Just Getting Started

Informal, or formative assessments are about checking for understanding in an effective way in order to guide instruction. They are used during instruction rather than at the end of a unit or course of study. And if we use them correctly, and often, yes, there is a chance instruction will slow when we discover we need to re-teach or review material the students wholly "did not get" -- and that's okay. Because sometimes we have to slow down in order to go quickly.

Alber, Rebecca (Feb. 15, 2011). Why Formative Assessments Matter, Edutopia. Retireved from the web: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/formative-assessments-importance-of-rebecca-alber

Formative Assessments

Use questions from a previous assessment.
Possibly introduce the formative assessment with some sort of “overarching” activity that will help students preview the content so they have a chance to get exposed to the content before they take the formative.
You could set this up as a pretest (in the early stages of learning) or during the learning to gauge progress OR you could allow students to take it when they think they are ready for some specific feedback (early, during, towards the end, etc.).
Allow student to take and retake as often as they need to prepare for a summative assessment or activity… Or create multiple versions for many chances to prepare!

Make Use of Feedback Feature in your LMS Assessment Tool

When you give students a formative assessment, use that assessment as another way to target instruction. When a student misses a question, give them an explanation or direction on what to do to get more information.
When a student gets a question right, give them more information.
Personalize learning by directing students to do something (watch a video, complete an activity, read a passage) based on the answer chosen in the formative.

One student commented, "I like having to take pretest and formatives because it gives me a hint of what the topic is about, and the formatives that we take to practice tests really helps me to improve what I don't understand."

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