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Use anticipation guides before and after a lesson.

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Use anticipation guides before and after a lesson.

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Definition/Description: An anticipation guide is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and get students excited and curious about a new topic. Before reading, students listen to the teacher or another student state key ideas about the concepts in the text. They can also read several statements about the key concepts presented in the text. The statements are usually put in a form where student say they agree or disagree (Reading Rockets, 2015).

Justification: "Teacher's can assist children in developing background knowledge by: Including techniques in lessons such as chapter previews or anticipation guides. As students begin to develop a conceptual framework for their own learning and understanding, they build a repertoire of background experiences from which to draw" (Echevarría, Vogt, and Short, 2013, pg.66). Teachers in the lesson are scaffolding and students are actively involved in discussion about each of the statements in the guide. When a teachers scaffolds for his/her students it provides them with the necessary skills and understanding to correctly complete, read, or do the lesson/activity. In this activity the teacher can model or scaffold the material at first, but remove when students start to understand (Wright, 2015). Piaget's schema theory states activating prior knowledge before reading is essential, because according to his research when we can connect something "old" to something new it helps us better understand the new. As students are reading they are able to access their schema and make understand of the text and use their lived experiences. When students and teachers applied schema theory to reading comprehension readers constantly connect their background knowledge to the new knowledge in a text to help them make sense of the reading (Gunning, 2012). Anticipation guides are used to help students activate their prior knowledge to gain a better understanding of the topic. This strategy helps ELLs because they all have different backgrounds, but all of their experiences can be used to help better understand a new concept. According to our text when teachers assist students in developing their background knowledge and using their experience for learning new information it helps them gain a better understand of the content, because they are able to use what they already know (Echevarría, Vogt, and Short, 2013).​

Differentiation for second language learners:

Anticipation guides can be completed orally.

Can be done in groups, or pairs to help foster learning

The number of statements can be modified

Can write in native language (or use pictures)

Use simple sentences so that the student focuses on the content

Use different leveled passages on same content

Examples of Sentence Starters to provide for ELL students or struggling learning:

I think that...

I would feel _____

If ___ happened to me.

___ is more important/better than ___.

I believe...

Steps:

1. "Construct the anticipation guide. Construction of the anticipation guide should be as simple as possible for younger students. Write four to six statements about key ideas in the text; some true and some false. Include columns following each statement, which can be left blank or can be labeled Yes, or No (Maybe can also be used).
NOTE: Teachers may wish to create an additional column for revisiting the guide after the material has been read.

2. Model the process. Introduce the text or reading material and share the guide with the students. Model the process of responding to the statements and marking the columns.

3. Read each of the statements and ask the students if they agree or disagree with it. Provide the opportunity for discussion. The emphasis is not on right answers but to share what they know and to make predictions.

4. Read the text aloud or have students read the selection individually. If reading aloud, teachers should read slowly and stop at places in the text that correspond to each of the statements.

5. Bring closure to the reading by revisiting each of the statements" (Reading Rockets, 2015).

In this video a middle school science teacher explains how she uses an Anticipation Guide to help her students with vocabulary. This video demonstrates how this strategy can be used in other content areas besides just reading.

A suggestion made for teachers to help their English Language learners is to write the anticipation guide in the student's primary language. "The point is to help students connect to what they will be reading in the target language so that they can better comprehend it, so the anticipation guide can be in any language that is well-comprehended by the student"(Every Language Learner, 2015).

Content Area Examples:
Reading:

For reading teachers choose a topic and content area. Then she/he creates a few statements and students determine if they think the statement is true or false. They then continue reading the text and after they are done they see if their predictions are correct. The topic can be on anything and that is why it can relate to any of the other content areas.

Math:

For math there are different ways a teacher can use an anticipation guide. For example when students are learning about a new concept, ex: geometric figures, the teacher can have a set of statements. These statements can include equations, problems, or vocabulary. A teacher can use an anticipation guide to allow students to learn the vocabulary terms within a chapter. A teacher can also use one for word problems. (Take a look at the link below to see an example)

Science:

For Science there are different ways a teacher can use an anticipation guide. One of the most common is to use them for a new unit in learning definitions, main ideas, concepts, and vocabulary. It can also be used during an experiment. For example It can be I think this will happen or I believe this might happen. It can be statements about the outcome, material, or safety rules.

