Formative Assessment Strategies and Digital Tools eBook

Strategies & Digital Tools by Diana Benner

Table of Contents Formative Assessment……………………………………………..………………………..3 Formative Assessment Strategies………………………………………….………………4 Determining Formative Assessment Strategies…………………………….…………...13 Digital Formative Assessment Tools………………………………….…...………...…...14 Curated List of Formative Assessment Ideas…………………….……………………...24 Contribute Your Own Ideas…………………………………………………...…….……..24 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..………….25 About Diana…………………………………………………………………...…...………..25 About TCEA…………………………………………………………………...…....……….25 Page 2 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Formative assessment is a process that uses informal assessment strategies to gather information on student learning. Teachers determine what students are understanding and what they still need to learn to master a goal or outcome. Strategies used to gather formative assessment information take place during regular class instruction as formative assessment and instruction are closely linked. Most formative assessment strategies are quick and easy to use and fit seamlessly into the instruction process. The information gathered is never marked or graded. Descriptive feedback may accompany a formative assessment to let students know whether they have mastered an outcome or whether they require more practice. Formative assessment strategies are used to check for understanding of student learning and to make decisions about current and future instruction. Page 3 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies ABC Brainstorming ABC brainstorming is a strategy you can use with students midway through a lesson to provide you with information about what students have learned about a particular topic. Working individually, in pairs, in small groups, or as a class, students brainstorm words or phrases that begin with each letter of the alphabet and are related to the current lesson. As you look at the brainstormed lists, you are able to determine what information is lacking and provide future instruction that address these gaps. Analogies Analogies is a useful formative assessment strategy. Ask students to create an analogy between something they are familiar with and the new information they have learned. Asking students to explain their analogies will show their understanding about a topic. Checklists Checklists are a great tool for collecting data about students during a lesson. Before beginning a new lesson, make a list of all the skills the students will need to demonstrate in order to master the lesson’s objectives. On one side, list the students names down one side and the skills across the top. As students are participating in various activities, observe the students and check off the skills you see students demonstrating with proficiency. Choral Response Choral Response is a strategy where all students verbally respond, in unison, to a teacher's questions.If you need a quick assessment of student understanding, ask students to respond to a series of questions as a class. If you listen carefully to the responses, you will get a good idea of whether or not the students understood what you are presenting. Page 4 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies Cloze Procedure The cloze procedure can be used to determine the level of student understanding regarding a particular topic or lesson. Create or use a passage that relates to the unit. Make sure the passage is at a readability level for your students. Decide whether you are going to eliminate key vocabulary words or whether you will eliminate a set word, such as every 7th word. Your decision will be based on the age and readiness levels of the students in your class. Concept Maps Concept maps provides a visual representation of student understanding about a particular topic being studied. Students type the topic or main idea in the oval in the center of the page. They then write supporting details in the spaces surrounding the center or main oval. Using concept maps is a skill that must be taught to students. Once students are familiar with concept maps, they can be used as a formative assessment strategy in any subject area. Conferences Conferences with individual or selected students in your class can be a great way to formatively assess student understanding. Create your target questions ahead of time to ensure you are gathering information related to your goal or outcome. Take notes during the conferences to refer to later when planning instruction. Page 5 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies Demonstration Stations Demonstration Stations are a great way for students to show what they know and help you determine the direction of future instruction. Midway through a lesson have student demonstrate with hands-on activities set up in stations. At each station, the students could also explain their thought processes to you or type their reflections. Discussions Having a class discussion half way through a lesson can provide you with valuable information regarding what your students know about the topic. Focus the discussions on higher level thinking skills and