not be possible during some points of the year, teachers should make every effort to ensure that students have the basis of understanding needed to proceed to the next level of learning.
Figure 1.13: Instructional cycle flowchart.
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Collaborative Team Discussion Questions
Discuss the following questions with your collaborative team. Evaluate current practices, identify the positive aspects being employed, and discuss changes or additions that are valuable to student success. Visit