Social Studies:
For Social Students, just like the example at the top about the dessert, an anticipation guide can be done for any topic. It can be vocabulary terms and the definitions. It can be examples or facts about the topic. The example above has statements about the environment, what might be there, etc. Students can learn more and have an idea about what they will be learning through these guides.

http://www.swimmingintosecond.com/2012/02/anticipation-guides.html References:

Anticipation Guide (2015). Every Language Learner. Retrieved form http://www.everylanguagelearner.com/blogs/teaching-tips/tagged/anticipation-guide

Anticipation Guide (2015). Every Language Learner. [image]. Retrieved form http://www.everylanguagelearner.com/blogs/teaching-tips/tagged/anticipation-guide

Anticipation Guide (2015). Reading Rockets. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/anticipation_guide
Anticipation Guides (2012). [image of desert example]. Retrieved form

Anticipation Guide (2012). Reading Rockets. [Web video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQCKXQUquTc

Anticipation Guide (n.d). Teacher Toolkit [Web Video]. Retrieved formhttp://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/anticipation-guide​

Echevarría, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. (2013). Making content comprehensible for Elementary English language learners: The SIOP model. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Gunning, T. G. (2012). Creating literacy instruction for all children in grades pre-K to 4. 2nd Edition. Boston: A and B.

Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Caslon Pub.

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Definition/Description: An anticipation guide is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and get students excited and curious about a new topic. Before reading, students listen to...

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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There is no shortage of formative assessment strategies, techniques, and tools available to teachers who use formative instructional practice in their classrooms. Here is an extensive list of 75 digital tools, apps, and platforms that can help you and your students use formative assessment to elicit evidence of learning. We didn't just add any old tool to this list. Here are the criteria we used for those that made the cut:

Supports formative instructional strategies and ways to activate learners to be resources for themselves and peers

Is free or awful close to it (under $10 per year, where possible)

Allows both students and teachers to take the activator role when possible (sometimes teachers need to get things started)

Before you dig into the tools, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about exactly what you want to accomplish with your students. "How to pick the right digital tool: Start with your learning goal" by Erin Beard can help you wrap your head around goals and guide you in choosing the best tool for the task. "27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning" can help you decide what strategies work best for you and your students.

Record audio and video

Create quizzes, polls, and surveys

1. Crowdsignal Lets you create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports.

2. Edulastic Allows you to make standards-aligned assessments and get instant feedback.

3. FreeOnlineSurveys Helps you create surveys, quizzes, forms, and polls.

4. Gimkit Lets you write real-time quizzes. And it was designed by a high school student!

5. Kahoot! A game-based classroom response system that lets you create quizzes using internet content.

6. MicroPoll Helps you create polls, embed them into websites, and analyze responses.

7. Naiku Lets you write quizzes students can answer using their mobile devices.

8. Obsurvey Designed to make surveys, polls, and questionnaires.

9. Poll Everywhere Lets you create a feedback poll or ask questions and see results in real time. Allows students to respond in various ways. With open-ended questions, you can capture data and spin up tag clouds to aggregate responses.

10. Poll Maker Offers unique features, like allowing multiple answers to one question.

11. ProProfs Helps you make quizzes, polls, and surveys.

12. Quia Lets you create games, quizzes, surveys, and more. Access a database of existing quizzes from other educators.

13. Quizalize Helps you create quizzes and homework.

14. Quizizz Guides you through designing quizzes and lets you include students in the quiz-writing process.

15. Quizlet Lets you make flashcards, tests, quizzes, and study games that are mobile friendly.

16. Survey Hero Designed to build questionnaires and surveys.

17. SurveyMonkey Helpful for online polls and surveys.

18. SurveyPlanet Also helpful for online polls and surveys.

19. Triventy Lets you create quizzes students take in real time using individual devices.

20. Yacapaca Helps you write and assign quizzes.

21. Zoho Survey Allows you to make mobile-friendly surveys and see results in real time.

Brainstorm, mind map, and collaborate

Present, engage, and inspire

Generate word or tag clouds

1. EdWordle Generates word clouds from any entered text to help aggregate responses and facilitate discussion. Word clouds are pictures composed of a cloud of smaller words that form a clue to the topic.

2. Tagxedo Allows you to examine student consensus and facilitate dialogues.

3. Wordables Helps you elicit evidence of learning or determine background knowledge about a topic.

4. WordArt Includes a feature that allows the user to make each word an active link to connect to websites, including YouTube.

Get real-time feedback

Foster family communication

1. Remind Lets you text students and stay in touch with families.

2. Seesaw Helps you improve family communication and makes formative assessment easy, while students can use the platform to document their learning.

3. Voxer Lets you send recordings so families can hear how their students are doing, students can chat about their work, and you can provide feedback.

Strengthen teacher-to-student or student-to-student communication

Keep the conversation going with live chats

1. Yo Teach A backchannel site great for keeping the conversation going with students.

2. Chatzy Supports live, online chats in a private setting.

Create and store documents or assignments

1. Google Forms A Google Drive app that allows you to create documents students can collaborate on in real time using smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

2. Piazza Lets you upload lectures, assignments, and homework; pose and respond to student questions; and poll students about class content. This tool is better suited for older students as it mimics post-secondary class instructional formats.

Learn more

There are several resources for learning more about formative assessment and responsive instruction strategies. Consider our formative practices workshops, where school and district teams can gain a better understanding of the role formative practice plays in instruction and the four foundational practices to use in the classroom. Or for a quick start, download our eBook "Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice."

