Assessment is an important part of instruction. It offers teachers feedback on how well their students are understanding their curriculum. This feedback plays an importance role in teachers' planning. There are three different types of assessment: diagnostic, formative, and summative. Diagnostic assessments are given before students have been taught specific skills or material. Formative assessments are given briefly after new skills or material have been taught and summative assessments are given at the end of a unit. Formative and summative assessments can be formal or informal. Below are some strategies for informal, formative assessments.
Informal, Formative Assessment Strategies:
Thumb Check: Students will give a thumbs up, thumbs down, or a side wiggle to indicate how well they are understanding a specific concept or skill. This will give teachers the opportunity to reteach concepts immediately if there is any confusion among students.
Pairs Check: Teams of four work in pairs to solve a problem. One student works on the problem while a second student coaches and then these students switch roles. In the next step, each pair checks their work by checking with other pair.
Checkpoints:
Think-Pair-Square: Students will first think about a question that is presented to them, discuss their thoughts with a partner, and then share their developed thoughts with another pair of partners.
X Games: This strategy is a spin-off of the extreme sports version whereby students are given "extreme" math problems to solve while working in teams of four. The games can be held quarterly and broken into seasons based on the current math benchmark.
Rubrics Rubrics are another great way for teachers to assess their students. They have become popular with teachers as a means of communicating expectations for an assignment, providing focused feedback on works in progress, and grading final products in an object way. Here is an example of a rubric a math teacher created for problem solving: