[MUSIC] Hi and welcome back to Assessing Achievement with the ELL in Mind. In this video, we are going to provide you with a brief overview of formative assessment as it relates to assessing all students in all classes, but with a special focus on our ELLs. First of all, what is formative assessment? Formative assessment is assessment for learning. In other words, it's the assessment teachers use to better their instruction for either all students or on an individual basis. Formative assessment is ongoing and continuous. It happens on a daily basis through classroom observation, in class discussions, and as a result of quiz type assessment. It's often informal and happens organically. Formative assessment measures achievement as student's progress through a lesson. Formative assessment is often teacher created and is administered in a normal classroom environment. We can refer back to our checklist or the informal observation sheet which identifies when and how students master skills as a perfect example of assessment done within a normal classroom interactions. Why is formative assessment important for ELLs in a content classroom? First, formative assessment helps identify how much and how well learners are accessing the content and the language. It gives us an opportunity to observe the language in action, which is often more telling than a multiple choice test or a random essay. Formative assessment is also important for ELLs because it allows for immediate and specific feedback. The student doesn't have to wait four or five days while the teacher grades a stack of essays. Instead, they get to know right away whether they are correct or not, and what they need to modify for that specific language situation and interaction. Formative assessment provides opportunities for the teacher to change or adapt their feedback, the materials, or the tasks in real time. In other words, the teacher can switch gears in the middle of a class to better adapt to the needs of their students and the language needs of their ELLs. Formative assessment is also important because the teacher can alter planning in mid-lesson or mid-unit to maximize understanding. And finally, formative assessment immediately impacts the learner on an individual basis and really makes intervention possible much earlier in the learning and language development process. There are many types of formative assessment, many of which we will cover in depth in this course. A first example of formative assessment is simply questioning techniques, with classroom discussion. Can a student answer questions based on the content or the material taught during that lesson? A second example of formative assessment is observation and recording of learning. Simply observing a student's mastery of content or language structures while they are working within a group or during a presentation of material functions as formative assessment. The next example of formative assessment is collaborative group work. While observing students working in a group, you can get a sense of their mastery of content and development of language. Finally, performance assessment is considered a type of formative assessment. Can they complete tasks within the content? Peer and self-assessments as well as portfolios also qualify as performance assessment, as it is usually asking the student to reflect on their own work and not up against a standard. Formative assessment should be used on a regular basis to increase student learning and to allow the teacher maximum amount of time for observation of student performance, especially with the ELL in mind.