Jump in, try new tools and methods, and have fun!

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75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom

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We've compiled an extensive list of 75 digital tools that can help teachers use formative assessment to elicit evidence of student learning.

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This is the second in a series of blogposts on Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III & Mark A. McDaniel's seminal book on the science of learning, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Harvard University Press, 2014). This week's blogpost focuses on the second chapter, 'To Learn, Retrieve'. For a discussion of the first chapter, see here.

Jonathan Beale, Researcher-in-Residence, CIRL

Retrieval practice

'Retrieval practice' ('RP') is the process of recalling from memory concepts, events or facts (p. 3). This chapter puts forward learning advantages of regular, formative testing, especially for RP. It focuses on the 'testing effect': the power of tests to develop retrieval as a learning tool (p. 28). Drawing upon evidence from the science of learning, the authors argue that the use of testing as an effective learning method is rare and 'remains little understood or utilized by teachers or students' (p. 29).

'Formative testing' is a form of formative assessment where students take tests to evaluate their learning during a course. Summative assessment is used to evaluate a student's overall learning - for example, an exam taken at the end of a course. (On the distinction between formative and summative assessment, see this article; for an interesting read on how we should understand formative assessment, see this article by Dylan Wiliam.)

While the authors share the common frustration at standardised tests that are 'given for the sole purpose of measuring learning' (which is often the use to which summative tests are put), they worry that this 'steers us away from appreciating one of the most potent learning tools available to us' (p. 30). They argue that the use of testing as an effective learning method is rare and little understood (p. 29) - a claim this chapter supports using evidence from the science of learning.

Benefits of retrieval practice

The authors note that students are generally unaware of the effectiveness of RP (p. 41). The chapter puts forward the following four main benefits of RP.
1. Memory
Practising 'retrieving new knowledge or skill from memory is a potent tool for learning and durable retention'. This is the case for anything we retrieve from memory (p. 43). Major benefits of RP are has long-term learning benefits: it helps to consolidate learning in our long-term memory and 'interrupts' our process of forgetting what we've learned (p. 43). Startling statistics are given about memory: we quickly lose around 70% of what we have just heard or read and the remaining 30% goes away more slowly (p. 28).
2. Recall
RP makes the knowledge or skills we retrieve from memory 'easier to call up again in the future' (p. 28). This is because the 'act of retrieving a memory changes the memory, making it easier to retrieve again later' (p. 41). RP can also make knowledge or skills more accessible when needed in specific contexts.

A particularly effective RP method is formative testing:

'[T]esting, compared to rereading, can facilitate better transfer of knowledge to new contexts and problems, and ... it improves one's ability to retain and retrieve material that is related but not tested' (pp. 41-2).

The way that formative testing can facilitate better transfer of knowledge to new contexts relates to the point in the previous chapter concerning 'contextualisation': learning is most effective when it is contextualised (see claim 10 in the previous blogpost).
3. Retrieval practice is better than re-studying
RP makes learning stronger and more durable than learning by re-studying (p. 28).
4. Repeating retrieval further consolidates learning
Repeating RP further consolidates learning in memory and enhances our abilities to recall knowledge or skills (p. 28):

'Repeated retrieval ... makes memories more durable [and] produces knowledge that can be retrieved more readily, in more varied settings, and applied to ... wider ... problems' (p. 43).

Benefits of regular low-stakes classroom testing

The authors argue that there are several learning benefits to regular, low-stakes classroom testing. An example of low-stakes testing is a multiple-choice quiz which does not count towards the final grade.

First, low-stakes classroom testing helps with retention. Second, it benefits subsequent study. The authors cite studies showing that after tests, students typically 'spend more time restudying the material they missed, and they learn more from it than do their peers who restudy the material without having been tested' (p. 42). Third, students who have taken low-stakes tests have a 'double advantage' over those who haven't:

1. they have 'a more accurate sense of what they know and don't know';

2. they strengthen the 'learning that accrues from retrieval practice' (p. 42).

Concerning the first of these advantages, developing students' awareness of what they know also helps them to identify areas where they need to improve (p. 42). As we saw in the previous blogpost (see claim 8), developing this awareness is important because we are subject to 'knowledge illusions', where we believe we know or have learned more than we know or have learned. Such illusions are sometimes a product of learning practices that produce such beliefs even though the practices are generally not effective for learning (pp. 15-16).

Regular low-stakes testing also,

'improves student attendance';

'increases studying before class';

'increases attentiveness during class';

offers an 'antidote' to 'mistaking fluency ... resulting from repeated readings, for mastery of the subject' (a type of knowledge illusion);

'enables instructors to identify gaps in students' understanding and adapt their instruction to fill them';

helps reduce 'test anxiety' because 'no single test is a make-or-break event' (pp. 42-3).

The benefits listed above 'accrue whether instruction is delivered online or in the classroom' (p. 43).

