The One Minute Paper is a fast and easy way to assess student learning at slightly deeper levels. While it is usually done at the end of a lesson, a One Minute Paper can occur at any time - and can be prepared ahead of time or just done on blank paper to a verbal prompt. Responses can be listing important aspects of a lesson, defining vocabulary, drawing a particular object, or writing wonderings about future content. Responses should take no longer than a minute, (or two) and should be a useful tool to quickly scan the learning taking place in your classroom. You can either scan the responses quickly on the spot, or you can use this information to drive future lessons and identify gaps in learning to be addressed before the next lesson.

One Minute Papers help teachers:

• Obtain written or drawn data from students to reflect upon after a lesson

• Identify gaps in learning which can be addressed

• Ask questions from several points of view to gauge learning in a class

• While the paper itself may only take a minute or two, students can be given more time to plan and map out their responses beforehand

• Having one small rubric used consistently will help students zero in on your expectations over time

• One Minute Papers can be used to focus student thoughts and ideas before a class discussion

• One Minute Papers can be used to gather student interest in a topic or idea, the relevance of the material in a lesson, analysis of an idea, opinions on a topic, or to gather connections from previous lessons

• One Minute Papers can also be returned in partners or small groups in the form of written work, verbally, digitally, or artwork