give students a few minutes to reflect on their learning before beginning the discussion. Encourage students to share what they have learned and how that knowledge may have an impact on their daily lives. Listening carefully to the responses given by students will provide useful information for planning future instruction. Double Entry Journals Journals are a great way to formatively assess students and get a view into their thinking. Double entry journals are a form of journaling. A double entry journal has two columns. In the left column, students write key words, ideas, or quotations. They then give their personal response to these words in the right column. Students may include questions that arise out of their responding. By reading the students’ responses, you can assess students’ knowledge and understanding of the topic you are studying. Page 6 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies Drawings Some of your students may be able to show you what they know by creating a drawing or a series of drawings to demonstrate their understanding. Encourage students to share their thinking about what they are drawing to gain insight into what they have learned up to a given point in a unit of study. Examples/Non-Examples Encourage your students to provide you with examples and non- examples of a topic being studied. The examples and non-examples provide you with information regarding the depth of understanding of your students. Ask students to explain their reasoning for classifying each example and non-example. Exit Tickets Exit tickets could be used on a regular basis to formatively assess what your students know, understand, and have learned during a current unit of study. Before students leave at the end of class, ask them a question or pose a problem for them to solve. Glance through the exit cards to determine if students are generally understanding the topic or whether you need to provide further whole class or small group instruction in a particular area. Exit cards can be used to create groupings for the next day’s lesson and activities can be planned based on the students’ responses. Graffiti Wall The graffiti wall is fun activity for students and gives you a visual representation of what your students have learned during a unit of study. Encourage students to write or draw what they have learned about a topic. Students can write down facts, write personal opinions, or draw in order to connect their learning. Page 7 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers have many uses in the classroom. Using graphic organizers to formatively assess students is one use. Graphic organizers provide a visual representation of student learning. Students can fill in a graphic organizer template with their thoughts and understandings about a lesson. Learning Logs Learning logs are notes students make during a lesson. Time is set aside at the beginning or end of class for students to write about what they have learned, list any questions about the topic they may have, or make connections between the topic and their own lives. List 10 Things About midway through a unit of study, ask students to list ten things they have learned during the lesson. Gather these lists and read through them to get an idea of where students are in regard to understanding. Matching Activities A fun way to assess student knowledge of vocabulary or facts is to match words with their definitions or group facts into given categories. Allow each student to complete a matching game or students can play the game in groups. Observations Observing students can provide valuable information about how students are progressing and what strategies they are using to learn. You can use anything to record your observations. At the end of the day, analyze your observations. Page 8 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies One Minute Essays The one minute essay is a quick formative assessment strategy that allows you to gauge student understanding of a particular topic. Pose a question to the students have the students respond. Tell the students they have one minute to write down their response. Ensure the question you ask can be answered in one minute. Use questions that cause students to reflect on their learning. One Sentence Summaries Asking students to provide you with a one sentence summary of what they have learned provides you with information about what your students know about a topic. Give students time to reflect on their learning and encourage students to think about their response. Open-Ended Questions Using open-ended questions allows you to determine the depth and breadth of student learning. Ask students questions that cannot be answered with “yes” or “no” or another one word answer. Open-ended questions require students to think about their answers and use their knowledge and understanding about a particular topic. Peer-Assessments Assessments by peers is a powerful way to gather information about students and their understanding. Students can use a set criteria to assess the work of their classmates. Problem Solving Pose a problem to students and ask them how they would solve it. Students can respond orally or in writing. The