formative assessment creative writing

7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

Within these methods you’ll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they’re still learning.

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Formative assessment—discovering what students know while they’re still in the process of learning it—can be tricky. Designing just the right assessment can feel high stakes—for teachers, not students—because we’re using it to figure out what comes next. Are we ready to move on? Do our students need a different path into the concepts? Or, more likely, which students are ready to move on and which need a different path?

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point—no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it—isn’t enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way—all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That’s why it’s important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

7 Approaches to Formative Assessment

1. Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day’s work while students are getting settled—you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

Exit slips can take lots of forms beyond the old-school pencil and scrap paper. Whether you’re assessing at the bottom of Bloom’s taxonomy or the top, you can use tools like Padlet or Poll Everywhere , or measure progress toward attainment or retention of essential content or standards with tools like Google Classroom’s Question tool , Google Forms with Flubaroo , and Edulastic , all of which make seeing what students know a snap.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles : Students got the point; they sort of got it; and they didn’t get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

• What are three things you learned, two things you’re still curious about, and one thing you don’t understand?
• How would you have done things differently today, if you had the choice?
• What I found interesting about this work was...
• Right now I’m feeling...
• Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2. Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize , Kahoot , FlipQuiz, Gimkit , Plickers , and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can’t kill a student’s grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid’s response, and determine both individually and in aggregate how students are doing.

Because you can design the questions yourself, you determine the level of complexity. Ask questions at the bottom of Bloom’s taxonomy and you’ll get insight into what facts, vocabulary terms, or processes kids remember. Ask more complicated questions (“What advice do you think Katniss Everdeen would offer Scout Finch if the two of them were talking at the end of chapter 3?”), and you’ll get more sophisticated insights.

3. Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they’re sometimes referred to as dipsticks . These can be things like asking students to:

• write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,
• draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or
• do a think, pair, share exercise with a partner.

Your own observations of students at work in class can provide valuable data as well, but they can be tricky to keep track of. Taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone, or using a copy of your roster, is one approach. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4. Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students’ understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don’t have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students’ learning.

For more introverted students—or for more private assessments—use Flipgrid , Explain Everything , or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5. Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art or photography or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning . Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” to explore the subtext.

6. Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes it’s helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the “ muddiest point ” in the lesson—the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check : Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

7. Self-assessment: Don’t forget to consult the experts—the kids. Often you can give your rubric to your students and have them spot their strengths and weaknesses.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have you students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column—you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they’re all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards—“I agree,” “I disagree,” and “I don’t know how to respond”) and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they’re ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you’re only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog . If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it’s OK to put it aside and try something different.

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75 Formative Assessment Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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• Video Overview
• Key Characteristics

Formative assessment is a type of assessment that takes place in the middle of a unit of work. It is usually compared to summative assessment which takes place at the end of the learning experience.

The key characteristic of formative assessment is that learning will take place before and after the assessment. The assessment is designed to help students:

• Stay on track
• Pivot if they are off track
• Deepen their knowledge based on an assessment of what they currently know
• Receive feedback on their progress

Similarly, it helps teachers:

• Change their teaching strategies based on student needs
• Assess students’ current knowledge to inform future instruction
• Reflect on their own teaching practice for continual improvement
• A) To give a final grade at the end of the course
• B) To help students understand what they need to improve
• C) To pass or fail students based on their knowledge
• D) To memorize information for tests
• A) It allows teachers to give less homework
• B) It provides insights into students’ understanding to tailor future lessons
• C) It reduces the need for teaching different topics
• D) It enables teachers to focus only on high-performing students

Formative Assessment Examples

1. 1-Minute Check In – Check in with every student in the class for one minute throughout the day to see how they are feeling about their tasks. Use the class roll to keep track.

2. 1-Minute Paper – Students get one minute to write a rapid-fire paper on the topic to try to show their depth of knowledge as fast as possible.

3. 3 Things – Students are asked to quickly list 3 things they want to know more about in regards to their topic, or 3 things they don’t currently understand.

4. 3-2-1 Reflection (aka Exit Slip) – Have students write down 3 big ideas from what they learned, 2 insights (reflective comments), and 1 question they still have.

5. 3x Summarization – Have students summarize the topic in three ways: in 10-15 words, 30-50 words, and 75-100 words. As they step up in word count, they will need to add some more depth and detail to demonstrate deeper knowledge.

6. 5 W’s and H – The 5W’s and H method gets students to write down their knowledge of what, when, where, who, why, and how to demonstrate their depth of knowledge about a topic.

7. Anonymous Feedback Box – Have students place anonymous comments about what they’re struggling with into a feedback box. This will allow students to share their concerns with the safety of anonymity. It helps gather crowd-sourced formative assessment but isn’t good for individual formative feedback.

8. Brainstorming – Have the students come together in groups and write down the key question in the middle of a piece of paper. Then, have them brainstorm ways to answer the question around the central question.

9. Check for Transfer – Have the students transfer the current concept from class to a new context. For example, if students are learning a math problem, check if they can apply it in a supermarket context.

10. Cold Calling – Let students know that you will not ask them to put their hands up to answer questions. Instead, you will call on one student randomly and all students by the end of class. This keeps everyone engaged and allows you to do spot checks of knowledge.

11. Comments on Drafts – Have students submit drafts of their essays to provide formative comments at least two weeks before submission.

12. Compare and Contrast – Have students compare two components of what is being learned to help them demonstrate their current knowledge. For example, in a biology class, you could have the students compare reptiles to mammals based on several key criteria.

13. Concept Map – Have students complete a concept map demonstrating their understanding of how concepts connect to one another in visual form.

14. Corner Quiz – Place letters A, B, C, and D on four separate corners of the room. Students are given a multiple choice quiz on what they are learning. Students have to run to the corner that they think has the right answer, e.g. if the answer is D, they run to the corner with the D on it. The teacher can look to see which students are consistently getting the wrong answer (or following others!).

15. Doodle It (Visualization) – Have students draw a representation of what they have learned in a visual format. This is a great formative assessment task for visual learners .

16. Elevator Pitch – Students give a 2-minute ‘elevator pitch’ speech about how much they know about the topic. In two minutes or less, they need to show you the depth of their knowledge.

