Summative Assessments

I also recently learned what a summative assessment is. A summative assessment is one that provides a review or assessment that provides a means toward a grade or judgement. This is very different from the formative assessments. Your job with this type of assessment is to be able to give a letter grade to the student by the end of the assessment. Types of things to help you with these assessments would be rubrics and answer keys. This one does help out the formative assessment though. The grades that are based off of a summative assessment allows for progress to be shown so that a formative assessment can even be made. Summative assessments are very important because it allows the students to know how well they are doing, what they need to work on, what they are retaining, and where they stand in the classes grading system. This also allows for a final grade or a completion at the end of term to be shown for the student with a means to support what is shown on their report card. Ways summative assessments can be shown is by using an Excel worksheet, Word Documents, or even Google Docs using their worksheets/spreadsheets in order to create a rubric for a project or large assignment that the students are supposed to complete. Another way is to use Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create an answer key for any tests, quizzes, or assignments. Also any one of these could be used as well to make a rubric or grading sheet for the student's participation in the class throughout the term. An important thing to remember is that you are trying to grade them and give them judgements on their completed work instead of just insight and feedback. You need to let them know exactly how well they did. As long as this is done courteously, professionally, and individually, this can be very beneficial for the students.