Formative Assessments Ideas for Digital Classrooms – A 5 Part Series

In this first of a five part series, we are going to dig more deeply into the idea of formative assessments. We will begin with a digital pre-assessments and look at why these can be a critical part of student success and interest in a topic or unit. 

Why do we need more formative assessment ideas?

Because learning how to assess digitally is not easy. Most teachers today learned during the "multiple-choice era" and because of that - this is most teachers go to for assessment needs. The truth is, assessment should be frequent, layered and occur often during learning. It should not be something that comes at the end of a unit- and most importantly -  it should not be crafted to catch students not having done work (which is often the case). 

Enter Formative Assessment Idea: Digital Pre-Assessments 

If done right, the shift from traditional assessments to digital assessments can help us better understand our unique learners because they provide and opportunity to make student thinking and understanding visible - a process that gives us richer information about where they are in the learning process. But we must start at the beginning with what students know about a subject or idea.

Formative Assessment Idea #1: Digital Pre-Assessments

Pre-assessments have always been a cornerstone of good teaching, but often remain unused because they are seen as being less important to the learning process. I have heard teachers lament that pre-assessments take too much time and are not top of mind as a learning tool. That is where digital tools come to the rescue. They help us to create quick and easy to grade pre-assessments that give us rich information about students before we begin a unit. If done right, they can even help activate student curiosity.  

As teachers become true digital pedagogists, pre-assessments will certainly become a staple. These early assessments help teachers understand their learners as individuals so they can craft true personalized instruction. It's simple, we have to start out by knowing where each of our students are - and understand what they know and what information or skills they might need to be successful. Without this first step, we can't really know our students needs and how to help them be more successful. 

Carol Ann Tomlinson, the guru of differentiation,  reminds us "Teachers must become assessment junkies" and this includes this first initial formative assessment. Without this we are driving blind, not knowing what our prior learning our students come to a topic with and we can't as easily tap into their curiosity.

Why Pre-Assessments?

Pre-assessments give us insight into where each of our individual learners are before we start a unit. Armed with this information, we can more effectively create customized success criteria for each student, or groups of students, rather than a whole class. We need this information to masterfully help all of our learners be successful. Without this initial step, we are teaching to a general population and wondering why some kids are falling through the cracks. 

Two Digital Pre-Assessment Ideas

Flipgrid - Flipgrid is a platform that is free for all teachers and students. It allows students to leave video or audio responses on a Topic.

For a pre-assessment - have students simply tell you everything they know about a subject before you begin teaching about it. Hearing what students know - can help teachers quickly ascertain what information is missing or might need to be augmented to get all students the background knowledge they will need to be successful in any learning scenario.

To do this create a Topic on Flipgrid and ask students to take about 30 seconds to tell you everything they know about the topic. After they are done have them work with a partner to share what they know with each other.  In most cases, this collaborative effort will reveal some things they had forgotten or did not know. Next give the partners time to look up information - or provide "Did you know" cards with high interest information about the topic. After working together for about 15 minutes, have them return to Flipgrid - head to their original video - and then press reply and add all the additional information they learned while in their partner grouping. 

Why take the time to do this? It helps you to hear as they record - and quickly learn what the students might know and not know about a subject.  You can of course listen to each video as well - to gain a more in-depth understanding of your learners. 

Another powerful digital tool for pre-assessments is Padlet. 

Padlet is a paid for app, so I don't often recommend it - but teachers find this app easy to use, so it's important to see how it could be used for a pre-assessment. 

Using the Grid feature in Padlet, create a space for students to share 3 things they know about an upcoming topic or idea. Now comes the important part, have students use the comments feature to ask questions or make comments about the ideas their fellow students produce. They can look for connections in their answers giving them a space to think more deeply about the ideas. The teachers role in this particular example is to help them think more deeply about the responses and to help guide them into finding connections and patterns in the responses. It is the interaction with the answers that is crucial for multi-dimensional thinking to happen and this process will help them to think more deeply and to activate their curiosity about the topic.

 The purpose of both examples is to get to know your learners before you begin teaching - to see what they know or don't know. No need to teach about analogies if all students already understand them - and you can in turn focus on another area of growth. The trick here is to use these digital tools to make student thinking and understanding visible - so you are armed with the information you need to help them be successful.