Formative Assessment in the Classroom and Tools to Help

                 

Formative assessment has become a focus in the classroom here at my high school and there are a number of technology tools that can help with that.  I did a couple of blog posts last year on different formative assessment tools and the ones I like to use, so this post is simply a review of a couple of really helpful ones, with a link to a chart comparing a variety of options.

The formative assessment online tool I find myself recommending more and more is called Formative.  Not a super original name, but it tells you what it does.  I think what I like most about this tool is the variety of question options it has, both quick responses where you don't have to pre-load the questions, and quizzes and assignments you can create ahead of time.  Additionally, you can assign formative assessments to students, so it doesn't always necessarily have to be done live in class with students.  Students can answer a variety of ways, including by writing or drawing on the screen, or by taking a picture of their work and uploading it as an answer.  I find this one very helpful for math and science where it may not be feasible to have the students actually work through the answer on the computer as easily.  With formative, they can still work through the problem on paper, but then take a picture of it and turn that in so the teacher can still see their work.  Overall, formative has shown itself to be a well-rounded formative assessment tool, so if you don't like to use a lot of different tools in your classroom, this is a good one to try. And for more information, check out this old post from last year about Formative.

Kahoot is another formative assessment tool that I really like, simply because it is easy to use and fun.  I have used this with a few library lessons during summer school and the students are always engaged and have fun with it.  In an nutshell, Kahoot takes formative assessment and turns it into a game.  The premise is still the same (find out what your students know), but the set-up of Kahoot, the multiple choice answer format, and the "rankings" it gives after each questions turn it into a fun game for the students. This is a tool that can make a formative assessment more fun if not overused and timed right with the appropriate lesson. For more details about Kahoot, check out this old post from last year.

Plickers is a formative assessment tool that I have not personally used but learned about from a teacher during summer school who used it in her class.  It is basically the old version of holding up your notecards with an A, B, C, or D on them, but using technology.  The benefit of the Plickers is that instead of notecards with letters it uses QR codes, which are then held in one of 4 different directions by the students, which helps cut down on those students that are only holding up the letter A because they see everyone else doing it.  The students hold up their cards and then the teacher scans the room with the app open on a device (computer, iPad, tablet, phone, etc) and the app feeds the student answers into a format the teacher can see and review.  Like Kahoot, it is something a little neat and different, and while it is fairly limited in the types of questions you can ask, it is fun and engaging for students and can make formative assessments a little more interesting.

Well that's plenty of formative assessment information to get you going, but if you are still looking for different formative assessment tools to use in the classroom, check out this comparison chart from Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers.  It is a helpful way to compare different formative assessment tools and find the one that's right for you!