Academic Research International Vol. 11(2) June 2020 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2020 SAVAP International ISSN: 2223-9944, e ISSN: 2223-9553 www.savap.org.pk 1 www.journals.savap.org.pk FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN ELEMENTARY ENGLISH CLASSROOM: A CASE STUDY OF SEMI-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION OF PAKISTAN Ushaque Ahmed, Rana Naeem Akhtar, Rabia Aslam Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science & Technology, Karachi, PAKISTAN. saniushaque@gmail.com, dr.naeem@szabist.edu.pk, rabee_malik@hotmail.com ABSTRACT Formative assessments are valuable tools that can be used to monitor academic progress and increase student learning. This study focused on examining their experiences with the practice. The research question that guided this study was: What are teacher’s experiences with formative assessments? Cognitive sense-making framework served as a theoretical lens to explore this phenomenon. Utilizing case study, five elementary school teachers of semi-government organization participated in semi-structured interviews to discuss their experiences with the practices in English subject classroom. The themes generated in this study indicated that the participants were initially confused when first asked to implement formative assessments; however, their understanding developed over time. There were also barriers to implementation which were a lack of time and student behavior. The findings suggest that the participants would benefit from training that emphasizes introducing the learning goal at the beginning of a lesson. Keywords: formative assessments, sense-making, case study 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study During the process of instruction, most classroom teachers try to identify whether their students understand what is being taught. Teachers may use many activities to determine the learning status of their students. According to Burke and Depka (2016) activities that are used to identify student progress and modify instructional methods based on learning needs are known as formative assessments. Examples may include simple questioning or informal observations (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2017). Other activities may be a student’s written summary of what was learned (Dirksen, 2017) or their response to a question following a lesson, known as an exit ticket. Formative assessments typically are not used for grading purposes because they are implemented during the process of learning (Burke, 2016; Burke & Depka, 2018; Hammerman, 2019). The information gathered from these activities is used to identify whether students are learning specific skills or if they need additional instruction. If learning deficiencies are observed, teachers may need to re-teach a skill or provide additional practice activities. At an elementary school situated in Taluka Ratodero, District Larkana, Sindh. Teachers were expected to use formative assessments on daily basis. Over the period of time, teachers were to utilize this practice to assess the students’ learning outcomes and check for understanding throughout instruction and concluding a lesson. In addition, information gathered from these activities should be used to address the learning needs of students. Although the use of formative assessments was an expectation, the factors and variables that influenced the