The testing effect

The authors draw upon empirical evidence to illustrate the testing effect ('TE'). One of these is an intervention at a middle school which investigated the impact on retrieval of occasional no-stakes short quizzes (p. 33). It found that students achieved a full grade higher on material on which they had been quizzed than material on which they had not. The findings from the intervention also suggest that re-reading is not an effective learning strategy (p. 35).

Another intervention showed long-term benefits of TE: regular formative testing positively effected end-of-year exam results taken eight months after the initial intervention (p. 35).

A false dichotomy between memorisation and developing higher order thinking skills

A common objection to the use of tests is that while they are useful for memorisation - i.e., increasing propositional knowledge (knowledge of facts) - they are not particularly useful for developing higher order thinking skills. Such skills include critical and creative thinking skills.

The authors argue, however, that testing can develop high-order skills (pp. 29-30). Their argument attempts to show that the dichotomy often drawn between accruing basic knowledge and developing higher order thinking skills is false. The authors argue that for either of these to be developed, both need to be. This argument is based on the claim that higher order thinking skills related and applied to a particular subject can be better developed if one possesses a stronger knowledge of that subject. For example, when it comes to developing creative thinking skills, the 'stronger one's knowledge about the subject at hand, the more nuanced one's creativity can be in addressing a new problem' (p. 30).

Practical strategies

We can extract the following teaching and learning strategies from this chapter.
1. Make retrieval effortful
' Effortful retrieval makes for stronger learning and retention'. The greater our cognitive effort when we successfully retrieve learning, the 'more that learning is strengthened by retrieval' (p. 43). The authors note that any kind of RP benefits learning, but 'where more cognitive effort is required for retrieval, greater retention results' (p. 41).

It is important to note that effortful retrieval has to be successful for it to be most beneficial. This helps to adumbrate what the limits of effort should be. Effortful retrieval is futile if the effort is doomed to fail; we can only make rational efforts to retrieve what it is possible to retrieve from our memories. So, to maximise the benefits of retrieval, it is best to employ methods where students make the most effort they can reasonably be expected to make to retrieve their learning.
2. Space out retrieval practice
Spacing out RP improves retention. For example, spaced tests - i.e., formative tests taking place at various stages throughout a course, rather than a condensed set of tests at the end (the latter of which is summative testing).

Spacing out RP enhances the benefits of effortful retrieval. To be 'most effective', the authors write, 'retrieval must be repeated again and again, in spaced out sessions so that recall ... requires some cognitive effort' (p. 28). Delaying RP 'is more potent for reinforcing retention than immediate practice, because delayed retrieval requires more effort' (p. 43).

Spacing out learning involves the risk that some learning is forgotten. But the authors argue that this is beneficial for learning:
'When retrieval practice is spaced, allowing some forgetting to occur between tests, it leads to stronger long-term retention than when it is massed' (p. 32).
One study showed that 'after a delay of two days, ... students who took the initial test recalled more ... material than those who simply restudied it'. This was also shown to happen after a week's delay. The differences in learning benefits between spaced RP and re-studying are significant: in one study, the level of material forgotten by students reduced by 42% (p. 39).
3. Give corrective feedback
It is more beneficial for learning to give students corrective feedback after tests rather than only their mark. Corrective feedback after tests 'strengthens retention more than testing alone does' (p. 39); it prevents students from 'incorrectly retaining material they have misunderstood'; and it 'produces better learning of the correct answers' (p. 44).
4. Delay feedback
Delaying feedback yields better long-term learning than immediate feedback. Delaying feedback both supports and can function as spaced practice: delayed feedback 'gives the student practice that's spaced out in time', and spacing out RP improves retention (p. 40).
5. Schedule regular formative testing
The authors recommend scheduling formative tests: build them into the structure of a course such that the students are aware of when tests are. Schedules are most beneficial if they utilise the benefits of spaced practice. For example, a test on an area of learning is not taken too soon after another test on that same area, and adequate space is left between tests such that delayed feedback can be given to and processed by students (p. 32). It is particularly beneficial to follow a schedule of quizzes before and after lessons, and a review (p. 36).
6. Even occasional tests can be highly beneficial
There are benefits to occasional testing, and even one test during a course. The authors cite evidence that shows that even 'a single test in a class can produce a large improvement in final exam scores, and gains in learning continue to increase as the number of tests increases' (p. 41).
7. Use testing rather than getting students to re-study material
Formative testing is far better for learning than re-studying. The benefits are partly metacognitive: 'students who take practice tests have a better grasp of their progress than those who simply reread the material' (p. 44). The authors recommend no-stakes quizzing as a strategy (p. 39).
8. The most effective tests require learners to supply answers
While simple multiple-choice tests are highly beneficial for learning (p. 41), the most effective tests 'require the learner to supply the answer', such as those involving 'an essay or short-answer test'. These are more effective than multiple-choice tests because supplying answers requires more effort from students. But much simpler exercises where the learner has to supply the answer can also be effective, such as learners doing RP independently using flashcards. The authors write that using flashcards appears to be 'more effective than simple recognition tests like multiple choice or true/false tests' (pp. 40-1).
9. Embed formative testing into a course rather than making it unexpected
Studies on university students showed that when formative tests are embedded into a course,

students enjoy the course more;

students take the quizzes more seriously;

students prepare more for quizzes;

results in quizzes tend to be better;

tests can have positive impacts on other areas of student performance (such as quality of essays and class discussions) (p. 38).

