Summative and Formative Assesments

Summative assessments are when students are evaluated when they are finished with the work and the focus is the final product. They are used to know what the students know and what they do not know. Some examples of this assessment are final exams, entrance exams like SAT, and nationwide test.

Formative assessments are when students are evaluated during the work progress and also during this they try to improve the process as well. Some examples of this assessment are observations, discussions and questions.

A teacher can use these types of assessments to see where the children are and what they need to change to help the children learn better and understand. They are used to gather information, record, and interpret about the students to make a lesson plan that helps all the students in the classroom. If we use an analogy to describe the, it would be something like this; “If we think of our children as plants; Summative Assessment of the plants is simply measuring them. It might be interesting to compare and analyze measurements, but these do not affect the growth of the plant. Formative Assessment is the equivalent to feeding and watering the plants according to their needs, this will affect their growth.”