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The question bank provides a variety of question types and asks students to think about the mathematics, promoting deeper understanding. I love it! Thanks for all you do to continue to make Problem-Attic a great resource for teachers and students!

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Can be used to share info and

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Polypad – Virtual Manipulatives – Mathigon

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Most teachers make an effort to get to know their students, and many regularly distribute surveys at the start of each school year to speed up that process. The problem is, most teachers read these surveys once, then file them away. Sure, they might have every intention of returning to the surveys and reviewing them later, but far too often, that time never comes. We rely on our day-to-day interactions for relationship building, and although we get to know some students quite well this way, others just fade into the background.

A 360 Spreadsheet is a place for teachers to store and access the "other" data we collect on our students, giving us a more complete, 360-degree view of each student. It's a single chart that organizes it all and lets us see, at a glance, things we might otherwise forget. Many teachers already keep track of students' birthdays. Think of this as a birthday chart on steroids. Figure 10-1 is just one possible version of a 360 Spreadsheet:

Because the 360 Spreadsheet is a single document, teachers can access it much more easily than they could a whole folder of surveys. Having the information formatted this way also makes it immediately clear which students a teacher needs to get to know better.

The chart in Figure 10-1 sorts student information into the following suggested categories:

* Passions: What is the student really into? Keeping track of things like hobbies, collections, and other hard-to categorize obsessions will help you connect with your students. This information will boost your ability to help students select books for independent reading, choose topics for writing or research projects, or even better understand math or history concepts by placing them in the context of things they are just crazy about.

* Family: The home environment plays a major role in how well a student performs academically. This category can include information about whether a student lives in one home or travels between the homes of two parents.

It might ask about the number of people who live in the household. It can also include other family-related facts, like whether anyone at home is dealing with an illness, is currently incarcerated, has special needs, travels frequently, or has a noteworthy profession or skill set (Mom is a circus performer? Probably worth noting.)

* Activities: This category will help you better understand what outside activities fill up a student's schedule when they are not in school. Are they on a sports team? Do they have a part-time job? Will they be busier on certain days of the week or at certain times of the year? Not only will this information give you a more complete picture of who your students are, it will build your awareness of the other demands placed on their time.

* Academics: Here's where you can put things a standardized test won't tell you about a student's academic needs and preferences: If a student struggles with handwriting, expresses a strong desire to work alone, has a strong interest in a particular subject area, or lights up during certain types of activities, record this information; it will help you individualize instruction later.

* Food & Drink: No, you are not a caterer. But why not keep a list of each child's favorite candy or snack? While you're at it, record food allergies on this chart as well-the information is probably in the school paperwork already; might as well add it here.

* Physical: Along with conditions that are already listed on students' official paperwork, this category can include others that are not, but are still important, like needing to use the restroom frequently or the tendency to get cold easily.

* Skills: Our students bring with them talents and skills we may not even be aware of if we don't ask, so when you find these things out, include them in your chart. Has a student been taking violin lessons for years? Add that. Do they know a lot about dairy farming? Origami? Photography? Put it all in there. Not only will knowing about these skills further develop your knowledge of the student, they may also come in handy when you need help or information about an area where you lack expertise.

* Other: This seems like it could be a throw-away category, but making room for miscellaneous information is a good idea. Things like sensitivities to loud noises, religious practices, or random facts about student histories (e.g., "Lived in China") should also be recorded, even if they don't necessarily fit into any broad category. Although these categories offer vital information, they are just suggestions.

Teachers can and should collect whatever information is most relevant to them, information that will help you connect to your students as whole people and build strong relationships with them.
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THE HACK IN ACTION
Lisa Tremonte, a special education teacher at Apshawa Elementary School in West Milford, New Jersey, began using a 360 Spreadsheet in the fall of 2014. After giving students a survey, she entered their responses into the chart, then stored the spreadsheet in the front of her planning binder, which made it accessible at all times and enabled her to add to it over the school year as she learned more about her students. "In a quick glance," she says, "I can access a wealth of information that really matters about my students. I use it to talk to my students about their lives outside of school when we're saying hello or during lunch and snack time."

