Final thoughts on Embedded Formative Assessment....

      Before reading this book, I had heard of formative assessment and knew basically how to define it.  However, I had not taken the time to truly reflect on my own teaching and how I use formative assessment.  I have used formative assessment in my performance classes for years.....such as my band rehearsals.  I constantly give feedback on how the kids are doing in sectionals and as a group but it has almost always been verbal feedback.  

      

      The book and our discussions have made me think about how I could use formative assessments in different ways and with feedback that was not solely verbal.  I started to come up with a variety of rubrics that I could tweak to fit my needs depending on the class and what I was trying to assess.  I also began to plan certain assignments or activities that could be used as formative assessments.  

      I look forward to coming up with some assessments for the next school year......especially a few that can be used to give feedback to band students on an individual level.  I plan to give them more feedback on their concert music, but next year it will be a mixture of group and individual feedback that includes rubrics and some written comments.  These assessments could also be beneficial to share information with parents at conferences on how their children are doing in specific areas.

      At first I didn't think I had time to spend on individual assessments during our rehearsals because I needed all of my time to prepare for our performances.  I didn't realize that I could do small formative assessments that were quick and wouldn't take much class time.  They didn't need to be overly time consuming in order to be worthwhile.  I know that I can be creative on how I use them in the classroom whether it's splitting up an assessment across several rehearsals or doing one short assessment within the time limits of a rehearsal.  

       Because of this book, I have found myself more consciously thinking about what I want the end result to be and what kind of summative assessment I would use.  Then I continue to think in a backwards fashion and decide what formative assessments would help get my students ready for the next level.  

      I am thankful that we discussed this book.  I don't think I would have reflected on my teaching as much as I have without reading it.  I'm always looking for ways to improve my teaching, and I truly believe that this book and our discussions have helped me do just that.

 

Embedded Formative Assessment - Using it in the classroom

     I have been using formative assessments in my music classes for years without really thinking about the fact that it was called "formative assessment".  However, I have not put as much thought into the types of formative assessment I use and how often I assess, until the last couple of years.  The formative assessment experience that I will be describing was used in my music appreciation class.  This is only the second year that I have taught this class, and I'm approaching it in a completely different way then the first time I taught it.  Needless to say, this is a work in progress and I'm learning as I'm going....what works and what doesn't.

     We have been studying African American music and we were focusing on spirituals through jazz music when I gave these formative assessments.  The first chapter that we discussed was on spirituals, gospel and blues music.  After we had finished discussing the chapter and listening to examples, I gave them a review worksheet to see how well they understood the content.  This worksheet was given to them after we had reviewed the questions several times over a series of days.  I have a class of nine students and the results were across the board.  I had a couple of students hat would have received a failing grade, several fell in the middle around a B-C range, and  a couple of them would have received an A.  

     I gave the worksheet back to the students and had them correct any mistakes that they had made.  I decided to continue on to the next chapter for the time being and go back to review chapter one more later.  The next chapter we discussed was about jazz music....dixieland, big band swing, be bop, and jazz-rock.  When we finished with that chapter, we reviewed the content from chapter one again and chapter two before I gave them another review sheet to assess their understanding.  The results were very similar to the assessment given after chapter one.  I was disappointed that the class as a whole had not done better since we had reviewed for several days before I had given it to them.  I gave them back their worksheet and had them correct their mistakes.

     I decided I need to find more ways to go over the material with them and hopefully the class would be more successful when they took the summative assessment.  I reviewed  the material with the class the following ways:

• The class was split up into three groups.  Each group was given ten questions...one student asked the question, one student answered the question, and one student checked the answer.  After they finished their set of 10 questions, I would swap their questions with a different group and the students changed jobs.

• Each student had a white board and dry erase marker.  I asked a question to the class and they would all write their answer down on the white board.  The last step was for them to show me their answers and see if everybody was correct.

• The students filled out a study guide that was going to be practical identical to the summative test in format and content.  After they had finished, we went through the answers and talked about any of the answers that they were uncertain about....

• We played Jeopardy to review

• The day of the summative assessment we reviewed before they took the test.

     I had reviewed and retaught these two chapters many different ways, and I thought that the students should be completely prepared for the summative assessment.  I knew that some of them would have to do some review on their own at home as well using their study guide but we had worked on it a lot in class over and over.  

     Finally, I graded their summative tests and the results were very similar to the first formative assessment I had given them after chapter one.  I was very disappointed.  I had guessed that the grades wouldn't be all A's, but I was hoping that I wouldn't have any students with an F.  I still had two students that failed the exam.  I felt a bit like a failure.  I had worked very hard on trying to help the students with this material in a variety of ways.  

     If I have students in my classroom that don't take full advantage of our reviews in class and will not take the initiative to review outside of class, is that my fault?  I could not see the point of trying to reteach and/or review any more from these two chapters.  I had spent a lot more time on them then I had planned because of the results of the formative assessments.  My question is.....when do you wave the white flag so to speak and move on to the next chapter?  The students that failed the exam have all of the tools in their tool box to pass the test.  They simply chose not use them.  I have continued on to the next subject of discussion in this class and plan to go back and review the content of these chapters from time to time.