Assessmen"̂

Kappa Delta Pi Record, 48: 162-168, 2012

Copyright © Kappa Delta PiISSN: 0022-8958 print/2163-1611 onlineDOI 10.1080/00228958.2012.733964

Classroom AssessmentsThat Inform Instruction

by Greg Condermanand Laura Hedin

The accountability movement in educationhas caused school administrators and teachersto think differently about how they report,interpret, and use student assessment data. Forexample, legislative measures such as No ChildLeft Behind require school officials to report howall students are progressing toward establishedstandards typically measured by state anddistrict tests (Goertz and Duffy 2003). Schoolofficials may use results from such high-stakestests to determine whether students shouldprogress to the next grade, attend summerschool, or earn a high school diploma (Deshlerand Schumaker 2006); how district funds will beused (Fuchs, Fuchs, and Capizzi 2005); and howteachers will be evaluated (U.S. Department ofEducation 2003).

In addition to analyzing student scores onstate and district tests, teachers are revising theirday-to-day classroom assessment practices. Nolonger can teachers wait until the conclusion

Apply the manytechniques suggestedhere to gathercontinuous formativestudent assessmentdata and adjustinstruction accordingly.

of an instructional sequence or grading periodto review student data, provide feedback tostudents, or inform parents about their child'sprogress. Waiting to conduct assessmentsuntil after an instructional period missesopportunities for parents to provide ongoingsupport regarding their child's learning; teachersto reflect critically about their instruction andmake important instructional adjustments;and students to adjust their thinking processes,engage in self-assessment, and have multipleopportunities to improve and demonstrate theirlearning.

Because using information from ongoingassessments is so important, this article offersrepresentative formative assessments thatelementary, middle, and high school teacherscan use in their classrooms to inform theirinstructional practices. Specifically, the authorsillustrate assessments teachers can use before,during, and after instruction that will help fhem

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Figure 1. The Instruction-Assessment Cycle.

understand their students' learning and reflectupon their own instructional effectiveness. Eventeachers who already are using some of theseassessments may discover a wider variety ofchoices and uses available.

Importance and Types ofEducational AssessmentAssessment is the process of gatheringinformation or data on student performanceto inform instructional decision-making (Nitkoand Brookhart 2010). Teachers use assessmentdata for a variety of decision-making purposes,such as to determine students' existingknowledge or skills regarding an upcomingtopic; group students according to skills,abilities, learning styles, or interests; analyzestudent errors; determine what or how toreteach; provide a grade or commentary thatsummarizes skill growth; or refer the child to achild study meeting for additional assessmentor intervention. As decision makers, teachersneed to be familiar with and use various types ofassessments because no single measure providessufficient information about student progress(Nolet and McLaughlin 2005). Consequently,teachers need to have available and base theirdecisions on data from various assessments.

Classroom assessments generally canbe divided into summative and formativecategories. Summative assessments, such asunit or final exams, large cumulative projects,state and district exams, and report card gradeshave a sense of finality and are administeredafter a learning unit to provide feedback onhow well students have mastered the contentor learning objectives (Bahr and Garcia 2010).Summative assessments also are often used toevaluate the effectiveness of programs, schoolimprovement goals, or curriculum alignment.Similarly, because they are administered at theconclusion of instructional periods, summativeassessments do not provide information forteachers in making instructional adjustmentsand interventions during the learning process.Formative assessments accomplish these goals(Garrison and Ehringhaus 2007).

In contrast, formative assessments usuallyare informal, teacher-made, and administered

InstructionAssessment

Planning (e.g.,materials, groupings)

Analysis and CoalSetting

during the instructional cycle to providefeedback that allows teachers to adjust theirongoing instruction to improve students'learning (Perie, Marion, and Gong 2009).Observations, student interviews, journals,teacher questioning, student signaling, andshort daily homework assignments generallyare considered formative assessments (Bahrand Garcia 2010). Formative assessments areembedded within the learning activity, directlylinked to the current unit of instruction,administered in a short period of time, and maybe individualized (Perie et al. 2009). Data fromthese assessments provide feedback to studentsso they can check their understanding andimprove their performance. These assessmentsalso guide teacher decision-making about waysto differentiate instruction and thus improvestudent achievement (Dodge 2009). Therefore,data from formative assessments supportthe instruction-assessment feedback loop, asillustrated in Figure 1.

For example, after teaching studentshow to solve one-variable algebra problems(instruction), Mr. Marcos reviewed students'corresponding homework assignments and

Creg Conderman isa Professor of SpeciaiEducation at Northerniliinois University. Hisresearch interests inciudeco-teaching, strategyinstruction, and methods forstudents with disabiiities. Heis a former speciai educationteacher and educationalconsuitant. He can bereached at CConderman@niu. edu.

Laura Hedin is anAssistant Professor ofSpeciai Education atNorthern lilinois University.Her research interestsinciude co-teaching, literacymethods, and scienceinstruction. She is a formerelementary teacher. Youcan contact her at LHedin@niu.edu.

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noticed that many students were makingseveral errors he needed to address the nextday (analysis and goal setting). He decided toreteach one-variable problems with a differentinstructional approach (e.g., by using visualsand manipulatives) to the majority of theclass, while students who mastered the skillcould work independently or in groups on anenrichment activity (planning materials andgroups). Mr. Marcos also developed a new briefassessment containing one-variable algebraproblems for students to complete and submit(assessment). In a balanced assessment system,both summative and formative assessmentsare an integral part of information gathering(Garrison and Ehringhaus 2007).

Formative AssessmentsTeachers can use formative assessments at threepoints in time during the instructional cycle:before instruction, during instruction, andafter instruction. Because each of these phasesis unique, each is described separately here.

Before InstructionTeachers consider several sources of formative

assessment data to use before instruction. Forexample, they assess what students already knowby using the What I Know (K) and What I Wantto Learn (W) columns of a KWL chart (Ogle1989), class discussions, pretests, anticipationguides, warm-ups, and admit slips. These groupor individually administered assessments provideinsight into what students already know, as wellas their incorrect or faulty reasoning. Therefore,they provide teachers with important informaldiagnostic information for guiding upcominginstruction.

While using the What I Know assessment,for example, first-grade teacher Mrs. Maedeveloped a chart with K, W, and L columns. Sheasked students what they already knew aboutplanets, an upcoming unit. She discoveredthat many students in her class thought thatSaturn had actual rings (e.g., jewelry). Ratherthan correct student misunderstandings atthat moment, Mrs. Mae wrote the statementin the K column, but she added a little asteriskto that statement to remind the class to return

to that statement as their unit progressed. Thisactivity helped Mrs. Mae realize that manystudents interpret language concretely, and sheneeded to be careful when explaining wordscontaining more than one meaning.

Students also can contribute to the What IWant to Learn (W) column as a pre-instructionactivity. Documenting student responses inthis column acknowledges their input, createsshared class learning goals, establishes purposesfor the unit, and motivates students to seekresources to find answers to their pressingquestions. Students in Mrs. Mae's class decidedthey wanted to learn whether other planetshave life, how long it would take to reachvarious planets, and what astronauts eat in theirrockets. Although some of these outcomes werepart of the curriculum, after soliciting studentcomments, Mrs. Mae could become especiallypurposeful in addressing these student-generated goals in the unit. To validate thisassessment tool, Mrs. Mae's class revisited theK and W columns frequently throughout theirunit to add or revise their original statements.

Similar to the K and W columns, focusedclass discussions provide teachers with valuableinformation about students' backgroundknowledge. Admittedly, students in diverseclassrooms may have different backgroundexperiences, language levels, and conceptunderstandings (Echevarria, Short, and Powers2006). Therefore, teachers may wish to startinitial discussions with open-ended recognitionquestions to create curiosity or interest about theupcoming topic or skill. For example, before thenew unit on "long division," special educatorMr. Birky drew the division sign on the boardand asked students whether they had ever seenit. Depending on their responses, Mr. Birky couldask students where they had observed the signand whether they knew the meaning of the sign,introduce the sign and its meaning, or beginmore advanced instruction. Teachers also may usefocus groups, individual student interviews, orconferences to informally assess entry-level skills.