Although the spreadsheet does serve an academic purpose, offering ideas when students struggle to come up with topics for writing assignments, its greater value is that it makes students feel seen. "It enables me to ask students direct questions about the sports they play, teams they love, their pets, siblings, and passions," Tremonte says. "When I do, the look on their faces says it all. They know that I listen to them, care about them, and think their lives are important. The chart has given me the tools I need to ensure that each child feels loved, safe, and at home in my classroom every day."

Although education has no silver bullets, building strong relationships with our students comes pretty close. It cuts back on classroom management problems, motivates students to work harder, helps us more effectively differentiate instruction, and generally makes school a better place to be for everyone. The easier you can make it to build those relationships, the more they will pay off for you and your students.
Mark Barnes is a veteran teacher, author, speaker and creator of the Hack Learning Series for teachers and the Hack Learning mobile app. He is the author of six education books, including "Role Reversal." His book, "Assessment 3.0," encourages teachers to eliminate traditional grades and build an ongoing conversation about learning. He is the publisher of the Brilliant or Insane blog and can be found on Twitter at @markbarnes19 .

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Rethinking Data: How to Create a Holistic View of Students | KQED

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Most teachers make an effort to get to know their students, and many regularly distribute surveys at the start of each school year to speed up that process. The problem is, most teachers read these surveys once, then file them away.

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When teachers know their students well, they can build strong connections that lead to better learning. Knowing students' interests, strengths, and weaknesses help teachers tailor learning experiences for their students. Formative assessment involves the teacher collecting information about what students know, don't know, and want to learn. This information takes many forms, including observations, exit tickets, discussions, games, and quizzes. These kinds of informal assessments can also help teachers get to know their students as learners and as people.

There is a very wide variety of digital formative assessment tools that can be used for free (often charging for extra features). I've written a little about 15 of them below. Most of these tools work with any web browser, so they are great for laptops, computer labs, iPads, Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones.

One of the biggest advantages to using these kinds of tools is that they give every student in a class a voice. Students are spared the embarrassment of having to volunteer or be called on to answer a question out loud because everyone answers. While most of the tools require students to have some sort of device that can connect to the internet, there are a few that work when students have no technology at all. Others can be set up at a center or station for students to rotate through.

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Know Students Better: A Visual Guide to Formative Assessment Tools - Learning in Hand with Tony Vincent

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There is a very wide variety of digital formative assessment tools that can be used for free. I've made simple graphics for 18 of them. Most of the tools work with any web browser, so they are great for laptops, computer labs, iPads, Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones.

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Great Article with links to lots of great tools 

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Great Article with links to lots of great tools 

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A big benefit of doing formative assessment properly is that we get to know our students really well. But why is this important? It has to do with the fact that teachers don't actually create learning, but rather encourage and facilitate it. Only learners create learning, but teachers guide the process by responding to student performance. This is where knowing our students well through assessment comes into play.

Tony Vincent of Learning in Hand provides a list of terrific digital assessment tools in Know Students Better: 17 Tools for Formative Assessment. These are perfect tools for really getting to know students through our assessments.

In his article, Tony also stresses the intrinsic value of knowing students through effective assessment:
"When teachers know their students well, they can build strong connections that lead to better learning. Knowing students' interests, strengths, and weaknesses help teachers tailor learning experiences for their students. Formative assessment involves the teacher collecting information about what students know, don't know, and want to learn."
Today we are living in a world where the one constant is that nothing is constant. It is a world of change and adaptation. As a result, we're facing a different kind of student, one that is more complex and challenging to learn about. Good digital assessment tools like the ones Tony has provided lead the way in helping us do this as teachers. In the process, we provide students with the kind of assessment that benefits them on every level.

17 Digital Assessment Tools to Try

This list of digital assessment tools is below, along with the links that will get you to them. Check out Tony's full article for some more terrific insights and resources for getting to know students with your assessments.

1. Google Forms: Create forms with hyperlinks, images, and videos. Use them for surveying and quizzes.

2. Poll Everywhere: A real-time polling app that works with mobile, Twitter, or in your web browser.

3. Classflow: Classflow lets you build lessons using cards you create using the content of your choice.

4. : Formative lets you create lessons using any Internet-connected device and is optimized for 1:1, BYOD, flipped or blended classrooms. Get results and respond in real time.

5. : Students show their work with photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. You can also import directly from most popular apps.

6. : A free app that lets teachers prompt the students to explain their thinking on a question or topic using video.

7. Quizizz: Another great game and quiz-making application.

8. : Lets students learn and improve by studying with flashcards, games and more.

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17 Formative Digital Assessment Tools That Help You Know Students

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A big benefit of doing formative assessment properly is that we get to know our students really well. But why is this important? It has to do with the fact that teachers don't actually create learning, but rather encourage and facilitate it. Only learners create learning, but teachers guide the process by responding to student performance.

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

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The evidence is in the practice

ESSA Level 3 correlation evidence in math and ELA, earned by teachers running frequent formative assessments.

When teachers run 30+ formative questions a week, the research is clear: they get more data-driven, their students get more engaged. Wayground is built to make that practice enjoyable ot run, attainable to fit a class period, and habitual enough to last past September.

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Quizizz is now Wayground | Teacher AI and Resources

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Find standards-aligned resources that engage every student. Wayground (formerly Quizizz) helps teachers differentiate instruction with AI and track student progress.

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Video responses

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We express ourselves in different ways. On Flip, you can use our simple and fun built-in camera to record your thoughts, add effects and share within your Flip group as video, audio only or text in your web browser or mobile app.

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Flip is a video discussion and sharing app, free from Microsoft.

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Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is a video discussion and video sharing app, free from Microsoft, built for classrooms and beyond. Learn more.

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a tool for formative assessment

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article from edudemic

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It's not a stretch to say that assessment is a hot button issue in education; however, you'd be hard pressed to find an educator who doesn't see the value in measuring student progress. Assessments themselves have been vilified, when, in fact, it's why assessments are given and how the data is used that is really the issue. The Glossary of Education Reform gives this great overview of what high-stakes testing is and how it impacts students, teachers, and schools. Basically, high-stakes testing has consequences for the test-takers and givers-sometimes in the form of a high school diploma, grade advancement, and even teachers' salaries. But not all assessment is high-stakes, and when done thoughtfully, the right assessment can provide extremely useful information for all stakeholders-students, teachers, parents, schools, and policy-makers

Let's take a look at what assessment is, why it's important, and how it can be delivered in the classroom in a useful manner. Then we'll dive into some resources available for each type of assessment-diagnostic, formative, and summative.

What is assessment?

Assessment is the measurement of what students are learning. Student achievement is defined as how well they've mastered certain target skills. Assessments provide educators with both objective and subjective data in order to ascertain student progress and skill mastery.

Why do we do it?

The information gleaned from assessments is extremely valuable. Besides a score, which gives quantitative data about how much of the material tested a students has mastered, information about student misconceptions can be determined by analyzing which distractors they chose and why. Information from assessments helps teachers determine which instructional approaches are best for certain students, what their students may already know about a given topic, and what subjects needs to be retaught. Districts distribute money based on needs, as determined by assessment. Policy makers use assessment results to determine the efficacy of programs.

Assessment Basics

Assessments can take many forms and can be designed for many reasons. There's a lot of jargon used to name concepts related to assessments and some of it can be hard to keep track of. Here's a quick breakdown:

Types of Assessment

Diagnostic: Given at the beginning of the school year, or the beginning of a new unit of study, a diagnostic test attempts to quantify what students already know about a topic.

Formative: Given throughout the learning process, formative assessments seek to determine how students are progressing through a certain learning goal.

Summative: Given at the end of the year or unit, summative assessments assess a student's mastery of a topic after instruction.

Norm-referenced tests: These tests measure students against a national "norm" or average in order to rank students against each other. The SAT, ACT, Iowa Basic Skills Test, and other major state standardized tests are norm-referenced.

Criterion-referenced tests: These tests measure student performance against a standard or specific goal. Unit and chapter tests as usually criterion-referenced, as are the newly developed SBAC and PARCC Common Core tests.

Question Types

Multiple choice: These questions provide students with a stem and a set of discrete possible answers from which students must choose the correct one. The possible answers generally include one correct answer and three to four distractors, designed to mimic the common misconceptions students have about the concept being tested.

Constructed response: These questions require a written response. Usually they include a one-part question, and students respond by writing a paragraph or short essay, or building and solving an equation.