responses given by the students indicate their level of understanding regarding the lesson. Page 9 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies Questionnaires Questionnaires can be used in various subject areas and for a variety of purposes. When used as a formative assessment strategy, questionnaires provide teachers with information on student learning that they can use to plan further instruction. Questioning Questioning is a great formative assessment strategy to determine the depth of student understanding. Ask students lower level questions that focus on the facts and general information about a topic. Use higher level questions to encourage students to think about and reflect on their learning. Quick Writes Quick writes give teachers a visual of student learning. Provide students with an open-ended question and set an amount of time for having them write--from two to five minutes. Tell students not to worry about the conventions of writing but rather focus on getting their ideas down on paper. When the time is up, ask students to stop writing. Look through the quick writes for valuable information regarding the knowledge and understanding your students have about a given topic. Using a quick write at the start of class is also a great way to activate the prior knowledge of your students. Reflection Journals Reflection journals are a type of journal that encourages students to think about what they have learned and make connections to their own lives. Reading through the entries that students create gives you information that can be used to plan future lessons. Page 10 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies Self-Assessments Self-assessment involves students reflecting about their own learning in relation to the lesson’s goals or outcomes. Checklists or open-ended questions can be used to assist students with their reflections. Include questions that deal with student understanding about the topic and with the identification of areas that need more information or more practice. Sentence Prompts Sentence prompts can be used in a variety of ways to informally assess students and gather information to inform instruction. Simple sentence starters such as the following could be used: I understand ...., I don’t understand ...., and/or I need more information about … Student Composed Questions Have students write “test” questions. Students compose the questions and possible answers. Students should think about what questions would show an in- depth understanding of the lesson. Read through the questions and answers to get a feel for what the students have learned about a topic. Surveys Surveys are a quick way to determine what your students have learned about a topic of study. Create ten short response questions - true/false, multiple choice, or one word completion questions, and create the assessment. Teach a Friend A good strategy for determining if students understand a concept or process is to have them teach it to a friend. Students need to think about the knowledge and skills needed for understanding and include that information in their teaching. Page 11 @diben www.tcea.org

Formative Assessment Strategies Think-Pair-Share The think-pair-share strategy is a great way to gather information about the level of understanding of your students. It is a quick and easy strategy that can be used a number of times throughout a lesson. Ask students questions such as, “What did you learn during today’s lesson?” Give students a few minutes to think about these questions. Pair students up with partners. Students share their thoughts with each other and then join a larger group or the whole class. Three Facts and a Lie The three facts and a lie activity is a great strategy to find out what students have learned about a lesson. Students write down three facts and one lie about a topic. They take turn sharing their three facts and a lie with a partner, in a small group, or with the entire class. Students try to guess which statement is the lie. Three Things The three things strategy involves having students visually represent, through words or drawings, three things they have learned in the lesson. Tell students to provide as many details as possible to determine the depth of their understanding. Have students share with another student in class. By talking through their ideas, students may come up with more details to add. Three - Two - One (3-2-1) The 3-2-1 strategy is a quick way to gain information about all the students in your class and the level of understanding they have about a current unit of study. Ask students to jot down three things they have learned about a topic, make two personal connections to the topic, and one area that is unclear or one question they have about the topic. Page 12 @diben www.tcea.org