17. Extension Project – Give students an extension project to see how well they apply the information in a new and less structured context. An example might be getting them to make a diagram about the topic.

18. Five Whys – Have students to ask ‘why’ five times to see if they can get to the root of their knowledge and understanding on a topic. This helps you understand how deeply they know the topic. For example, if the student says “Shakespeare is the best writer in history” ask why, then they say “because his poetry tells the best stories”, then ask why several more times, until they have fleshed out their knowledge to the best of their ability.

19. Flashcards – Have students answer flashcard questions mid-way through the unit of work to check for understanding.

20. Flip Chart Check In – Students get into groups and write anything and everything they know about the topic onto a flip chart. They then present their flip chart to the rest of the class.

21. Formative Presentation – Have the students give a presentation on what they have learned so far. This can be great for a mid-term check-in so you can help students stay on track and go deeper for their end-of-term assessment on the same topic.

22. Hand in, pass out – Students are assessed on a pop quiz. They do not write their own name on the paper. They then hand in their answers and the teacher passes out the answer sheets randomly to the class. The class then grades the anonymous work they are given. The students are given a chance to grade others’ work. The teacher can take the answer in afterward to see the questions that were most commonly incorrect to see what to focus on.

23. Homework Task – Homework is perhaps the most extensively used example of formative assessment. When you grade your students’ homework you can get a good idea of their level of understanding of content explored in class.

24. Hot Seat – A student sits in a seat in front of their peers and gets rapid-fire questions from their peers to test their quick responses. Great for math quizzes.

25. Hot Topics – Students choose one aspect of what they are learning and present in front of the class for 5 minutes about their knowledge, then take 5 minutes of questions.

26. Identify the Misconception – Give students a common misconception about their topic and ask them to explain what the misconception is and how to improve upon it.

27. Intentional Mistake – Intentionally embed an error into the students’ work or instructions and see whether they can identify it part-way through the lesson.

28. KWL Chart – A KWL chart asks students to write down what they know, what they want to know, and what they learned in the lesson. Have students complete this chart at the end of a lesson as a quick formative assessment that can help you structure your follow-up lessons based on student feedback.

29. Lunch Pass – Ask every student a question. If they can get their question right, they can go to lunch.

30. Metacognition – Have the students reflect on what they did, what they learned, why they learned it, how they can apply it, and what they still are unsure about it.

31. More Knowledgeable Other – Have students sit beside a student who is one step ahead of them and learn from the more knowledgeable student. The more knowledgeable student gives them feedback and assesses their progress, giving formative corrections to help them progress. Often, students who are at a similar level to one another are better at explaining concepts than teachers.

32. Open-Ended Questioning – Ask students questions that cannot be answered with a Yes/No answer so you can gather their depth of knowledge in the answer.

33. Paraphrasing – Give students a piece of information then ask them to repeat the information back to you in their own words to see if they understand it.

34. Peer Assessment – Have students grade each other’s work. This allows students to see other students’ work to gather whether they’re on track and how to improve.

35. Photo Assessment – Have students take photos of things they think best represent their current level of knowledge. Students might take photos of their current projects. Then, have them write descriptions underneath that explain what they currently know about the topic.

36. Pop Quiz – Give the students a quiz at the beginning, middle, or end of a lesson that involves just 5 to 10 questions that can allow you to see how much they know.

37. Postcard – The students write a postcard or letter from one historical figure to another describing something. For example, psychology students might write a letter from Bronfenbrenner to his wife explaining his Ecological Systems Theory .

38. Prediction and Hypothesis – Halfway through the lesson, have students make a prediction or hypothesis about what will happen by the end of the lesson. This will help the teacher know if the students are starting to understand what is being taught.

39. Prior Knowledge Onboarding Task – Have students write down what they already know about a topic before the first lesson. This will help you know what level you need to start your teaching at and help prevent redundancy in re-teaching things students already know.

40. RSQC2 – RSQC2 stands for Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect, Comment. Students start with recall which involves listing words or phrases that they recall from class. They then summarize the words by putting them all into a sentence that explains the topic. For Question, they list any questions they have that are unanswered. For connect, students write about connections between the lesson and the overall goals of the unit of work. For Comment, students provide a feedback comment to the teacher evaluating their teaching. 

41. Run an Opinion Poll – Poll the students on their opinion of the topic and examine the responses. The teacher can gauge students’ knowledge based on their answers in the poll.

42. Running Records – Have students take notes throughout the class on questions they have and things they don’t understand. As you come around to check on the student, ask them to show their running records notecard.

43. Spaced Repetition Testing – Students are given pop quizzes at strategically placed intervals to help students remember information they may be forgetting. For example, you might give students a quiz after 1 day, then 3, then 8, then 15. The answers from the quiz can help you assess student retention of knowledge learned in class.

44. Sticky Notes – Have students leave a sticky note on their desk with a comment about what they would like to know more about.

45. Student Becomes Teacher – Have the student teach the concept they are learning to a small group of peers.

46. Students Create a Test – Have each student create a 20-question test that they would use to test someone on the topic. Students write the answers to the test on a separate paper. Then, have the students swap mock-up tests with each other and fill out the answers.

47. Submit a Research Proposal – Have students submit a mock (or real!) research proposal stating what they would want to research further into the topic they have been discussing ( use my research proposal examples ). Get them to discuss what they would research, why they are curious about that aspect, and how they would go about it. This can reveal a great deal of new information about the student’s current level of knowledge.

48. Submit an Essay Plan – For students writing an essay, get them to submit their essay plan for approval. Using this method, you can catch if a student is off track and correct the course so they submit a high-quality essay.

49. TAG Feedback – Have students assess one another by getting them to tell a peer what they did well, ask them a question about their knowledge, then give feedback to their peer.

50. Text Rendering – Students take one quote that they think is the most important or illuminating from an article and explain why they think it’s the best quote.

51. Think-Pair-Share – Students spend one minute individually writing down key points from what they learned. They then pair up with a partner and compare notes. Finally, the pair share what they learned with the class. The class can ask questions and the teacher can assess the pair’s knowledge from their presentation and responses.

