Planning Lessons That Include Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment in Science and Mathematics Education

Planning lessons that include formative assessment

How can I plan lessons that use formative assessment effectively?

Introduction

In this activity some guidance will be provided on planning lessons and using these as part of professional development, followed by sections on some specific aspects of formative assessment that can be linked into the relevant units from the previous sections:

· Using questioning

· Incorporating collaborative student work

These examples will also illustrate a mode of working that can be used to develop other aspects of formative assessment and lead to lessons that incorporate multiple formative assessment opportunities of different types.

Activity A: Planning to use questioning 2

Activity B: Planning a lesson using student collaboration 3

PLANNING LESSONS THAT INCLUDE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Activity A: Planning to use questioning

Time needed:• 15 minutes discussion before the lesson.• 1 hour for the lesson.• 15 minutes after the lesson.

For this activity you will need to choose a problem to try out with your class. This may be a problem from the section on classroom tasks or could be based on a lesson from the curriculum you are currently using. In either case the lesson plan should be your own design.

Use the prompts on Handout 1 to plan a lesson around this problem that will promote student thinking and reasoning. You may find it useful to look back at the activities in the section on Improving questioning.

As you develop this lesson plan take some time to consider the following questions:
· How will you organize the classroom and the resources?
· How will you introduce the questioning session?
· Which ground rules will you establish?
· What will be your first question?
· How will you give time for students to think before responding?
· Will you need to intervene at some point to refocus or discuss different strategies they are using?
· What questions will you use in plenary discussions during or towards the end of the lesson?

A sample lesson plan using the ‘Sharing Gas Costs’ problem is shown on Handout 2. This may be used as a model to follow.

During the lesson you will be listening and responding to students so it may be helpful to audio-record some of the lesson so you can return to later use this for personal reflection or for discussion with other teachers.

After you have tried out your lesson with your own students, think about the following issues:
· Which questions appeared to promote the most thoughtful and reasoned responses from students? Why was this?
· Which questions didn't work so well? Why was this?
· Which of the following four principles did you use? Give examples.
o Plan questions that encourage thinking and reasoning.
o Ask questions in ways that include everyone.
o Give students time to think.
o Avoid judging students' responses.
o Follow up students' responses in ways that encourage deeper thinking.
· What will you do differently next time?

Activity B: Planning a lesson using student collaboration

Time needed:• 15 minutes discussion before the lesson• 1 hour for the lesson• 15 minutes after the lesson

In this activity you will plan a lesson for your students that involves collaboration about a mathematical task in a way that will stimulate and use student discussion to improve learning.

Firstly, consider a task that you can use that has scope for students to work in groups and discuss different methods, strategies or solutions.

Consider the following questions:
· Where is the scope for discussion in the task?
· How will discussion be introduced and stimulated?
· How will you group students?
· How will you arrange the room?
· How will you introduce the purpose of discussion?
· How will you establish ground rules?
Some notes on these issues are given on Handout 8.

The task that you are using for discussion in groups will be set within the context of a longer lesson. Think about the links and organization of the whole session, how you will move from one activity to another and other places where discussion may be used.

The following questions may be useful to consider as you plan:
· How will you organize the phases of the session?
· When will students be working individually?
· When will they be in small groups?
· When will there be a whole class discussion?
Further guidance to support your planning is included in Handouts 6 and 7.

It may be helpful to record and transcribe some student-student discussions, if possible so you can reflect on these or discuss them with other teachers. In these discussions, try to compare lessons that you have experienced and how you acted as a teacher to facilitate collaboration and discussion.

Think about how you:
· Organized the room and introduced the task?
· Orchestrated and sustained phases of the work? (E.g. ‘Think, pair, share’)
· Organized and shared ideas as a whole class?

Try to find examples in your experiences of different ways in which teachers dealt with these aspects of the lesson and whether any were particularly effective.

Now listen together to some of your recorded extracts of student-student talk from your lesson and

discuss the type of talk this illustrates.

Consider the questions:
· Did students listen to and build on each other’s reasoning?
· Were there occasions when individual students were unhelpful to the group discussion?
· Were there examples of student behavior that helped the discussion?
· Can you think of occasions when your own intervention was helpful?
· Were there times when your intervention was unhelpful?