Integrating Google Forms as a Means of Formative Assessment in the Elementary Math Classroom

This study provides a case study in the use of Google Forms as a formative assessment tool. Literature regarding formative assessment is included and models are applied in lesson plan development and implementation. However, no research has been found linking the implementation of formative assessment along with Google Forms. Formative assessment and Google Forms both provide feedback to learners, which is a critical component of formative assessment. This study reported the use of formative assessment in conjunction with Google Forms and the impact it has on the lesson planning process. The researcher designed a lesson plan using the principles of the Understanding by Design approach to teaching, which was based on pre-assessment data and administered daily formative assessments via Google Forms. The researcher analyzed data from the Google Forms to inform future instruction and meet the needs of students. Third-grade students were surveyed using a self-constructed Google Form survey regarding their experience with Google Form assessments. The researcher also discusses the practical application of using Google Forms in the classroom. Results from this study indicated that Google Forms can be an effective formative assessment tool and supports the argument that formative assessment data drives classroom instruction

Planning Professional Development: What Educators Know about Formative Instructional Practices

Formative instructional practices (FIP) are the formal and informal ways that teachers and students gather and respond to evidence of student learning. Although they might have been practicing formative instruction on a daily basis, many teachers rarely thought about how formative instructional practice features were already a part of their work. Teachers often displayed content standards, informed students of learning targets, and maintained learning records, but they may not have consistently analyzed records of student learning to make instructional decisions. Both novice educators and educators who already have strong classroom management and instructional skills are likely to benefit from professional learning around practices that encourage more student ownership of learning. In order to design a content relevant FIP PD program, it was critical to have an understanding of what teachers knew about formative instructional practices, and where their strength and weakness were. This study aimed to initiate these processes by asking, “What is educators’ baseline knowledge about FIP as measured by the FIP Knowledge Inventory?” The results of 2,528 educators on a FIP Knowledge Inventory showed an average of 61.84% correct responses or 15.46 points out of a possible 25 points. Item analysis indicated that teachers were weaker in two areas than they were in other principles of FIP: 1) providing effective feedback to students, and 2) promoting student ownership of their learning. This has implications for future teacher PD design and purposeful practices to transform knowledge to classroom instruction

Scoping a vision for formative e-assessment: a project report for JISC

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. If the relationship between teaching and learning were causal, i. e. if students always mastered the intended learning outcomes of a particular sequence of instruction, assessment would be superfluous. Experience and research suggest this is not the case: what is learnt can often be quite different from what is taught. Formative assessment is motivated by a concern with the elicitation of relevant information about student understanding and / or achievement, its interpretation and an exploration of how it can lead to actions that result in better learning. In the context of a policy drive towards technology-enhanced approaches to teaching and learning, the question of the role of digital technologies is key and it is the latter on which this project particularly focuses. The project and its deliverables have been informed by recent and relevant literature, in particular recent work by Black andIn this work, they put forward a framework which suggests that assessment for learning their term for formative assessment can be conceptualised as consisting of a number of aspects and five keystrategies. The key aspects revolve around the where the learner is going, where the learner is right now and how she can get there and examines the role played by the teacher, peers and the learner. Language: English Keywords: assessments, case studies, design patterns, e-assessmen

Supporting Instruction: Investing in Teaching

Describes the foundation's work in supporting the Common Core State Standards for literacy and math and a design collaborative developing tools for teachers to help students meet them, including template tasks, instructional modules, and courses

Rethinking Assessment: Information Literacy Instruction and the ACRL Framework

Most information literacy instruction (ILI) done in academic libraries today is based on the ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, but with the replacement of these standards by the new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, there is a need to re-evaluate current teaching strategies and instructional techniques so that they can better serve the Framework’s goals. This paper explores current trends in ILI instruction and in the area of assessment in particular, since ILI assessment provides an opportunity not only to evaluate teaching effectiveness but also to reinforce the learning goals of the new Framework itself. It proposes several ways that assessment strategies can be aligned with the goals of the Framework by using guided group discussion, online discussion platforms, and social media platforms, and proposes further avenues for research in the evaluation of such strategies

Embedded formative assessment and classroom process quality. How do they interact in promoting students\u27 science understanding

In this study we examine the interplay between curriculum-embedded formative assessment-a well-known teaching practice-and general features of classroom process quality (i.e., cognitive activation, supportive climate, classroom management) and their combined effect on elementary school students\u27 understanding of the scientific concepts of floating and sinking. We used data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial and compared curriculum-embedded formative assessment (17 classes) with a control group (11 classes). Curriculum-embedded formative assessment and classroom process quality promoted students\u27 learning. Moreover, classroom process quality and embedded formative assessment interacted in promoting student learning. To ensure effective instruction and consequently satisfactory learning outcomes, teachers need to combine specific teaching practices with high classroom process quality. (DIPF/Orig.

Designing Effective Questions for Classroom Response System Teaching

Classroom response systems (CRSs) can be potent tools for teaching physics. Their efficacy, however, depends strongly on the quality of the questions used. Creating effective questions is difficult, and differs from creating exam and homework problems. Every CRS question should have an explicit pedagogic purpose consisting of a content goal, a process goal, and a metacognitive goal. Questions can be engineered to fulfil their purpose through four complementary mechanisms: directing students' attention, stimulating specific cognitive processes, communicating information to instructor and students via CRS-tabulated answer counts, and facilitating the articulation and confrontation of ideas. We identify several tactics that help in the design of potent questions, and present four "makeovers" showing how these tactics can be used to convert traditional physics questions into more powerful CRS questions.Comment: 11 pages, including 6 figures and 2 tables. Submitted (and mostly approved) to the American Journal of Physics. Based on invited talk BL05 at the 2005 Winter Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers (Albuquerque, NM

Taking Stock of Common Core Math Implementation: Supporting Teachers to Shift Instruction: Insights from the Math in Common 2015 Baseline Survey of Teachers and Administrators

In spring 2015, WestEd administered surveys to understand the perspectives on Common Core State Standards-Mathematics (CCSS-M) implementation of teachers and administrators in eight California school districts participating in the Math in Common (MiC) initiative. From this survey effort, we were able to learn from over 1,000 respondents about some of the initial successes and challenges facing California educators attempting to put in place and support new -- and what some consider revolutionary -- ideas in U.S. mathematics education