2 Using formative and summative assessment in the classroom

Mrs Silva had always kept track of each student in her class by making notes about their progress in different lessons. She took pride in making her lessons relevant and useful to the range of students in her class, and she was aware that she could only do this if she knew where each student was in their learning. She had learned over time that she should not assume that the loudest students were the brightest, so she loved to encourage the students who were quietly competent, and see them flourish.

She also believed in recording in some format what students were doing in their activities and providing feedback to each student on their learning and progress. Based on the recording and analysis, she planned how to deal with her students so that their learning would improve.

With a recent promotion to be the school leader, Mrs Silva was keen to get her three colleagues to build on their students’ prior learning and adjust their teaching to take account of what they found. This is what she said about her approach.

Step 1: Familiarising teachers with formative assessment

I was met with blank faces when I started to talk about checking learning in the classroom, and how this could be used help teach in our large and diverse classes.

The teachers were often very ready to talk about how difficult it was to teach students who were at different stages in one lesson, but they did not recognise how they could teach more effectively if they knew the levels of students’ current learning more accurately. So I started talking about formative assessment and how this could improve the students’ learning.

Step 2: Practical exposure of teachers to formative assessment: observing a class taken by the school leader

I realised that talking about it was not going to convince them, so I decided to invite them into my lessons to show them what I meant. I opened up a maths lesson and a language lesson to observers. I asked them to make notes about the different ways in which assessment was taking place in the lesson and how many times this was happening. I suggested that this could be me assessing the students, or the students assessing themselves or each other. I asked the teachers to make a note of how assessments were recorded (or not), and how I used the assessment to inform my teaching; for example, what questions I asked, what comments I made and what examples I used.

I also highlighted that it was important that they wrote down what comments I made to help students when they were stuck, and how I gave feedback to students from time to time. This was to make them realise how necessary and important it is to provide immediate feedback to students in a way that the students could improve what they were doing.

Step 3: Discussion with teachers on the observed classroom teaching of the school leader

We had a meeting where we discussed my approach to assessing students as part of ongoing teaching and learning. Some of the things that had surprised the teachers were that I had asked one student to assess her partner during paired work and that during groupwork I had asked the groups to assess each other and give feedback – taking over my role as a teacher.

The discussion broadened out to a list of questions they might ask to assess learning of students in their own classrooms. I was keen that these questions were used in a supportive manner and not that students would feel tense or interrogated. If a student could not answer, they should be passed over for another to try while noting that something has not been understood.

Step 4: Observing teachers using formative assessment in their classes

I asked for invitations for me to come to observe a lesson myself in a month’s time. They needed time to practice their ideas. I informed them that I would be noting down my observations as it would not be possible for me to remember everything that was happening in so many classes. During my observations I was delighted to see the teachers using questions that made their students think and allowed the teachers to know what the students understood. I also saw that they were giving helpful feedback when students were stuck. The students were visibly engaged and ready to respond in most classes.

Step 5: Review and reflection

After the observations we went back to our initial lists and refined them, adding more questions. During this interaction with all the teachers in my school, we:

• discussed the problems they faced
• shared experiences of what and how they undertook assessment in their classes, and broadly decided what was required to be done to help students
• modified their individual teaching/learning plans
• shared the new plans with each other.

One teacher, Mrs Mehta, shared an idea during the discussions that was then used by many teachers in their classrooms. She told us that she had used a fun way with her maths class to quickly assess her students. The students raised an open hand if they were struggling with a concept, and a closed fist if they were confident that they understood it. She could use this assessment at any point in the lesson to slow down her delivery or go on to the next stage. The students had asked for an additional sign of an opening and closing hand to indicate when they were nearly there! Several of us now use this technique and the students sometimes even raise a flashing or open hand without being asked.