This formative assessment can be a version of an exit ticket, or the teacher can use it during the lesson, where students will respond to three different hashtags: #I’mstuck, #SLOWdown, and #Knowit100%. The students will write a part from the lesson where they are stuck, where they need the teacher to explain a little more, and where they know it 100%. They will also have to include how they can tell for each hashtag. The students will then pass their page to a partner, and their partner will have to respond, in a different color, to their #I’mstuck and #slowdown tweets by giving them further explanations or pointers. At the end, the students will turn in their tweets. Materials:
Before you go, “tweet” what you know...page
Pencils
Colored Pencils
This assessment is engaging because students are acting like they are tweeting on Twitter, which is something that a lot of students are into and like to do. These three questions are not quick answer questions. In order to answer these questions, the students will really have to think about their thinking and reflect, which is teaching them metacognition skills. Also, it will bring the students’ strengths and weaknesses to the surface.Also, they will have to look at each others tweets and tweet back to offer explanations or pointers, which will really show the teacher what they know. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development is used here because students are showing where they are without help, but when they get pointers and explanations from their partner they are moving to the point of what they can do with help.
What Stuck With You Today?
Before students leave for the day, they will have to write what stuck with them from the day on a sticky note and place it on the “What Stuck With You Today?” board in the square that has their number on it. The teacher can either have the students pick something from the whole day, or he/she can have the students pick something from a certain lesson. The next day, the students will get their sticky note, share what they wrote with a partner, and then each partner group will share their sticky notes with the whole class as a review from the previous day, or lesson. Materials:
What “Stuck With You Today?” Board
Sticky Notes
Pencils
This assessment strategy is engaging because it gives the students a choice of what they want to share. Students’ names are not attached to the answer they give, which will make students more comfortable to share an honest answer. Teachers will get a more accurate depiction of where the students are. During this assessment, students will get a chance to interact and discuss with a partner, which will make the assessment more engaging then an independent seat work type of assessment.
Parking Lot
With this assessment, students have to reflect about their learning, and they have to show what they know. First, the students write their number on two sticky notes. Then, the students describe, on a sticky note, how they feel about that day’s lesson; create a question, on a sticky note, relating to that day’s lesson; and post their two sticky notes on the lesson’s parking lot poster. If a student walks up to the poster to put his or her question up, and someone has already posted that question, then she or he will have to come up with a different question. This assessment is called parking lot because it shows the teacher exactly where the students’ minds are parked about the lesson. This assessment can be used before, during, or after the lesson. Materials:
Parking Lot Poster
Sticky Notes
Pencils
This assessment strategy is engaging because it allows students to reflect on what they have just learned (metacognition), and on their strengths and weaknesses. Since their reflections is about how they feel, there is not a right or wrong answer. Students names are not attached to the answer they give, which should make students more comfortable to share an honest reflection. So, the teacher will get a more accurate depiction of where the students are. Creating a question instead of just writing down what they know, allows the students to be creative.
Roll The Die
For this assessment, students will have to roll a dice to figure out how they are going to show their understanding. The teacher will give each student a die, and they will have to write their response on an index card. Below are the prompts for the different numbers on the dice: 1. I want to remember... 2. Something I learned today... 3. One word to sum up what I learned... 4. Celebrate something you already knew... 5. I’m still fuzzy about.../I want to know... 6. Name an “aha” student connection. At the end, the students will discuss their response with a partner, and turn in their index cards. Materials:
Dice
Index Card
Roll the Die! Poster
Pencils
This assessment is engaging because the students will not know how they are to show their understanding until they roll the dice. Students will get to interact with a classmate, which is engaging because they will be able to discuss, learn, and get help from a classmate. The prompts that go along with this assessment will really engage students because they will have to do some higher-order thinking. For example, the students will have to analyze and evaluate the information to think about what they want to remember, and to come up with one word that sums up what they learned.
Give Me Five
The teacher will pass out a handprint cutout to each student. In each finger there will be a different prompt for the students to use to explain their understanding. The students will write on the back of each finger. The teacher can use whatever prompts he or she desires. For example, if a teacher is using it to see what the students have understood about a story, he or she can use:
What is it mostly about
What might happen next
What I know with being told
What it reminds me of
What I see
At the end, the students will turn in their handprints. This assessment can be used before, during, or after the lesson. Materials:
Handprint cutout
Prompts
Markers
Pencils
This assessment is really good because a teacher can use it at any point in the lesson, and for any subject. If the teacher had enough time and wanted the students to be really engaged, he or she could let the students trace and cutout their own hand and decorate. The prompts that the teacher can choose to go with this assessment can really engage students and make them do some higher-order thinking.