Information from pretests provides valuableinformation for teachers and students. Becausepretests parallel critical outcomes from theupcoming unit of study, student performance

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can guide teachers regarding their instructionalemphasis. For example, pretest scores from Mr.Leonard's high school geography class revealedthat many students could not identify SaudiArabia, Turkey, or Creece on a map. Based on thatinformation, he added additional map activitieswith those locations to his unit. Pretest scoresalso help teachers differentiate their instruction.Students who have mastered critical outcomes,as evidenced on their pretest, can extend theirlearning through research, service learning,independent projects, or other enrichmentactivities.

Another benefit for students is that after theyhave reviewed their pretest score (even thoughthe score would not be calculated toward theirgrade), they may be motivated to learn whatthey realize they do not know. Pretests signalto students the important outcomes of a unit,thereby removing the mystery of guessing whatthe teacher feels is important. When administeredagain as post assessments, teachers and studentsdocument pretest gains as supportive evidenceto include in student portfolios, share duringparent-teacher conferences, and provide duringstudent-review committees.

When developing traditional paper andpencil pretests, teachers are encouraged to useprinciples from effective test design, such as (1)write multiple-choice items as direct questions,place the bulk of information in the questionstem (rather than in the responses), include nomore than four responses per question, make allresponses about the same length, and use "all ofthe above" and "none of the above" responsessparingly; (2) develop matching items only forhomogeneous items (such as matching states totheir capitals), write longer phrases in the leftcolumn, and keep matching items to no morethan about 10 items; (3) write true-false items asstatements that include one and only one concept,avoid taking statements directly from the text, andavoid taking an obvious true statement and justinserting the word "not" to make the statementfalse; and (4) provide background informationas context when writing short-answer or essayquestions. Further, avoid clues to any answers,because those will invalidate the assessments(Conderman and Koroghlanian 2002).

Figure 2. Example of Anticipation Guide.

"The Gold Rush"Directions: Silently read the five statements below about the ColdRush. Indicate whether you agree or disagree with each statementby checking the appropriate column. After we complete our readingfor today, you will have an opportunity to change your responses.

Agree Disagree

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The Cold Rush provided more advantagesthan disadvantages for families who movedout west.

The Cold Rush caused many people tobecome greedy.

The Gold Rush stimulated the discovery ofthe West.

Accumulating wealth leads to happiness.

America is the land of equal opportunity foranyone who is willing to work hard.

Additionally, teachers can use anticipationguides before a unit of instruction or beforestudents view a video, PowerPoint™, or text.An anticipation guide consists of a list ofstatements related to the upcoming topic.While some statements may be clearly trueor false, a good anticipation guide includesstatements that provoke disagreement andchallenge students' beliefs about the topic(Connor 2006). Before instruction, studentsindicate whether they agree or disagree witheach statement. Then, as instruction unfolds,students can change their original responsebased on new knowledge. The steps of usinganticipation guides (Connor 2006) include(1) Choose the material or content for theanticipation guide; (2) Write several statementswhich focus on the topic that students can reactto without prior knowledge and that challengetheir beliefs; (3) Have students complete theanticipation guide; (4) Lead a class discussionbefore presenting the information, to generatedifferent viewpoints; (5) Present the material;and (6) Revisit the anticipation guide by havingstudents update their responses to reflect theirnew knowledge. Figure 2 provides an exampleof an anticipation guide from an upcomingunit on the Gold Rush.

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Table 1 . Assessnnents for Various Grade Levels.

Warm-ups

Admit slips

Unison responses

Response cards

Dry erase boards

Exit slips

Solve five, two-digit addition withregrouping problemsdisplayed on theoverhead.

Write two facts that youalready know about ourstate.

Everyone, as I point tothe letter in the word,say the letter sound.

As I read a sentence,hold up the cardindicating which endpunctuation should beused.

Write the spelling wordas I say it.

Draw three things youcould do if your housestarted on fire.

