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Diagnostic Assessment: Examples & Overview

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Formative assessments are tools that can be used to track student understanding and comprehension in the classroom. Due to the nature and flexibility of formative assessments, they can be used to offer feedback in real time.

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Formative assessments are used to understand what students already know, what they currently know and what still needs to be learned. This is because formative assessments are used before and during the learning process.

As pre-assessments, formative assessments are used before a topic or unit is studied in order to understand what students already know. This will help a teacher make decisions about what kinds of lessons should be delivered as well as what information may be missing and needs to be covered before moving forward. In a differentiated classroom, formative assessments should also be used to pre-assess students in such a way as to plan lessons with ELL students and special needs students in mind.

Additionally, formative assessments can be thought of as ongoing check-ins along the learning journey that provide feedback to teachers so they can make adjustments to their instructional activities based on the information they collect. When teachers use formative assessments in this way, they are able to see what learning goals are being met and make adjustments as needed.

In general, formative assessments should not be graded. This is due to the fact these assessment are a way of 'checking in' on the learning process, which means that learning is not finished. Therefore, grading the students before all the learning has taken place will not necessarily be beneficial.

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There are so many ways to formatively assess students in class, which is a benefit to both teachers and students.

Portfolios: working portfolios allow students to showcase their growing knowledge of a topic or of skills being developed.

Group projects: Jigsaw Groups are a wonderful formative assessment that allow students to be one part of a whole and offers them an opportunity to self- and peer-assess their own work.

Corners: This is an activity in which the corners don't have to represent specific answers, but can represent students' comfort with or understanding of a topic or skill. This allows the teacher to get a quick view of where students are according to their own opinion as well as pair students up in meaningful ways moving forward.

Progress reports:

Entry and exit tickets: Both of these activities provide a very quick check in with students to see where they are at in their learning. This can be done in a variety of ways including on paper, with an online tool or verbally.

Short, regular quizzes: Using regular quizzes with even just a few questions can quickly show where overall student understanding is on a given topic or skill.

Homework: Homework is an opportunity to have students practice interacting with the concepts or information that has been taught up to a certain point. Going through the homework and correcting it as a class can also be a good way to lead a formative assessment.

Class discussions: during discussions teachers can assess what knowledge individual students have but can also allow students to share ideas and add to their own knowledge in the process. Class discussions can also quickly show a teacher that the entire class has confusion in one area or that a concept was not learned well enough overall. Think, Pair, Share is a great tool to use before, during and after class discussions to aid in formative assessments.

Journal prompts: Giving students the opportunity to respond to a journal prompt where they can safely share what they have learned so far is a great way to gather information regarding student learning that can be used in moving forward in planning lesson sequences.

Online tools: Tools such as Quizzlet, Google Forms, Socrative and Kahoots all provide a great opportunity to deliver formative assessments quickly and regularly.

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Games can be a helpful way of assessing your students if such games require that a student use the goals of the lesson and if the game is capable of being observed by a teacher.

In an ESL context, two students ask and answer questions at the start of each round of rock, paper, scissors, and a teacher is there to observe them. This is one example of using games as formative assessment.

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Kahoots are a great way to create engaging and fun formative assessments for students!

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Working student portfolios can be a great formative assessment

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Student Portfolios for Classroom Assessment

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Resources:
Dyer, Kathy. (October 24, 2012). Classroom Techniques: Formative Assessment Idea Number 4. NWEA. Retrieved on October 20, 2022 from https://www.nwea.org/blog/2012/classroom-techniques-formative-assessment-idea-number-four/.

Dyer, Kathy. (March 4, 2012). Classroom Techniques: Formative Assessment Idea Number 8. NWEA. Retrieved on October 20, 2022 from https://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/classroom-techniques-formative-assessment-idea-number-eight/#:~:text=The%20eighth%20formative%20assessment%20idea,from%20four%20to%20six%20students.

Kampen, Maria. (September 24, 2021). 6 Types of Assessment (and How to Use Them). Prodigy. Retrieved on October 20, 2022 from https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/types-of-assessment/

PD Online. (n.d.). Types of Assessment. ASCD. Retrieved on October 20, 2022 from https://pdo.ascd.org/lmscourses/PD11OC117/media/DI-Assessment_M1_Reading_Assessment.pdf

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Over the last few months, we've blogged on three formative assessment strategies designed to elicit evidence of student learning: the Popsicle Stick, the Exit Ticket, and the Whiteboard.

Formative assessment can help you adjust your classroom instruction effectively. Each of these formative assessment strategies is simple, inexpensive, and designed to engage all students in classroom learning.
How four walls can help you teach
Let's add one more to your list: Corners.

While Corners can take on a number of different iterations, the foundation of it is consistent: each corner in your classroom represents a different answer or view on a different question or theory.