Idea Spinner
For this assessment, the teacher will need to create a spinner with four quadrants labeled “Summarize, Evaluate, Predict, Explain.” Then, at any point in the lesson, the teacher can stop and spin the spinner, and the students will have to answer a question about the lesson based on quadrant that the spinner lands on. For example, if the students are learning about Abraham Lincoln, and the spinner lands on “Evaluate,” the teacher can ask: Was Abraham Lincoln a good President? Support your answer. At the end, the students will turn in their answers. Materials:
Spinner
Question
Paper
Pencils
This assessment is engaging because the students will not know how they are to show their understanding until the teacher spins the spinner. This assessment is really good because a teacher can use it at any point in the lesson, and for any subject. This assessment uses higher-order thinking because the students will have to analyze the information to come up with a summary, evaluate, predict, and explain.
Inside-Outside Circle
First, the students will create a quiz based on the lesson. Next, the students will form two circles, one inside the other, and they will face each other. Then, each pair of facing partners will quiz each other based on their created quizzes. Finally, the students in the outside circle will rotate to a new partner and quiz their new partner. At the end, the students will turn in their quizzes with the answers. Materials:
Paper
Pencils
This assessment is engaging because the students will participate in social interaction, and with more than one partner. This assessment gets them up and out of their desks. This assessment is really good because a teacher can use it at any point in the lesson, and for any subject. Creating questions instead of just writing down what they know will allow the students to be creative.
Two Truths and One Lie
For this assessment, the teacher will give each student an index card, and the students will have to write their name, two truths, and one lie about the lesson. Then, the teacher will group the students into groups of four. In each group, every student will take turns trying to stump their group members by reading their index card and having the group members try to guess which one out of the three is a lie. Finally, each student will pass their card to a group member, the group member will have to make their partner’s lie a truth, and write the truth and their initials underneath the lie. At the end, each student will turn in their index card. *To avoid the students writing the same things, or one students’ truth being another students’ lie in a group, the teacher can write topic or a specific part of the lesson on the top of each index card. This way, each student in the group will have a different topic to make two truths and a lie about. Materials:
Index Cards
Pencils
Colored Pencils
This assessment is really engaging because the students get the chance to lie, and to try to trick their classmates. The students will have to be creative and write the false statement in a way that makes it sound like it is true. This assessment is engaging because the students will participate in social interaction with a group. This assessment is really good because a teacher can use it at any point in the lesson, and for any subject. When the students are turning their partner’s lie into a truth, they will have to analyze and evaluate, which makes them use their higher-order thinking skills.
Thought Bubbles
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher will split the students into groups of at least three, give each group a big thought bubble, and have the group write their names and what they know about the lesson topic in red. Then in the middle of the lesson, the students will get back into their groups, and write what they have learned and correct anything they had wrong from the beginning of the lesson in green. The students will repeat this process at the end of the lesson and write in blue. While the students are discussing in their groups, the teacher will walk around and observe each group to inform his or her instruction. Materials:
Thought Bubbles
Red Markers
Green Markers
Blue Markers
This assessment is engaging because the students will interact and discuss with their peers, and they will have to come to an agreement, as a group, on what to write on their thought bubble. It will force them to stay engaged with the lesson because they will have to break at the beginning, middle, and end to show their understanding. Not only will they have to evaluate and analyze the lesson, but they will evaluate and analyze what they wrote at each stopping point in the lesson before to decide if they need to change anything that they wrote.
Appointment Clock
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher will assign each student three partners: a first quarter partner, a second quarter partner, and a third quarter partner. After one-fourth of the lesson, the teacher will write some higher-order questions on the board, and the students will meet with their 1st quarter partner to discuss and answer the questions. This process will repeat two more times throughout the lesson, and the students will meet with their second quarter and third quarter partners. While the students are meeting with their partners, the teacher will walk around the room, observe the conversations, and adjust the teaching depending on their observations. Materials:
Questions
This assessment allows the students to interact and discuss with three classmates, and it allows them to move three time during the lesson. It will force them to stay engaged with the lesson because they will have to break at the beginning, middle, and end to show their understanding. The questions that the teacher can choose to go with this assessment can really engage students, and engage them in higher-order thinking. Depending on what question the teacher chooses to ask, this assessment strategy can allow students to reflect on what they have just learned (metacognition), and to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses.
version of an exit ticket, or the teacher
can use it during the lesson, where students will respond to three different hashtags: #I’mstuck, #SLOWdown, and #Knowit100%. The students will write a part from the lesson where they are stuck, where they need the teacher to explain a little more, and where they
know it 100%. They will also have to include how they can tell for each hashtag. The students will then pass their page to a partner, and their partner will have to respond, in a different color, to their #I’mstuck and #slowdown tweets by giving them further explanations or pointers. At the end, the students will turn in their tweets.
Materials:
These three questions are not quick answer questions. In order to answer these questions, the students will really have to think about their thinking and reflect, which is teaching them metacognition skills. Also, it will bring the students’ strengths and weaknesses to the surface.Also, they will have to look at each others tweets and tweet back to offer explanations or pointers, which will really show the teacher what they know. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development is used here because students are showing where they are without help, but when they get pointers and explanations from their partner they are moving to the point of what they can do with help.
Materials:
Students’ names are not attached to the answer they give, which will make students more comfortable to share an honest answer. Teachers will get a more accurate depiction of where the students are.
During this assessment, students will get a chance to interact and discuss with a partner, which will make the assessment more engaging then an independent seat work type of assessment.
Materials:
Students names are not attached to the answer they give, which should make students more comfortable to share an honest reflection. So, the teacher will get a more accurate depiction of where the students are.
Creating a question instead of just writing down what they know, allows the students to be creative.
1. I want to remember...
2. Something I learned today...
3. One word to sum up what I learned...
4. Celebrate something you already knew...
5. I’m still fuzzy about.../I want to know...
6. Name an “aha” student connection.
At the end, the students will discuss their response with a partner, and turn in their index cards.
Materials:
Students will get to interact with a classmate, which is engaging because they will be able to discuss, learn, and get help from a classmate.
The prompts that go along with this assessment will really engage students because they will have to do some higher-order thinking. For example, the students will have to analyze and evaluate the information to think about what they want to remember, and to come up with one word that sums up what they learned.
- What is it mostly about
- What might happen next
- What I know with being told
- What it reminds me of
- What I see
At the end, the students will turn in their handprints.This assessment can be used before, during, or after the lesson.
Materials:
If the teacher had enough time and wanted the students to be really engaged, he or she could let the students trace and cutout their own hand and decorate.
The prompts that the teacher can choose to go with this assessment can really engage students and make them do some higher-order thinking.
Materials:
This assessment is really good because a teacher can use it at any point in the lesson, and for any subject.
This assessment uses higher-order thinking because the students will have to analyze the information to come up with a summary, evaluate, predict, and explain.
Materials:
This assessment gets them up and out of their desks.
This assessment is really good because a teacher can use it at any point in the lesson, and for any subject.
Creating questions instead of just writing down what they know will allow the students to be creative.
*To avoid the students writing the same things, or one students’ truth being another students’ lie in a group, the teacher can write topic or a specific part of the lesson on the top of each index card. This way, each student in the group will have a different topic to make two truths and a lie about.
Materials:
The students will have to be creative and write the false statement in a way that makes it sound like it is true.
This assessment is engaging because the students will participate in social interaction with a group.
This assessment is really good because a teacher can use it at any point in the lesson, and for any subject.
When the students are turning their partner’s lie into a truth, they will have to analyze and evaluate, which makes them use their higher-order thinking skills.
Materials:
It will force them to stay engaged with the lesson because they will have to break at the beginning, middle, and end to show their understanding.
Not only will they have to evaluate and analyze the lesson, but they will evaluate and analyze what they wrote at each stopping point in the lesson before to decide if they need to change anything that they wrote.
Materials:
It will force them to stay engaged with the lesson because they will have to break at the beginning, middle, and end to show their understanding.
The questions that the teacher can choose to go with this assessment can really engage students, and engage them in higher-order thinking.
Depending on what question the teacher chooses to ask, this assessment strategy can allow students to reflect on what they have just learned (metacognition), and to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses.