It took me a very long time to understand the difference between summative and formative assessment based on written descriptions. They are clear as day in a classroom. Summative shows up in moments where students are playing with the material.
Projects, practice problems, the standard “How are you doing?” is formative assessment. Any time that you’re interacting with your students that isn’t explicitly written in your standard syllabus, I would consider formative. The advantage to these activities is that the instructor can rapid fire through an entire process but disguise it as a conversation.
My favorite formative strategy from my past practicum is the “white board group work”. By placing students in groups and providing the whole class with questions you can quickly ascertain who the strong students are, and who is struggling on this concept. The best set up for this is to have the white boards on the walls facing the interior of the class.
My CT gifted me “Building thinking classrooms in mathematics ” by Peter Liljedahl which inspired this classroom layout for him. I am eager to read the resource and see what else is new!