Determining Formative Assessment Strategies Deciding on what type of formative assessment strategy to use will depend on a number of factors. Teachers need to determine what aspect of student learning they want to measure. They then need to consider the learning preferences of their students. Formative assessment strategies can be given to students individually, as partners, in small groups, or as a class. The type of grouping used for the formative assessment will also influence the choice of strategy. Teachers should not rely on one type of assessment strategy. A variety of individual and group formative assessment strategies should be used. Individual strategies allow teachers to get a clear picture of each student and their understanding of the concept or skill being measured. Group strategies provide teachers with general information about student learning that can be used to plan instruction. Students can also use formative assessment information to make changes to their learning. Page 13 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Each digital tool listed below can be used for formative assessment. The tools are listed in alphabetical order and indicate whether they are an iOS app, Android app, or web-based tool. Click on the name of the tool in order to access the tool or the tool’s website. After you review the tools, think about strategies you will use with these tools in order to inform instruction. Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description ABC - Magnetic App App based Alphabet Lite for Kids ✔ Click and drag letters to spell words or Active Prompt phrases. ✔✔ Animoto ✔ ✔ A quick way to get formative assessment Annotate information from students by having them place the ‘red dot’ on a location on an AnswerGarden image. ✔ Gives students the ability to make a short, 30-second share video of what they learned in a given lesson. Allows you to get your point across easily by using images and annotations. Works with a desktop, tablet, or phone and allows you to bring alive your thoughts and ideas using shapes, sketches and annotations. ✔ A tool for online brainstorming or polling, educators can use this real time tool to see student feedback on questions. Page 14 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description Backchannel Chat Brainrush App App based BubbleSheet Chatterpix Kids ✔✔ ✔ Similar to TodaysMeet, this backchannel Coggle offers a teacher-moderated means of CommonLit engaging the class. Corkulous ✔ Brainrush is a site that contains adaptive learning games. Anyone can create, share, and play. ✔ An app that allows students to complete assignments and common assessments using an iPhone or iPad Quizzes up to 10 questions are free. Chatterpix Kids can make anything talk -- pets, friends, doodles, and more. ✓ Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. What a great way to create fancy book reports. And best of all, it’s free! ✔ A simple mind mapping tool. You can also drag/drop images into your diagrams. CommonLit delivers high-quality, free instructional materials to support literacy ✓ development for students in grades 5-12. Reading passages and progress tracking tools are available. Corkulous idea board is the incredible new ✓ way to collect, organize, and share ideas. Groups of students can use it to brainstorm ideas or organize projects. Page 15 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description App App based Dogonews DOGO News has fun articles for kids on current events, science, sports, and more! There are also Educreations ✔ Interactive ✓ lots of stories, pictures, videos, games and the Whiteboard DOGO news map for kids! Students can look up highlighted vocabulary words in the articles and listen to the audio version. Create an account to check for student understanding with built in questions and writing prompts that go along with the articles. A whiteboard app that allows students to create screencasts from their iPad and record their thinking. Explain ✔✔ Record your voice and whiteboard as you share Everything your ideas. Can share final product in multiple ways. Five Card Flickr ✔ Designed to foster visual thinking, this tool uses the tag feature from photos in Flickr. Flashcard Students can benefit from instant recognition with Stash flash cards. Fluency, if you will, with a specific set of ✓ words. Now, if understanding doesn’t go deeper than instant recognition, students are in trouble. Teachers can sign up for a free account and create flashcards to coordinate with units of study. Flipgrid ✓ ✓ ✓ Don’t just ask a question. Expand your students world and ignite a discussion! Foster previous experiences and learned knowledge through video, If you believe it’s valuable for students to verbalize their learning processes ... that’s a Flipgrid Topic! You can moderate videos, provide custom feedback, set the privacy rules, and more. Page 16 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description Flippity App App based ✓ Flippity is a place where you can create online flash cards, quiz shows, memory games, and more. All these can be used as a formative assessment tool. FlipQuiz ✓ FlipQuiz provides educators with a quick way to create your own gameshow-style boards for the classroom. ForAllRubrics ✔ This software is free for all teachers and allows you to import, create and score rubrics on your iPad, tablet or smartphone. You can collect data offline with no internet access, compute scores automatically and print or save the rubrics as a PDF or spreadsheet. Formative ✔ Go Formative is an assessment tool where students can type, draw, or submit