It’s the 2nd term and we’re in for a ride of interruptions: national celebrations, sports, field trips and retreats. It’s not like we aren’t accustomed, so we just roll our eyes, groan quietly, but secretly await the blessed four-day weekend.
Yet on a serious note, our teaching time is reduced significantly and if we’re not teaching as much as we could, where does that leave assessment? Some of us may even ask, WHAT are we assessing? This post isn’t going to help you with that, because you, as the teacher, know what’s best and what you covered. It is, however, going to help you with HOW you assess.
I’m going to share with you the perks of a website that can cut what you do (or should be doing) in half.
Well, it has for me. I’m a Modern Languages teacher, specialising in French and Spanish, so it goes without saying, Math isn’t my forte. For those MLA teachers who have no fear of calculating percentages, kudos to you....but I ain’t the one. So, when I’m required to do an analysis of questions on test papers, that is, figuring out which questions students got wrong the most, or which ones they aced...I’m dealing with going through 36 scripts with a tally marker at my side…for five classes.
At least, that’s the way it was before I met Formative. I have to say ‘met’ because Formative feels like a person; a person who listens to you as a teacher, takes the feedback and then does something about it. You reach out, you ask if adding a feature is possible and shocker: YOU GET A RESPONSE. The interface changes, it explains how it has and guides you through how to use it effectively. It’s like a 9-1-1 call that gets picked up.
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My friendship with Formative (yes, I’m continuing to give it ‘person’ status) began many years ago, when Lee Ann introduced it to our department. We were being told that the CXC examination body was pushing for online assessment, and we wanted our students to be able to get on board with that. We started with our Listening exams, because Formative allowed us to record audio, upload images and set the answers. I didn’t need to mark any scripts; scores were generated automatically once the student submitted the assessment. I already relished not having to mark multiple-choice scripts, which honestly, felt like a pure waste of time.
Smitten with the site, both Lee and I decided to subscribe. The features we then enjoyed, were access to more question-type options and get this: being able to schedule an assessment. Way in advance, we could set the assessment to open and close at a certain time on a certain day. We could now set a time limit on the exam that started counting down from the moment the student opened it. We could even decide if students got to see their score automatically or not, and if a student was absent, we could restrict the test’s re-opening/closing, to that ONE student.
If you’re a Foreign Language teacher in the Caribbean, you know that listening exams require you to be present, read for your class and hope, beyond hope, that none of your students show up late (or two days after). It’s a time-consuming exam and there are too many variables you can’t control: you have an emergency on the day and can’t read, you lose your voice or are ill...and in the recent months, this has become a real threat: a natural disaster/ terrible weather keeps you or your students homebound.
For me, Formative has taken the anxiety out of administering the exam for me. I can simply tell my students, log on, open, and begin. While they’re doing the test, on my own computer, I’m getting real-time feedback as to which question, they’re on, if they got it right or didn’t...and by the time they all log off, my grades are ready, and I can just scan the top of the page to see which questions were the hardest/ easiest (yes at I can at least read and interpret percentages).
Formative is also colour coded, that means, I can see immediately if a certain question is marked ‘red’ by most of the class. And you want to hear the best part? If I go back and realise I made the mistake of putting the wrong option as the answer, I can change it....and voilà! It updates the students' scores!
When my school invested in the Formative website during lock-down, I was beyond thrilled. By this time, the site had introduced a teacher-paced mode that put the ball back in my court. Let me explain. I’m pretty sure no teacher is unfamiliar with speaking into the void/ black hole while online. We spoke into it, we asked it questions and the watery response, almost always, came from us. It’s like we were testing ourselves on what we knew...in front of little black boxes with names. Let’s be fair though and give a quick shout-out to the ONE student in the class who let you know you weren’t alone in the universe.
With Formative’s teacher-paced mode though, you got to pull all your students back to planet Earth...and your class. Here’s how:
You could create an exercise/ assignment and then choose to run it in teacher-paced mode. This mode allows you to control the question that’s on screen and to see EXACTLY, who was attempting an answer and who wasn’t. Imagine poor Jordan’s shock when I said: “Jordan, I’m not seeing you typing in your answer, could you get started please?” (Woe to him if a parent was in the background- which...unfortunately, for Jordan, was the case. Boy did he mute that mic fast!)
With the teacher-paced mode, I created situations assignments to practise my students’ writing in the FL. I was able to spotlight a particular student, tell him what error he made in real-time and have him correct it for himself by retyping the word/phrase correctly. A total game-changer.
Unfortunately, when a new tech tool/platform is introduced to an institution/ company, there’s always push-back. Why do we need to change? If it’s working, why fix what ain’t broke?
Except it is ‘broke’. Certain sites are excellent for gamification (think Quizizz, Blooklet), but at the end of the day, gamification, and formative assessment carry two very different meanings:
According to the Australian Government Department of Education:
“‘Gamification’ in education is about increasing student engagement and learning by including game-like elements in learning.” [...] Games can enhance student focus and motivation, and can provide the freedom for students to try, fail, and explore.”
https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum/national-stem-education-resources-toolkit/i-want-know-about-stem-education/different-kinds-stem-education-initiatives/gamification
Now compare it to the definition of Formative Assessment by Nancy Gerzon and Elise Trumbull (2013) :
“Formative Assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students' achievement of intended instructional outcomes.”
For me personally, there’s little overlap. Motivating students, making sure they have fun while learning, that’s a whole different objective, to making informed decisions (based on quantitative and qualitative data) about what instruction moving forward should entail.
We can’t use a gamification platform, or rather, shouldn’t, for making serious decisions about learning. If marks/ grades are going to be entered in a formal database that tracks students’ progress, you need a platform that specifically captures formative data. Assessment is a serious matter governed by principles like validity, reliability, fairness, equity...you know the drill. You’re a qualified teacher so I won’t preach to the choir.
Don’t mix gamification and assessment like they’re one and the same. Their objectives are different, their outcomes are different and get this....they were always meant to be different. When did the blur occur and why did it, for senior teachers who should know better? (But that’s another issue altogether).
The Formative website cannot be placed in the gamification category and that’s a major point. The nay-sayers will find a million reasons why it can’t work, but I introduced the website to some new teachers for the first time, and here’s some of their feedback:
It’s user-friendly. I only had to be shown once how to use the interface and I took off from there.
It gives me feedback in real-time as to what I need to re-teach/ what students have mastered.
I can upload videos/ demos to teach and then quiz my students on what they’ve viewed.
I can vary the types of questions I ask: multiple choice, in line choice, match, written response, audio response...there are so many options!
I can upload my own PDFs and add questions to assess student understanding of it.
It helped me complete my exam analysis without me needing to even pick up a calculator.
I can track student engagement and show proof to parents/ guardians (via screenshots) as to if their child is completing my work.
I can see exactly when/ if my students logged on to complete the assignment.
It takes my worry away, about the exam happening when it should and within the time it should.
I can provide written feedback to my students on any question I need to, and they’ll see a little comment icon come up. So will I, in case a student says he/she never got it, I can show him/her when I posted the comment and what it was.
The benefit list can go on and on, but the main point is this: Formative is one of the best tech tools out there for assessing student learning progress and adapting instruction to match it. How does it deliver? Simply by being a website powered by people, who actually listen to teachers and respond to their needs in real-time. It gives teachers the data they need to make informed decisions about what they teach (re-teach) moving forward. And when it comes to our students’ learning progress, that’s no game. We are held accountable for it, and so are they. So let’s do assessment the right way, with the help of a team who actually cares. Formative for the win!