Determine the area of eachof the three triangles drawnon the board (with base andheight measurements).

Write one question you stillhave about the chemistrylab we completed yesterday.

Everyone, as I point toan abbreviation on thePeriodical Table of Elements,say what the abbreviationrepresents.

As I describe the typeof road, find the cardrepresenting the appropriatespeed limit

In one sentence, write yourfavorite part of the novel.

Provide your own examplesof the three types of conflictwe discussed today.

Anticipation guides not only piquestudents' desires to learn the content, but theyalso engage students in inquiry and problemsolving, promote active participation, and offerimmediate feedback. Students later can usethem as study guides. Further, as a formativeassessment tool, teachers compare students'pre- and post-responses to note changes inattitude or content knowledge (Kozen, Murray,and Winden 2006).

Another group of formative assessmentsoccurs as students enter the classroom.Teachers and students refer to these as warm-ups, admit slips, sponges, quick writes, or bellringers. Usually they consist of short (e.g., 2-5minute) activities that teachers present on theoverhead or board, which students completeimmediately upon entering. These warm-up activities typically review the previous

day's lesson or assess students' backgroundknowledge before beginning a new lesson.The class can discuss answers to the warm-up activities as soon as they are completed,which provides immediate feedback, orteachers collect them and read them afterclass. Either way, student responses providedata for teachers to justify reteaching a skillor advancing to the next skill.

Similar to warm-ups, admit slips arewritten responses to open-ended questionsor statements used as quick writes prior tothe beginning of the lesson. These formativeassessments help teachers check for studentunderstanding or misunderstanding. Admitslips are especially advantageous for studentswho are willing to write responses or questions,but are reluctant to discuss or volunteer inclass. Table 1 provides examples of theseand other formative assessments for bothelementary and secondary grades.

During InstructionTeachers may use numerous formative

assessments, such as unison responses,response cards, dry erase boards, or personalresponse systems, during instruction todetermine whether students are acquiringcritical skills or content.

Unison responses require all students toprovide a verbal response on cue. The teacher'scue might be a verbal request such as "Whatis . . ., everyone?" or a physical sign such astapping the table or snapping fingers. Unisonresponses are best used when the question hasonly one correct response, such as reviewingmath facts, orally spelling words, or answeringfactual questions. Though unison responses aredesigned to engage all students as a measureof formative assessment, teachers mighthave difficulty determining which studentsprovided a correct or incorrect response,because some students might not respond,others might need more time to respond thanothers, and some students (and teachers) mightbe uncomfortable with this approach. If theseconditions apply, teachers might instead useresponse cards or dry erase boards.

Response cards are in the form of cardscontaining answers or colored sheets of paper

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that students display in response to a teacher'squestion. For example, while studying thereligions Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity,students in Mrs. Wachal's class displayed thecorrect preprinted card responding to thereligion she described. After each question,Mrs. Wachal quickly scanned her class toassess which students responded correctly andincorrectly. As recommended by research, whenmore than 20 percent of her students made anerror, Mrs. Wachal stopped to reteach or reviewthe information (Friend and Bursuck 2012).On other occasions, Mrs. Wachal had studentsdisplay the piece of colored paper associatedwith their levels of concept understanding(i.e., red=Stop, I'm lost; yellow=I need a littleclarification; green=I understand everything)or their indications of whether a statement sheexpressed was true (green) or false (red).

Similar to response cards, students useindividual dry erase white boards to displayresponses to teacher questions. Dry eraseboards have more flexibility than responsecards because students use them to completewarm-up activities, write responses, showsolutions to math or science problems, orcomplete analogies. As students write theiranswers, the teacher circulates to provideencouragement and corrective feedback. Thisstep provides the teacher with immediatefeedback on students' knowledge. Teachersalso can observe which students are off taskor have not correctly processed the question(Conderman, Bresnahan, and Hedin 2011). Dryerase boards allow teachers to observe studentresponses and adjust instruction accordingly,which make them an effective, inexpensive,low-tech formative assessment option forteachers at all levels.

