Formative Assessment In Teaching And Learning

An assessment activity provides information to be used as feedback by teachers and their learners in assessing themselves and each other, to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such formative assessment is used to adapt the teaching to meet learning needs. (Black et al,2002). A variety of formative assessments were used in my teaching and learning process to engage learners’ current/past knowledge to new learning before the lesson, to know how to progress their learning during the lesson, to determine where improvements can be made and identify the next steps of learning.

I usually share the learning objectives with the learners to know what I expect them to be able to do after they have learned it and what

In this situation, the learners’ learning was assessed by teacher circulating and talking with them. Providing learners’ feedback on brainstorming questions as pair or group, the teacher could make a plan for next learning. However, it was difficult for some less able learners to produce their ideas about the topic because they may have no ideas or no confidence to share their ideas with the class. For that, I differentiated the lesson by using think-write-pair-share approach. At that time, I could see their flow in learning with the supports of teacher and peers. So, I viewed that building pair sharing and group discussion activities help the teacher to monitor and to observe their work. Moreover, the teacher can decide whether learners are doing well or not and where they need supports from each other or teaching. Also, the teacher can adjust her instructions to explore learners’

I had spent much time in reading objectives of the lesson and assessing students’ understanding of the context with a variety of activities so it was not enough time to meet lesson outcomes and I was to take extra time to reach objectives. My mentor suggested me, to get enough time, I should reduce some activities for assessing their learning and spending time for reading objective of the lesson and should give more opportunities to the able learners for leading the less able learners. Maybe the learners completely support their peers but I was worried that the less able learners might not get chances to show their abilities under their peers’ leading and supporting. In my point of view, I may encourage the less able learner to involve in their learning by providing wait time and more communication with them and I agree with my mentor to set a specific time limit for each activity of the