While formative assessments aren’t always graded, the information from these tools provides critical evidence of student learning. Teachers use the results for assessing learning and improving student understanding. What is a formative assessment? Let’s dive in!
What are formative assessments and why are they important?
Formative assessments are simply tools that teachers use to monitor student progress. There are many different ways to evaluate and monitor student learning, including writing, quizzes, self-evaluations, peer observations, and even conversations between students and teachers. The root of formative assessment is a continuous process of providing feedback for improvement.
How are formative assessments designed and administrated?
Effective formative assessments, which easily fit into any lesson plan, help teachers and students identify strengths and concerns. The ultimate goal is to gain information that will inform instruction and improve student learning. To reach this goal, designing and implementing formative assessments must be an ongoing process.
Teachers or district-level staff can create formative assessments for curriculum and pacing guides. No matter the method, the objective remains the same: to design a tool to pre-assess and/or monitor student performance progress. The question type, whether multiple-choice, open-ended, short response, or essay, keeps the learning benchmark in mind.
Because different types of assessments help teachers gather different types of information, it’s important to use several kinds throughout the learning process. Flexibility with assessments is the key. Here are a few examples of formative assessments:
- Exit tickets- Students answer a couple of short questions on paper (sticky notes or index cards work well!) as they leave class.
- Think-Pair-Share- Students work together to discuss or solve a problem.
- Class discussions- Students apply the ideas and concepts and ask questions through informal conversations.
- One Sentence Summary- Students identify the main point or concept of the lesson. This could be written or verbal.
- Concept Map- Students use illustrations to represent their understanding.
- Journaling- Students express their thoughts through informal, written form.
Using Gizmos as formative assessment tools
Progress monitoring is made simple through the resources built into the virtual labs. Gizmos include a variety of formative assessment tools that offer real-time responses for students and time-saving options for teachers, such as utilizing AI for feedback. Each Gizmo comes with comprehensive, customizable lesson materials for easy planning and implementation of formative assessments. The resources can be fully adapted to meet each teacher’s lesson goals and student needs.
Gizmos STEM Cases offer a unique assessment tool. The heatmap tool is effective for assessing students' current progress and thinking. Educators can view and sort the heatmap by practices and skills. Students collect, analyze, and interpret data, while teachers monitor understanding using real-time data insights and heatmaps based on built-in assessment questions.
STEM Case heatmaps include a “conversational” question type. Conversational questions are strategically designed questions embedded throughout the lesson to engage students in critical thinking and reflection. They reflect the types of questions that educators use to help students connect new information to prior knowledge and have meaningful conversations during class.
Unlocking student success through differentiation and remediation
Formative assessments help teachers monitor whether all students understand the material and recognize where students are struggling and when to accelerate pacing. Analyzing and ranking formative assessment data are the first steps in preparing to use Gizmos for remediation. It’s critical for a teacher to take time to analyze class-level and individual student assessment data. This will help equip a teacher with a clear understanding of the main criteria that will help in remediation: what standards students show mastery with, what standards they are still in the process of learning, and what standards students need the most support with. This can be easily identified by sorting assessment items that are tied to specific standards or benchmarks.
Versatile Gizmos for every teaching mode
Teachers can locate Gizmos that correlate to each standard or benchmark on the ranked list. Gizmos are easily browsed by math and science standards. Gizmos are versatile and perfect for a wide variety of classroom remediation modes, such as whole class or individual instruction. Gizmos offer targeted support to remediate specific standards and benchmarks.
Gizmos can be used to re-teach a whole-class mini-lesson, provide stations during a small group activity, or offer individual instruction when offering accommodations or differentiation. Teachers can also use them for individual re-teaching and enrichment before or after school in a computer lab, as part of an extended learning program offered through a learning management system, or even as part of a high-stakes testing prep.
Customizable student exploration sheets for differentiated instruction
Student Exploration Sheets can also serve as formative assessments. Fully customizable sheets guide students through Gizmos with differentiated instruction. Each sheet includes prior knowledge questions, warm-up activities, and guided investigations to complete within the Gizmo. The answer key is available for teachers. Available in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and PDF formats for customization.
Discover the power of Gizmos in your classroom today
Formative assessments shine spotlights on misconceptions and gaps in knowledge so teachers can address them before it's too late. Using Gizmos helps teachers get the evidence they need to improve student understanding and achievement.
Gizmos have it all–including the research-proven results. Why not bring the power of Gizmos to your classroom with a free trial?