Formative Assessment in the Digital Age

Link to Article: Formative Assessment in the Digital Age

          Incorporating digital assessments into the classroom is becoming more the norm among teachers, especially at the elementary school level. As part of the continuously shifting digital landscape that has redefined the way we communicate, technology can easily be integrated into the assessment process. One example of using technology to assess students is online book clubs. Instead of assigning students a specific time to discuss their books in class, third grade teacher Ms. Whitmore decided to have her students post their thinking and communicate about the text anytime from anywhere within a blog. This helped her not only manage the groups more effectively, but the blogs provided her with a record of discussions and allowed her to monitor and scaffold student learning with groups and individuals. Ms. Whitmore also used this as an opportunity to connect with a wider audience by partnering with a nearby university. Two or three pre-service teachers were assigned to blog with each book club, not only giving the students blogging buddies, but the pre-service teachers an authentic opportunity to interact with elementary-aged students as well.

          Ms. Whitmore also used the blog as a way of assessing student comprehension. Using a rubric, she gauged students’ comprehension based on their blog posts. First, she provided each student with a digital and hard copy of the rubric prior to beginning the blogging experience. She then used the rubric to guide her in providing feedback to her students. The use of the blog as an assessment tool allowed Ms. Whitmore to respond to students’ conversations from home or school without having to be physically present, comment on students’ posts to probe their thinking through questioning to foster deeper comprehension, make informed data-driven decisions to help tailor instruction to meet students’ needs, and it provided her with valuable information about individual learners to help differentiate instruction.

          While I do think digital assessments have their many benefits, I feel they would be difficult to incorporate into a middle school math classroom like my own. So much of math these days is being able to show your work. As much as my students despise me for it, I am always, always making them show their steps and work. I do this because if they happen to get the answer wrong, I want to be able to look back at their work and see where they made their mistake. Was it just a simple math error with their adding, or does the student completely not understand the concept? I do however think digital assessments would be beneficial in the math classroom if students could write out or explain their thinking through some type of audio or written assessment tool.

Resources:

Stover, K., Yearta, L., & Harris, C. (2016). Formative Assessment in the Digital Age. The Reading Teacher, 69. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.library.aurora.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=9a6a8ff3-5faa-4bc1-97e9-9caf3ab931c6%40sessionmgr102