When a question or topic is first introduced, each student goes to the corner that best represents their answer. Based on classroom discussion, students can then move from corner to corner, adjusting their answer or opinion.

[E]ach corner in your classroom represents a different answer or view on a different question or theory.

Corners don't have to represent specific answers. They can also represent students' comfort with or understanding of a topic. For example, if they don't understand a topic being discussed, they can go to one corner with students who have a similar level of understanding. This makes it easier to pair students who "get it" with those who are struggling and have students collaborate to understand the challenging subject.
Learn more
There's no right or wrong formative assessment technique. In fact, a formative assessment strategy that works for one classroom might not work for another. The bottom line is to engage the entire student body in discussion and dialogue in a way that allows the teacher to elicit evidence of student learning. Give Corners a try, and see if it works for your kids.

Get more formative assessment tips and tricks in our e-book "Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice."

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Classroom Techniques: Formative Assessment Idea Number Four

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Formative assessment ideas, like 'corners' can help engage the entire student body and provide teachers with the evidence of learning needed to adjust classroom instruction effectively.

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End-of-year creative portfolio or project

Achievement tests

Standardized tests

Midterm essay

Music recital

Oral tests

Book reports

Science fair project

Presentations

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Summative assessments are used at the end of a chapter/unit or period of time (quarter, semester, year, etc.) to evaluate if the learning goals have been met. These assessments can be used to plan future instructional goals and provide feedback for students, teachers, administrators, and district staff.

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Most summative assessments tend to be graded. Tests and quizzes fall under this type of assessment.

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Summative Assessment: Overview & Examples

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Blog, F. (2021, March 8). Summative Assessment: Definition + [Examples & Types]. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.formpl.us/blog/summative-assessment

Teachings in Education. (2017, January 17). Summative Assessment: Overview & Examples [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjnrI3ZO2tU

Types of summative assessment and formative assessment. (2021, October 7). Promethean Blog. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://resourced.prometheanworld.com/types-of-summative-formative-assessment/

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They require students to show what they know, rather than select answers from predetermined options on a multiple-choice test.

Performance assessments measure how well students apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities to authentic problems. The key feature is that it requires the student to produce something, such as a report, experiment, or performance, which is scored against specific criteria.

Performance assessment allows for students to answer correctly, not because they guess, but because they confidently know the content. Performance assessment is different from traditional assessment because it gives students freedom to show their knowledge in ways that traditional assessments cannot. In performance assessments, students are given a problem to solve, a prompt to respond to, or a task to complete. For instance, a prompt might ask students to write a persuasive essay that requires a student to take a stand and back up their point with well reasoned arguments. Students can respond using their own insights and ideas. Performance assessments are structured in a way encourages deeper engagement by eliciting elaboration, questioning, synthesis, and justification.

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Editors, T. (2020, December 9). What is performance assessment? Education Week. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-performance-assessment/2019/02

Mzd. (2020, August 20). The power of performance assessment – part 2. MZD. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://mzdevinc.com/uncategorized/the-power-of-performance-assessment-part-2/

Kelly, M. (2019, May 27). 6 types of performance-based activities. ThoughtCo. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.thoughtco.com/ideas-for-performance-based-activities-7686

Using performance assessments to support student learning. Learning Policy Institute. (2022, May 3). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/cpac-performance-assessments-support-student-learning-report#:~:text=Examples%20of%20performance%20assessments%20include,completing%20an%20original%20research%20paper.

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- Performances
-Presentations
-Exhibits and Fairs
- Collaborative/ Individual Projects
- Portfolios
- Debates
-Science Labs or laboratory investigation
-  Video Making or documentary film
-developing a thorough analysis in an essay
- composing a few sentences in a short open-ended response
- completing an original research paper

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These terms simply refer to formative and summative assessments respectively. See previous sections for more information.

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This term refers to a type of assessment held alongside formative assessment where students assess themselves. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning.
Examples include surveys, exit tickets that ask students to assess themselves, and written reports assessing performance.

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Diagnostic assessments are used to determine a students preexisting knowledge of a subject or topic. This can be useful for differentiating subject matter for stronger and weaker students respectively, and can help assist with future class planning.

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Quizzes, surveys, mind maps, and ungraded entry tests are all examples of diagnostic assessment.

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Assessments for learning should always be ongoing and actionable to provide you a clear snapshot of student learning and understanding as you teach. allowing to adjust everything in classroom management strategies to the lesson plans as go.

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Assessment as learning actively involves students in the learning process. It teaches critical thinking skills, problem-solving and encourages students to set achievable goals for themselves and objectively measure their progress.

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Prodigy, (September 24, 2021).
6 Types of Assessment (and How to Use Them)
https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/types-of-assessment/