Formative vs. Summative Assessment: Using Both in the Classroom!

Teachers should use formative and summative assessments in their online learning spaces to ensure that their students are able to prove what they know before... they... well... prove what they know. 
by Nathan Ulrey

What does a student know? How do you check? Assessment! 

As you think through your practices of assessment, you must consider the implications of using formative and summative assessments in your online Language Arts classroom. Formative assessment is the process of gathering evidence of student learning to inform classroom decisions (ACE, 2023a). Summative assessment provides a final judgment on a student’s progress toward more long-term learning goals (ACE, 2023b).  

Their primary difference lies in their purpose, as Gezer et al. (2021) describes formative as “assessment for learning” and summative as “assessment of learning” (p. 674). Ultimately, the difference between “for” and “of” is the direction a teacher looks when using the information provided by the assessment.  

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FORMATIVE
​Connexagons: An example from my teaching career comes originally from a Max Teaching Strategy, which I modified for online or digital learning space (Reardon, 2006). Students will put characters and thematic concepts into hexagons. They can then move the hexagons around, and when the shapes touch, the student must explain how they connect by making a comment on the arrows between the two hexagons. The large shape must remain one piece, no islands. It allows students to reveal what they know about the major work and how the elements within the work interact with each other. Ismail et al. (2022) found that students who are able to take part in multiple formative assessments were able to reduce test anxiety because they had opportunities to practice and improve. Connexagons builds their confidence with the novel or play and helps them to realize that they know more than they think, before we attempt a test or an essay. 

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SUMMATIVE
End of Course Test - Writing: (Summative) At the end of 11th grade American Literature, students take an end-of-course test, and part of the exam is writing, where students read, organize, plan, and write two essays, a narrative and an expository or argumentative. When the Individual Student Reports are delivered (weeks and months later), the summative nature of the EOCs gives me a final look into how well my students learned. However, future generations of students can benefit from the results of the EOCs, as I use them to craft my lessons and instructional strategies. ​

So let’s bring all this home, formative assessments allow your students to prove their strengths and weaknesses with a certain teaching standard or concept, and they allow you to offer constructive and timely feedback (ACE, 2023a). This cycle of learning, proving, and feedback is what Spady and Karge (2022) call a confidence builder for students before a final, summative grade is given. 

You can also increase student confidence (and performance) with summative assessments, and you can offer your students low-impact opportunities to learn and let you know what they know before they must engage in a final test, essay, or project. 

 

 

REFERENCES
​American College of Education. (2023). TECH 6333 Online assessments and evaluations: Module 2 – Formative assessments. Canvas. https://2571531.kaf.kaltura.com/playlist/dedicated/390142713/1_a2zga8g2/1_ob8x9o2u 

American College of Education. (2023). TECH 6333 Online assessments and evaluations: Module 2 – Summative assessments. Canvas. https://2571531.kaf.kaltura.com/playlist/dedicated/390142713/1_a2zga8g2/1_bdottxy8 

Compare Fibre. (2021). Person in red shirt wearing black and gray headphones [Photograph]. Unsplash [https://unsplash.com/photos/person-in-red-shirt-wearing-black-and-gray-headphones-Y8TiLvKnLeg]. 

Gezer, T., Wang, C., Polly, A., Martin, C., Pugalee, D., & Lambert, R. (2021). The relationship between formative assessment and summative assessment in primary grade mathematics classrooms. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 13(5), 673–685. https://doi.org/10.26822/iejee.2021.220 

Ismail, S. M., Rahul, D. R., Patra, I., & Rezvani, E. (2022). Formative vs. summative assessment: Impacts on academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill. Language Testing in Asia, 12(40). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-022-00191-4 

Reardon, M. A. (2006). Max teaching with reading and writing: Classroom activities for helping students learn new subject matter while acquiring literacy skills. The Max Teaching Press.  

Spady, R., & Karge, B. D. (2022). The value of formative feedback in graduate online courses. Distance Learning.