56 Different

Examples ofFormati

ve Assessment

Curated by David Wees, Formative assessmentspecialist, New Visions for

Public Schools

Definition

A formative assessment or assignment is atool teachers use to give feedback tostudents and/or guide their instruction.

It is not included in a student grade, norshould it be used to judge a teacher'sperformance. Both of these would beconsidered summative assessments.

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To check understanding, ask kids to write threedifferent summaries:One in 10-15 wordsOne in 30-50 wordsOne in 75-100 words.The different lengths require different attentionto details. Compare/ contrast with peers/ lookat teacher model (via document camera).

3x Summarization

(@codyjohk)

Have students write a postcard as a historicalfigure to another historical figure discussingand describing a historical event.

Postcard

List 3 things that a fellow student mightmisunderstand about the topic.

3 Things

Have students compare and contrast a topicusing a Venn diagram.

Venn Diagram

Ask students questions, have them respond onnotebook paper anonymously. Students thenhand their papers in. Teacher immediately,randomly gives them back to students forgrading. Students get practice grading otherswork, but shouldn't know who is who. Teacherthen takes informal poll about how manyquestions students answered correctly.

Hand in, pass out

(@jnbtaylor)

Visualize (Be theIllustrator)

(Kim Huey)

to see the illustration. Have each studentcreate a visualization (illustration) for that page.

Give students quizzes, which either you mark,or they mark. You can use the informationgathered from the quizzes to guide yourinstruction, or to give feedback to the students.

Quizzes

@davidwees

Have students write down an explanation ofwhat they understand. Read these explanationsto help inform your instruction, and writecomments on them (or discuss them with thestudent) to give them feedback.

Write it down

@davidwees

Assign students a warm up problem or two.Hand out index cards to the students. Sort theindex cards into yes/no piles. Choose yourfavourite no response and analyze it as aclass.

See https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/class-warm-up-routine

My Favorite No

(@fawnpnguyen)

Each student, or groups of students, has amini-whiteboard. As they work throughproblems, they can share them either with youas a class, or you can walk around theclassroom and see their work.

Mini-whiteboards

@davidwees

This is similar to checking for transfer. Havestudents build/create something that requiresthat they apply what they have learned.

Create something

@davidwees

Check to make sure your students are able totransfer a concept from one domain to another.This could take a variety of forms. For example,can they identify the climax in a short story, anovel, a movie, and an advertisement?

Check for transfer

@davidwees

Extension projects such as:l dioramal posterl fancy file folderl collagel abc books

Any creative ideas students can come up withto demonstrate additional understanding of aconcept.

Extension Projects

Have students draw what they understand,instead of writing it.

Doodle It

Numerous students respond to aprompt/question on the chalkboard orwhiteboard at the same time.

Chalkboard Splash

Students read an informative text independently,highlighting or writing down a few sentences they findimportant, interesting, of note, or that give them an Ah ha!moment. Then, group students and have each share asentence from the text. Next, have each student pick andshare a phrase from the sentence they shared. Finally,each student will pick one word from that sentence andshare. Have students then discuss if the words, phrases,and sentences they chose sum up the main idea of the text.

Text Rendering

(@brandonhebert)

Metacognition allows for the students toprocess what they did in class and why it wasdone. At the end of class (or each assignment ifon block schedule), have students complete atable similar to the one below. Collect andprovide feedback.What did we do Why did we do it? What did I learn today?

How can I apply it? What questions do I still have about it?

Metacognition

(@brandonhebert)

You hand out a short quiz or a few simplequestions, and students give them to youas they leave your class.

Exit slip

Source: http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/3-2 @davidwees

You ask students if they understand, and theynod yes or no.

l You can do this using Polleverywhere.com or a Google form.

Quick nod

@davidwees

If you pay careful attention to the bodylanguage of your students, quite often they willcommunicate understanding or a lack ofunderstanding through their body language.

Watch body language

@davidwees

Assess students on reading, keeping track ofwhat they do as they read, and what mistakesthey make (possibly including self-corrections).

Here is more detail on running records.

Running records

(@bgsmith_66)

Thumbs up, middle, or down

Ask the class if they understand a concept. Ifthey (think) they get it, thumbs up. If they arenot sure, thumbs middle, if they don't get it,thumbs down.

In ancient Greece they used a closed fist (Ihave a good grip on the matter) or an openhand. @BraddoSee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno of Citium

@davidwees

Use for Peer FeedbackStudents share with the class one thing that is beingworked on such as strong leads. After the student hasshared, the class raises their hands to level that they feelthe item has met the criteria - no verbal commentsnecessary as student who shared has a very quick visual ofwhere they are- all the way up is "hot" or excellent- half way up is "mild" or okay, meets but could be better- just above desk height is "cold" or needs to be improved

Hand Thermometer

(@annemidd)

Name two things that you liked about a chapter,lesson, etc. and one thing you did not like or youstill have a question about. This can be used asa wrap up or an exit ticket.

Two Roses and a Thorn:

Fingers up!

Similar to thumbs up/down/middle - chooseoption or match using 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 fingersheld up with 1 meaning "I need a lot of help"and 5 meaning "I really get this."

(@frank_w_b)

Students hold an index card (that has a red circle on oneside and a green circle on the other) in front of them whereyou can see it. As they are following along with you andunderstanding, they show the green circle side. When theymiss some information, need clarification, or don'tunderstand, they turn it to show you the red circle. Muchmore effective than having them raise their hands and letsyou know shortly after they are lost instead of at the end ofclass.

