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Formative assessments are issued throughout a learning period to give educators and students insight into progress against learning objectives. However, they can be time-consuming to issue and grade, eating away at opportunities for classroom instruction and student engagement.
Meanwhile, at the district level, it can be difficult to ensure that the data teachers collect from their assessments is reliable and fair.
A robust formative assessment strategy is the key to saving educators time and delivering insight into student learning. In this article, we’ll take a look at popular types of formative assessment, explaining how to implement them in the classroom and the benefits for students, educators, and schools.
Formative assessments provide real-time feedback to both teachers and students, which helps guide instruction and improve learning. Unlike summative assessments, which measure student learning at the end of a unit or course, formative assessments are used throughout the learning period.
To maximize the value of class time, educators should use formative assessments as learning opportunities when they can. Here are 11 effective ways to implement formative assessments in your practice.
Virtual exit tickets are a quick and efficient way to gauge student understanding at the end of a lesson. Before leaving the classroom, students mark their answers to a specific question or reflect on what they’ve learned. These responses give teachers immediate insight into how well students grasped the material, allowing them to address any areas of confusion in the next lesson.
To reduce the workload associated with regular exit tickets, educators can automate grading by issuing virtual exit tickets on a digital platform like TAO. These platforms can then help students gauge their overall progress by collating results from all the formative assessments taken throughout a course.
Think-Pair-Share is a collaborative activity that encourages student interaction and critical thinking. First, students think individually about a question or problem. Then, they pair up to discuss their thoughts with a partner. Finally, they share their ideas with the larger group.
By challenging students to discuss and defend their ideas, this activity turns formative assessment into a learning opportunity. Not only do teachers get a sense of student progress, but students have a chance to develop their critical thinking and discussion skills.
In a remote learning environment, teachers can use digital tools to facilitate Think-Pair-Share activities. By having students pair up in breakout rooms and share resources via chat boxes or screen sharing, educators can give them a chance to hone their presentation skills at the same time.
Adaptive assessments are personalized testing tools that dynamically adjust the difficulty of test questions based on a student’s previous responses. As the student answers correctly, the assessment presents more challenging questions; if they answer incorrectly, it provides easier ones.
Because questions are pitched at the appropriate level, it ensures that higher performers are not bored, and weaker students are not intimidated. This is a great way to boost engagement and assuage test anxiety. This approach also offers a more accurate picture of each student’s abilities—not just the ones in the middle.
Quizzes rank among the more traditional types of formative assessments. Unlike high-stakes tests, formative quizzes are typically low-pressure and may even be ungraded. They help both students and teachers identify areas of strength and weakness.
By using digital tools to deliver instant feedback on quiz results, educators can increase engagement and support student progress. With an EdTech platform like TAO, educators across different classrooms can issue the same quizzes to their students, allowing administrators to compare student progress across an entire school.
Typically done at the end of a lesson, x-minute papers are short reflective exercises where students write about what they’ve learned or any lingering questions they have. These papers encourage students to process the material and provide teachers with quick feedback on the effectiveness of their instruction.
For example, after a lesson on the Pythagorean theorem, educators might ask for a 5-minute paper that explains the relationship between the hypotenuse, opposite, and adjacent sides of a triangle.
In TAO, teachers can easily create metadata tags to mark the difficulty level of the prompt. Then, they can gauge responses from this essay alongside other papers to get more insight into student progress.
Gamification is an approach that integrates elements from games, including competition, collaboration, and real-time decision-making, to keep students focused and engaged. Gamified assessments range from points-based team quizzes to interactive simulations measuring higher-order skills.
For example, to evaluate collaboration skills, teachers might use TAO to create a chatbot assessment in which students co-create a story with an avatar that presents suggestions to them. During this activity, students must explain each decision they make, improving their discussion and reasoning skills. And because the assessment involves role-playing and storytelling, students will be motivated to participate actively.
In addition to implementing formative assessments during a learning period, educators can administer diagnostic assessments at the beginning of each unit. For instance, before teaching a lesson about the collapse of the Roman Republic, an educator may want to issue a diagnostic assessment on the Servile wars to ensure that students know about Rome’s social issues.
TAO delivers detailed analytics highlighting common areas of need across classrooms and whole schools. Using this information, teachers can adjust their lesson plans to cover any potential gaps.
Feedback cycle assessments have students complete a task, receive feedback, and then resubmit their work based on that feedback.
Importantly, a feedback cycle approach can be used with many types of formative assessments: quizzes, short essays, and concept mapping are all fair game. The important thing is to give students real-time feedback and offer them an opportunity to self-correct.
By closing the gap between task completion and feedback with an automated grading solution, teachers can save class time while helping students improve their skills.
Polling is a versatile formative assessment that can be done using simple hand-raising, clickers, or digital tools like TAO. Teachers ask a question, and students respond with their choice, allowing the teacher to quickly assess the overall understanding of the class.
Polling is particularly useful for gauging comprehension during a lesson, enabling the teacher to adjust instruction on the spot if needed.
This type of formative assessment encourages students to reflect on their understanding, identify areas for improvement, and set personal learning goals. Educators should provide students with rubrics or criteria to guide their self-assessment, ensuring they focus on key aspects of their work.
Self-assessment fosters metacognitive skills, as students learn to monitor and regulate their learning strategies. This practice not only enhances self-awareness but also motivates students to take ownership of their educational journey.
Socratic seminars are structured group discussions where students engage in deep, critical analysis of a text, topic, or question. In a Socratic seminar, the teacher acts as a facilitator, prompting students to think critically and discuss their interpretations, rather than directly instructing or providing answers.
This form of formative assessment encourages active participation, dialogue, and higher-order thinking. Students are evaluated based on their ability to reason, articulate their thoughts, listen to others, and build on the ideas presented during the discussion.
In an online setting, educators can take advantage of EdTech functionality like live chat to let students share links to sources and defend their positions with evidence.
Formative assessments are essential tools that support both teaching and learning by providing continuous feedback—but they can be time-intensive for teachers and offputting for students if they aren’t pitched at the right level.
However, by varying assessment types to include gamified and immersive activities and using EdTech tools to personalize and grade assessments, educators can maintain student engagement while saving time for classroom instruction.
With the right assessment strategy, educators can better understand student progress, address individual needs, and enhance overall learning outcomes.
To learn how TAO can automate grading and provide insight into student progress, take a look at these helpful guides:
What is the purpose of formative assessment?
The purpose of formative assessment is to monitor student learning in real time, providing ongoing feedback that teachers can use to improve instruction.
How does formative assessment differ from summative assessment?
Formative assessment is conducted over the course of a learning period. Summative assessments are issued at the end of a learning period, typically for grading purposes.
Can formative assessments be graded?
Formative assessments are typically low-stakes and do not always need to be graded. Their primary function is to provide feedback rather than assign a final grade, allowing both teachers and students to focus on improvement rather than performance.