From Small But Mighty: How Everyday Habits Add Up to More Manageable, Safer Teaching (pp. 78-80), by M. Plotinsky, 2024, ASCD. Copyright 2024 by ASCD. Reprinted with permission.
In recent years, formative approaches have gained significant momentum as the preferred method of assessment, thanks in large part to the ideology behind the practice. Not long ago, students were taught material in classrooms, primarily through direct stand-up instruction and delivery, and were subsequently asked to demonstrate their learning on what is now called a summative or “high-stakes” assessment. In this model, it wasn’t just grades that were fixed once test results came in; It was also assumed that students knew the material enough to move forward with new concepts and that anyone who was falling behind needed to catch up or succumb to an ongoing (perhaps permanent) struggle.
This sink-or-swim approach to education has fallen out of favor over time, particularly in the wake of increased awareness of equity-driven instruction and amid the fallout from teaching and learning during the pandemic. Turning a blind eye to student struggles is detrimental, as is closing down opportunities for growth. Furthermore, the idea of determining student performance within any given content standard only at the end of a unit of instruction is fundamentally flawed. Ideally, teachers clarify confusion and check understanding continually throughout a unit of study.
The pushback leaders often encounter when asking teachers to formatively assess students more frequently centers on a protective attitude around two rare goods: time and bandwidth. How, teachers ask, can they test students with any frequency when the instructional period is short, when grades are accumulated, and when district leaders do not provide additional time for planning or preparation?
The answer to a complex question can be surprisingly simple, and that’s true in this case. Instead of thinking about formative assessment as a lengthy process, it is helpful to focus on using tools that will tell us what we need to know quickly. The following assessment bank shares some tried and true methods for quickly gathering information about what students know and are able to do. Students may be asked to do any of the following:
- Take a short survey (one or two questions).
- Summarize the daily learning objective in one sentence.
- Complete an entry or exit ticket that shares a concept or presents an open-ended question.
- Hold up color-coded cards (often red, yellow, and green to align with traffic lights) to indicate level of understanding or confusion.
- Briefly reflect (3-5 sentences) on a concept.
- Complete the sentence: “I still don’t understand. . . .”
- Place questions that do not need immediate attention in a community “parking lot.”
- Post “Burning Questions” on the board to clear up more immediate confusion.
- Draw an important concept instead of writing about it.
- Take the new learning and apply it to a different situation.
- Create a short assessment for your peers to complete.
- Write a short summary of the learning in social media style.
- Make a “mic drop” statement that leaves everyone with a final thought for the day, whether orally or in writing.
When students complete short assessment activities like these, they focus more clearly on the outcome of what they learned and their progress is also more visible. Shorter tests of comprehension do not negate the need for longer summative tests that show what students have learned at the end of a unit or period of study. However, when teachers tire of giving one long assessment after another with dubious benefits, adopting the regular habit of using quick formatives eliminates a lot of stress and uncovers valuable data that moves everyone in the classroom forward.
