Marisa

=**__FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT__**=

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Assessment is vital to the educational process, in our schools; the most visible assesments are summative. **Summative assessments** are used to mesure what students have learnt at the end of a unit, to promote students, to ensure they have met requiered standards on the way to ending certification for school promotion...=====

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When incorporated into classroom practice, the **formative assessment** process provides information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are still happening. The process serves as practice for the student and check for understanding during the learning process. The formative assessment process guides teachers in making decision about future instruction.=====

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In classrooms, formative assessment refers to frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to idendity learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately. Teachers using formative assessment approaches and techniques are better prepared to meet diverse students' needs.=====

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Here are a few examples that may be used in the classroom during the formative assessment process to collect evidence of student learning ( observation, self/peer assessment, discussion, practice presentations, mindmaps...)=====

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Since the goal of formative assessment is to gain an understanding of what students know (and don't know) in order to make responsive changes in teaching and learning, techniques such as teacher observation and classroom discussion have an important place alongside analysis of test and homework.=====

Formative assessment builds students' **"learning to learn"** skills by:

 * =====Placing emphasis on the process of teaching and learning, and actively involving students in that process.=====
 * =====Building students' skills for peer- and self-assessment.=====
 * =====Helping students understand their own learning, and develop appropriate strategies for learning to learn.=====

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Students who are actively building their understanding of new concepts ( rather than merely absorbing information), who have developed a variety of strategies that enable them to place new ideas into a larger context, and who are learning to judge the quality of their own and their peer's work against well-defined learning goals and criteria, are also developing skills that are invaluable for learning throughout their lives.=====

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For next course I'm trying to do "**A JOURNAL" :** Students are requiered to periodically write their thoughts and feelings about how they are progressing in the class. They can also tell what they liked or didn't like about a particular assignment. This information gives the teacher a quick look at how effective a certain lesson plan was. If the majority of the class jornals that they had a difficult time with a particular lesson, then the teacher knows he/she needs to make changes to that lesson.=====

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I think it would be useful to improve achievement in students learning, I must be able to acknowledge when students are not progressing according to standards. A formative assessment is a process of using information to adapt or change teaching and learning in order to meet the learning needs of students.=====

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To finish it I want to add that I enjoy and learn a lot during these days, I know that I have o investigate and read more about the topic, because there are a lot of information and I want to improve more about it.=====