52. Timeline (Historical) – Students create a historical timeline demonstrating their knowledge of the sequence of events from a historical process or series of events.

53. Timeline (Lesson Reflection) – A lesson reflection timeline gets students to reflect on their lesson by writing down 

54. Ungraded Essay – Have students submit an essay or essay draft that is not graded. Students submit the essay only for feedback, which will inform their final submission.

55. Venn Diagram – Students use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two elements of what they are learning. The outer sides of the Venn diagram show unique features of each element. The overlap shows the similarities.

Instant Formative Assessment for Teachers

56. Fingers Up – Have students show their level of knowledge by showing a certain number of fingers. One finger means uncertainty and discomfort while five fingers means strong confidence with the content.

57. Hand Thermometer – Students put their hand up only a distance they think they are comfortable with the knowledge. A low hand up shows mild comfort, a medium shows moderate understanding, and a stretched hand shows high confidence in the content.

58. Quick Nod – Ask students to nod if they understand. This can be great as a very fast way to check for comprehension in the middle of a task.

59. Red / Green Cards – Provide students with red and green cards. They can hold up the green card if they are ready to move on to the next part of the lesson or the red card if they’re still confused.

60. Thumbs Up, Middle, Thumbs Down – Have students quickly respond with their thumbs to show levels of understanding or enthusiasm.

61. Traffic Lights – An extension of red/green cards, the traffic lights system also have an amber color for students who are feeling tentative about their progress. For this one, you can pair students who held up green lights with those who held up amber lights to teach each other while the teacher works with students who held up red lights.

62. Two Roses and a Thorn – Have students present two things they are happy or knowledgeable about, and one thing they are still finding “prickly”.

63. Watch Body Language – Students who misunderstand may be crossing their legs, looking away, or frowning.

Self-Evaluative Formative Assessment

64. Self-Evaluation on Marking Rubric – Provide students the criteria you will be using to grade their work (also known as a marking rubric) and get them to self-assess what grade they think they will get.

65. Self-Sort – Have students choose which level they are at in a task: beginner, intermediate, or advanced, and have them select the next piece of work based on their self-evaluated level.

66. SMART Goals Self-Evaluation – Have the students complete a personal SMART Goal template demonstrating what their goals are and whether they think they are on track for achieving it.

67. SWOT Analysis – Have students complete a SWOT analysis that demonstrates what their strengths are in relation to what they are learning, what their weaknesses are, opportunities for improvement for the rest of the unit of work, and threats that they could avoid. This will make sure they stay on track.

Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment

68. Blog About It – Have students write weekly 200-word blog posts about what they learned and comment on each student’s blog comment assessing what they did well and what they need to focus on in the next week.

69. Clickers – Use clickers (instant Yes/No responses – technology required) to provide instant feedback to the teacher on their level of understanding.

70. Forum Comments – Have students submit one forum comment per week to their online discussion board for the teacher to provide a formative assessment and comment on what they did well and how to improve.

71. Padlet – Have students use the Padlet app to contribute their ideas to a virtual notice board to show their thoughts and knowledge to the group.

72. Text the Answer – Have students text an answer to you in 50 words or less once they have completed the task.

73. Twitter Comment – Have students tweet what they learned in class today and tweet a reply to a friend’s comment.

74. Write 1 if you Understand, 2 if you Don’t – This is a task for online lessons. Have students simply write a 1 or 2 in the chatbox. This can also get quiet groups to start contributing in a small no-risk step.

75. YouTube Communities Poll – Have students complete a YouTube poll using the YouTube communities tab.

Related Articles:

• Constructive Feedback Examples
• Achievement test examples

Formative assessment are usually informal evaluations that give students an opportunity to pivot and improve based on the teacher’s feedback. A the same time, it’s valuable for the teacher who needs to assess students’ current knowledge and pain points in order to adjust their teaching practices and maximize students’ chances of passing the summative assessment that will occur at the end of the unit of work.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

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Formative assessments | Literacy games | Vocabulary | Grammar | Primary schools

19 creative activities for formative assessments

By Sara Snelling

26 Jul 2023

In this article:

Keeping formative assessments fun and stress-free

Saving time with bedrock, 19 creative ways to check learners’ understanding, 1. use technology, 2. ask open-ended questions, 3. share emojis, 4. ask questions 'on the fly', 5. exit tickets, 6. four-finger ratings, 7. four corners, 8. think-pair-share, 9. one question quiz, 10. a misconception check, 11. peer instruction, 12. question continuum, 13. question wall, 14. as for a physical response, 15. explore hand signals, 16. traffic light cards, 17. encourage peer questioning, 18. 3-2-1 prompts, 19. homework, more inspiration.

Ongoing assessment of students’ understanding as they work through a unit of learning helps achieve the best educational outcome for everyone. Formative assessments are designed just for that purpose, and taking a creative approach can make them fun, engaging and stress-free, for you and your learners!

Formative assessments are used to monitor students’ progress during learning. The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) describes them as assessments that take place ‘ on a day-to-day basis during teaching and learning, allowing teachers and pupils to assess attainment and progress more frequently ’.

The aim is to dynamically monitor learners’ understanding of a topic while it’s being taught so that adjustments can be made to teaching and misconceptions can be addressed during the period of learning. It is a key tool in teaching strategies such as the mastery approach , with frequent assessments providing the insight required to adjust teaching and support interventions so that all students meet learning targets.

In order to fulfil their purpose, formative assessments need to take place frequently. The results are used by teachers to adapt lesson plans and teaching strategies, unlike summative assessments that tend to be graded, benchmarked against national standards and may be communicated to parents and carers.

The less structured use of outcome data from formative assessments, plus their frequency, mean they can be more relaxed in their delivery. Using a mix of fun, interactive activities, such as games and quizzes, you can gauge knowledge and skill levels in quick and subtle ways. Ideally, learners enjoy the task and don’t realise they are being assessed, keeping the process stress-free.

