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Formative assessment is a continuous process aimed at identifying learning progress and needs, and using evidence to adapt instruction for future learning.
Through formative assessment, teachers can provide feedback that gives students new opportunities to improve and reflect on the learning process.
Teachers can use formative assessment to improve their effectiveness by adapting their approach according to student comprehension.
A key benefit of formative assessment is that it shifts the focus away from grades and onto the learning itself. This helps to promote a growth mindset in students and supports them to take an active role in their learning.
Through regular formative assessment, teachers start to build an idea of how students are responding to instruction methods and find ways to tailor instruction to indivdual teachers. Formative assessment helps teachers become more effective and efficient.
One study has shown that formative assessment can improve academic achievements and student attitudes towards learning.
There are many way to conduct formative assessment in your classroom, each carries different benefits.
Observation as a formative assessment method involves the teacher continuously monitoring students during activities and lessons.
Through observing work habits, interactions, and participation, teachers gain real-time insights into student understanding and skills. This information helps tailor instruction to address individual learning needs and improve educational outcomes.
The best part? You can assess students without your class feeling the pressure of assessment. It's a low-stakes method that gives teachers all the insights while enabling students to focus on a task stress-free.
Group work as a formative assessment method involves students collaborating on tasks or projects, allowing teachers to observe their interactions, problem-solving skills, and understanding of content.
The groupwork approach allows you to track both individual and group learning progress, helping to identify strengths and improvement areas, thus enhancing instructional strategies.
Self-assessment as a formative assessment method empowers students to reflect on their own learning and performance.
By evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, and understanding of material, students develop metacognitive skills and take ownership of their growth. Teachers can use self-assessment insights to tailor support and encourage continuous improvement.
The key to fast, regular formative assessment is to use exit tickets.
Digital exit tickets are ideal for formative assessment as they enable teachers to quickly capture where students are thriving and where they need extra assistance. This is critical for responding to student needs and setting future learning goals.
Consider sharing exit ticket results back to your students, who will take comfort knowing if a majority of students didn't get the answer right. This can spark class-wide conversations about the learning.
The key to effective formative assessment is to ensure it's regular and accurate.
Regularly conducting comprehension checks will ensure that you're continually tailoring your instruction. But that effort isn't worthwhile unless the assessments have accurately captured each individual student's understanding.
That's why its recommended that teachers use a variety of methods to formatively assess their students, capturing insights from different angles to get a holistic, well-rounded picture of how the class is progressing. Of course, we love a good quiz as much as the next person, but the feeling of constantly being quizzed and assessed can make students feel unnecessary pressure.
We've compiled a list of our favorite formative assessment ideas to help you get started. Using a mix of all the ideas—Socratic seminars, think-pair-share, exit tickets, and more—will help keep students interested and not even feel like they're being constantly assessed, even when they are!
This compilation of 61 formative assessment templates takes the effort out of exit tickets. Simply use as-is, or steal the templates and customize them to suit your teaching needs.
Ziplet is a free formative assessment tool that enables teachers to run fast student check-ins.
Students can respond using a 6-digit code and don't need accounts.
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