Student thoughts: Formative Assessments

After over a quarter of school completed, I wanted to get the students' opinions on what they thought about these quick formative assessments. After a final assessment, I had students complete a short answer questionnaire. The following questions were asked.

1. How do you feel the quick check quizzes have helped you?

2. What is something you would change about the quick check quizzes?

3. When do you typically complete your practice problems?

1. The day they are assigned

2. Before the quick check quiz

3. After the quick check quiz but before the test

4. After the test because I need to do a retake

5. I never do practice problems outside of class

6. Other, explain: 

4. If you have had to come in for a conference explain if/how it benefits you.

5. Explain any part of the process you would feel could be changed to help you be successful in Algebra 2.

The two most common answers for question 1 were either it did not help at all, or that it showed which sections they needed to do the practice problems.  I found that the ones that said it did not help also chose that they never did their practice problems. These students are students I am brainstorming to reach in new ways as this process is not going to be helpful as they are not attempting to learn the material. Those that answered that it showed them what practice problems to do, was enlightening to me. I was curious if any students were doing their homework in a timely manner or just waiting until they were forced to do it. 

Question 2 had a lot of different answers. The one that stuck out the most was several of my higher grade students wanted to “get out” of the final assessment if they scored a perfect on the quick check quiz. I see both sides of this argument. They have shown their mastery of the topic, but they are also taking this quiz shortly after learning it. Is this just them being good with short term memory? I plan to dive into this more in my next blog post looking at the scores and if they had improved, remained the same, or even scored lower on the final assessments. 

Question 3 the answers were fairly even across the board. Many students admitted to only doing practice problems if done together in class, or only if they had to complete them for the retake process. Students that answered question 1 with that it helped them know what to study did answer this question with option c. Homework completion is the toughest hurdle to manage in a standard based classroom. I have tried multiple things over the course of the last few years. The fact of the matter is if it won't affect their grade many students will not do it. I see most of my students completing homework right after the summative assessment if they know they did poorly because they know they are going to do retake. This makes more work for them in the process and generally I see a switch throughout the year as they learn how to study for tests and find more value in their practice problems. 

Question 4 was the best question I asked the students. I gained a lot of insight. Students loved the 1 on 1 time to ask questions without feeling “stupid” in front of their classmates. They also mentioned the benefits of seeing what exactly I am looking for as well as what mistakes will receive what scores. They felt they actually knew WHAT to ask after the formative quiz to learn it, where before they felt they were stuck at the beginning. After giving this questionnaire, I tried to touch base with each student more frequently. I looked for more ways to make it more anonymous for students to feel more comfortable to tell me they needed help. 

Question 5 students asked to not have the summative if they passed the quick check. Some wanted me to assign them times for their conference with me if they scored low instead of leaving it up to them to schedule. Others wanted to skip the quiz all together since it wasn't graded. Others voiced how much they liked the process all for many different reasons. 

Overall, it was a lot of insight from just 5 questions. I used these to make adjustments throughout the 2nd and 3rd quarters. I made tweaks about needing to have completed their practice problems before the summative assessment to be allowed to take a retake. I also would give students a few days to schedule a conference with me, but if they did not I scheduled it for them. This helped to get more students to show up for those 1 on 1 meetings. I felt this would have started to show the improvements in the process in the 4th quarter had we had the opportunity to complete the 4th quarter this year. Any process has its positives and negatives, I was nervous when giving them this questionnaire but for the most part my students did a great job giving me realistic, honest feedback that I was able to reflect on.

Quick Formative Assessments In Algebra 2

    

    My goal this school year was to create an ungraded assessment after the initial lessons as a formative assessment for Algebra 2 students. The idea was to allow and show two things, the first was to show me as a teacher how well the students were understanding the material and the second was for the student to be able to check their own knowledge level on the standards based grading scale. These ideas of reflection for both the teacher and the student was great for helping with student engagement, and student reflection of learning. If after the formative assessment the student scored lower than a 3 on my standard based scale they would be responsible for coming in outside of class to go over their mistakes and relearn the material. If the majority of students scored low we would do this reteaching as a whole class. 

    The first goal of getting the teacher, myself, to reflect on how well lessons went and how the class did at comprehension had positive and negative outcomes. When I was able to stay in a good rhythm of teaching, I tried to give quick check quizzes on Fridays. This allowed me to look and see how the class did as a whole before planning the next week of lessons. I would look at the results from these quizzes and would do a whole class reteaching if more than 50% of students scored lower than a 3 on the original quick check quiz. This worked well and there were only a few instances in Algebra 2 where I had to do this. Finding the right amount of lessons to do the formative assessment was a learning curve, and I have settled on 2 to 3 lessons at a time. A negative side of this happened when multiple classes would have assessment land on the same time table. I felt using this threshold of 50% helped me to plan engaging original lessons and also having different ideas of reteaching already prepared and integrated these into the first lesson.

    The second goal for students to be able to reflect on their learning also had both positive and negative outcomes. Response from students was that they liked the quick check quizzes because it showed them what to expect on the summative assessment. Some also said it helped them know which lessons they would need to do extra studying on to do well by the time of the overall unit assessment. What I found as the year continued was students started to not give their best effort on these formative assessments and that would affect the overall class outcome. Due to time constraints, I was still working on finding ways to hold students more accountable on coming in for the reteaching session outside of class time. Some students mentioned when given a reflection over the quick checks that they wish they could “get out” of the final assessment if they scored a 4 on the quick check as they had already shown their knowledge on the subject, my response was if they had the knowledge one week they should still have the knowledge to receive a 4 the next time I assessed them. This final idea is still something I am reflecting on. 

    Overall, I saw that I was able to use the formative data to create better lessons. I feel with more time to integrate this into my classroom I hope to be able to get better student buy-in from students to try their best on these assessments even if they do not affect their grade. Those students who used the system the way I had intended it typically saw improvement from the quick check quiz to the actual graded assessment and were most successful in the class as a whole. If this is something that has interested you, I will be continuing to dive a little deeper in the process and the reflection I collected from students in my next blog post!

Expectations Through Rubrics

As a first year teacher there are many things to accomplish in my classroom, however, it is important to prioritize such tasks. One of the most important elements in my classroom is clearly communicating project requirements, expectations, and grading criteria to my students. So far, the best way to communicate these criterion and expectations are through assignment sheets containing rubrics.

If students have a clear idea of what they are supposed to be doing they are less likely to demonstrate behaviors that do not meet our [teachers'] desired expectations. Students also can produce a higher level of work if they know what the minimum and maximum expectations are on the rubric.

Elements integrated in assignment sheet: Photography Final

Review concepts w/explanation
Give specific quantities while still offering choice
Integrate reflection
Clear levels of expectations
Standards based grading
Online rubric allows hi-lighting and making comments for feedback
Inclusion of standards




    

For the most part all of the students knew what their expectations were for the final project as evidenced by their final projects. If Photography is taught in the upcoming year I would like to integrate more demonstration of my process. Inclusion of more artists of diverse backgrounds could also prove to be beneficial for the students in broadening their worldview and better addressing the Iowa Core Art Standards.