If you’re already a Bedrock teacher, you’ll know that our platform is continually assessing your learners’ progress and understanding whilst automatically adjusting to serve content which challenges them each individually whilst reteaching misunderstandings and giving meaningful feedback. With Bedrock, there is no need to continually create formative assessments for your vocabulary and grammar teaching. It’s already being taken care of, and our reporting tools provide you with deep, meaningful insights into how vocabulary, grammar and subject-specific vocabulary are improving at the school, class and learner level.

But in case you’re not sold yet, or you’re looking for ideas for formative assessments for other areas of learning, here are 19 creative suggestions for you.

It’s useful to use a variety of activities, as this provides multiple assessment points and allows for the fact that different learning outcomes can be best measured in different ways. Following are some fun and subtle ways to approach formative assessments in the classroom.

Technology facilitates regular formative assessments that are fun and interactive and may offer a degree of automation to save teachers time.

Activities might include:

• Online polls, with free options from companies such as Poll Everywhere or Socrative
• Online quizzes within educational apps, such as Bedrock for literacy or Duolingo for languages, or quiz apps for any topic, such as Kahoot and Quizizz
• Creating your own online games through software such as Factile and Blooket

With digital tools, there is real-time data capture that builds an image of the learning journey and learning behaviours as they happen. Teachers can simulate this themselves, by simply setting up a spreadsheet and entering a Yes or No result for each student against learning objectives, using technology manually to track patterns and identify areas of concern.

These are great for assessing critical thinking skills in relation to a topic. Rather than getting them to tick a box or select an option, ask students open ended questions that require more analysis, such as:

• What would happen if…?
• How do you know that…?
• What are the pros and cons of…?

Children are familiar with emojis, making them an effective way of gathering quick and authentic feedback on how learners are feeling about a topic. There are many ways to use emojis in the classroom. Here are a few ideas:

• Print individual cards for learners and ask them to select the emoji that best reflects how they’re feeling, giving them a choice of smiley, neutral and unhappy emojis.
• Have a selection on the wall and ask learners to point to one as they leave the room.
• Get them to draw an emoji (or simple smiley face) on their homework or a piece of work before they hand it in.

As the name suggests, this is spontaneous questioning that teachers use in response to learners' behaviour during class. The focus and level of challenge of the questions can be adapted by cohort, and by individual, to maintain motivation and engagement across mixed-ability groups.

Exit tickets are short end-of-class assessments filled in by learners just before they leave their lesson. You can include multiple-choice questions that align specifically with a lesson’s objectives, or set a single task, such as writing the most meaningful thing they’ve learned in that lesson.

This is a self-rating hand signal, with learners holding up one to four fingers on their hand to indicate how well they feel they’ve mastered a topic. It’s important to be clear on the rating scale and communicate it, for example, through a visual in the classroom. Following is an example:

• One finger: I don’t understand at all.
• Two fingers: I partly understand, though I have lots of questions.
• Three fingers: I understand and could try an activity with some help.
• Four fingers: I fully understand and I’ve no questions.

This gets learners up and moving around the classroom. Present learners with a statement or question and assign possible reactions or answers to each corner of the room. Ask them to go to the corner that aligns with their own answer.

Using this collaborative strategy, learners work together to answer a question. It can be used as follows:

• Think : The teacher asks the question and provides time for individuals to think about what they know.
• Pair : Learners are put in pairs or in small groups to discuss and come up with an answer.
• Share : They share their answer with the class.

This works well when there’s a specific foundation fact or piece of information linked to the learning objective of the lesson. It is a quick gauge of how many learners have grasped that fact and are ready to move on to the next piece of learning.

Present a false fact or common misconception connected to the topic being covered and ask learners to agree or disagree and explain their response. The teacher shares the correct answer and gives the reasoning behind the misconception.

Involve students in their own learning. Create times throughout a lesson to pose a challenging question. Allow learners time to think individually and then to come together in groups to work out the answer. Students learn from each other, while teachers observe the process and assess understanding.

Create a display with a horizontal line that represents a scale of interest for topic-related questions. At one end there is zero interest, while at the other there’s extreme interest, with gradual increments in between.

Ask each student to come up with a question and share it with the class. Depending on the level of interest each question generates, the student places it on the continuum using a sticky note. The questions created give the teacher an idea of the depth of understanding of a topic.

Similar to the question continuum, but a bit simpler. Ask learners to write a question on an adhesive note and place it on the wall, observing how they engage with the exercise.

Using movement is fun and gets learners engaged. Assign specific movements or responses to understanding levels, including actions for all responses so everyone can take part regardless of how they feel. During a lesson, pause and ask learners to demonstrate their understanding. For example, putting their hands on their head means they understand, while putting their hands on the table means they don’t.

Hand signals are great for gathering feedback when you’re short of time. In addition to the four finger rating already discussed, you could try the following.

• Thumbs up: I get it.
• Thumb to the side: I still have questions.
• Thumbs down: I don’t get it.

Create cards featuring the traffic light colours of red, amber and green, with an image of a traffic light and an explanation of what each colour means:

• Red means stop, I don’t understand this yet.
• Amber means I’m not quite ready, but I’m getting there.
• Green means go, I understand this fully.

At the end of a lesson, ask learners to tick the colour of their choice on their individualised cards.

Learners give each other feedback on their work using a set success criteria linked to the learning objective. There are learning opportunities in giving and receiving feedback, while teachers can assess through observation.

Ask learners to respond in writing or orally to three prompts – providing three pieces of information, two pieces of information and one additional piece of information. For example:

• What three things have you learned today?
• What two things surprised you?
• What one thing did you find most interesting?

Build in creative homework tasks throughout a period of learning so that students’ performance in, and feedback from, those tasks can inform the remainder of the learning journey.

For some more inspiration on how you can implement some fun formative assessments, download our free resource outlining, in detail, 15 formative assessment strategies perfect for English teachers (and other subject teachers too with a little tweaking!), or read a blog from our Director of Education and former Head of English on her 5 favourite formative assessment strategies for English teachers.

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25 Formative Assessment Options Your Students Will Actually Enjoy

Get them excited to show you what they know!

Formative assessment is the piece of the teaching puzzle that allows us to quickly (and hopefully, accurately) gauge how well our students are understanding the material we’ve taught. From there, we make the important decisions about where our lesson will go next. Do we need to reteach, or are our students ready to progress? Do some students need additional practice? And which students need to be pushed to achieve the next level?

