Before Instruction

Here are several Formative Assessments that we could use, before learning, to provide insights that will allow us to adjust our instruction and meet our students where they are at.

• Corners (Peardeck)
  The teacher has an image on the slide that states four areas of possible study in an upcoming unit. The students drag their circle to the corner they are most interested in learning about. Students discuss their choices. The teacher can use this information to adapt the upcoming lessons to skip teaching what they already know, tackle misconceptions, and design lessons that reach the desired unit goals but build on their ideas of what they would like to learn.

• Entrance Slips (Padlet)
  Students individually write what they already know about the topic. Students read each other's posts to build on their ideas with further information, ask questions, or make connections. At the end students read through the discussions to get a good feel of what the class collectively already knows and what they may need / want to learn more about.

• Student Predictions (Zoom Polling)
  Students will express their thinking as they make predictions about the content or reason for learning in an upcoming unit. They express their ideas in a poll that is shared with the class, gleaned for information that can be used to adapt the upcoming lessons/unit.

• S-O-S Summary (Google Docs)
  The teachers provide a statement (S) about the upcoming unit. Students write their opinions (O) and provide evidence to support (S) their thinking. The teacher can use their writing to gauge prior knowledge, interest, and tackle misunderstandings.

• Concept Mapping (Coggle)
  Provide students with an image, writing or video to introduce a new unit of study. Have students use a concept map to make a flowchart of the information. This is a great way to explore students' understanding of how the events are connected. Teachers can adjust their upcoming lessons to build on students’ prior knowledge and tackle any misconceptions.

• Asynchronous Online Discussions (Canvas Discussion, Classroom Question, or shared Google Docs)
  Synchronous Online Discussions (Zoom Breakout Rooms)
  Students share their understanding, express areas of interest, and ask questions in documents. Teachers can glean information from discussions to find areas of interest and discover understanding and misunderstanding. They can use this information to adjust their lessons.

• Gallery Walk Brainstorm (Padlet)
  Students check out four images or short videos on a topic. They go to affinity based breakout rooms to discuss a specific subtopic for an upcoming unit. They take a few minutes to write what they already know. Then, they engage in a short discussion on the topic. One member of the group creates a short response on Padlet where they state the topic and summarize what everyone agrees is correct, the discrepancies, and ideas that were agreed were definitely wrong.

• Three Things Word Association (Mentimeter Word Cloud)
  The teacher introduces the new unit to students and asks them to write the first three words that come to mind into a collective word cloud generator. The teacher can learn a lot about student interests and excitement for a topic and catch misunderstandings that airse.

• 90 Second Brain Dump (Google Forms)
  Teachers ask their students to take 1.5 minutes to write everything they know about a given topic into a google form. Teachers can easily glean information from their writing about what they are interested in, what they already understand, and what they do not yet know. Control + F makes it easy to find frequently recurring words so teachers can quickly see patterns.