Formative

Assessment
Strategies

Paired Board Work

Students are assigned problems in pairs.
Each pair gets a different problem.
The pair presents the problem to the class.
The class has the opportunity to correct and
discuss. Class comes to consensus as to
correct answer. Only after entire class has
agreed does the teacher tell whether the
answer is correct or not.
Continue with same procedure until all
groups have presented.
The entire class gets the same grade.

Whip Around

Teacher engages students thinking with a
question that has multiple answers.
Allow wait time for students to process.
Students write two to three answers on a
piece of paper.
Students all stand up. The teacher whips
around the room, allowing many students
the opportunity to share one answer off their
paper. When the answers on a students
paper have been called out (regardless of
whether that student gave the answers), the
student sits down.
If all students are seated with some answers
remaining, the teacher knows there is more
work to be done on this topic.

Word Toss

Identify major concepts for the lesson.
Write seven to ten key words or phrases on
the board.
Students choose at least five words to
explain to a partner/absent student/parent
what they learned that day.

This is a good way to encourage students to
use the language of the standards to
summarize their learning.

Show me Now


Preprinted response cards with words like
agree on one side and disagree on the other.
Students hold them up to respond.

Dry-erase boards are perfect for immediate
feedback.

Another good instant feedback tool is the
Smart Response clicker.

Rally Quiz


Students take turns quizzing their
partners. Teacher provides a list of
questions or students generate a list of
questions before playing Rally Quiz.
Partner A asks a review question of
partner B.
B answers.
Partner A checks. If correct, A affirms
with praise. If not correct, A coaches, re-
asks, then affirms with praise.
Students switch roles so B quizzes, and
then affirms or coaches.

1.

2.
3.
4.

5.

Think-Pair-Share

Think: Teacher engages students thinking
with a question or task. Allow wait time for
students to process.

Pair: Students compare and discuss
responses.

Share: After students talk in pairs, teacher
asks pairs to share their thinking with the rest
of the class.

Think-Write-Pair-Share

Think: Teacher engages students thinking
with a question or task. Allow wait time for
students to process.

Write: Students write responses on paper.

Pair: Students compare and discuss
responses.

Share: After students talk in pairs, teacher
asks pairs to share their thinking with the
rest of the class.

Summary Writing


Students should be able to record the GIST of
the lesson on an Exit Slip (Ticket-out-the-
Door). You can use various prompts such as
the absent student, 3-2-1, etc. The key to
making this a formative assessment is that
the students must receive feedback with next
steps, and that you must use the information
to adjust/design instruction for the next day.

Corners


A self-assessment way to group students for
re-teaching/remediation. Students choose
corners based on their self-assessed level of
expertise on a given subject.
Corner 1: The Dirt Road (Theres so much dust, I cant see
where Im going. Help!)
Corner 2: The Paved Road (Its fairly smooth, but there are
many potholes along the way.)
Corner 3: The Highway (I feel fairly confident but have an
occasional need to slow down.)
Corner 4: The Interstate (Im traveling along and could easily
give directions to someone else.)

Once students are in their chosen corners,

allow students to discuss their progress with
others. Questions/activities may be provided
by the teacher. You could also pair Corner 1
with 3 and 2 with 4 for peer tutoring.
Hand Signals


Thumbs up: I understand _______ and can
explain it.
Thumbs sideways: Im not completely sure
about _____________.
Thumbs down: I do not yet understand
____________

Traffic Light

Give students three cups in red, yellow and
green. Students place the cups stacked one
inside the other with the green on top and
place in the corner of their desks. If they
need to slow down, they move the yellow
cup to the top. If they need you to stop and
explain, they put the red cup on top. Any
student with a green cup still showing is fair
game to be called on to explain.

Another variation is to use this as a journal
activity/TOTD /activator where students self-
assess their understanding of the current
topic.

RAFT

Role: What is the role of the writer?
Audience: To whom is the writer writing?
Format: What is the format for the writing?
Topic: What is the focus of the writing?

Example:

R: Scalene Triangle
A: Your Angles
F: Text Message
T: Unequal Relationship

Dueling Flip Charts

Questions on flip charts on opposite sides of
the room. Any kind of question that requires
multiple answers is good for this. Ex: making
an input/output table for a function.

Divide class into equal teams. Teams make single file
lines opposite.
Each student writes in a different color.
Specify a time limit.
When teacher instructs students to begin, students
take turns writing down their answers.
Teams continue until time is up.

When a Student says I dont know!

When questioning students to check for
understanding and one says, I dont know!
an effective strategy is to say, OK, Ill come
back to you. Ask several other students to
answer and to provide explanations for why
they believe their answer is correct. Its okay
if they all have the same answer (or if they
dont). Then, return to the first student and
ask which of the answers given was the best
and why. Frequent use of this strategy
should encourage students to justify and
explain their answers, as well as giving no
student the opportunity to pass on
participation.

Find Them and Fix Them

Instead of marking a students problems as
correct and/or incorrect, tell the student
how many errors he has and ask him to find
them and fix them.

Alternative: Give students a pretend paper
with some problems worked correctly and
some incorrectly. Have the students find the
errors and fix them. One good way to come
up with this paper is to take sample work
from actual student papers (several
combined not just one) and recopy the
work onto the pretend students paper.

Two Stars and a Wish

(a self or peer assessment strategy)

Have students identify two things done well
and one area to improve. Write these at the
top of the paper.

Agree/Disagree/Dont Know

Create sets of statement cards about a given
topic (properties of a parallelogram for
example). Working in groups or pairs,
students can sort the cards into piles for
agree, disagree, or dont know. At the
end of the lesson, students can revisit the
activity to assess what they have learned.

Web Wind-Up

Having students create learning webs (mind-
maps, concept maps) at the beginning of a
unit to demonstrate prior knowledge or to
accelerate learning and again at the end of
the unit can demonstrate growth in the
knowledge of the topic.

Quick Write/Quick Draw

On the right side of the page, students write
as they analyze information and break it
down to show their understanding. As
students engage in this quickwriting, they
are able to develop their ideas, reflect on
what they know about a topic, and make
connections.

On the left side of the page, students draw
symbols or images to synthesize what they
know and to show relationships among the
information.

Smart Cards

A collection of student-written summaries
and illustrations on index cards about
subtopics or concepts form one unit of study.
Smart Cards require students to get the big
picture of an idea and condense it into their
own words. Students complete these cards
one at a time throughout a unit of study, and
you can collect them at any time to assess
student understanding.

This is a good strategy to use in a unit that is
vocabulary intense.

My Textbook Page

A graphic organizer for summarizing the
important concepts from the math textbook.
This activity provides students with practice
in reading for information. It can also be
used as a note-taking guide.
Organizer should include.

S-O-S Summary

Provide students with a statement (S).

Student gives opinion (O) as to whether the
statement is true of false.

The student then supports (S) his or her
opinion with evidence.


This is good to use anytime, but is particularly
helpful in geometry units where you want to
develop logical thinking skills.

Act it Out

Students stand and act out the answer. This
is good for instant assessment of things like
end behavior, direction of parabola opening,
slope, parallel/perpendicular, etc.

Concept/Topic:
Description/Summary of the Concept:
Examples/Step-by-step instructions
Hints/Tips: Keep in mindRemember to
The most important things to undersand about
this concept are
How this concept relates to other concepts weve
studied:
URLs to find out more and to practice: