The PLC process can be complicated, time consuming, and frustrating. In particular, the work of creating a common formative assessment (CFA) can feel particularly cumbersome; as another educator pointed out to me recently, any one of us could probably create a serviceable assessment on our own in far less time. But, the product of our collaborative efforts often exceed what we can do on our own.
The 6th Grade ELA/Reading team of Hanne Burke, Amanda Hepburn, and Lori Mettler came up with an outstanding example of a CFA for summarizing (the document can be downloaded below).
Here are some things I like about this particular assessment:
The 6th Grade ELA/Reading team of Hanne Burke, Amanda Hepburn, and Lori Mettler came up with an outstanding example of a CFA for summarizing (the document can be downloaded below).
Here are some things I like about this particular assessment:
- It's universal. The assessment isn't tied to any one text in particular; a teacher could use this with students' self-selected texts. It can be used as a summative assessment with a common text. And, obviously, it can be used as a CFA.
- It's flexible. Take a look at the image below. Students can record their findings directly on the page, or they could use sticky notes and stick them to the assessment. There's room for a student to draw a graphic organizer of their own design. This allows for teachers (and students) to use their own approaches and styles, without compromising the integrity of the assessment.
- It's scaffolded. The design of the assessment, including the graphic organizer below, allows teachers to see exactly where student understanding breaks down. By setting up the assessment this way, the team gets more discrete data and they can then create a more appropriate response.
- It's appropriately rigorous. While the assessment is scaffolded, the final task (below) asks students to create a product that is at the level of cognitive demand required by the standard.
Implications for Practice:
As you go about creating your own assessments, consider:
Finally, consider the overall intent of the standard. Do we just want kids to summarize for the sake of summarizing? If that were the case, we'd create a two-week summarizing unit, assess our kids and move on. Or do we want kids to write a summary as a gateway to deeper analysis? Something to mull over.
As you go about creating your own assessments, consider:
- the language of your standard. Does the assessment reflect that language? For example, this assessment is designed for 6.RL.2; 8.RL.2 mentions specific literary elements (character, setting, plot). How would you adapt this assessment to meet the demands of the 8th grade standard?
- the usability of the assessment. Can you use the assessment without teaching a specific text? If not, you might want to make some modifications. This isn't to say that you could never have a text-dependent assessment; but you might consider basing your assessment on a more general template.
- what skills you need to teach students in order to take the assessment. If students have never used a graphic organizer like the one in the assessment, you might consider modeling it for the students first.
Finally, consider the overall intent of the standard. Do we just want kids to summarize for the sake of summarizing? If that were the case, we'd create a two-week summarizing unit, assess our kids and move on. Or do we want kids to write a summary as a gateway to deeper analysis? Something to mull over.
| GR6ELA.CFA.docx |
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