Hoertel Blog about Formative Assessment Strategies

I enjoyed reading this article because I felt that it offered useful information that I can actually use in my classroom one day. Sometimes I feel that the textbook offers common sense information. This article gave specific ways to test students in a non-traditional format that allows feedback for both teachers and students in a way that maximizes learning. For  the Summaries and Reflections category I like the idea of the whiteboard. I have used this in classes before and have always found it helpful and fun. The article also mentions that whiteboards are useful for visual and tactile learners. I have never enjoyed math and using whiteboards was a strategy that many of my teachers began using and the times when they did use this strategy, I actually enjoyed math.  In terms of Graphic Orgnanizers and Lists and Charts, I like the idea of a top ten list. A top ten list can be a variety of things, such as top ten favorite things the student learned, top ten important facts about the subject, or even top ten things that the student didn't know before learning the material. This allows students to organize material in a new way. In terms of visual representation, I think a unit collage sounds interesting. When I do reading responses, I much prefer drawing pictures and writing words sometimes instead of typing  a response. This allows me to feel creative and also allows me to present the information in a different way. By using a collage students can also have visual representations of the material which is helpful for spatial learners. Finally for Collaborative activities, I am a fan of the "Turn n' Talk" Method. In 8th grade, we had a really awesome substitute teacher who used this method on my class. She is also the only teacher to ever use this method on a class I've had. This allows students to move around in their seats some, and  talk. Older students also benefit from the value of another's opinion. This would be an especially useful strategy to use in a literature or history class. This also allows students to learn the material in a different way, since all students understand things in a different way. I think many of these would be easy to apply to a classroom and manipulate for younger ages.  I also like that this article highlighted the importance of a differentiated  classroom. I feel like a lot of these methods could be implemented in the classroom without a lot of extra effort, or time. These assessments are also a springboard for teachers and allow them to have instant feedback from students about their knowledge of a subject. In my own classroom I would much rather use formative assessment strategies rather than summative assessments.