Formative Assessment
Incorporating Formative Assessment
Formative Assessment is a way for educators to gauge where students are without necessarily giving a grade or even anything formal. These assessments are ongoing and highly valuable in identifying the direction for future instruction.
There are many ways to include formative assessments in the classroom. Need some strategies? This is your place! Keep looking down below.
Also, please visit the Teacher Chat page to talk about ideas with others, ask questions, or add resources!
Rose, Bud, Thorn
Ask students to tell about the lesson, or about their day- a rose is something good or something they learned, a bud is something they're looking forward to, and a thorn is something they didn't like or still have questions on.
Exit tickets are a great way to end a lesson, and to see what students learned throughout the class, or even what questions they still have. There are a variety of ways now to do exit tickets- there's not only the good old pen and paper, but there is also Twitter, surveymonkey, Google forms, doodlepolls, and many more.
Although social media can be distracting, it can also be a great way to get students involved in learning, and an easy way to communicate and find out what students know about something. Educators can use Facebook, Twitter (with a great introduction to using Twitter found here), Instagram, and other social media platforms for educational purposes!
Observations
No matter what kind of class you have or what subject you teach, observations as a formative assessment can always be valuable to gauge where students are in the learning process. They may not be actual "grades" in a gradebook, but that doesn't make them any less valuable. With these impromptu observations, teachers can often create groups, extend learning, or catch students up who may have been behind. Try having an observation notebook, printed attendance sheets to take quick checks on each student, or a clipboard with anticipated groupings.
Never underestimate the power of asking questions. As a teacher, ask questions to see where a student is, or where they want to be. As a student, questions help to get to deeper thinking or new perspective, or even to reflect on work they've already done. This formative assessment can be posed in many different ways- with many different results.
Learning Logs
Learning logs, response journals, reading logs, dialectic journals; all names for written responses to readings or discussions to examine student thinking. There are plenty of variations to these journals; signs around a classroom, book recommendations, or literature circles could be other ways to go too. The important thing is to help students gain a love of reading!
The use of graphic organizers can be used not only as a scaffold for students, but also as a way to gauge understanding before a student moves on to another task.
Reflecting on work is a key skill needed to be successful in the world today. Keeping each other and yourself accountable is valuable in learning from mistakes as well as successes.
There are so many apps now adays that could be used in the classroom! See if you can find your own or try out some of the ones listed above.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Simply ask students a yes/no question, or an agree/disagree question, or any question with two possible answers, and then ask them to give a thumbs up for one option and a thumbs down for the other option.
Have students form a double T chart on their paper, with three columns. The first column is labeled "K" for "Know"- what students already know about a topic. The second column is labeled "W" for "Want to Know"- what students would like to find out more about during the lesson or unit. The last column is labeled "L" for "Learned"- as students go throughout the lesson or unit, they should revisit this column and write in what they learn about.
Surveys or Polls
At the beginning (pre-test) or end of the lesson (post-test), give students a questionnaire or poll about the topic. You can phrase surveys and polls any way you like- asking about what was learned or remembered, what students want to know in the future, what they still have questions about. Google Forms, Survey Monkey, Flubaroo, Doodle, and Wordle are just a few ways to get information from students in one place to review as formative assessment.