Other benefits include the following:

cumulative learning effects accrue over time 'when course material is carried forward in a regime of quizzes across an entire semester' (p. 39);

'in all studies of testing that reported students' attitudes, ... students who were tested frequently rated their classes more favorably at the end ... than those tested less frequently';

students 'who were frequently tested [in studies] reached the end of the semester on top of the material and did not need to cram for exams' (p. 42);

in university classes where instructors incorporated low-stakes quizzing, students were reported to 'embrace the practice' and rated 'their classes more favorably' (p. 44).

10. Testing does not need to be initiated by the teacher
Self-testing and peer testing are useful learning tools. Since learning is most effective when it is effortful, self-testing is most beneficial when it demands greater effort from the student. The authors recommend simple strategies such as self-quizzing and flashcards (p. 44).
11. Even extremely simple tasks can help with retrieval
On this point, the authors discuss the 'generation effect': the way in which the effort required to generate a cued answer can strengthen memory. The authors illustrate through a study that showed that 'simply asking a subject to fill in a word's missing letters resulted in better memory of the word' (p. 32).
12. Employ reflection as a form of practice
Reflecting upon our personal experiences with the ways we have used knowledge and skills is useful for both consolidating and developing our learning. The authors describe this process, 'reflection', as an 'essential kind of learning' (p. 26). Reflection is useful for RP, because it involves 'retrieving knowledge and earlier training from memory'. It also involves connecting what is retrieved with 'new experiences', and 'visualizing and mentally rehearsing what you might do differently next time' (p. 27).

Reflection connects with a point in the previous chapter, that learning is strongest when we make it personal (p. 11). Why? Because we learn something best when we see how it matters - such as the ways in which it relates to our lives.

Discussion

Here are four questions we might consider.

The authors write that regular low-stakes testing helps to reduce 'test anxiety' because 'no single test is a make-or-break event' (pp. 42-3). This only applies to courses where there is not a high-stakes test at the end.

Could regular low-stakes testing reduce test anxiety even when there is a high-stakes test at the end?
2. Delaying feedback
The authors suggest that delaying feedback yields better long-term learning than immediate feedback (p. 40). Evidence 'shows that delaying the feedback briefly produces better long-term learning than immediate feedback' (p. 39). With immediate feedback, 'the learner quickly comes to depend on the continued presence of the correction'. Another theory holds that immediate feedback can become part of a task students learn, such that its later absence (e.g., in real-world settings) constitutes 'a gap in the established pattern that disrupts performance' (p. 40).
What are the implications for giving feedback to students as quickly as possible, as teachers are generally encouraged to do? 3. Educational technology
The pandemic has increased our reliance on technology and has resulted in far more online and hybrid teaching. This may lead to permanent and widespread new approaches towards teaching and learning after Covid-19. One risk that some educators fear is an over-reliance on technology in education.

The authors write that the benefits of low-stakes regular testing 'accrue whether instruction is delivered online or in the classroom' (p. 43). Their examples of effective learning strategies ' can be done without technology ': for example, writing down facts learned after reading; using flashcards; self-quizzing; and students elaborating on explanations of the meaning of passages in texts given by other students (p. 36).
Are there lessons can we learn from this on how to best teach online without over-relying on technology? 4. Learning loss
In an intervention outlined in this chapter, the TE was shown to have positive effects on end-of-year exams taken eight months after the initial intervention. The authors suggest that the effect would 'doubtless have been greater if the retrieval practice had continued and occurred once a month, say, in the intervening months' (p. 35).

School closures have precipitated a significant learning loss. Recent studies revealed that a fifth of UK children did less than an hour of schoolwork a day during the lockdown earlier this year.
Should we make more use of formative testing to reduce the risk of learning loss when students spend long periods out of school?
As we explore the book further, we may return to address these questions.

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The Power of Formative Testing to Retrieve What We Have Learned - CIRL

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This is the second in a series of blogposts on Peter C. Brown, Henry L....

