In a never-ending testing environment, formative assessments can be overwhelming. District-mandated assessments PLUS classroom assessments are a recipe for student shutdowns. But don’t fear, try any of these methods to spruce up your classroom formative assessments. Students love the games, and teachers can use the information to drive instruction.
- Quizlet Live: Quizlet Live randomly places students in groups, assigns a mascot, and requires students to work together to answer questions.
- Plickers: I recently showed this to teachers during a professional development and they were blown away. Afterwards, many teachers tried it immediately and the feedback was tremendously positive. Plickers stores information by student and uses technology to accept student answers. Each student is assigned a specific code card, so teachers can track students’ individual progress as well as the class. Plickers is great for accumulating data to drive instruction.
- Kahoot!: I’ve seen this used a lot at the middle school level. Students can play using their Chromebooks or personal electronic devices. It’s like an interactive survey with instant results. It also ranks students, creating friendly competition.
- Quizziz: Quizziz sends questions to the student’s device and allows them to answer at their own pace. The faster they answer, the more points they earn. There are also options to assign quizzes with a deadline, or quizzes can be done as a class.
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April 18, 2017 at 2:12 pm[…] alternative formative assessments. This will increase engagement and create an interactive […]
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April 26, 2017 at 10:08 am[…] Activity: Vocabulary Teacher: “Using the new vocabulary words and definitions, complete a Critical Thinking Vocabulary Organizer of your choice.” Student: Student chooses the Vocabulary Connections Graphic Organizer and makes word-to-text, word-to-self, and word-to-world connections with each vocabulary word. Outcome: Instead of spending 20 minutes copying down definitions, the student spent 20 minutes making connections and learning the new vocabulary. The teacher can now have the student apply the skill to another activity, debrief with the student about the vocabulary, or formatively assess the students understanding of the new vocabulary words with an interactive activity. […]