By Megan Heine, posted January 17, 2017 —

Using formative assessments to drive instruction is not a new concept. Teachers have been formatively assessing students for years when monitoring where a student stands in regards to his or her learning. On any given day, any teacher I know, including myself, can tell you how a student is faring with a particular concept. It’s a part of our responsibility to monitor student progress informally. What is new is formatively assessing students to gather data to use with PLCs and to give administrators concrete information instead of an anecdotal report of student progress.

I have begun looking at formative assessments differently, through the individual student’s lens, rather than my teacher’s lens or my administrator’s lens. Formative assessments in my classroom now emphasize student use more than my own use.

As a part of a transition to use standards-referenced practices in my classroom, I have required students to track their skills progress using a simple sheet of paper with the skills listed. These sheets are then glued into their notebooks. Currently, each time a summative assessment is handed back, students record their progress on their skill sheet. Because each skill is assessed multiple times, with the most recent score being reported, each previous assessment acts as a formative assessment, letting students track their own progress. This is just one way I have used formative assessments in my classroom.

In addition to multiple assessments, students are formatively assessed on every skill before the first summative assessment on that skill. Although I haven’t required students to track their progress on formative assessments (this is potentially a future addition), as a PLC we have responded to formative assessment data and have created activities to target student needs. Students are grouped based on their formative assessment results. This has had a positive effect since students are getting exactly what they need for a particular skill set.

Using formative assessment in these ways in my classroom has altered my view of the rationale for their use. I have come to realize that these informal checks are really more for the student. Because I have been challenged to turn my classroom into a more student-centered environment, providing opportunities for students to take ownership of their learning is at the forefront of the transition. These formative assessment strategies become a pivotal component for student ownership. Students are not surprised by what is on the summative assessment. They know what is coming because they understand the process. They are learning how to be in control of their progress.

I am learning how to release that control to them. This process has been transformational for me as their teacher and as I shift the ownership. The lens that I look through now is student-centered as I try to answer the question: “How will my students use this for their learning?”

Megan Heine, meganheine@gmail.com, is an 8/9 math teacher at Southview Middle School in Ankeny, Iowa, where she teaches algebra 1 and geometry in a 1:1 Chromebook environment. She blogs at https://peacelovemath.wordpress.com/ and Tweets from @PeaceLoveMHeine. She is the co-moderator of a local Twitter ed chat, #ankedchat. Heine has recently completed her master’s degree in Educational Technology from Boise State University and is passionate about transforming her classroom into a student-centered learning environment by using EdTech tools that motivate and inspire students to embrace and explore mathematics.