The best formative assessments will not only answer these questions but will also engage students in their own learning. With that in mind, here are 25 formative assessment techniques that will have your students looking forward to showing you what they know.

1. Doodle Notes

Have students doodle/draw a pic of their understanding instead of writing it. Studies have shown it has numerous beneficial effects on student learning.

2. Same Idea, New Situation

Ask your students to apply the concepts they’ve learned to a completely different situation. For example, students could apply the steps of the scientific method to figuring out how to beat an opposing soccer team. They observe data (the other team’s plays), form theories (they always rely on two main players), test theories while collecting more data (block those players and see what happens), and draw conclusions (see if that worked).

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3. Tripwire

Tripwires are things that catch people off guard and mess them up. Ask your students to list what they believe are the three misunderstandings about the topic that are most likely to mess up a peer. By asking students to think about the key understandings from this angle, we can get an excellent view of how well they comprehend the topic.

4. Two Truths and a Lie

No longer just a get-to-know-you game or icebreaker, this well-known activity also makes a great formative assessment. Ask students to list two things that are true or accurate about the learning and one idea that sounds like it might be accurate, but isn’t. You’ll be able to assess each student’s understanding when they turn in their responses, and going over them with your class the following day makes an excellent review activity.

5. Popsicle Sticks

Formative assessment doesn’t need to be complicated or time-consuming to be meaningful and engaging. Have each student put their name on a popsicle stick in a jar or box on your desk. Let them know you’ll be pulling popsicle sticks to see who will be answering questions about the lesson. Knowing their name could be pulled makes students who might let peers do the talking focus on the learning. It dispels notions of favoritism and identifies learning gaps. And, most importantly, provides real-time feedback teachers can use in their lesson planning.

6. Explain it to a Famous Person

Ask the student to explain the day’s lesson to someone famous in an analogy that would make sense to that person. For example, the Revolutionary War was fought between the colonies and Great Britain. The colonies wanted to be independent and, after winning the war, renamed themselves the United States of America, just like when Prince left his record label and had to change his name to an unpronounceable symbol in order to break contractual obligations (I’m dating myself with this example, aren’t I?).

7. Traffic Light

Printing on post-it notes is actually pretty simple and fun! Slap a clip-art picture of a traffic light on there and you have a perfect formative assessment tool that students can complete when time is short at the end of class.

8. 30-Second Share

Challenge students to explain what the lesson they learned was all about to a peer, a small group, or the entire class in 30 seconds. At first, you might want to start at 15-seconds and build their stamina. But by encouraging students to explain everything they can for a set and relatively short amount of time, you’ll be building their confidence and public speaking skills at the same time as you get a good grasp on how much they’ve remembered about the lesson.

9. Venn Diagrams

An oldie but a goodie. Have your student compare the topic you just introduced to a tangential topic you taught in the past. This way, you’re getting a formative assessment on how well they understand the new topic and they’re getting a review of an older topic as well!

10. Poll Them

Polls are a great way to quickly assess student understanding. You can do this in person, or you can use apps like Poll Everywhere , Socrative , or Mentimeter to make free polls students can answer using their phones or computers.

11. S.O.S. Summaries

A great, quick formative assessment idea that can be used at any point throughout a lesson is the S.O.S. summary. The teacher presents the students with a statement (S). Then, asks the students to give their opinion (O) about the statement. Finally, the students are asked to support (S) their opinion with evidence from the lesson. For example, a teacher might say to the students, “Complete an S.O.S. on this statement: The Industrial Revolution produced only positive effects on society.”

S.O.S. can be used at the start of a lesson to assess prior knowledge or at the end of a unit or lesson to determine if students’ opinions have changed or if their support has grown stronger with the new information they’ve learned.

12. FOUR-Corners

This activity can be used with questions or opinions. Before asking the question/making the statement, establish each corner of the room as a different potential opinion or answer. After giving the prompt, each student goes to the corner that best represents their answer. Based on classroom discussion, students can then move from corner to corner, adjusting their answer or opinion.

13. Jigsaw Learning

Perfect when teaching complicated subjects or topics with many different parts. In this formative assessment, teachers break a large body of information into smaller sections. Each section is then assigned to a different small group. That small group is in charge of learning about their section and becoming the class experts. Then, one by one, each section teaches the others about their part of the whole. As the teacher listens to each section being taught, they can use the lesson as a method of formative assessment.

14. Anonymous Pop-Quiz

All the formative assessment power of a pop-quiz with none of the unnecessary pressure or embarrassment. To use this tool, simply quiz your students on the essential information you want to ensure they understand. Instruct each student NOT to put their name on their paper.

Once the assessment is complete, redistribute the quizzes in a way that ensures no one knows whose quiz they have in front of them. Have the students correct the quizzes and share out which answers most students got wrong and which answers everyone seemed to understand the most. You’ll know right away how well the class as a whole understands the topic without embarrassing any students individually.

15. One-Minute Write-Up

At the end of a lesson, give students one minute to write as much as they can about what they learned through the lesson or unit. If needed, provide some guiding questions to get them started.

• What was the most important learning from today, and why?
• Did anything surprise you? If so, what?
• What was the most confusing part of the lesson, and why?
• What is something that will likely appear on a test or quiz, and why?

Challenge them to write as much as they can and to write for all of the 60-seconds. To make it a bit more engaging, consider letting students do this with a partner.

16. EdPuzzle

Students love to watch videos and, because of this, we end up showing a lot of short video clips. While they’re engaging, it’s often tough to determine if our students are getting the information we hoped they would get out of watching them. EdPuzzle solves this problem. The free app allows you to link to a video and add questions that stop the video at times you determine. So you can show your students the video of the Dust Bowl, but stop at various points to ask them what they think life might have been like during this time. You can ask them to make comparisons between what they watch and the characters they’re reading about in class. All of this information is then available for you to view and use for formative assessment.

17. Historical Post Cards

Ask students to take on the role of one historical figure you’ve been learning about in class. Have them write a postcard/email/tweet (as long as it’s short) to another historical figure discussing and describing a political event.