In contrast, personal response systems (PRS)illustrate a high-tech formative assessmentdevice. In classrooms with computer/projectoror SMART'" Board access, teachers use thesesystems to informally assess students duringthe lesson. This technology allows teachersto incorporate multiple-choice or true-false questions into the lesson's PowerPointpresentation. When the question slide appears,students respond using their clicker remote-

control unit. After all students have responded,the teacher can display a bar or line graphshowing the group's responses. At thatpoint, the teacher decides to move on to thenext slide or stop and reteach the conceptif the class average was low. The softwarealso allows teachers to later analyze eachstudent's response to each question, whichprovides valuable individualized diagnosticinformafion.

After InstructionTeachers may use several formative

assessments, such as exit slips, the L column ofthe KWL chart, homework assignments, draftsof writing assignments, or projects completedin steps, after instruction.

Exit slips are short student responsescollected by a teacher at the conclusion ofa class. About one to five minutes prior todismissal, teachers place a question on theboard or overhead, or distribute a small piece ofpaper (exit slip) with the question for the day.Before students exit, they write their responses,with or without their names included. Aversion of exit slips is a 3-2-1 slip in whichstudents write three new things they learned,two things they still want to learn, and oneclarifying question.

If teachers previously used the K and Wcolumns, they can now have students generateideas for the L, or What I Learned column.Toward the end of the science unit, Mrs. Mae'sstudents completed the class KWL chart byadding the L column. Sometimes students learndifferent content—and much more content—than what teachers typically assess. Mrs. Maewas surprised to learn how much her classremembered from various videos and how wellthey integrated their learning. Her traditionalassessments did not capture these outcomes.Although the L column typically is considereda summative assessment, teachers ask studentswhat they have learned and record theirresponses at strategic points in the unit; in thatway, they assess learning and adjust instructionaccordingly before the unit concludes.

Teachers likewise use student data fromhomework assignments, writing drafts, and

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projects students complete in steps as formativeassessments. For example, middle schoolmath co-teachers Mr. Ginther and Ms. Knappmaintain a Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet todocument math errors from select homeworkassignments. Based on student data, this teammay decide to review with the whole class, orone teacher can reteach specific skills withindividuals or small groups. Gathering dataafter several days of instruction—but beforethe conclusion of the unit—allows theseteachers to catch many student errors beforethe summative exam.

Similarly, as English teacher Mrs.DeYarman conferences with individualstudents in her writing class, she records eachstudent's writing goals and errors so that shecan review skills once again before studentscomplete their final drafts. Noting errorsbefore students take their state or district high-stakes writing exam provides Mrs. DeYarmanopportunities to tailor her instruction to theneeds of her students.

Teachers can review projects studentscomplete in steps to provide specific correctivefeedback. After reviewing project drawings,for example, Woods/Industrial Arts teacherMr. Cherif noticed that several studentsmiscalculated a critical measurement, eventhough he directly taught this in class.Before he allowed students to estimate howmuch wood they needed, Mr. Cherif requiredstudents to recheck their measurements usingthe instructional module he created. Thisformative assessment step ensured studentsmastered a critical skill before making morecostly errors.

Concluding ThoughtsRecent accountability measures emphasizestudent scores on summative assessments suchas high-stakes state and district tests. However,student achievement on these tests is directlyrelated to high-quality classroom instruction,which requires teachers to gather continuousformative student assessment data and adjustinstruction accordingly. To that end, teachersuse a variety of formative assessments before,during, and after instruction.

Before instruction, teachers may considerusing the K and W columns of the KWLchart, focused class discussions, pretests,anticipation guides, warm-ups, or admitslips. During instruction, teachers may useunison responses, response cards, dry eraseboards, or personal response systems. Andafter instruction (but before the conclusionof the unit), teachers may use the L columnof the KWL chart and exit slips, as well asanalyze select homework assignments, writingdrafts, or projects students complete in parts.Incorporating these—or other—formativeassessments as part of the instruction-assessment cycle provides timely feedback tostudents while helping teachers adjust theirinstruction so all students succeed. ^

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