Formative Assessment and Consistent Feedback In The Classroom
Why Give Feedback and Use Formative Assessment?
When you provide feedback to your students in creative and fun ways, they are more likely to succeed. D. Royce Sadler, a Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at Griffith University, points out that students must be able to recognize what quality work looks like and be able to asses the quality of their own work.
How?
Give your students examples of quality work. Let them 
use this as a benchmark to identify their learning gaps and determine where they need to
improve. Your students will be more motivated about learning and more confident in their abilities because you have given them tools for critical thinking. They take ownership of their learning.
Education experts, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, found that teachers who used formative assessment practices with their students, and provided consistent feedback, significantly improved performance on standardized tests. Low-performing students made the most significant gains. They released their findings in their article, Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment.
Introducing Feedback Loops
Feedback loops are a tool for teachers to move learning forward through giving consistent feedback. Teachers and their students must simultaneously collect and analyze student learning information. With this information, teachers can determine where students are and where they need to go. Students’ movement from one learning target to another works best when students receive feedback. Students rely on regular feedback, and without it the chance of them remaining engaged learners spirals downward.
Featured Image: Responsive Classroom
Image: edutopia