Extended constructed response: These questions, like the constructed response, require a written answer. The reason they are "extended" is that they are multi-part questions, requiring students to answer the first part of the question before answering subsequent parts, which may require reflection on or further explanation of an answer given in a previous section.

Technology enhanced: These items are given in computer delivered assessments. Technology enhanced items require students to interact with the material in various ways-through actions like dragging and dropping information, highlighting relevant text, and completing sentences or equations from items in a drop-down menu.

Performance task: These items require students to use multiple stimuli to solve a problem or create something new. Performance tasks are usually scored with a rubric, which includes the criteria students must keep in mind while developing their solution. Performance tasks in ELA may include reading multiple essays and synthesizing the ideas into their own writing. In math, these tasks may ask students to analyze charts and graphs and write out a plan for using the data in a real world application.

Informal: This category covers a wide range of tasks, from checklists to observations. Informal assessment doesn't lead to a score, but it does help teachers gather important insights about students.

Delivery Methods

Pencil and paper: There's no need for a lengthy description with this delivery method. Examples include tests, quizzes, mind maps, and essays.

Online: Modern assessments are moving online, as can be seen with those developed for the Common Core State Standards, which are given strictly in that format. Online tests mean each student needs access to a device on which to take the assessment. Students also need strong digital literacy skills in order to successfully navigate the demands of online testing.

Adaptive: These online tests adapt as the user progresses through the questions. As a student gets answers correct, the program adjusts and gives the student increasingly more difficult questions. The converse is true, and the test will adapt to asking simpler questions to a student who is struggling with grade level topics. Adaptive testing gives educators a much broader picture of students' ability levels. Rather than just labeling students on, above, or below grade level, a student's actual level of knowledge can be assessed. (If this method interests you, check out our recent article on Adaptive Learning as well.

Scoring

Assessments can be scored by hand, by computer, or by combination of both. Many online assessment programs and apps can score quantitative items, like multiple choice, drag and drops, and fill-in-the-blanks, and other item types that have specific correct answers. Items like performance assessments and essays are still left for teachers or human-scorers to assess.

Reliability and validity of testing are two things that are considered when assessments are adopted. Reliability refers to the likeliness of the scores and outcomes to be repeated in several different populations of test takers. Validity refers to how the assessment outcomes are interpreted and applied. The goal of standardized testing is to be fair and impartial; however, whether or not this goal is actually realized in today's assessments is controversial, as it's nearly impossible for one test to be fair to all student populations.

Assessment Resources

There are tons of great assessment resources and ideas online. Let's take a look at how each type of assessment can be assisted with technology. We'll also explore some more unique ways to monitor your students' understanding and progress.

Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic assessments assess strengths, weakness, and prior knowledge. Understanding how much a student already knows about a topic is vital for effective differentiation in the classroom. Some students may already be experts in a given topic, while others may be missing foundational skills that are key to mastery. Many teachers use the same diagnostic assessment as a formative or summative assessment later into the unit to compare a student's score at the beginning, middle, and end of instruction. Diagnostic assessment lets teachers pinpoint a student's preconceptions of a topic, helping teacher's anchor further instruction on what students have already mastered. Additionally, this kind of assessment helps teachers provide instruction to skills that need more work. The APA has a great article on the importance of diagnostic assessment.

Diagnostic Apps and Software

This program provides adaptive diagnostic testing and will report on student mastery down to the sub-skill level. The program is adapted by state and district standards, as well as by which Common Core test your state has adopted (if it has adopted one). One of the more reasonably priced products out there, the cost is $6 per student, and there are tests for both math and reading diagnostics. For an additional fee ($30 per student for the school year), schools can pay for prescribed personalized lessons based on the student's diagnostic results.

Education Galaxy: Education Galaxy also offers diagnostic testing. There is a free version for teachers that doesn't include all of the bells and whistles as the paid version, but still provides diagnostics by standard and skill and prescribes a learning path for instruction based on test results.

Other Diagnostic Assessment Ideas

Observation: Watching how students solve a problem can lead to further information about misunderstanding.

Discussion: Hearing how students reply to their peers can help a teacher better understand a student's level of understanding.

