Formative and Summative Assessments

Help Ingrid to understand how the district’s CFA can assist her instructional efforts.
Given her current second-quarter goals, offer one suggestion for an appropriate
formative assessment strategy in Language Arts and in Math.

I would advise Ingrid to use formative assessment, specifically exit tickets to
gather information on what learners know, and areas that they are encountering difficulties.
Exit tickets take a short period of time to gather the necessary information. Students will
require just a few minutes to fill the exit tickets. Since she says that there is a lot to be
covered, this information will assist her to adjust the instruction process accordingly. She
will acquire information on the current understanding of the students and decide on the next
appropriate next steps to take. For instance, areas that learners are well conversant with,
Ingrid will not spend much time on and this will enable her to cover all the necessary content
areas within the allocated time. Through formative assessment, Ingrid will make evidence-
based decisions, and this will help her make the right choices for her learners. It will enhance
her flexibility by ensuring that she does not spend too much time covering content areas that
learners are already well-conversant with.
What advice would you give Melanie for developing assessments for learning that
encourage and bring smiles to her kindergartners?
Melanie is dealing with Kindergarteners who are still young and starting out in the
learning process. The formative strategy that appears most appropriate for her learners is hand
signals. The strategy entails the use of certain kinds of movements to indicate the level of
understanding. Melanie can adopt the use of this technique where the learners will be required to

use a thumbs-up to signal agreement with the teacher or understanding of what the teacher is
teaching. Consequently, a thumbs-down will be used to signal nonagreement or
nonunderstanding of the learning content. Melanie can use this strategy towards the end of the
teaching period to measure the learners’ comprehension level. The process will engage learners,
and t is learner-friendly as well. Melanie has been using strategies that tend to cause anxiety or
scare her students. A change of tactic would help her get the right information that she requires
to make vital decisions on her instructional methods. Also, students will not feel threatened by
the tactics being used by their teacher. Assessment will not appear as though it is a form of
punishment or an activity that makes the students uncomfortable. In any case, it should help
students also understand how well they are faring through the learning process, identify their
strong points and areas of weakness. Consequently, they can be in a position to work on their
areas of weakness.
Discuss how and why formative assessment is considered assessment for learning, and why
summative assessments are considered an assessment of learning.
Formative assessment is considered an assessment for learning because it is used by the
teacher to inform ongoing instruction. It is up-to-minute meaning that it provides timely
information when it is needed. It also relates to the task being undertaken at the time to help
achieve a learning objective (Hansen et al., 2015). It is an assessment for learning because it is
used to give information to the educator about the students so that he or she can make changes
effectively based on areas that learners have a problem in, and areas where they do not need any
clarification. If students need more practice in a certain content area, a teacher knows through
formative assessment. Likewise, if learners have understood, the teacher can tell based on the

assessment results and he or she can then move ahead and introduce new concepts. Thus, the
formative assessment informs the teaching decisions made by the teacher; it is for learning.
Summative assessment, on the other hand, is considered an assessment of learning
because it is a tool that measures learning after the instruction has taken place. The teacher does
not use summative assessment as atoll to inform ongoing learning (Hansen et al., 2015). On the
contrary, they are used at the end of an instruction period such as at the end of the semester. All
summative assessments yield a score or a grade for each learner, that is used as an indicator of
the next step of learning. For example, when a learner is advancing to the next semester or being
admitted for a program in college. It is an assessment of learning because it indicates what the
learner has already learnt.
What advice would you give these teachers to help them consider the advantages of each?
Teachers who want to assess learning with the desire to improve the learner’s
performance should use formative assessment. On the contrary, teachers who want to measure
what learners have learnt during a certain learning period should use summative assessment. This
assessment shows how much learning has occurred and the results cannot be used to improve a
learning process or change methods of teaching. Therefore, teachers should use the assessments
correctly at the right time to get information that will be of help to them and to the learner.

References
Hansen, C.B., Buczynski, S., & Puckett, K.S. (2015). Curriculum and instruction for the 21 st
century. Bridgepoint Education