18. 3x Summaries

Have students write a 75-100 word summary of a lesson independently. Then, in pairs, have them rewrite it using only 35-50 words. Finally, have them work with a small group to rewrite it one last time. This time, they may use only 10-15 words. Discuss what different groups decided was the most essential information and why they chose to omit certain information. The conversation about what they left out is just as useful as seeing what they left in.

19. Roses and Thorns

Ask students to write or share out two things they really liked/understood about a topic (the roses) and something they didn’t like/didn’t understand (the thorn).

20. Thumbs Up, Down, or in the Middle

Sometimes things stick around because they just work. Asking students to give you a thumbs up if they understand, thumbs down if they don’t, or thumbs somewhere in the middle if they are so-so about it, is probably one of the fastest formative assessments around. It’s also very easy to keep track of if you’re the teacher standing in the front of the room. Just make sure that you follow up with the thumbs down or thumbs in the middle folks to help them with any confusion.

21. Word Clouds

Ask your students to provide you with the three most essential words or ideas from a lesson and plug them into a word cloud generator . You’ll quickly have an excellent formative assessment that shows you what they thought was most worthy of remembering. If it doesn’t line up with what you think was most important, you know what you need to reteach.

22. Curation

Ask students to gather a bunch of examples that correctly demonstrate the concept you taught. So if you’re studying rhetorical strategies, have students send you screenshots of ads that demonstrate them. Not only will you be able to tell immediately who understood the lesson and who didn’t, but you’ll also have a bunch of great examples and non-examples ready to go for those students who need additional practice.

23. Dry Erase Boards

Another time-tested method of formative assessment that teachers often overlook is individual dry erase boards. They really are an awesome and fast way to see where each student’s level of understanding is at any given point.

24. Think-Pair-Shares

Like so many teacher tools, this one can get stale if overused. But, if used as a method to encourage all students to find their voice and share their learning, it’s perfect for formative assessment. To ensure its effectiveness, ask a question of the class. Have every student write down their own answer. Pair students up with a classmate and give them time to share and discuss their answers. After pairs have had a chance to discuss, have them share out with a larger group or the class as a whole. Circulate, listening to groups who have students you know might be more likely to struggle with the current topic. Collect the papers for extra accountability.

25. Self-Directed

This one can intimidate some students at first, but it can be incredibly powerful to let students themselves choose how they want to demonstrate learning. You can support students by giving them managed choice, but let them decide if they want to show you they understood the essential parts of your lesson by drawing a picture, writing a paragraph, creating a pop quiz, or even writing song lyrics. This shows you’re putting them in charge of their own learning.

What’s your go-to method of formative assessment? Tell us in the comments.

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What Is Formative Assessment and How Should Teachers Use It?

Check student progress as they learn, and adapt to their needs. Continue Reading

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20 easy and creative formative assessment examples

Formative assessments are the perfect opportunity for you to assess student learning in an informal and stress-free way. To be most effective, teachers should give formative assessments regularly in class—ideally daily—and in a variety of unique ways that appeal to different types of learners. When this happens, students find a purpose in their learning, become more engaged in the process, and experience higher levels of achievement as a result.

And the best part is that there are endless ways for students to demonstrate both their knowledge of content and their mastery of skills through formative assessments. Plus, you can give impromptu formative assessments, so they don’t require much time or effort to create. 

Formative assessments can also be a fun and imaginative way for you to collect data and make adjustments to your lesson plan quickly and easily, no matter what stage of the learning process your students are in.

And you don’t have to be a creative genius and invent different types of formative assessments on your own. We’ll show you 20 formative assessment examples that you can add to your daily schedule starting today.

1. Assess yourself 

Our ScreenPal quiz feature makes this especially easy, as you can embed poll, rating, and short answer questions in your video lesson.

• Use a poll question to have students reflect on their feelings before and after the lesson.
• Use a rating question (with hearts, smileys, or stars) to ask students to reflect on their knowledge of the topic.
• Use a short answer question for students to describe their understanding on the topic or their progression on the topic.

2. Correct the mistake

Students love to catch you making a mistake in class and point it out in front of their peers. So, take advantage of their love for proving you wrong by purposely solving a math problem with an incorrect answer or incorrectly identifying a part of speech, then having them correct the mistake for you. 

By using ScreenPal’s Chrome extension , students can even record error analysis as a video comment in response to your video lesson.

3. Creating videos

4. Emoji survey

Emoji surveys are another creative way to find out how your students are feeling about a particular assignment quickly and easily. For younger students, ask them to point to the emoji that most expresses their current feelings on a poster as they walk out the door, hold up an emoji index card in class, or have them draw one of their own.

For older students, simply ask them to select an emoji in your online classroom or text it to you using a messaging app.

You can embed your emoji survey in your ScreenPal video lesson using ScreenPal quizzing . Just insert a poll question and right click to insert an emoji before typing your answer choice. Add as many emotions as you’d like to your answer choices!

5. Entry and exit tickets

Entry and exit tickets are another great option for formative assessment. They’re very versatile because they can be created on any medium and used with any grade level or subject area. Plus, it only takes a quick second to look one over and see where your students are at in the learning process.

6. Essential questions

Essential questions are meant to be thought-provoking and help your students make meaningful connections between what they’re currently learning and how they can apply this new information to their own lives. Therefore, having students provide their answer to an essential question shows you if they have a true understanding of a topic or if they need more direction from you.

7. Illustrations

Believe it or not, you can even use illustrations for formative assessments. For example, after learning about scientific discoveries, have students draw their favorite scientist surrounded by whatever they discovered. Students can do the same for mathematicians, authors, or historical figures.

Just because you have so many tech options available these days, doesn’t mean that you should eliminate the classics. On the contrary, a simple KWL chart lends itself well to formative assessments in the classroom, and they can be done individually, in groups, or as a whole class. 

Another imaginative option for formative assessments in any classroom is to have students write a letter to a real-life or fictional person you’ve been studying—whether on aged paper, an email, an instant message, or a text message. Instruct them to include details about this person’s life in the letter and ask them questions they’ve thought of. 

