The focus on learning for assessment as a larger component that supports learning of assessment is so beneficial for all students to be able to demonstrate their learning in their own way and not just by handing in a final assessment. During my experiential practicum, I got to be a part of an energetic grade 4/5 class where sitting down and completing a worksheet for marks was a challenge as most of our students were at different learning places in the classroom
To me formative assessment used to be having a conversation with the students once a week or so to see how they were understanding the material and then either spending more time on the subject or moving on. I now know that formative assessment happens every day in every lesson and even after the lesson. Listening in on conversations during the lesson by looking for key words and how the students are feeling about their learning is a key part of being able to assess students in their learning. As a teacher, we should be able to take at least one thing from each lesson that our students have shared and review it to implement it into future lessons.
An example would be incorporating peer discussion into assessment for learning and observing these conversations. Some students are more willing to ask a friend for help rather than come to a teacher and asking for help. By observing while the lesson is going on and taking that into account, as the teacher, I was then able to say okay we are going to reproach this lesson from a different standpoint because not everyone has grasped the concept to where I would like them to be, without the students then being able to identify those who were having trouble because they spent their whole time with me asking for help.
Ongoing assessment should be considered in the summative assessment because not all students are able to express their learning in the same way (this would apply in differentiating the learning too). By continuously assessing throughout the everyday learning, I was then able to reconstruct the summative assessment to more accurately match the needs and abilities of all the students and not just the ones that were completing a worksheet. This class taught me so much on how daily conversations with myself and with peers was beneficial for formative assessment and learning.
A few links to start with or refer to:
Transforming Assessment – BC’s New Curriculum
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/node/88
BC’s K-12 Assessment System – BC’s New Curriculum
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/assessment
Dylan Wiliam – YouTube – Assessment for Learning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiu-jY-xaPg
Dylan Wiliam – YouTube – Assessment Strategies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcJdZGz6ifY
Dylan Wiliam – YouTube – Formative Assessment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYdVe5O7KBE
Assessment: The Bridge Between Teaching and Learning – from Voices in the Middle, Volume 21, Number 2, December 2013
https://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/VM/0212-dec2013/VM0212Assessment.pdf