You know you should be using formative assessments, but perhaps you struggle with planning them into lessons. You don’t have time to find and prepare another thing! The best formative assessments are those you do in the middle of a lesson or in the last couple of minutes. It doesn’t have to be difficult or take a lot of time.
Remember that the purpose of formative assessments is to inform your teaching. Formative assessments let you see what your students are learning, and if what they are learning is what you intended. You adjust the next steps based on what you learn during a formative assessment.
Try out some of the following formative assessments and add them to your repertory.
Here are 10 simple formative assessments:
Thumbs up- thumbs sideways, thumbs down
This one works best when students trust you and will tell you their real opinions. Ask students to give you a thumbs up if they are following you and understand, thumbs sideways if they understand some things but are unclear about others, and a thumbs down if they are confused or lost.
White board responses
Give students individual white boards and a marker. Throughout the lesson, ask a question and have students hold up their response. A quick glance tells you who is right or wrong. If they are copying from someone else, chances are they don’t know the answer.
Stoplight
Give each student a green, yellow, and red card to keep on their desk. Ask them to hold up the green card if they understand and are ready to move on, the yellow card if they have some questions or confusion or the red card if they need to help. If you see a lot of yellow or red cards, stop and clarify before moving on.
Exit slips
At the end of class, ask students to answer a question or two or give a quick summary of what they learned. They hand it in as they leave the room. Use the responses to help you plan for the next day’s lesson.
Learning Logs
Students keep a notebook and each day write down things that learned and questions that they have. You can quickly review the books, drawing emoji responses 😊or writing notes to students. This is also a good place for a bit of on-one instruction for a struggling student or a way to enrich a student who could use a challenge.
Draw it!
Give students a couple of minutes to quickly draw or create a visual of something they learned. Then have them turn and share with a neighbor. Share several drawings as a class.
Headlines
Have students summarize a lesson by writing a headline that sums up the lesson. Remind them that headlines should be intriguing and interesting and grab reader’s attention. Share a few with the class.
Beach Ball Review
Get a plastic beach ball and a Sharpie. Write several non-content-based questions such as the following:
Tell one thing you learned today.
Connect something we did today to something you learned in the past.
Give an example of how you could use something we talked about today.
Ask the class a question about today’s lesson.
Make a prediction about what we will learn tomorrow.
Choose another person and ask them a question about today’s lesson.
Ask the teacher a question about today’s lesson.
What do you think the most important part about today’s lesson is?
Ask students to stand in a circle and toss out the ball. If you catch the ball, respond to the prompt nearest your thumb.
Super Summary
Set a timer for two minutes. Ask students to write a summary of the day’s lesson including as many things as they can in two minutes. The one with the most words wins.
3-2-1
Using white boards, a sheet paper, or a 3-2-1 half-sheet handout, have students write:
3 things to remember from today’s lesson:
2 connections I can make to something I already know:
1 question I still have:
Review their answers before teaching the next lesson.
We hope you will try a couple of new formative assessment strategies!
Our best,
If you would like a printable 3-2-1 handout , fill out the form below and we will send it to your e-mail!
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