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(I'm currently reading Make It Stick, inspired by Jennifer Gonzales and her blog Cult of Pedagogy. Join her in her July book club!)
So I'm charging right through the book Make It Stick (Let me tell you, the audio version makes the hours of painting the patio fly by), and there's so much goodness in it. Some of it only reinforces what good teachers know. For example, using a variety of activities-it prevents student boredom, but it also reinforces learning. Practicing a concept with a variety of activities is more beneficial than the same activity. Also, allowing time between practices is important. The time allows the brain time to "forget" and then have to relearn. Ultimately, what the authors are saying is this: If you want learning to last, it should be hard. If the learning is coming too easy, it's likely not to last.

What I wanted to focus on in this post, though, is what the book discusses about testing. Or at least, that's what they call it. Frequent testing. Low-stakes testing. Or what most of us in the trenches know it as, formative assessment.

I'd venture that anyone reading this likely knows the perks of formative assessment. It gives teachers a more objective view of what students know and don't know.

But the authors have discovered that this frequent, low-stakes testing serves another purpose-one that I've been wondering about myself the past few months. This low-stakes testing can serve as a form of learning in itself.

Long story short, the authors found that the more tests students completed on a subject, the better they performed. One, students experienced less test anxiety because the frequent, low-stakes testing provided them enough experience to feel comfortable on later, high-stakes (aka graded) exams. Two, formative assessments served as a learning activity in itself. It forces students to recall information, thus really challenging what they know. It's easy to read or listen to information and believe that you've mastered it; test situations provide objective results for if this mastery is true, or if it's only an illusion.

One example that the authors discuss is a political science professor's use of frequent cumulative quizzes in lieu of a massive final exam. Student performance AND engagement increased, and the professor discovered the students' writing rising to the level of students two years ahead of them. I believe this is what we as teachers need to aim for. This idea of cumulative quizzes reinforces retention of knowledge-not just memorization and forgetting it after the unit is over. Plus, this is a more accurate assessment of what students know; frequent quizzes over the course of a semester, rather than a few major tests.

Another technology tool that I need to take more advantage of is the feedback box on online quizzes. This summer I need to spend more time with those assessments and provide information for when students answer a question incorrectly. They need more than just knowing the answer was wrong; they need to know why. This is something I haven't done enough of in the past-and need to improve this school year.

Luckily, a slew of online formative assessments are available for teachers to use.

Most LMS, such as Schoology and Canvas, provide quiz functions

Google forms

Hstry timelines

Versal

Quizizz

Socrative

Kahoot

PearDeck

Play with some of these. Kahoot and PearDeck are teacher paced. Socrative and Quizizz are student-paced but need to be started by the teacher. The others can be available to students at any time and don't require a teacher to start them. I also have a more detailed comparison of Quizizz, Kahoot, and Pear Deck here.

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(I'm currently reading Make It Stick, inspired by Jennifer Gonzales and her blog Cult of Pedagogy. Join her in her July book club!) So I'm charging right through the book Make It Stick (Let me tell you, the audio version makes the hours of painting the patio fly by), and there's so much goodness in it.

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56 Different Examples of Formative Assessment

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56 Different Examples of Formative Assessment

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Formative assessment is the piece of the teaching puzzle that allows us to quickly (and hopefully, accurately) gauge how well our students are understanding the material we've taught. From there, we make the important decisions about where our lesson will go next. Do we need to reteach, or are our students ready to progress? Do some students need additional practice? And which students need to be pushed to achieve the next level?

The best formative assessments will not only answer these questions but will also engage students in their own learning. With that in mind, here are 25 formative assessment techniques that will have your students looking forward to showing you what they know.

1. Doodle Notes

Have students doodle/draw a pic of their understanding instead of writing it. Studies have shown it has numerous beneficial effects on student learning.

2. Same Idea, New Situation

Ask your students to apply the concepts they've learned to a completely different situation. For example, students could apply the steps of the scientific method to figuring out how to beat an opposing soccer team. They observe data (the other team's plays), form theories (they always rely on two main players), test theories while collecting more data (block those players and see what happens), and draw conclusions (see if that worked).

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3. Tripwire

Tripwires are things that catch people off guard and mess them up. Ask your students to list what they believe are the three misunderstandings about the topic that are most likely to mess up a peer. By asking students to think about the key understandings from this angle, we can get an excellent view of how well they comprehend the topic.

4. Two Truths and a Lie

No longer just a get-to-know-you game or icebreaker, this well-known activity also makes a great formative assessment. Ask students to list two things that are true or accurate about the learning and one idea that sounds like it might be accurate, but isn't. You'll be able to assess each student's understanding when they turn in their responses, and going over them with your class the following day makes an excellent review activity.

5. Popsicle Sticks

Formative assessment doesn't need to be complicated or time-consuming to be meaningful and engaging. Have each student put their name on a popsicle stick in a jar or box on your desk. Let them know you'll be pulling popsicle sticks to see who will be answering questions about the lesson. Knowing their name could be pulled makes students who might let peers do the talking focus on the learning. It dispels notions of favoritism and identifies learning gaps. And, most importantly, provides real-time feedback teachers can use in their lesson planning.

