Formative assessment is a part of the learning process. It provides teachers with a snapshot of teaching and learning while it is still happening. Formative assessment allows for guided practice for students so that the teacher can check the understanding of their students. Formative assessment allows for the teacher to make adjustments as needed and guides future teaching.
What are Some Formative Assessment Practices?
While this list is far from complete, here are some formative assessment practices that I use in my middle school classroom.
1. Exit/Entrance Slips
Exit slips are a quick, written response to a question that a student gives to their teacher at the end of a lesson. It can help the teacher to gauge her students' understanding from that lesson to plan for the next one. Entrance slips are used in a similar way at the beginning of a lesson to check understanding of a previous lesson.
2. Open-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." They don't have one "right" answer. Open-ended questions can be used on exit/entrance slips or in the middle of a lesson to help check for understanding.
3. Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down
This is a quick visual assessment that I often use in the middle of a lesson, after I have taught something new. If I am introducing a new topic, I might pause and ask my students to show me "thumbs up" if they fully understand and are ready to move on, "thumbs middle" if they are starting to understand but still have questions, or "thumbs down" if they don't have much understanding and want me to start again. It's helpful for me to quickly glance around the classroom to see who needs more support and whether I should move forward or slow down.
4. Stoplight
I find this assessment strategy to be a good one to use when you want to gauge whether or not the class is ready to move on to a new topic. On chart paper, draw a traffic light (three vertical circles) and write a question from the topic you are learning. For example, "Can you find the mean, median, and mode for a set of data?" Students will go up to the chart with a green, yellow, or red marker and make a mark on the traffic light. Green means they are already doing it or are able to do it easily. Yellow means it is doable, but they might need support to do it consistently. Red means it is very difficult for them to do it. At the end of the lesson, the teacher can review the traffic light and use it to guide their planning.
5. One Minute Summary
This assessment practice is exactly what it sounds like. The teacher asks the students to take out a piece of paper and write for a minute about the lesson or topic they are studying. Remind your students that because they only have one minute to summarize the topic, they should start with the most important elements. This can help the teacher to see what are the big ideas that the students are picking up.
6. Misconceptions
I really love this method of assessment, as it encourages the students to think. For this assessment practice, the teacher asks the students to write down a misconception that some people might have about the topic they are studying, and what they could say to help clear up the misconception.
7. Think - Pair - Share
This is a classic teaching technique that also provides formative assessment for teachers. Students are given a question, then they have time to think on their own (possibly to write down ideas as well), then share their ideas with a partner, then finally share out to the class. This can help students to hear from each other and clear up misconceptions.
8. Anonymous Pop Quiz
An anonymous pop quiz is a quiz in which students do not record their names. This can be helpful as a formative assessment practice as the teacher can review the data collected from all the students to what areas students are understanding, and where the blind spots are. Students will also like that they don't have to put their names on the quiz.
So, what do you think? Do you use these practices in your classroom? Is there anything from this list that you would like to try? Let me know in the comments below.
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