Formative Assessment Paper

In the United States, formative, and summative assessments play a large role in the education of today’s students. Summative tests are typically the biggest assessments of the year for students, teachers, and the district. In order to find out more information in regards to formative, and summative assessments, I interviewed Colette Alonge-Watz, a high school chemistry teacher. Colette has been teaching chemistry for 21 years in various schools, and for the past six years has been at Millbrook High School, in Millbrook New York. Colette prefers to use formative assessments frequently and summative assessments at the end of a big unit. For instance, she uses formative assessment in her classroom, such as do now’s, exit tickets, lab questions, and review …show more content…
A good way to interpret what the Common Core is meant to do is by visiting the Common Core State Standards Initiative website, which explains the Common Core as, “Building on the best of existing state standards, the common Core State Standards provide clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life.” The Common Core is built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards. When I met with Colette she was very pro- active about teaching her students, and what is expected of them, even with state standards changing over time. However, she did mention that she continuously feels the need to “teach to the test,” which takes away from fun learning activities. I learned a great deal about using assessments in class from Colette, such as why they are helpful, what they measure, and what you can do with the results of the assessments. Colette seemed to favor formative assessment over summative assessments, because with formative assessments she is able to go back and reteach material. In our Formative Assessment Project, I was able to get a glimpse of what Colette was explaining to me. When I