6. Explain it to a Famous Person

Ask the student to explain the day's lesson to someone famous in an analogy that would make sense to that person. For example, the Revolutionary War was fought between the colonies and Great Britain. The colonies wanted to be independent and, after winning the war, renamed themselves the United States of America, just like when Prince left his record label and had to change his name to an unpronounceable symbol in order to break contractual obligations (I'm dating myself with this example, aren't I?).

7. Traffic Light

Printing on post-it notes is actually pretty simple and fun! Slap a clip-art picture of a traffic light on there and you have a perfect formative assessment tool that students can complete when time is short at the end of class.

8. 30-Second Share

Challenge students to explain what the lesson they learned was all about to a peer, a small group, or the entire class in 30 seconds. At first, you might want to start at 15-seconds and build their stamina. But by encouraging students to explain everything they can for a set and relatively short amount of time, you'll be building their confidence and public speaking skills at the same time as you get a good grasp on how much they've remembered about the lesson.

9. Venn Diagrams

An oldie but a goodie. Have your student compare the topic you just introduced to a tangential topic you taught in the past. This way, you're getting a formative assessment on how well they understand the new topic and they're getting a review of an older topic as well!

10. Poll Them

Polls are a great way to quickly assess student understanding. You can do this in person, or you can use apps like Poll Everywhere, Socrative, or Mentimeter to make free polls students can answer using their phones or computers.

11. S.O.S. Summaries

A great, quick formative assessment idea that can be used at any point throughout a lesson is the S.O.S. summary. The teacher presents the students with a statement (S). Then, asks the students to give their opinion (O) about the statement. Finally, the students are asked to support (S) their opinion with evidence from the lesson. For example, a teacher might say to the students, "Complete an S.O.S. on this statement: The Industrial Revolution produced only positive effects on society."

S.O.S. can be used at the start of a lesson to assess prior knowledge or at the end of a unit or lesson to determine if students' opinions have changed or if their support has grown stronger with the new information they've learned.

12. FOUR-Corners

This activity can be used with questions or opinions. Before asking the question/making the statement, establish each corner of the room as a different potential opinion or answer. After giving the prompt, 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.

13. Jigsaw Learning

Perfect when teaching complicated subjects or topics with many different parts. In this formative assessment, teachers break a large body of information into smaller sections. Each section is then assigned to a different small group. That small group is in charge of learning about their section and becoming the class experts. Then, one by one, each section teaches the others about their part of the whole. As the teacher listens to each section being taught, they can use the lesson as a method of formative assessment.

14. Anonymous Pop-Quiz

All the formative assessment power of a pop-quiz with none of the unnecessary pressure or embarrassment. To use this tool, simply quiz your students on the essential information you want to ensure they understand. Instruct each student NOT to put their name on their paper.

Once the assessment is complete, redistribute the quizzes in a way that ensures no one knows whose quiz they have in front of them. Have the students correct the quizzes and share out which answers most students got wrong and which answers everyone seemed to understand the most. You'll know right away how well the class as a whole understands the topic without embarrassing any students individually.

15. One-Minute Write-Up

At the end of a lesson, give students one minute to write as much as they can about what they learned through the lesson or unit. If needed, provide some guiding questions to get them started.

What was the most important learning from today, and why?

Did anything surprise you? If so, what?

What was the most confusing part of the lesson, and why?

What is something that will likely appear on a test or quiz, and why?

Challenge them to write as much as they can and to write for all of the 60-seconds. To make it a bit more engaging, consider letting students do this with a partner.

Students love to watch videos and, because of this, we end up showing a lot of short video clips. While they're engaging, it's often tough to determine if our students are getting the information we hoped they would get out of watching them. EdPuzzle solves this problem. The free app allows you to link to a video and add questions that stop the video at times you determine. So you can show your students the video of the Dust Bowl, but stop at various points to ask them what they think life might have been like during this time. You can ask them to make comparisons between what they watch and the characters they're reading about in class. All of this information is then available for you to view and use for formative assessment.

17. Historical Post Cards

Ask students to take on the role of one historical figure you've been learning about in class. Have them write a postcard/email/tweet (as long as it's short) to another historical figure discussing and describing a political event.

18. 3x Summaries

Have students write a 75-100 word summary of a lesson independently. Then, in pairs, have them rewrite it using only 35-50 words. Finally, have them work with a small group to rewrite it one last time. This time, they may use only 10-15 words. Discuss what different groups decided was the most essential information and why they chose to omit certain information. The conversation about what they left out is just as useful as seeing what they left in.

19. Roses and Thorns

Ask students to write or share out two things they really liked/understood about a topic (the roses) and something they didn't like/didn't understand (the thorn).

20. Thumbs Up, Down, or in the Middle

Sometimes things stick around because they just work. Asking students to give you a thumbs up if they understand, thumbs down if they don't, or thumbs somewhere in the middle if they are so-so about it, is probably one of the fastest formative assessments around. It's also very easy to keep track of if you're the teacher standing in the front of the room. Just make sure that you follow up with the thumbs down or thumbs in the middle folks to help them with any confusion.

