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Summative and formative assessments can both enable students to succeed, academically and socially. Summative assessments are “cumulative assessments…that intend to capture what a student has learned, or the quality of learning, and judge performance against some standards” National Research Council, 2001). This method of assessment is often used to evaluate student knowledge and understanding at the end of a topic (Gardner, 2010), and is often graded. Consequently, summative assessments may encourage and reassure students who have performed well, or motivate those who have under-achieved to try harder. In my practice, I summatively assess end-of-topic tests, and keep an accurate, up-to-date mark book with comparisons to target grades. This enables student performance to be monitored, which may lead to conversations with students or parents, or interventions, if students are underachieving.

Formative assessment refers to “frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately” (OECD, 2005, p.21). Since formative assessments can inform teachers of student comprehension, this can, in turn, inform planning. For example, recently, after beginning teaching the topic of electrolysis to a year 10 class, through whole-class questioning, I realised that they knew very little about ionic bonding. Therefore, I planned and devoted a full lesson to teaching these principles, before continuing with electrolysis.

Importantly, formative assessments enable students to consider feedback, and improve upon their work and understanding, rather than purely focussing on their grade (Education Endowment Foundation, 2016, p.5). Consequently, I rarely write students’ grades or scores on their classwork or homework, but instead offer positive comments, effort grades and several action points. Students then complete these actions during lessons in a different-coloured pen, for easy comparison to the original work. In my opinion, this method is extremely effective; students have to correct mistakes (scientific or literacy), give more detailed, well-written answers, or complete challenge questions, which encourage higher-order thinking. This also allows for students to reflect on the progress they have made, which may motivate students to continue to learn through making improvements.

In terms of the type of written feedback, rather than offering vague remarks such as “great job” or “nearly there”, I try to give more constructive, specific comments. This type of feedback has been shown to focus students’ attention on certain aspects that require improvement (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). For verbal feedback, I try to give lots of praise (including merits) when students answer questions, even if their answers are wrong. As Mueller and Dweck (1998) argue, it is more important to reward effort than intelligence, and socially, I believe that this makes students feel safe and builds their confidence, meaning that they are more likely to volunteer answers in the future. To further help students succeed socially, I set peer assessment tasks, in which students are encouraged to give each other positive comments, in addition to suggestions for improvement.

Furthermore, I assess students’ learning through a range of a plenary activities. I have found that competition encourages learners to succeed, for both academic and social reasons, and thus, I try to implement a variety of games into my lessons, such as bingo, splat, noughts-and-crosses and team quizzes.

References:

Education Endowment Foundation, 2016. A marked improvement? A review on the evidence of written marking. London: Education Endowment Foundation.

Gardner, J., 2010. 'Developing teacher assessments: An introduction.' In: J. Gardner, W. Harlen, L. Hayward, G. Stobart and M. Montgomery, eds. 2010. Developing teacher assessment. New York: Open University Press. pp.1−11.

Hattie, J. and Timperley, H., 2007. 'The power of feedback.' Review of Educational Research, 77(1), pp.81−112.

Mueller, C. M. and Dweck, C. S., 1998. 'Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance.' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), pp. 33−52.

National Research Council, 2001. Assessment in the classroom. [online] National Academies Press. Available at: https://www.nap.edu/read/9847/chapter/5Link opens in a new window [Accessed 8 February 2018].

Office of Economic Co-operation and Development, 2005. Formative assessment: Improving learning in secondary classrooms. Paris: OECD Publishing.