images to demonstrate their understanding. Formative ✔ An iPad app that is designed to foster and Feedback for encourage communication between students and Learning teachers. Through a conference setting it uses icons to prompt discussions. Google Drawing ✔ Have students illustrate their understanding through graphic organizers, concept maps, or drawings. Google Forms ✔ Easily collect information from students using Google Forms. Give your students a survey or questionnaire using Google Forms. Students can access via the browser on their device. Google Keep ✔ Allow students to take notes about what they have GoSoapBox learned in class with Google Keep. Checklists can also be created. ✔ Free for less than 30 students. Have polls and discussions. Use the Confusion Barometer to check how students are doing at any given time. Page 17 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description App App based iBrainstorm ✔ An iPad app that allows students to collaborate on projects using a stylus or their finger on screen. Imagistory Check for understanding and develop your student's imagination, creativity and language ✓ skills with Imagistory, a wordless picture book app that inspires them to create and tell stories about what they learned in class. Kahoot ✔ Gamify your content with Kahoot and have students use their devices to check for understanding in a fun, game format. KidPick - ✔ Add your students/classes and use this app to Random Name randomly pick students. You can also tap to keep Generator and track as to whether they answer correctly or not. Group Creator Lesson Check ✔ This is a teacher app that helps you choose from a wide variety of formative assessments activities and aligns to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Lino ✔ ✔ ✔ A virtual corkboard of sticky-notes so students can provide questions or comments on their learning. These can be used like exit tickets or during the course of a lesson. Mentimeter ✔ Allows you to use mobile phones or tablets to vote on any question a teacher asks. Two questions per event are free. MyStoryBook Have your students create a storybook online about what they learned in class. They can insert ✓ characters, draw, and add text. Teachers can create a class account so that the storybooks can be saved. Page 18 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description App App based Newsela Newsela is an online news-as-literacy website (and Chrome app) that features current articles. ✓ Free leveled news, primary sources, writing prompts, and more, with standards-aligned formative assessments. Nearpod ✔ Create polls, interactive quizzes, open-ended questions, beautiful slideshows and more for up to 30 students. Online Voice ✔ Easily record audio on the web and save as an Recorder mp3 file. Padlet ✔ Provides an essentially blank canvas for students to create and design collaborative projects. Great for brainstorming. Pear Deck ✔ Integrates easily with Google Apps for Education. Limited free usage and it offers unique question types. PicCollage ✔✔ Have students use this photo collage tool to collect photos to demonstrate understanding. Pick Me! ✔ An easy to use app for teachers that facilitates random student selection. Can import classes from Dropbox. Pixton Pixton introduces the world to Click-n-Drag ✓ Comics, a new way for students to create amazing comics of what they have learned in class. Ping Pong ✔ This app allows the teacher to ask a variety of question types (true/false, multiple choice, etc.) and no registration is required. Page 19 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description App App based Plickers ✔ Allows teachers to collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices. Perfect for the one-device classroom. Poll ✔ Poll Everywhere is great for polling students and Everywhere checking for understanding. A variety polls. Up to 25 responses per poll are free. PollDaddy ✔ Quick and easy way to create online polls, quizzes and questions. Powtoon Create animated videos with Powtoon. Features ✔ include a storyboard builder, ready-made templates and intuitive drag-and-drop features to create a high quality Powtoon in no time. Quizalize ✔ Quizalize lets you engage your class and deliver instant assessments. It helps you quickly identify the strengths, weaknesses and learning gaps of individual students. Quizlet ✔ Quizlet makes checking for understanding fun. Create flashcards, games — all for free. Quizziz ✔ Avatars, leaderboards, themes, music and Quick Key ✔ memes! Create quizzes in minutes with Quizizz.! Mobile The Quizizz editor makes it super-easy to create great quizzes in no time. ✔ Quick Key turns your phone into an optical scanner to grade quizzes, tests, and surveys on paper, up to 30 questions long. Then, Quick Key allows you to run analytics right on your phone, then upload the data to your electronic grade book. Page 20 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web- Description App App based QuickVoice ✔ Free voice recording app that allows you to record Recorder up to 5 minutes. Email saved recording to yourself or upload to Google Drive. Random Name/Word ✔ Paste your class list in this site and have it Picker randomly