A "Byte of Information" to Satisfy Your Appetite for Technology...Formative Assessment Tools!

May 08, 2015

A Byte of Information to satisfy your hunger for new and exciting technology in the classroom….Formative Assessment & Technology! What exactly is formative assessment? Formative assessment is assessment for learning, not assessment of learning. Teachers use formative assessment to formally and informally assess the process by which students are learning and to provide opportunity to enhance, improve, and tailor future instruction. Formative assessment also allows opportunity for students to gather feedback about their own learning experiences and how they can improve their performance. There are some really engaging tools available to aid teachers in presenting students with formative assessment on a regular basis. Below, I will outline some specific tools that can help transform formative assessments in your classroom. In addition to the traditional assessment tools, consider some of these technology driven formative assessment options to bring excitement into your classroom.

Kahoot! Kahoot is an interactive, quick paced, engaging review game-style activity that allows teachers (or students) to develop quizzes that review content and/or skills taught in class. With up to four answer choices per question, teachers are able to create Kahoot!(s) that quiz student knowledge while engaging them and maintaining their attention. Once the quiz is prepared, teachers are able to project the quiz, which is visually appealing, features timed question options and is set to music while students login to the “game” with a pin on their individual devices. As questions flash on the projected screen, students are able to “respond” at their individual device. At the conclusion of each question, the projected screen shows the correct answer and the top five responding students in the class. At the end of the “game”, Kahoot! tallies the top 5 responders for the overall game and declares a winner. The teacher, on the teacher screen, is able to see the performance of all of the students and which questions, in particular, students answered incorrectly.

Google Forms Use Google Forms to create assessments featuring a variety of questioning styles. Students can access the form, fill in the answers, and submit to you in just a few clicks. Use Flubaroo, which is a Google Add-On, to auto score the responses collected from the students and you have instant feedback on student learning. Use Google Forms to create charts, graphs, and other visuals of the data collected to assess the level of student learning in your classroom. Google Forms can be set to auto-collect student ID so that you don’t even need to have students spend time putting their names on the forms. Try Google Forms, with or without the Flubaroo Add-On, today!

Socrative Socrative lets teachers engage and assess their students with educational activities on tablets, laptops, Chromebooks, and smartphones. Through the use of real time questioning, instant result aggregation and visualization, teachers can gauge individual students and whole class’ current level of understanding. Socrative allows teachers to develop small quizzes, race like competitions, exit tickets, and more. Socrative provides a student pin for students to login to access the assessment tools as the teacher wants to implement them.