Red / green card

Traffic LightsUsed for pre-assessment, student self-assessment andeven as an exit slip. Green = I know this; Yellow = I mayknow this OR I partially know this; Red = I don't know this.You can do this before a topic, during the topic and rightafter the topic. You can track their progress (and so canthey). You can use colored highlighters for this. Some alsouse colored cups on a student’s desk as well.

You can also laminate strips of construction paper, one ofeach color (r,y,g), single-hole punch on short end, andplace on a ring. Students can then raise the appropriatecolor at any point during the class. (@brandonhebert)

"Comments/questions/suggestions about thelesson?" Students who normally would notparticipate in class will participate virtually.

Google Forms

Give each student a student response system(or clicker) or use a service like Socrativeteacher, Poll Anywhere, or Google Docs andask questions during class, and have studentsrespond individually (or in groups) to thequestions.

Clickers

Use the Flubaroo script to create self-markingquizzes that students can take for formativefeedback on their understanding.

See http://www.flubaroo.com/

Flubaroo

Ask students questions during class. Use aprocedure for asking questions which ensuresthat all students have a chance to be asked aquestion, and include students who might nototherwise participate.

Apps such as TeacherPal (free) can be used torandomly call on students without repetition orleaving anyone out, for those of us who can'ttouch popsicle sticks.

Cold-calling

Students text their answer to a site such asWifitti ( http://goo.gl/wrxOC) . It hides their actualidentity so they can be honest and not feelembarrassed.

Text the answer

Have students do their writing in Google Docs.Either you observe their writing, or a peer does,and gives live feedback while they are writing.Feedback should not be "oops you made amistake" but "oh that's interesting, what madeyou add that?"

Use Google Docs

Upload an image (like the one above via RileyLark) to http://activeprompt.herokuapp.com/. Give the URL to respond to students and askthem to place a red dot according to how theyfeel. See also http://activeprompt.org .

ActivePrompt

Similar toclickers, butmuch cheaper.Set up a scriptthat usestwitter to voteand display agraph ofresults ofstudents'feedback.

Twitter voting

Using a program such as Todays Meetstudents are able to state ideas, discussthinking, and share questions as a topic isbeing taught. Teacher is able to quicklyaddress questions, point out interesting thinkingand students are able to build on their ownunderstanding through the thinking of theirpeers. Especially great for the shy students asthey have a voice through technology.

Back Channel

Students are able to collaboratively post theirclosing thoughts, ideas, questions, orcomments on a digital cork board.As seen in:

See an example using Linoit. (Alternative: Padlet)

Cork board

Students are able to summarize what is learnedfrom a lesson within a short sentence.

Twitter Board

"As easy as raising your hand..."

Students can log-in to your virtual Socrativeclassroom. Teachers can have preposted or 'onthe spot questions' for students’ responses.

http://www.socrative.com/

Socrative

Crowd-source a presentation

Have students create a presentation, much likethis one, and offer it to their personal learningnetwork to edit (along with their teacher). From theedits that are made by people in their network,students will get feedback on their work.

* This requires students to have reasonably collaborative personal learning networks already developed.

Photos to assess learning

Choose two or three photos that represent aprocess. Have students write captions for eachphoto followed by a short summary.

Students create short videos or screen-castswhere they explain their reasoning. You canthen watch what they create and see what theyare able to explain, what they omit, and whatthey may not understand.

Create a video

Have students discuss with others how theywould accomplish a particular task, explain aspecific idea, or talk about some knowledgethey have gained. Your job as teacher is towalk around the room and listen in on thestudent conversations.

Talk to each other

Kids work on the first question together andprovide each other with feedback, then workindependently on a new question coveringsame concept.

Partner Quizzes

Have your students teach younger students (oract as tutors) the basic concepts in an area withwhich they should be very familiar. Check inwith both sets of students to see how well thetutoring worked. Use this to inform yourinstruction for the older students and theyounger students.

Teach younger kids

Have students work in stations, and rotatethrough the stations. In small groups, supervisean activity (or a discussion) and assessstudents in the small groups, and provideeveryone in the group with feedback relevant tothe discussion.

Rotate groups

Think-pair-share

Using cards, poll, clickers, etc. for a multiple-choice question to check for understanding andthink-pair-share to discuss with others.See http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/conctest.html

Mazur's ConcepTest and

Groups work on a different section of a text andbecome experts on that section. Thenrestructure the groups so each new group hasa member that read a different section of thetext. Each expert will share their work with therest of the students.

Jigsaw Groups

Can the students answer the EssentialQuestion from the lesson (either verbally orwritten)?

Answer the LEQ

When you ask questions in class, watchcarefully to see who raises their hands (makesure to give sufficient wait time for yourquestions). This may indicate who understandsthe material, and who does not, however,sometimes people understand and just do notwant to answer.

Raised hands

Have students explain to you how they knowsomething is true. Try and see from theirexplanation if they have any misconceptions.

Listening

Ask questions of students to clarify yourunderstanding of student thinking. Recordthese on an anticipation template, such as the templates in this folder.

Ask clarifying questions

1. Do the work you are going to give yourstudents first in at least two different ways.2. Anticipate student responses to the work.3. Give the students the work.4. Circulate around the room.5. Record your observations on an anticipationtemplate, such as the templates in this folder.

Anticipate responses

Have students make a prediction about anexperiment or class demo and explain theirreasoning. After performing the experiment ordemo, discuss why their predictions wereright/wrong.

If grading the assignment (such as a labreport), base the grade on final conclusion, notprediction.

Make predictions

Write descriptive comments on student workhelping them see how they can improve theirwork or what they've done that really worked forthem.

Comments

After the students have finished a writingassignment, let them evaluate themselvesusing the same matrix you do. Discuss theirself evaluation.

Self-assessment