Bonus points if your students trade and write return letters from the historical figure’s perspective!

10. Main point

Not only are these formative assessment examples a great way to see what your students have learned and what they still need to work on, but they are also an opportunity for them to gain more practice mastering your content standards. Ask students to write down or type up the main point of any topic they’re learning as a quick check. 

Students could also use our ScreenPal Chrome extension to record an explanation of their main point- whether using their webcam, or just recording their screen- this is a great way to switch it up from pen and paper.

11. Partner quizzes

Want to give your students a quick review without collecting a bunch of papers to look over? Pair them off and have them quiz each other. You can provide the questions, or they can come up with their own based on the day’s activity.

12. Interactive quizzes

 From multiple choice to true/false, short answers, ratings, or polls, you can use quizzes to assess student learning at the beginning, middle, or end of any video. Plus, you can randomize the order of questions, allow or prevent questions from being skipped, give automatic feedback, and view individual and aggregated data for each question. Lastly, quizzes embedded in videos using ScreenPal software can be taken anonymously or assigned to individual students based on your preference.

Class polls can also be used as a formative assessment for any grade level or subject area. Provide a question to students, preferably with three answers or more, and have the students provide their answers while you tally up the votes. You can ask them to raise their hands or even have them walk to a specific corner of the room to get them moving. You can also add a poll to a video and get real-time results for in-person assessment or asynchronous assessment in a flipped classroom .

14. Google Forms

If you need a quick and easy survey or poll without all the bells and whistles, Google Forms may be the right tool for you. You can create a formative assessment to accompany your curriculum and upload it to your online classroom within minutes. 

15. Summaries

Another formative assessment example that gives students practice with mastering content standards is to have them write a summary. Don’t be afraid to think beyond just writing summaries in English Language Arts class. Summaries can be used in any subject area, including math. For example, have them summarize the steps they took to solve a problem.

16. Teach your partner

Similar to quizzing their partner, you can assign each of your students a topic to become an expert in and then teach it to their partner. Then, as they share what they’ve learned with each other, you can walk around and listen in.

Students these days have grown up using apps and texting. So put their technical skills to good use and have them text their questions and answers directly to you using a messaging app. There are many to choose from, and you don’t have to hand out your personal phone number to do so.

18. Thinking maps

Thinking maps help your students think critically about what they’ve learned and create a visual representation of their new knowledge. You can use various thinking maps as a formative assessment with any age group—including circle maps, flow maps, bubble maps, and tree maps.

19. Think, Pair, Share

Put all of those collaborative learning techniques to good use and have your students do a think, pair, share as a formative assessment in class. Then, you can move from group to group collecting data about your students’ current strengths and weaknesses.

20. Thumbs up/thumbs down

Looking for a formative assessment that requires zero prep on your part? Have students flash a thumbs up or down in class to show you their answer to any question. A thumbs-up can mean yes or move on, while a thumbs down can mean no or slow down. Your students can even turn their thumb sideways to communicate that they don’t know or your pace is just right. 

Ready to get started with video quizzes for formative assessment? Video quizzes are a simple, fun, and engaging tool for formative assessments. Easily add quiz questions, polls, and ratings to any video to create an interactive learning experience for your students. Learn more about ScreenPal’s interactive video quizzing solution, available with all Solo Max Edu and new Team Education plans.  

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Informing Writing: The Benefits of Formative Assessment

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Examines the effectiveness of formative writing assessment and identifies best practices in writing assessment. Recommendations include the following:

• Provide feedback to improve student writing.
• Teach students how to assess their own writing.
• Monitor students' writing progress on an ongoing basis.
• Allow students to use the mode of writing in which they are most proficient when completing a writing assessment —pencil/paper or word processing.
• Minimize the extent to which handwriting legibility or computer printing bias judgments of writing quality.
• Mask the writer's identify when scoring papers.
• Randomly order students' papers before scoring them.
• Collect multiple samples of students' writing.
• Ensure that classroom writing assessments are reliably scored.

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English language arts resources and practical strategies, 30 formative assessment ideas.

Formative assessment, or as my British teacher friends say, AFL, is paramount for staying informed about student learning and progress in order to direct and inform your practice.  It’s also necessary for students to have strategies to be reflective of their own learning accomplishments in order to set informed goals for themselves. So yeah, we know it’s important, but that doesn’t keep some of our strategies from getting stale.

Below are some strategies that I’ve found effective, so please peruse and use!

        1. Thumbs up, thumbs down

When explaining a new concept, I find that when I ask if students understand, I can get the vast spectrum of vacant stares to noncommittal shrugs and nods. The earlier in the morning, the more passive the teenagers.  I get much more honest feedback by requiring students give a thumbs up when they totally get it, thumbs to the side if they are on their way to understanding, and a thumbs down if they are totally lost.  I even have students switching back and forth between down and sideways, or sideways and up.  Small victory, but this is demonstrable reflection, and I find I get very honest and immediate feedback of my direct instruction this way.

        2. Exit tickets

A few of the items on this list can serve as exit tickets, but the basic idea is the students demonstrate some form of their understanding in order to leave the room.  This can be in the form of comprehension questions, a summary, an opinionated reaction, a drawing, a mini-matching quiz, a fill in graphic organizer, you get the picture.

       3. “Use me in a sentence” cards

These are my favorite! These are super effective for taciturn or self effacing students who are reluctant to participate in discussion.  I pass out between 1-3 cards per pupil on their way in the door. Each card has a word or phase on it that the student must use in a sentence before the end of the lesson, so it’s basically a verbal exit ticket.  Sometimes I will have the students pick one vocabulary card and another card that is either labeled “sentence” or “question.”  This tends to facilitate discussion as most students wait util the end of the lesson to start using their cards, so it encourages student participation at the same time in the lesson.   Here are some to go with most literature discussions.

        4. Make me a metaphor

This can be done individually, in pairs, on the board, on sticky notes or on flipchart paper around the room allowing students to move around.  Students are given a vocabulary word(s) or author or concept, etc and they must write a metaphor.  This is a great way to encourage students to be poetic without the pressure that writing poetry often brings.  I love to do this in small groups where students write a collaborative poem with their metaphors.  They must decide on the order and then give a relevant title.

        5. Venn diagram

Comparing and contrasting is an essential skill students must develop across the curriculum. It forces them to think more deeply about concepts after they understand the definition.

       6. Pro and con list

Very similar to a Venn diagram, yet this list can get students thinking about the implications of what they are learning.  It’s also a great way for students to prepare for a longer writing task or a debate.

        7. K-W-L

The old Know, Want to Know, and Learned chart.  These charts are great pre-assessment tools to inform you of what students know and any misconceptions.  I also love that we go back to them at the end of the lesson or unit to check our improvement. Here is an example to go with most topics.

       8. Think-pair-share

Give students a time limit to think about an idea or concept, next discuss is with a partner, and then share out with the class.  I find that TPS works best when pairs or groups know they will be responsible for contributing something to discussion.  Which bring me to…

        9. Popsicle stick cold call

I love  this one! I have popsicle sticks with each student’s name on one.  This takes the subjectivity out of cold calling.  Plus, you can put the stick back in again to keep students on their toes.  If you use a shallower coffee can, you can see more of the students’ names before you pick, which gives you more control leveling questions for students of different abilities while maintaining a facade of complete objectivity!

        10. Adjective race

Give a time limit and students have to list as many relevant adjectives about a topic, author, book, character, etc.

        11. Connotation groups

This activity works best when students have a longer vocabulary list to learn.  Print out the words and cut them up so each group or pair has all the words.  Then have students group the words by connotation.  You can give them the connotations, such as love, danger, nature, etc. or they can justify their own designated connotation groups.  I usually give students a few minutes to group the words and then give them all new groups to sort.

       12. Find your match

Pass out post it notes or index cards with a word or poem on it.  Tell them that someone else in the class has the definition or the author and they need to find their match as quickly as possible.  This goes rather quickly, so I like to do a few rounds of it.

       13. Habits check

It’s imperative to give students the time to be reflective about their own learning and habits.  Toward the end of a learning segment, have students assess their habits and behavior.  Encourage them to make co nnections between their learning habits and their progress.

        14. Post-it note feedback

This is a great way for students to give honest, anonymous feedback. Post it notes are great for grouping and re- grouping answers.

        15. Fact vs. inference chart

This works best by using a picture the first time, especially a provocative one that gets a reaction.  In the left column, students write objective observations about the picture and on the right side they must make an inference. Or you could require they write down their inferences first and then they must provide a fast to support the inference.

        16. Quick writes journal

There is increasing evidence that unstructured writing prompts are ineffective for improving writing skills in secondary students, especially reluctant writers.  So journal entries should require students think critically about a prompt, rather than merely asking students to react to what they have read.

        17. White board Jeopardy!

If you don’t have mini white boards, you can laminate some pieces of plain printer paper, or pastel colored paper to indicate groups.  My favorite Jeopardy template is wwww.jeopardylabs.com as it’s free and each group gets to participate with each question.  Two downsides: You cannot name the groups (so you have to remember which number is for which group), and you must change the score for each question in order for t he clue to disappear. This means you may have to add points to a group and take them away.

        18. Roll the dice

To literally shake things up! On the board, indicate which task  responds to what number on the die.  For example,

1 = draw a picture                            2 = give a synonym                        3 = give an antonym

4 = act it out                                      5 = use it in a sentence                 6 = give an example

This activity works great for analyzing different aspects of a character, practicing literary devices, and creative writing.

       19. Spin the wheel

This is essentially the same as the dice activity, but incorporates crafts.  Students can make their own spinners or you can make a really huge one!

        20. I know, I think, I wonder

Have students identify one thing they  know at the end of a lesson, one thing they now  think , and something that they now  wonder.

        21. What’s the question?

Give an answer such as “Shakespeare” or “zombies” or “adjectives” and each student come up with a question.

        22. Predict and explain

Have students stop at pivotal points in a text to make predictions about what will happen next.  The explain part is just as important.  Require that students, in either speech or writing, justify  why they think something will happen.  Even better is they provide textual evidence to support their answer.

        23. What does the text say?

A two-column graphic organizer requires students interpret textual evidence and draw inferences. You can give them a structured reading task to analyse character development, predict and explain (see above), or to  identify motifs or the main theme of a text.   Here is a very general handout that can be used with any text.

        24. Two truths and a lie

This can be a teacher or student led activity.  Provide two truths and one lie about what you are teaching and see if students can determine fact from fiction.

        25. Literary postcards

These are great students inside the heads of literary characters and writing from different perspectives.  Have students write quick postcards from one character to another.  Then they get to illustrate the front!

       26. ABC’s

This is a fun whole class activity, because it can get really tricky.  Start with the letter A and determine a word that is connected with the concept your teaching or discussing.  Then move around to B, C, D, etc.  I put the entire class in a circle, and we go around and if someone gets stuck, they’re out.  The winner (s) make it to the end of the alphabet (or usually to X).

        27. Collaborative summary

Put students into groups of 4-6.  It’s best of there are as many students as sentences for a paragraph.  The first student write the topic sentence, then passes the paper to the next student who writes the first supporting sentence and so-on.  This is a silent activity, but it’s fun if they read over each other’s shoulders and try to improve their paragraph through non-verbal communication.  It encourages each student to think more deeply about their role (basically the role of an individual sentence in a paragraph) and add transition words and make sure pronouns correspond correctly.

        28. Line graph of progress

I know, this can rely on summative assessments to give data, but it’s a great way to keep students involved in tracking their progress and it’s also cross-curricular.  If you do anything week to week, such as vocab quizzes or reading comprehension.  Have students look at peaks and troughs and interpret their data so they can celebrate and create…

        29. Achievements and goals

Have students think back over their progress in a unit or term and ask them to reflect on what went well.  What did they learn or improve on?  What progress do they still need to make?  Have students set specific goals that will help them make this progress.  Better yet have them create SMART goals!

        3o. Metacognition

This worksheet is a great way to stay informed about whether your students know  what they’re learning, but also  why they’re learning it. Here is a general handout that can be used with just about any topic or lesson.