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Formative Assessment Lesson Plan

Instructor: Josh Corbat Show bio

Josh has taught Earth Science and Physical Science at the High School level and holds a Master of Education degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Use this lesson plan to introduce your preservice teachers to formative assessment. Preservice teachers will read two text lessons, discuss formative assessments, and plan a sample unit that incorporates several formative assessments.

Learning Objectives

After this lesson, students will be able to:

define formative assessment
incorporate various formative assessment strategies into a unit

Length

60-90 minutes

Note:

One of the most impactful aspects of this lesson is your use of formative assessments as you teach these concepts to your preservice teachers. At first, they may not know that you are using these strategies, but it will be helpful to make a mental note of which formative assessments you are using and to list them out at some point in the lesson. This will allow your preservice teachers to experience formative assessment from a student point-of-view.

Instructions

Begin the lesson by writing 'formative assessment' on the board and ask your preservice teachers to participate in a 'fist to three' (or five) activity. Ask them how much they already know about formative assessment. Holding up one finger means they know nothing, whereas a three (or five) means they think they know everything there is to know. You may then ask for a volunteer to define the term, or you can simply continue to the next part of the lesson.
Distribute the text lessons What is Formative Assessment? - Strategies & Examples and Formative Assessments: Examples, Types & Definition. As both of these text lessons define and explain formative assessments, give preservice teachers some time to read through both of them.
After some time reading and reflecting, ask your preservice teachers to write a quick definition of 'formative assessment' on a sheet of paper or personal white board. Have them hold up their definition. Use this to frame a discussion about the definition of formative assessment.
Next, ask your preservice teachers to discuss the following questions:
- What are some benefits of formative assessments?
- When can formative assessments occur?
- What are some strategies for including simple, quick formative assessments?
- When is an assessment NOT a formative assessment?
Finish this phase of the lesson with one of the formative assessments found in the After a Lesson section of the text lesson 'What is Formative Assessment? - Strategies & Examples' (i.e. pyramid assessment, learning log, 1-sentence summary, etc.).
Hold a final reflective discussion that centers on the formative assessments that you used during this lesson. Here are some suggested discussion points:
- How did the preservice teachers feel while doing these formative assessments?
- Did the formative assessments help them understand the material?
- What would they change to make the formative assessments (or perhaps the lesson in general) more meaningful?
- Which formative assessments will they likely use in their own classroom?

Sample Unit Plan

Now that the preservice teachers understand what formative assessments entail, they will create a unit plan with formative assessment in mind.
- NOTE: This plan can be as simple or complex as you desire. The key goal is to have preservice teachers include a variety of formative assessments during each lesson of the unit.
Preservice teachers can work on their plans in class, or can do them as homework.
When finished, have volunteers (or the whole class) present their unit plan to the class. This is a great opportunity for the group to give constructive feedback.
As an exit ticket, students can complete the associated quizzes: What is Formative Assessment? - Strategies & Examples and Formative Assessments: Examples, Types & Definition

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Learning Objectives

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Instructions

Sample Unit Plan

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