Embedded Formative Assessment

Seven Strategies of Assessment

for Learning

The seven strategies fulfill Sadler’s three conditions, phrased as questions from

the student’s point of view:

Where am I going?; Where am I now?; and How

can I close the gap?

As you read through these strategies, note that many are

not new—they reflect practices that have been around for years (Figure 1.4).

What may be new is their

intentional use, focusing on the student as the most

influential decision maker in your classroom.

Where Am I Going?

Strategy 1: Provide students with a clear and understandable vision of the

learning target.

Motivation and achievement both increase when instruction is guided by clearly

defined targets. Activities that help students answer the question, “What’s the

learning?” set the stage for all further formative assessment actions.

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Seven Strategies

of Assessment for Learning

Figure 1.4

Seven Strategies of Assessment

for Learning

Source:

Adapted with permission from R. J. Stiggins, J. A. Arter, J. Chappuis, and S. Chappuis, Classroom

Assessment

for Student Learning: Doing It Right—Using It Well (Portland, OR: ETS Assessment Training Institute,

2004), p. 42.

Where Am I Going?

Strategy 1: Provide students with a clear and understandable vision of the learning target.

Strategy 2: Use examples and models of strong and weak work.

Where Am I Now?

Strategy 3: Offer regular descriptive feedback.

Strategy 4: Teach students to self-assess and set goals.

How Can I Close the Gap?

Strategy 5: Design lessons to focus on one learning target or aspect of quality at a time.

Strategy 6: Teach students focused revision.

Strategy 7: Engage students in self-reflection, and let them keep track of and share their

learning.

Strategy 2: Use examples and models of strong and weak work.

Carefully chosen examples of the range of quality can create and refine students’

understanding of the learning goal by helping students answer the questions,

“What defines quality work?” and “What are some problems to avoid?”

Where Am I Now?

Strategy 3: Offer regular descriptive feedback.

Effective feedback shows students where they are on their path to attaining

the intended learning. It answers for students the questions, “What are my

strengths?”; “What do I need to work on?”; and “Where did I go wrong and what

can I do about it?”

CHAPTER 1:

Formative Assessment and Assessment for Learning

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Strategy 4: Teach students to self-assess and set goals.

The information provided in effective feedback models the kind of evaluative

thinking we want students to be able to do themselves. Strategy 4 teaches

students to identify their strengths and weaknesses and to set goals for further

learning. It helps them answer the questions, “What am I good at?”; “What do I

need to work on?”; and “What should I do next?”

How Can I Close the Gap?

Strategy 5: Design lessons to focus on one learning target or aspect of

quality at a time.

When assessment information identifies a need, we can adjust instruction to

target that need. In this strategy, we scaffold learning by narrowing the focus of

a lesson to help students master a specific learning goal or to address specific

misconceptions or problems.

Strategy 6: Teach students focused revision.

This is a companion to Strategy 5—when a concept, skill, or competence

proves difficult for students, we can let them practice it in smaller segments,

and give them feedback on just the aspects they are practicing. This strategy

allows students to revise their initial work with a focus on a manageable number

of learning targets or aspects of quality.

Strategy 7: Engage students in self-reflection, and let them keep track of

and share their learning.

Long-term retention and motivation increase when students track, reflect on,

and communicate about their learning. In this strategy, students look back on

their journey, reflecting on their learning and sharing their achievement with

others.

The seven strategies are not a recipe to be followed step by step, although

they do build on one another. Rather, they are a collection of actions that will

strengthen students’ sense of self-efficacy (belief that effort will lead to improvement),

their motivation to try, and ultimately, their achievement. They

represent a use of assessment information that differs from the traditional

practice of associating

assessment with test, and test with grade. These assessment

practices will not result in more grades in the gradebook. Rather, they

ask us to think more broadly about what assessment is and what it is capable of

accomplishing.