1. Flipped Instruction Description

36. Formative Assessment (A.K.A Assessment For Learning)
Definition
Formative assessment involves assessing students’ learning throughout the learning process, not just at the end. Formative assessments can take place at one point in a unit of work or regularly throughout a lesson.
Benefits

• 
  Allows teachers to adjust their teaching if students are not quite up to where you expected, or if they are exceeding your expectations.
  
• 
  Students get feedback on their progress before the summative assessment, allowing them to adjust.
  
• 
  Gives the teacher a better understanding of their students. If a student fails a summative assessment but the teacher knows the student could do the task at the formative stage, more investigation can take place to see why there is a discrepancy.
  

Challenges

• 
  Can be time consuming to constantly assess students’ abilities.
  
• 
  Formative assessments often lack the authority of summative assessment pieces.
  

Examples

1. 
   Formative assessments can be simple stops to get feedback and ongoing questioning of students.
   
2. 
   They can also take the form of pop quizzes or student-teacher conferences.
   

37. Summative Assessment
Definition
Summative assessments take place at the end of a unit of work and are often the formal final / overall grading of a student’s knowledge.
Benefits

• 
  Summative assessments are necessary for providing a final grade for a student and are often required by school boards.
  
• 
  Summative assessments give students something to strive toward which may keep them motivated and encourage them to study.
  

Challenges

• 
  They are seen as too high-stakes and can cause stress for students.
  
• 
  If a student does poorly, the assessment is right at the end, so the teacher and student often don’t have any more time address the problems and help progress the student’s learning.
  

Example

1. 
   Standardized tests.
   
2. 
   Assessments for student portfolios.
   
3. 
   End-of-year exams.
   
4. 
   Entry exams.