Effective Formative Assessment

While formative assessment is generally useful, it can waste time and energy if poorly designed or implemented. The following video covers four principles of effective assessment more in detail.

Ongoing and distributed throughout the quarter
Intentional and not overwhelming
Integrated into curriculum
Assessment opportunity for students

Examples

Looking for great examples of formative assessment strategies? There are many available online, but I have collected a few here. I hope they help illustrate the heart of formative assessment - assessment FOR learning. Additionally, make sure to conduct some research of your own or follow the links at the bottom of the page.

Source: Dwyer, Kathy. "27 Easy Formative Assessment Strategies for Gathering Evidence of Student Learning." NWEA Blog (2019)

(For details on #1 through 10, see Terry Heick's "10 Assessments that You Can Perform in 90 Seconds")

New Clothes
Do’s and Don’ts
Three Most Common Misunderstandings
Yes/No Chart
Three Questions
Explain What Matters
Big Picture
Venn Diagram
Draw It
Self-Directed Response

(links with details)

(for more details, see the article by Kathy Dwyer, "27 Easy Formative Assessment Strategies for Gathering Evidence of Student Learning.")

Entrance Tickets– We’ve blogged about and explained The Exit Ticket, so why not have an Entrance Ticket? Here, the teacher asks a question at the start of a lesson, and students write their responses on index cards or strips of paper. She uses them to assess initial understanding of something to be discussed in that day’s lesson or as a short summary of understanding of the previous day’s lesson. The teacher designs the lesson around the fact that information on student learning will be coming in at the start of the lesson and can be used to improve the teaching and learning in that lesson. She designs the question, so it is easily interpreted and analyzed, allows time for herself and/or the students to analyze the responses, and adjusts the lesson accordingly (if needed).
Keep the Question Going – With this formative assessment strategy, the teacher asks one student a question and then asks another student if that answer seems reasonable or correct. Then, he asks a third student for an explanation of why there is an agreement or not. This helps keep all the students engaged because they must be prepared to either agree or disagree with the answers given and provide explanations.
30-Second Share: Many students take a turn to report something learned in the lesson for up to 30 seconds each. Connections to the learning targets or success criteria are what the teacher is looking for in the language used by the student. Make this a routine at the end of a lesson so that all students have the opportunity to participate, share insights, and clarify what was learned.
Parking Lot: This is an underused strategy for students and one that can surface questions before the learning, as well as during and after. This tool also offers an anonymous place for questions that may be directly related to the content or tangential to the current topic and provide insight into student thinking.
One-Minute Paper: This might be considered a type of exit ticket as it is typically done near the end of the day. Students, either individually or with a partner, are asked to respond in writing to a single prompt. Typical prompts include: 1) Most important learning from the day, 2) Most surprising concept, 3) Most confusing topic and why, 4) Identify something you think might appear on a test or quiz
3-2-1; At the end of the learning, this strategy provides students a way to summarize or even question what they just learned. Three prompts are provided for students to respond to: 1) 3 things you didn’t know before, 2) 2 things that surprised you about the topic, 3) 1 thing you want to start doing with what you’ve learned
Assessment Reflection: This post-assessment reflection is completed first by the individual student and then shared in a small group. The teacher provides a list of questions, so learners can reflect on their assessment experience. The questions provide insight into both learning (the content) and learning tactics. Download this strategy .

Source: "20 Simple Assessment Strategies that You Can Use Everyday" by Saga Briggs, TeachThought.com (2018)

1. An open-ended question that gets them writing/talking

Avoid yes/no questions and phrases like “Does this make sense?” In response to these questions, students usually answer ‘yes.’ So, of course, it’s surprising when several students later admit that they’re lost.

To help students grasp ideas in class, ask open-ended questions that require students that get students writing/talking. They will undoubtedly reveal more than you would’ve thought to ask directly.

2. Ask students to reflect

During the last five minutes of class ask students to reflect on the lesson and write down what they’ve learned. Then, ask them to consider how they would apply this concept or skill in a practical setting.

3. Use quizzes

Give a short quiz at the end of class to check for comprehension.

4. Ask students to summarize

Have students summarize or paraphrase important concepts and lessons. This can be done orally, visually, or otherwise.