choose a student. You can also remove them from the list once chosen. Seesaw Capture student learning with Seesaw. Seesaw empowers students to independently document ✔ ✔ ✔ what they are learning at school. Students can “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. Shadow ✔ Easily create videos in the classroom! Students as Puppet Edu young as five can make videos to tell stories, explain ideas, or document their learning. ShowMe ✔ Record your voice and whiteboard as you share a Interactive concept. Whiteboard StoryKit Create an electronic storybook with Storykit. Write ✔ some text, illustrate by drawings or photos, and add sounds effects or record your story. Socrative ✔ ✔ ✔ Engaging exercises and games that engage students using smartphones, laptops and tablets. Super Notes ✔ Type, record, or type while recording/playing, also add in photographs and capture everything. Page 21 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web-b Description App App ased Tagxedo ✔ A tag cloud generator that allows you to examine ThingLink student consensus and facilitate dialogue. ThingLink is a tool for making images interactive. To use, simply upload an image, identify hot spots ✔ ✔ ✔ on specific parts of the image, and add text or web links to the image. In the classroom, teachers could have students create a Thinglink as a way to conduct a formative assessment. TitanPad ✔ This unique tool for collaborative work offers 8 TodaysMeet colors to choose from so that each contributor may use a different color. Invite others to your pad by sharing the unique URL with them. ✔ This online collaboration tool allows educators to create a “room” in which students can share ideas, answers and thoughts to lectures and lessons. Teachers create a free account to edit and archive rooms. Toontastic This app makes writing and creating stories fun and engaging, while still being educational. Allow ✔✔ students to create a story about topics they have learned as a way to assess. Venn Diagram ✔ ✔ Easily create Venn diagrams on your device with this app to illustrate understanding. Vocaroo ✔ A free service that allows users to create audio recordings without the need for software. Get a unique URL for the recording. Download in multiple formats. Page 22 @diben www.tcea.org

Digital Formative Assessment Tools Name of Tool iOS Android Web-b Description App App ased VoiceThread ✔ ✔ Allows you to create and share conversations on documents, diagrams, videos, pictures or almost anything. Wordle ✔ Generates true word clouds from any entered text to help aggregate responses and facilitate discussion. WordCloud by ✔ Word Clouds by ABCya.com is an easy-to-use app ABCya to create and share beautiful word clouds.Word Clouds by ABCya.com is kidSAFE Certified! ZipGrade ✔✔ Grade multiple choice tests, quizzes, and assessments instantly in the classroom by using your device’s camera as a scanner. Page 23 @diben www.tcea.org

Curated List of Formative Assessment Ideas Go to goo.gl/t055sm During my workshops, I like to get feedback from my participants. Check out the spreadsheet of ideas that many of them came up with. They list the formative assessment tool, strategy, subject area, and how it can be used in the classroom. Contribute Your Own Ideas If you would like to contribute your own ideas about formative assessment tools and strategies to the spreadsheet above, then complete the online form at goo.gl/YP5Kql. I would love to hear how you formatively assessing your students. Page 24 @diben www.tcea.org

Conclusion In conclusion, as look to see whether students are understanding and mastering daily objectives, try a formative assessment. There is nothing more important than knowing how you need to guide your instruction in order to meet your student’s needs. If you try some of the strategies or tools in this ebook, please reach out to me on Twitter (twitter.com/diben) or via email ([email protected]) to share. About Diana Diana Benner Diana is a Director of Professional Development at TCEA in Austin, Texas. dbenner.org She has served as an instructional technologist, instructional designer, and an online learning specialist, supporting districts all over Texas and in state @diben government for over 20 years. Diana earned Masters of Education in [email protected] Educational Technology from Texas State University – San Marcos. She loves working with teachers to help them utilize digital learning in the classroom. About TCEA TCEA (www.tcea.org) is a member-based organization devoted to the use of technology in education. TCEA’s primary focus is on integrating technology into the PreK-12 environment and providing its members with state-of-the-art information through conferences, workshops, newsletters, the Internet, and collaborations with higher education and business. For more information on the benefits of becoming a member, visit tcea.org/membership. In addition, visit the popular TechNotes blog at tcea.org/blog for additional resources, great tips, and ideas to help you better integrate technology into your school, classroom, or library. Page 25 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Content written by Diana Benner. International License. @diben www.tcea.org