Takeaway from Embedded Formative Assessment

My biggest takeaways from the book, Embedded Formative Assessment, deal with how assessments should guide future plans, appropriate feedback,  and clarifying learning intentions.

It states that formative assessments should be an indicator as to where the lesson should go in the future.  It is a little "old-school" to think that the exact same lesson plans can be done the exact same way each year.  Every class is different, and by using formative assessments more often, we can be flexible with the plans and teach those students, not just the curriculum that we HAVE to get through.

I know I have to improve in the area of feedback.  I think more of the lower-end kids would benefit from more one-on-one feedback because English can be very overwhelming for those that don't understand the basics. 

Clarifying learning intentions is another takeaway I'm going to try to improve on.  I'm sure I assume the kids know what I'm trying to teach and my expectations, but sometimes they don't...and I find out a little too late.  I will do more with the "I Can" statements as well as verbally telling them at the beginning of the lesson.  I also hope to get across to them that they aren't learning this just for this 45 minute time period, but to apply what they've learned to other things outside this class.

formative assessment

       I did a short formative assessment on the literary term, personification. After they read the short story,  "There will Come Soft Rains," I asked them three questions: what is personification, cite examples of it, and what was the inanimate object was personified. 75% of the sophomores got 3/3. 25% did not. I realized that most of the kids that didn't get it were kids on IEP's. From the help of a student, I realized my vocabulary word, inanimate, was confusing some of those kids. I am now going to think about how I word my questions and repeat to them that they should ask if they don't understand something I'm asking.
       I also learned the value in asking those questions immediately after the story instead of asking at the end of the "unit," because in the next story, they were able to pick the personification out.  The changes to my lesson plan was to go over personification again and pick examples out together in class, so they can do that independently in the future.
       I enjoyed figuring out the data because it was very quick and gave me instant results of what was going on that day- not a week later.  The formative assessment worked well for literary terms, but can be done with nearly everything.