Formative Assessment Using the CPS Response System

Today’s educators face many levels of accountability concerning student achievement. No longer can the teacher just “teach” and “hope” the students grasp the material. The focus on education has shifted to the student. Administrators are no longer concerned with whether a teacher can “teach.” They are looking at how much the student is learning.

Now, how can teachers ensure all students are learning? Formative assessments are the answer. These assessments are designed to diagnose problems in the learning process. Effective formative assessments are short (no longer than 5 questions). Teachers can easily “grade” them and use that information to decide the next step.

My school purchased 5 class sets of Classroom Performance System (CPS) Responders last year. Everyone calls them “clickers.” During that year, a few teachers used them sporadically for summative assessments (big tests for a grade). I have used them for quizzes and tests. In addition, I used the clickers to get students engaged by using the two built-in games. However, I was not using the clickers for the purpose they were intended, to keep track of each individual student’s progress throughout the unit. I was not using them for formative assessment.

This year I started experimenting with using the clickers primarily for formative assessment. Though I received a two hour training on the many features of the responders last year, I did not know how to use the clickers during my lessons. Eventually, I just decided to try it out and learn as I work with the clickers and the software. After a few days using the clickers to assess my students’ understanding, I am now able to use the clickers on a regular basis (at least twice a week) to keep track of each student’s progress. With that information, I can group students based on their weaknesses to provide additional remediation.

During instruction, I can use the clickers to determine whether students truly understand the concept very quickly. After my students have entered their responses, I can view a chart to determine whether my students truly understand the concept. The chart only displays how many students entered the various responses; thus students are free to enter their responses without fear of embarrassment from their peers. I can pull a report after class to determine which student(s) truly didn’t get it.

The CPS Response system can be used in conjunction with an interactive whiteboard using just about any software for presentation. For the past two days, I used the CPS Responders for my “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” PowerPoint game. During each question, I had the students enter their answer with the clicker. If everyone got it correct, we moved on to the next question. If a few students missed it, I had a student who did it correctly explain the process to solve the problem. If the majority of the class missed it, I went over it with the entire class. This ensured that I didn’t waste instructional time on a problem that everyone understood while using that time on the questions the class actually needed.

The clickers are the best way to assess student understanding of concepts. For the quiet student who fears embarrassment in the classroom, the CPS Response system allows that student to communicate to the teacher without ever being noticed by his or her peers. Overall, the CPS Response system allows teachers to assess student understanding while maintaining the flexibility teachers need in their instruction.

CPS Response System: http://www.einstruction.com/products/assessment/cps/index.html