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.