Confidence Indication: On a traditional pen and paper test, include a way for students to indicate how confident they are in their answers. Letting students self-report can tell teachers a lot about a student's prior knowledge of the material.

Categorizing: Let students sort ideas into self-selected categories. Ask them to explain why such concepts go together. This will give you some insight into how students view topics.

Interviews: Design questions that get to the heart of what you're planning to teach. Interview students to gauge each child's understand of the topic. You'll come away with a great continuum of where each student's prior knowledge is. This may help you pair students to work together later in the unit.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment monitors student performance and progress during learning. This type of learning is often low-stakes and ungraded. It's used as a way for the teacher to see if the student is making progress toward the end goal of mastering the skill. Teachers use formative assessment techniques to monitor student learning so that they can provide feedback or help along the way. Both diagnostic and summative assessments can be used as formative assessment.

Formative Apps and Software

The NWEA blog has a great list of digital formative assessment tools.

Other Formative Assessment Ideas

Exit slips: Ask students to solve one problem or answer one question on a small piece of paper. Students hand on the slips as "exit tickets" to pass to their next class, go to lunch, or transition to another activity. The slips give teachers a way to quickly check progress toward skills mastery.

Graphic organizers: When students complete mind maps or graphic organizers that show relationships between concepts, they're engaging in higher level thinking. These organizers will allow teachers to monitor student thinking about topics and lessons in progress.

Self-assessments: One way to check for student understanding is to simply ask students to rate their learning. They can use a numerical scale, a thumbs up or down, or even smiley faces to show how confident they feel about their understanding of a topic.

Think-pair-share: This is an oldie but goodie. Ask a question, give students time to think about it, pair students with a partner, have students share their ideas. By listening into the conversations, teachers can gauge student understanding and assess any misconceptions. Students learn from each other when discussing their ideas on a topic.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessments are design to measure student achievement at end of instruction. These types of assessments evaluate student learning at the end of a project, unit, course, or school year. Summative assessment scores are usually recorded and factored into student academic record in the form of letter grades and scores from tests like SAT or ACT.

Summative Assessment Apps and Software

Quizlet: Build flashcards, quizzes, games, and tests in the app. It's free and simple to get started and you have access to the sets created by other users. For $25 per year you can add data tracking, like class progress on the study sets you've created or assigned. You can also add images and voice recording. But even without the bells and whistles, the Quizlet experience makes testing more enjoyable.

tv: Bubblr allows users to create trivia quizzes based on YouTube videos. You can play challenges created by other users, or create your own trivia challenges for students. This site helps students get used to being tested on multi-media stimuli, something that is popular in the Common Core tests.

Other Summative Assessment Ideas

Portfolios: Portfolios allow students to collect evidence of their learning throughout the unit, quarter, semester, or year, rather than being judged on a number from a test taken one time. Education World put together this great article on the use of portfolios as assessment tools, and our own Kristen Hicks hunted down tools that can be used to create digital portfolios back in February of 2015.

Projects: Projects allow students to synthesize many concepts into one product or process. They require students to address real world issues and put their learning to use to solve or demonstrate multiple related skills. For the best information on projects as assessments, check out the Buck Institute for Education's (BIE) Project Based Learning resource list.

Performance Tasks: Performance tasks are like mini-projects. They can be completed in a few hours, yet still require students to show mastery of a broad topic. Inside mathematics put together a fantastic, free set of math performance assessment tasks.

In Short

Until more reform happens, high-stakes assessments and the sheer numbers of tests students are expected to take will continue to be issues of prominent debate in the education world. The future of assessment is online and adaptive. In fact, as we move towards this future, tests will become increasingly precise, meeting students where they are, and pinpointing exactly what they need to learn. With this kind of data-rich precision, assessments should become less frequent in number and in intensity. After all, in the end, the problem is less the idea of testing itself, but how we design them, apply them, and make use of their data. Done the right way, assessments are a great way for educators to better understand their students' progress, because helping students learn is the primary objective of education.

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It's not a stretch to say that assessment is a hot button issue in education; however, you'd be hard pressed to find an educator who doesn't see the value in measuring student progress. Assessments themselves have been vilified, when, in fact, it's why assessments are given and how the data is used that is really the issue.

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The Bridge Between Today's Lesson and Tomorrow's