5. Hand signals

Hand signals can be used to rate or indicate students’ understanding of content. Students can show anywhere from five fingers to signal maximum understanding to one finger to signal minimal understanding. This strategy requires engagement by all students and allows the teacher to check for understanding within a large group.

6. Response cards

Index cards, signs, whiteboards, magnetic boards, or other items are simultaneously held up by all students in class to indicate their response to a question or problem presented by the teacher. Using response devices, the teacher can easily note the responses of individual students while teaching the whole group.

7. Four corners

A quick and easy snapshot of student understanding, Four Corners provides an opportunity for student movement while permitting the teacher to monitor and assess understanding.

The teacher poses a question or makes a statement. Students then move to the appropriate corner of the classroom to indicate their response to the prompt. For example, the corner choices might include “I strongly agree,” “I strongly disagree,” “I agree somewhat,” and “I’m not sure.”

8. Think-pair-share

Students take a few minutes to think about the question or prompt. Next, they pair with a designated partner to compare thoughts before sharing with the whole class.

9. Choral reading

Students mark text to identify a particular concept and chime in, reading the marked text aloud in unison with the teacher. This strategy helps students develop fluency; differentiate between the reading of statements and questions; and practice phrasing, pacing, and reading dialogue.

10. One question quiz

Ask a single focused question with a specific goal that can be answered within a minute or two. You can quickly scan the written responses to assess student understanding.

11. Socratic seminar

Students ask questions of one another about an essential question, topic, or selected text. The questions initiate a conversation that continues with a series of responses and additional questions. Students learn to formulate questions that address issues to facilitate their own discussion and arrive at a new understanding.

12. 3-2-1

Students consider what they have learned by responding to the following prompt at the end of the lesson: 3) things they learned from your lesson; 2) things they want to know more about; and 1) questions they have. The prompt stimulates student reflection on the lesson and helps to process the learning.

13. Ticket out the door

Students write in response to a specific prompt for a short period of time. Teachers collect their responses as a “ticket out the door” to check for students’ understanding of a concept taught. This exercise quickly generates multiple ideas that could be turned into longer pieces of writing at a later time.

14. Journal reflections

Students write their reflections on a lesson, such as what they learned, what caused them difficulty, strategies they found helpful, or other lesson-related topics. Students can reflect on and process lessons. By reading student work–especially —types of learning journals that help students think–teachers can identify class and individual misconceptions and successes. (See also

15. Formative pencil–paper assessment

Students respond individually to short, pencil–paper formative assessments of skills and knowledge taught in the lesson. Teachers may elect to have students self-correct. The teacher collects assessment results to monitor individual student progress and to inform future instruction.

Both student and teacher can quickly assess whether the student acquired the intended knowledge and skills. This is a formative assessment, so a grade is not the intended purpose.

16. Misconception check

Present students with common or predictable misconceptions about a concept you’re covering. Ask them whether they agree or disagree and to explain why.

17. Analogy prompt

Teaching with analogies can be powerful. Periodically, present students with an analogy prompt: “the concept being covered is like ____ because ____.”

18. Practice frequency

Check for understanding at least three times a lesson, minimum.

19. Use variety

Teachers should use enough different individual and whole group techniques to check understanding that they accurately know what all students know. More than likely, this means during a single class the same technique should not be repeated.

20. Make it useful

The true test is whether or not you can adjust your course or continue as planned based on the information received in each check. Do you need to stop and start over? Pull a few students aside for three minutes to re-teach? Or move on?

21. Peer instruction

Perhaps the most accurate way to check for understanding is to have one student try to teach another student what she’s learned. If she can do that successfully, it’s clear she understood your lesson.

22. “Separate what you do and don’t understand”

Whether making a t-chart, drawing a concept map, or using some other means, have the students not simply list what they think they know, but what they don’t know as well. This won’t be as simple as it sounds–we’re usually not aware of what we don’t know.

They’ll also often know more or less than they can identify themselves, which makes this strategy a bit crude. But that’s okay–the goal isn’t for them to be precise and complete in their self-evaluation the goal is for you to gain insight as to what they do and don’t know.

And seeing what they can even begin to articulate on their own is an excellent starting point here.

For a pdf of this list, use this file.

Additional Resources

This file is Natalie Regier's "60 Formative Assessment Strategies" and focuses on improving learning in the CTE classroom (but the strategies are applicable in many classrooms).

FormativeAssessStrategies.pdf