The Five Key Strategies of Formative Assessment

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It's easy to get lost in the weeds of formative assessment because it's a really complex topic that deals with both instruction and assessment.   Some of the common questions include: What's the difference between formative and summative?  How long should a formative assessment be?  How often should I be doing formative assessment?  Does formative assessment mean that I have to do differentiated instruction every day?

These are important questions that need to be dealt with.  But it's good to keep the big picture in mind.  Dylan Wiliam helps me keep the big picture in mind with this:  the key question of teaching has shifted from “what am I going to teach and what are the pupils going to do?” towards “how am I going to teach this and what are the pupils going to learn?"  

Dylan Wiliam's book, Embedded Formative Assessment, is filled with a number of insights culled from his 35 years of experience in education.   The book's "Five Key Strategies of Formative Assessment" acts as a "10,0000 foot view" about formative assessment.  

1. Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success – getting the students to really understand what their classroom experience will be and how their success will be measured.

2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, activities, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning – developing effective classroom instructional strategies that allow for the measurement of success.

3. Providing feedback that moves learning forward – working with students to provide them the information they need to better understand problems and solutions.

4. Activating learners as instructional resources for one another – getting students involved with each other in discussions and working groups can help improve student learning.

5. Activating learners as owners of their own learning – By engaging in the process of thinking about and assessing their own work, students act on the evidence of their own learning and take responsibility for it.