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Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning by Page D. Keeley (Editor) (4-Jun-2008) Paperback
These 75 specific techniques help K-12 science teachers determine students' understanding of key concepts.
Unknown Binding
First published March 15, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 18, 2009
“Formative Assessment” is a term very much in vogue in education today. Over the past year of teaching I have heard it a lot, but it was never very clearly explained to me what it actually means. This book accomplished that apparently difficult goal. Unfortunately it did it by introducing yet another acronym to the educational canon – FACTs or Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques. The book attempts to make the case for exposing misconceptions and creating a deeper long-term understanding of material and for the most part was successful.
It began rather unpromisingly with 30 pages of justification before getting down to the FACTs. Recapping other educational theories and discussing how they correlate to the use of formative assessment. This also allows the parade of acronyms that always accompanies this exercise in almost any book of educational practice. Once you slog through that, the book becomes more useful.
You are walked though selecting a FACT, implementing the FACT, evaluating the usefulness after the FACT, and using the FACTual data derived from using it. There is also an excellent table (pages 42-44 in my paperback edition) which overviewed all of the techniques outlined in the book and what specific skills that are addressed by each.
The remainder of the book is an overview of 75 different formative assessment techniques. There is a trading card like aspect to each technique explained. The FACT is given a clever name and then there is an explanation on how to implement; it is evaluated for ease of use, time demand, and cognitive demand on students; things to watch out for; and ways to potentially tie different techniques together. In addition, most have a science example that may be useful as is, depending on what you teach.
The one that hooked me into reading the book was the “Concept Cartoon”. There was a cartoon of a snowman and three kids surrounding it. One was holding a jacket and each kid offered an opinion about putting the jacket on the snowman. One felt that it would melt the snowman faster, one felt it would insulate and protect the snowman, and one felt it would not make a difference at all. It was an interesting conceptual question and presented in a way that would be very engaging to students.
Overall, I feel this book would make a great reference for any teacher of any experience level – particularly those just starting out on the road of formative assessments. As an added bonus (and because I compiled this list for my colleagues at school) – I have listed the FACTs that appealed most to me when I read the book, though this book does have something for all teachers and that could include some that did not appeal to me. Page numbers refer to my paperback edition.
48-49 – A&D Statements
• Evaluate statements as true or false and design experiments to test assertion
126-128 – Justified True/False
• Similar to A&D Statements
53-56 – Annotated Student Drawings
• Expose misconceptions that would not be apparent in words
• Reveal scientific vocabulary students are familiar with (or not)
• Aid visual learners
145-146 – Paint the Picture
• Similar to Annotated Student Drawings
56-59 – Card Sorts
• Useful for anyone who has to categorize many things. Seems potentially effective for biology
123-126 – Justified List
• Similar to Card Sorts
59-62 – CCC
• Partially edit wrong or partially wrong and then have them dissect and revise in groups
65-67 – Commit and Toss
• An interesting technique for getting anonymous feedback from random students. Basically everyone writes an answer and then throws it into the air.
68-70 – Concept Card Mapping
• Interactive way to do concept mapping
71-74 – Concept Cartoons
• There is a cartoon with several people offering an explanation, where only one of them could be true
• Also see www.conceptcartoons.com
79-82 – Explanation Analysis
• Good method of evaluating quality of answers
83-85 – Fact First Questions
• Seems useful as an activator
85-87 – Familiar Phenomenon Probes
• Presents fact and offers multiple explanations. Students must choose and justify choice
102-104 – Friendly Talk Probes
• Similar to Familiar Phenomenon Probes
153-156 – PEO Probe
• Similar to Friendly Talk Probe with an observation to test predictions
111-114 – Informal Student Interviews
• Way to assess understanding outside of class
117-119 – I Think – We Think
• Take individual ideas and compare to group ideas
121-123 – Juicy Questions
• Take dramatic scenario and have students discuss implications
135-138 – Missed Conception
• Exposes common missed conceptions and forced to confront them
167-169 – Refutations
• Incorrect statement that needs to be corrected
• Similar to Missed Conception
138-140 – Muddiest Point
• Way to assess sticking point of lesson in order to fix problem
• May focus too much on the negative
156-157 – POMS – Point of Most Significance
• More positive version of Muddiest Point
169-171 – Representation Analysis
• Discuss limitations of scientific diagrams
180-183 – STIP – Scientific Terminology Inventory Probe
• Pre-screening scientific vocabulary of unit
183-185 – Student Evaluation of Learning Goals
• Post-unit to inform future teaching of unit
186-188 – Synetics
• Analogies to everyday
203-204 – Traffic Light Dots
• Students assess level of understanding
• There are about 3-4 variations of “Traffic Lights” and this is the one that I thought would be the most effective
It began rather unpromisingly with 30 pages of justification before getting down to the FACTs. Recapping other educational theories and discussing how they correlate to the use of formative assessment. This also allows the parade of acronyms that always accompanies this exercise in almost any book of educational practice. Once you slog through that, the book becomes more useful.
You are walked though selecting a FACT, implementing the FACT, evaluating the usefulness after the FACT, and using the FACTual data derived from using it. There is also an excellent table (pages 42-44 in my paperback edition) which overviewed all of the techniques outlined in the book and what specific skills that are addressed by each.
