Planning Assessments

Planning thoughtful formative and summative assessments is an essential part of the teaching process. Formative assessments keep the teacher constantly informed about how well a student understands the material. Formative assessments can range from something as simple as calling on students to answer questions, to a brief exit ticket, to a group project. In contrast, summative assessments are used to provide the teacher with a final understanding of student learning. Summative assessments include unit exams or state testing done at the end of the year.

In this post, I am going to focus on the importance of developing effective and informative formative assessments. The assessments will revolve around helping students to meet a specific objective:

Students will be able to find the perimeter of any given rectangular shape, building, or room by applying the perimeter formula. 

In planning my formative assessments, I will keep several things in mind:

1- Timing: Is this assessment going to easily fit into my busy schedule? Is it reasonable to think that I will be able to get this down in a timely manner?
2-Accuracy: Is this assessment going to provide me with accurate information about where my students are at with the material?
3- Consistency: Is this assessment going to be consistent with providing data and feedback? Will I be able to use this assessment for all students so I can compare their learning and level of understanding?

Next, it is time to plan my formative assessments for the objective. I have selected four formative assessments that I think will meet the above criteria, and benefit my students learning while providing me with valuable information. The assessments are provided in the order in which I would use them in my lesson:

1. Bell Ringer: Students have 3 minutes to answer 3 questions about perimeter. This will be quick, straightforward, and fairly simple. Students will turn the sheet in as soon as it is finished, so I can quickly scan their answers and see how they are doing with perimeter. Students should already know the perimeter formula. The focus in 4th grade is on application. Therefore, three simple questions asking students to compute perimeter for rectangular shapes should be a reasonable task. The information will let me know if students already know perimeter. If they don't I will be able to quickly reteach the formula. If they do, we can move on and get into the application problems sooner than later.

2. Partner Perimeter Race: Students will have a partner. Each partner will have a ruler and together the students will share 10 cutout rectangular shapes. The shapes will be made of laminated, colored, construction paper. Students will use rulers to find the length and width of the shapes, and compute the perimeters. Partners will write down their final answers, including units (feet, inches, centimeters, etc) on a sticky note (with their names of course!). Students will stick the note on the door as they leave for recess. I will review the answers at recess and see how students are doing. Then I can make an assessment about where to go from there. IF students are ready and have mastered these simple perimeter problems with measurement, we can move on to word problems.

3. Perimeter Jeopardy: Students will be split into groups of four. I will have created a jeopardy game with questions about perimeter. The questions will include easy problems, such as simply computing perimeter when given a picture of a shape, and more challenging problems such as word problems describing real life situations. All students will be required to answer the questions, even if it is not their groups turn to choose a category. I will be able to quickly gauge which students have mastered the concept, and provide additional instruction when needed throughout the game.

4. Exit Ticket: I will have a poster on the wall at the back of the classroom. As students are dismissed to get their backpacks at the end of the day, they will put a sticky note on the poster answering TWO of the following:
-What is one thing that you liked from today's lesson on perimeter?
-Describe what perimeter means?
-What is the perimeter formula?
-If you have a question about perimeter still, what is it?
-Create your own perimeter problem and solve it!