The reading group from last week really helped me to rethink about PE assessments and assessments in general. In our group discussion, we talked a lot about formative assessment vs. summative assessment. Formative assessment provides a positive feedback to teachers and students. In a way, not only is the teacher assessing the student, but students can also assess the lesson. These active feedback loops assist teachers to adapt their lesson for the future and at the same time help students to be more aware of their own learning, thereby closing the gap between teacher’s and student’s expectations. Sometimes teachers may think they made everything crystal clear, but to the students a lot of the instructions might be quite confusing. If we don’t receive the feedback from the student we can never see our own mistakes and improve upon them. This idea of involving students in the decision of their own learning provides higher motivation and self-esteem. In comparison, summative assessment is quite different from formative assessment. This is also the type of assessment most students are familiar with. In our class discussion, we mentioned, rather than giving students a final exam, perhaps, we can design a final project that will evaluate student’s fundamental movement skills and fundamental sports skills.

As expert Paul Back puts it,” When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When the customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.” I think as a facilitator and an educator it is important to incorporate both formative and summative into our practice.