Smart and Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

Introduction: Formative assessment is a crucial part of the teaching and learning process, as it helps teachers monitor student learning and growth in real-time. By regularly checking in on student understanding, teachers can adjust their teaching methods to ensure that all students are making progress. The problem, however, is that traditional forms of formative assessment, such as paper and pencil tests, can be time-consuming and disruptive to the flow of the lesson. But don’t worry! There are several smart and fast ways to do formative assessment that are both effective and efficient.

1. The Power of Questioning

One of the most straightforward and fast ways to do formative assessment is by asking questions. By regularly posing questions to your students, you can gauge their understanding and adjust your teaching accordingly. The key is to ask open-ended questions that encourage critical thinking and promote deeper understanding. Some examples of effective questions include: What do you think is the main idea of the text we just read? How would you explain this concept to someone who has never heard of it before? What are some examples of this idea in real life?

2. Quick Writes

Quick writes are a great way to do formative assessment without taking up too much time. Simply have students write for a few minutes about a specific topic or concept. This can be done individually or in small groups. The writing can then be used to start a class discussion or to inform the teacher about what students know and don’t know about a particular topic. Quick writes can also be used as a warm-up activity to get students thinking about a topic before diving into a lesson.

3. Classroom Polls

Classroom polls are another quick and effective way to do formative assessment. By using a tool such as Kahoot or Socrative, teachers can create multiple-choice or true/false questions and have students answer them in real-time on their devices. This not only gives the teacher immediate feedback on student understanding, but also creates a fun and interactive environment for students.

4. Exit Tickets

Exit tickets are a simple yet effective form of formative assessment. At the end of a lesson, have students write down what they learned and what they still have questions about. This can be done on a piece of paper or using a digital tool such as Google Forms. The exit tickets provide the teacher with valuable information about student understanding and can inform future lesson planning.

5. Self-Assessment

Incorporating self-assessment into your formative assessment strategy can help students take ownership of their learning and improve their critical thinking skills. Encourage students to reflect on their understanding of a concept and rate their own understanding on a scale of 1 to 5, for example. This can be done through a class discussion or by having students write down their thoughts. By regularly incorporating self-assessment into your lessons, students will become more aware of their own learning and be better equipped to identify areas where they need to improve.

FAQs on Smart and Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment:

1. How often should I use formative assessment in my lessons? It is recommended to use formative assessment regularly throughout the lesson, rather than just at the end. By checking in on student understanding throughout the lesson, you can make adjustments to your teaching as needed and ensure that all students are making progress.

2. Is it necessary to grade formative assessments? No, form

   Another Take on Formative Assessment

Multiplication Games | Addition Games| Subtraction Games | Telling Time Games | Fraction Games | k - 7 Games

 

 

If you are looking for ways to improve the quality of your student's work, you can use formative assessment. It is informal, ungraded and can be performed on any type of device. You can simply cut a worksheet apart or a quiz and give it to a student to see if they have understood a topic. You can also create a checklist of what you want  students to learn by completing a simple worksheet.

Using low-stake quizzes is another great way to measure a student's knowledge. These tools usually have low-point values and can be used in many different settings. This is a good option if you don't want the quiz scores to affect the final grade. In fact, a lot of students are already logged into these tools, so the results of their formative assessment will not negatively affect their grades. Encourage them to take mock tests to self-assess their levels of education.

Developing Exit Cards is another smart and fast way to do formative assessment. Using sticky notes or index cards, students leave responses on the backs of these cards. The teacher can quickly read through the responses and use them to inform their next day's instruction. Alternatively, students can fill out an online form indicating how they felt after the lesson. This is a great way to collect feedback on a specific topic and ensure your students learn more effectively. It also helps to guide the teacher in the right direction ahead of the next lesson. The answers to the questions on these cards summarize what students have learned during a class. These cards can be quickly read and sorted into groups. The results can then be used to inform the teaching and learning next day as mentioned earlier. It will be an invaluable tool for you to improve your teaching and learning since it gives you a deeper understanding of the level of you students.

A low-stake formative assessment is also a simple and fast way to test the understanding of students. The point value of the quiz is low, and students can answer as many questions as they want. A low-stakes formative assessment will also give you valuable information for your next step of instruction. It is the best way to do formative assessment. If you do not have time to take the time to do it, you can use the low-stakes method instead.

A formative assessment can be completed in various ways. For example, a multiple-choice question can be used to discover misconceptions in students. The teacher should anticipate student misconceptions and incorporate a tempting response into the formative assessment. For example, a student may respond incorrectly to a multiple-choice question. A student can write a comment stating their opinion about the question by using a clicker. There are several free online tools (e.g. google forms) which teachers can use to spin out a rapid multiple-choice test.

There are many types of formative assessments. One of the most popular ways to do it is to walk around the classroom with a clipboard and sticky notes. When a student has trouble with a skill, a short note is an excellent way to document it. You should also keep a file for each student. This will help you focus on each student. If you have a large class, a smart device is an excellent choice to accommodate the large group.

Creating Exit Cards is a smart and easy way to conduct formative assessment. You can also use sticky notes or index cards as an easy way to get students to answer a question. By doing this, you can make a list of the questions that the students answered. Then, you can use this information to determine the best way to adapt your teaching style. This will help you stratify your class by the strength of each student.

Whether you are teaching students in a single lesson or a multi-grade classroom, you should be able to conduct formative assessment on any type of subject. For instance, a teacher can ask one student if a student's answer seems reasonable. If the second student disagrees with the answer, the teacher can ask the third person if they agree or disagree with the answer. You may want to create a separate folder for each student to track each students' response in order to revisit it at some later stage of progress. You would see how students change their positions as more knowledge is acquired.

Tell us what your approach to formative assessments was and share this article if you found our strategies interesting.