The remainder of the book is an overview of 75 different formative assessment techniques. There is a trading card like aspect to each technique explained. The FACT is given a clever name and then there is an explanation on how to implement; it is evaluated for ease of use, time demand, and cognitive demand on students; things to watch out for; and ways to potentially tie different techniques together. In addition, most have a science example that may be useful as is, depending on what you teach.
The one that hooked me into reading the book was the “Concept Cartoon”. There was a cartoon of a snowman and three kids surrounding it. One was holding a jacket and each kid offered an opinion about putting the jacket on the snowman. One felt that it would melt the snowman faster, one felt it would insulate and protect the snowman, and one felt it would not make a difference at all. It was an interesting conceptual question and presented in a way that would be very engaging to students.
Overall, I feel this book would make a great reference for any teacher of any experience level – particularly those just starting out on the road of formative assessments. As an added bonus (and because I compiled this list for my colleagues at school) – I have listed the FACTs that appealed most to me when I read the book, though this book does have something for all teachers and that could include some that did not appeal to me. Page numbers refer to my paperback edition.
48-49 – A&D Statements
• Evaluate statements as true or false and design experiments to test assertion
126-128 – Justified True/False
• Similar to A&D Statements
53-56 – Annotated Student Drawings
• Expose misconceptions that would not be apparent in words
• Reveal scientific vocabulary students are familiar with (or not)
• Aid visual learners
145-146 – Paint the Picture
• Similar to Annotated Student Drawings
56-59 – Card Sorts
• Useful for anyone who has to categorize many things. Seems potentially effective for biology
123-126 – Justified List
• Similar to Card Sorts
59-62 – CCC
• Partially edit wrong or partially wrong and then have them dissect and revise in groups
65-67 – Commit and Toss
• An interesting technique for getting anonymous feedback from random students. Basically everyone writes an answer and then throws it into the air.
68-70 – Concept Card Mapping
• Interactive way to do concept mapping
71-74 – Concept Cartoons
• There is a cartoon with several people offering an explanation, where only one of them could be true
• Also see www.conceptcartoons.com
79-82 – Explanation Analysis
• Good method of evaluating quality of answers
83-85 – Fact First Questions
• Seems useful as an activator
85-87 – Familiar Phenomenon Probes
• Presents fact and offers multiple explanations. Students must choose and justify choice
102-104 – Friendly Talk Probes
• Similar to Familiar Phenomenon Probes
153-156 – PEO Probe
• Similar to Friendly Talk Probe with an observation to test predictions
111-114 – Informal Student Interviews
• Way to assess understanding outside of class
117-119 – I Think – We Think
• Take individual ideas and compare to group ideas
121-123 – Juicy Questions
• Take dramatic scenario and have students discuss implications
135-138 – Missed Conception
• Exposes common missed conceptions and forced to confront them
167-169 – Refutations
• Incorrect statement that needs to be corrected
• Similar to Missed Conception
138-140 – Muddiest Point
• Way to assess sticking point of lesson in order to fix problem
• May focus too much on the negative
156-157 – POMS – Point of Most Significance
• More positive version of Muddiest Point
169-171 – Representation Analysis
• Discuss limitations of scientific diagrams
180-183 – STIP – Scientific Terminology Inventory Probe
• Pre-screening scientific vocabulary of unit
183-185 – Student Evaluation of Learning Goals
• Post-unit to inform future teaching of unit
186-188 – Synetics
• Analogies to everyday
203-204 – Traffic Light Dots
• Students assess level of understanding
• There are about 3-4 variations of “Traffic Lights” and this is the one that I thought would be the most effective
March 16, 2018
This resources is packed full of practical uses for the science classroom. The resources and ideas are very user friendly and easily incorporated into the class.
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May 25, 2024As the title suggests, this is a very practical book full of different strategies towards improving your practice. As someone who often falls in the trap of constantly focusing on content delivery and summative assessments, I benefited greatly from considering the various times I can stop and gauge my students' comprehension and attitude towards class.
While there is a large matrix to help you isolate the individual strategies that suit your needs, I enjoyed reading it cover-to-cover. Keeley isn't afraid to get into theory, but just enough to keep the text very user-friendly. I also appreciate her Caveats & Modifications sections where she gives clear considerations for your particular classroom needs.
While it doesn't directly address the mounting issue of how to teach in physically-distant, COVID-era classrooms, it certainly provides many ideas that can be modified to work for our present moment.
While there is a large matrix to help you isolate the individual strategies that suit your needs, I enjoyed reading it cover-to-cover. Keeley isn't afraid to get into theory, but just enough to keep the text very user-friendly. I also appreciate her Caveats & Modifications sections where she gives clear considerations for your particular classroom needs.
While it doesn't directly address the mounting issue of how to teach in physically-distant, COVID-era classrooms, it certainly provides many ideas that can be modified to work for our present moment.
August 2, 2008
I use this book now almost daily in planning my science classes. The formative assessment probes are appropriate various times during a lesson, and many of them provide me with a lot of information about the learning progress of my students.
May 29, 2011
Very informative. Lots of useful ideas and strategies to use in the science classroom. Wish I opted for the paper copy instead of the Kindle edition though.
January 4, 2015
Lots of terrific ideas for assessing students. I recommend this book to every science teacher - new, veteran, and intern - I come across.
February 21, 2016
Great book! It is full of actual assessments that a teacher can do quickly and easily. This is one book I will use daily.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews