As the end of the school year approaches, it is a good time to take a look at types of assessments for our students. It is also a good time to assess students to see what we still need to review with them for them to be successful on their final assessments.
As a teacher, when it comes to assessments I often ask myself…
“What type of assessment should I give?” “What am I looking for?”, “What do I want to see that my students can or cannot do?”, and most importantly “Is this worth the students and my time?”
When it comes to the types of assessments that we can give our students there are many ways to assess our students’ knowledge of the content. Whether it be formative or summative, choosing the right assessment for students can be tricky.
First, let’s look at the difference between formative and summative.
Formative is a way to observe student learning to provide continuous feedback that can be used by teachers to improve their teaching and by students to enhance their learning. Additionally, formative assessments help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work as well as help teachers recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately.
Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value.
Summative is a way to assess student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against a standard or benchmark, that is either set by the department, district, state, etc.
Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value.
Information from summative assessments are used to help students or teachers to advise their curriculum in successive courses.
This is especially important for French, and world language courses in general, as we build upon what we know in continuing levels.
Now knowing the difference between the two, let’s decide what type of assessment we should give.
Here are some examples:
Formative:
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Ticket out the Door
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Writing one to two sentences on a post-it about what they learned from a lesson.
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Turn in a draft of a project, paper, etc. for feedback.
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Quiz / Pop Quiz
Summative:
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A paper
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A midterm
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A final exam
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Test
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A final Project
If we are in the middle of a lesson what type of assessment would be best?
Formative! In my class, I always do a Ticket out the Door (Billet de Sortir), this allows me to see how my lesson went or what I need to review with my students. The other formative I use are quizzes. This allows myself and the students to see what content was learned and what needs improvement.
If we are at the end of a lesson, what type of assessment would be best?
Summative! In my class, I always give a Unit test, per my school. But, if I can, I always follow up with a final project for my students who are not great test takers, and to give my high achievers a break and to do something fun! And of course, we have midterms and finals per my district.
Looking for an assessment to give students? How about a project!
Head on over to my TPT Store for some great projects to assess your students! There are Children’s Book Project, News Report Project, Family Tree Project, Le Cinéma Project and so much more! You can get these projects individually or in my French Projects Bundle!
As always, I hope that you have found this information useful and helpful to you!
Merci,
Amanda