Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The [person] who can make hard things easy is the educator.”

While I endeavor to accomplish this in, during, and throughout each unit, the test of my success as an educator comes from the results of an assessment - do the students now possess the complex skills and knowledge at a level where long term understanding has taken place? Have they learned what I’ve attempted to teach? The idea of an assessment, both formative and summative makes sense; students need to prove knowledge and skill acquisition. The challenge is in developing an engaging assessment that accurately measures student learning.

Below, I will attempt to describe a good formative and summative assessment that is intended to assess understanding for a particular standard and its accompanying learning objectives. But first, let me define these two different types of assessments, if not for any other reason, for my own external processing needs. A formative assessment is an informal, often low-stakes, check for understanding (Alber, 2011). These informal assessments can be quizzes, ticket-outs, quizlet type games, journal entries, or even a conversation with a student after class. The idea is to check for students learning along the way and assess if content comprehension is taking place long before the big high-stakes test or project. The summative assessment, on the other hand, is the high-stakes “end game” that determines whether or not the students have a high, mid-level, or low skills and knowledge comprehension for the whole unit’s content. Although these summative assessments have been traditionally pen and paper tests, they are not bound to that format and many teachers are creating and discovering creative and effective ways to structure summative assessments (Wolpert-Gawron, 2012).

A simple breakdown of the unit will assist in determining the effectiveness of the following assessments.

Big Idea: Authors usually know the rules and use them to inform and move the reader.

Essential Question: How has Mary Shelley used dramatic conventions to define themes and effect    

                                  readers?

Virginia State English Grade 12 Standard: Analyze how dramatic conventions including character, scene, dialogue, and staging contribute to the theme and effect.

Five SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) objectives have been developed to guide instruction and the creation of activities for class learning. The 5th lesson objective is relevant as it includes the preparation for the formative assessment: By the beginning of next class SWBAT justify the thematic contribution of 2 characters in Frankenstein (other than Frankenstein and the monster) by completing the “prepare for pop-up debate” worksheet.

Formative Assessment: a pop-up debate will be used to measure students understanding of author’s use of  minor characters in developing themes. Students will be evaluated using the self-evaluation sheet (see pic below). In addition, students will answer a wrap-up scaling question on a Google Form (see pic below). The pop-up debate allows me to see the students in action and carefully observe debate content to listen for keywords, phrases, and impromptu dialogue that indicates students level of content comprehension, in this specific case, their understanding of how Shelley uses minor characters to define themes in her book Frankenstein.

Summative Assessment: In testing for unit content knowledge, or in this case the skill and content knowledge in each objective, the students will create a Screencastify presentation. Each student will create a script that includes a definition of dramatic conventions, an explanation of how authors use them in general, three specific examples from modern literature (from students recreational reading list; my students read 50% academic and 50% recreational; Kelly Gallagher, Readicide), and three specific examples from Frankenstein. Students will make slides with at least 1 graphic/picture per slide (to enhance understanding) and keywords or phrases that help guide the presentation. Combining script and slides, student will use the free Chrome application Screencastify to record their video. A rubric is distributed that includes details like proper citations, etc. The screencastify video will allow students the final opportunity to prove unit content learning in an engaging and creative manner. The process of writing (script), connecting content to graphic, reading (script), and reviewing multiple times for editing, etc. will enhance the likelihood of long-term memory transfer. In addition, creating a Screencastify offers a “real world” skill and technology proficiency that can be applied to other learning opportunities.

Alber, R. (2011). Why Formative Assessments Matter. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/formative-assessments-importance-of-rebecca-alber

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2012). How Can We Make Assessments Meaningful? Retrieved December 05, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/making-assessments-meaningful-heather-wolpert-gawron