Formative assessment tools

Formative assessment. Yawn.

However, many tools make this a (dare I say) fun mid-quarter activity.

One very easy, quick assessment tool that requires no set up is Infuse Learning. This is a site that a teacher logs into and students log into the student site. Students enter the teacher code located in the top left corner and you’re good to go. It’s basically that easy. Questions aren’t sent to the student’s device; rather, this tool is used for those quick, did-you-get-it assessments. Teachers can choose a variety of question types (even Draw the answer) and responses are sent to the teachers site, not shared with the class.

Another easy set up is Poll Everywhere. This app turns any device into a response system.

Socrative allows you to create tests, quizzes, or quick questions and exit tickets (great for displaying on Promethean board) to gauge student understanding of the immediate material being discussed, or you can also create more comprehensive quizzes. It also provides full reporting on individual student results, able to be downloaded to .xls or shared.

Geddit From the Edudemic review: “Have you ever asked students for a show of hands to assess their understanding of a concept, and then realized the obvious flaw in such a process – that the student who does not want to be embarrassed will raise his hand despite not understanding anything.” Geddit provides real-time data from students in a 1:1 classroom. This can be any web device. Once students sign up, you can generate a code that they enter in order to become a member of your class.

Kahoot is a gameshow-type app that allows you to assess learning in a gameshow format. Really. Just create an account, create your quizzes (or find other quizzes created by other Kahootians (not a real word) that follows your same subject matter. Then, students just go to kahoot.it, enter in a code you generate, and, “Voila!”  The gameshow is up and running. Questions are displayed on your computer (and, hopefully, board). From my understanding, many teachers are already using this software – be sure to share your successes/failures in using Kahoot!

Google Forms – I know, I know- it sounds downright odious and awful. In reality, Google Forms is perhaps the most life-changing app in Google Drive. Forms allows you to create your own assessment questions, quickly and easily. Answers are then automatically synced to Google Sheets to analyze all the collected data. I will have an a.m. training on this mind-blowing app very soon.

That’s the short list of ways to assess where your students are landing with their learning. Please use this forum to share any successes or failures you have experienced in using different apps and software for formative assessments.