Formative Assessment
(Handouts)
Handout 1
Summative and Formative Assessment
Work with your group and decide which statement describes formative assessment and
which statement describes summative assessment. The first two statements are
examples.
Formative (F)
Summative (S)
Continuous and two-way: responds to pupil work and is
1. F
presented in conversation.
Usually summarises information into marks, scores and
2. S
grades.
3. Designed to assist teachers and pupils.
4. Assessment of learning.
Focuses on improvement and progress towards a learning
5.
goal.
Designed for people who are not directly involved in daily
6.
learning and teaching.
7. Assessment for learning.
Needs to involve the pupils because the pupil is the person
8.
most able to improve the learning.
9. Final and one-way; presented in a formal report.
10 Usually compares pupil’s learning either with other pupils or
. the “standard” for a grade/level.
11 Given at the end of the year or a unit to check pupil’s learning
. after teaching.
12 Checks learning throughout teaching to determine progress
. and decide next steps.
13 Usually detailed, specific, and provides descriptive feedback
. in words and in relation to success criteria that have been set.
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Handout 2
Formative assessment – key concepts
Work in your group to match the teaching strategies to one of the key questions for
formative assessment. Draw lines to show the match.
Be ready to give reasons for your matches!
Starters and plenaries
Every stage of learning needs starters that activate prior
knowledge (get pupils to see what they already know), and
whole class question and discussion plenaries at the end to
Where are check the progress of the learning.
we going? Quick Scans
Quick scans are all-pupil-response techniques that let the
teacher quickly check understanding and progress across a
whole class.
Feedback
Pupils need to know: what they are aiming for (goals);
where they are now in relation to these goals; and how to
close the gap between where they are now and the goals,
that is, how to reach their goal. Feedback should help at
each stage of this process.
Deliberate practice
Pupils need their learning to be broken down into small
steps with tasks that focus on their individual needs,
Where is helping them to improve specific skills and knowledge.
each pupil Practice activities can help this.
Sharing learning objectives and success criteria
now? Learning objectives describe the new learning that will be
achieved by the end of a lesson. Success criteria are used
to assess the quality of the learning.
Questioning
Questions from teachers find out how much pupils
understand and encourage further learning to deepen
understanding.
Discussions
Giving pupils stimulating questions to think about and share
with each other in a discussion lets the teacher find out
How do we about pupils’ thinking. Monitoring discussions can help to
identify problems and gaps in understanding.
get there? Exemplars
Examples of language use help pupils understand where
exactly they are going with their learning.
Self-assessment and peer-assessment
Peer and self-assessment opportunities get pupils involved
in the process of checking their progress in their learning.
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Handout 3
Time cycles in formative assessment
With your group, complete the table below identifying the impact for pupils of each
formative assessment time cycle.
Short cycle Medium cycle Long cycle
Within and
Within and Across terms or
Span between
between lessons teaching units
teaching units
Minute-by-minute One to four Four weeks to a
Length
and day-by-day weeks year (or more)
Starters and
plenaries
Benchmarking
Questioning Assignments
Assessment tests
Self-assessment Practice tests
Method End of term/ year
Peer- End of unit quiz
texts & exams
assessment
Exit cards
Impacts for
pupils
Impacts for
teacher
Based on William, 2018, p. 51
Refer to the Teacher Handbook for more information
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Handout 4
Strengths and limitations of questioning strategies in
Preschool and Primary teaching
The trainer will be asking questions and using different questioning strategies. You may
need to response to the questions.
During the questioning you also have this task to do. Think about your teaching and
your pupils. Identify the strengths and limitations of each questioning strategy for your
classroom and record your ideas in the table below.
Be ready to give reasons for your matches!
Questioning strategy Strengths Limitations
‘No hands up’ and nominated
questioning
Wait time and
pose/pause/pounce/bounce
Lollypop sticks
Mini whiteboards
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Handout 5
Communication regulators
Communication regulators provide a structure to pupil discussions. They are useful in a
lesson to equalise participation and communication among the members of a group and
to give everyone an opportunity to speak. This then helps to promote positive
communication patterns in the classroom.
For all these activities, it is essential to give pupils some preparation time (time to think
about the discussion topic before the speaking activity begins).
Talking Chips
Place pupils in small groups. Give each pupil a chip (a token) of some kind (for
example, a pen lid or an eraser). If someone wants to talk, they must place their chip
in the centre of the table. They cannot then talk again until everyone in the group has
placed his or her chip on the table.
When everyone has used their chip once, they can take their chip back and anyone
can talk again by placing the chip on the table again.
Response Mode Chips
Give pupils a number of different chips (or small colour-coded pieces of paper) that
each refer to a specific type of response that pupils can make in a group speaking
task (for example, Asking a question, Giving an idea, Giving praise, Responding to an
idea).
If a pupil wishes to speak they must place the appropriate chip on the table,
representing their response mode.
Timed Turns
No one can talk for more than a minute (or another fixed time) in total and there is a
timekeeper for each pupil or for the group.
Hot Seat
One person is placed in the Hot Seat for one minute (or another fixed time) and
answers questions on a given topic from the other members of the group. They group
members can only listen and ask questions.
Pupils take it in turns to be in the hot seat.
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Handout 6
Techniques for corrective feedback while speaking
On-the-spot verbal feedback techniques
Explicit correction
This refers to providing the correct form explicitly (directly). Doing this, the teacher also
explains that what the pupil says is not correct: for example, by saying ‘Oh, you
mean…”.
Clarification
B requests
This technique involves asking for clarification (for help understanding something): for
example, by saying ‘Excuse me’ or ‘I don't understand’. In this way the teacher shows
that the pupil’s utterance is inaccurate in some way.
Metalinguistic feedback
Without providing the correct form, the teacher asks questions or comments on
information related to the form of the pupil's utterance. For example: ‘Do we say it like
that?’ or ‘Is this the plural?’ The response is often Yes/No.
Elicitation
This involves the teacher eliciting (getting) the correct form from the pupil. This can be
done by pausing to allow the pupil to ‘fill in the blank’ or by asking the pupil to re-phrase
their utterance. For example:
‘It's a....’ (There is a pause to allow the pupil to complete the utterance.)
‘Say that again.’
Elicitation asks for more than a Yes/No answer.
For more information see: Lyster, R. & Ranta, L. (1997) Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation of
form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 37-66.
Silent pointing & gesturing
Draw a correction table on the board. While pupils are talking, point to the type of
mistake, giving pupils a chance to self-correct.
Also use silent pointing and prompts for correction while speaking. Examples are:
Make a ‘T’ with fingers to illustrate missing ‘the’.
Show a small word missing by holding thumb and forefinger close together.
Cross hands over to show wrong word order.
For more ideas see: Mumford, S. & Darn S. (2005) Classroom management: speaking correction techniques.
One Stop English. Available online [Link]
management/classroom-management-speaking-correction-techniques/[Link]
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Handout 7
Bingo sheet
Complete the bingo sheet using the words in the box below.
Definitions for each term below will be read out with a number. If that definition matches
with a term on the bingo sheet then write down the definition’s number in that square.
Call out ‘bingo’ when you have a line of numbered squares.
formative
feed forward ___________ ____________
assessment
learning
wait time ____________ starter
objectives
communication success
__________ ____________
regulator criteria
peer summative
hinge question ____________
assessment assessment
Complete the bingo sheet with these words:
plenary assessment exemplars
self-assessment cooperative learning quick scan
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