21. Word Clouds

Ask your students to provide you with the three most essential words or ideas from a lesson and plug them into a word cloud generator. You'll quickly have an excellent formative assessment that shows you what they thought was most worthy of remembering. If it doesn't line up with what you think was most important, you know what you need to reteach.

22. Curation

Ask students to gather a bunch of examples that correctly demonstrate the concept you taught. So if you're studying rhetorical strategies, have students send you screenshots of ads that demonstrate them. Not only will you be able to tell immediately who understood the lesson and who didn't, but you'll also have a bunch of great examples and non-examples ready to go for those students who need additional practice.

23. Dry Erase Boards

Another time-tested method of formative assessment that teachers often overlook is individual dry erase boards. They really are an awesome and fast way to see where each student's level of understanding is at any given point.

24. Think-Pair-Shares

Like so many teacher tools, this one can get stale if overused. But, if used as a method to encourage all students to find their voice and share their learning, it's perfect for formative assessment. To ensure its effectiveness, ask a question of the class. Have every student write down their own answer. Pair students up with a classmate and give them time to share and discuss their answers. After pairs have had a chance to discuss, have them share out with a larger group or the class as a whole. Circulate, listening to groups who have students you know might be more likely to struggle with the current topic. Collect the papers for extra accountability.

25. Self-Directed

This one can intimidate some students at first, but it can be incredibly powerful to let students themselves choose how they want to demonstrate learning. You can support students by giving them managed choice, but let them decide if they want to show you they understood the essential parts of your lesson by drawing a picture, writing a paragraph, creating a pop quiz, or even writing song lyrics. This shows you're putting them in charge of their own learning.

What's your go-to method of formative assessment? Tell us in the comments.

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25 Formative Assessment Options Your Students Will Actually Enjoy

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Formative assessment is a vital tool in lesson planning and teaching. Check out this list of ways to get students to show you what they know.

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7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

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7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

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Formative assessment-discovering what students know while they're still in the process of learning it-can be tricky. Designing just the right assessment can feel high stakes-for teachers, not students-because we're using it to figure out what comes next. Are we ready to move on? Do our students need a different path into the concepts? Or, more likely, which students are ready to move on and which need a different path?

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point-no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it-isn't enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way-all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That's why it's important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

7 Approaches to Formative Assessment

1. Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day's work while students are getting settled-you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles: Students got the point; they sort of got it; and they didn't get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

What are three things you learned, two things you're still curious about, and one thing you don't understand?

How would you have done things differently today, if you had the choice?

What I found interesting about this work was...

Right now I'm feeling...

Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2. Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize, Kahoot, FlipQuiz, Gimkit, Plickers, and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can't kill a student's grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid's response, and determine both individually and in aggregate how students are doing.

Because you can design the questions yourself, you determine the level of complexity. Ask questions at the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy and you'll get insight into what facts, vocabulary terms, or processes kids remember. Ask more complicated questions ("What advice do you think Katniss Everdeen would offer Scout Finch if the two of them were talking at the end of chapter 3?"), and you'll get more sophisticated insights.

3. Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they're sometimes referred to as dipsticks. These can be things like asking students to:

write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,

draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or

do a think, pair, share exercise with a partner.

Your own observations of students at work in class can provide valuable data as well, but they can be tricky to keep track of. Taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone, or using a copy of your roster, is one approach. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4. Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students' understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don't have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students' learning.

For more introverted students-or for more private assessments-use Flipgrid, Explain Everything, or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5. Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art or photography or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning. Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" to explore the subtext.

6. Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes it's helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the " muddiest point" in the lesson-the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check: Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have you students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column-you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they're all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards-"I agree," "I disagree," and "I don't know how to respond") and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they're ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you're only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog. If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it's OK to put it aside and try something different.

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7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

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Within these methods you'll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they're still learning.

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This is the second post of a five part series focusing on formative assessments for teachers trying to incorporate technology in more powerful ways.

During this time of massive change in classrooms, we should try not to take what we did in 1985 teaching and slam technology on top of that strategy. What is meant by that is we need to rethink how we assess students. Thanks to technology it is so much easier to get really important information about students learning and growth.

What are Brain Dumps?

Brain dumps use something called retrieval practice. With this strategy students are asked to recall everything they can remember about the learning thus far as part of a formative assessment task and to also help them with their long term memory storage.

In brain dumps we give students a short amount of time to think about what they have learned so far. They can write down their ideas, research, talk to their friends until they feel like they have compiled a well-informed list.

The Research to Support Brain Dumps?

In the book Neuro Teach: Brain Science and The Future of Education the authors explain that "having students reconstruct what they know through alternative assessments leads to deeper understanding and consolidates learning in more powerful ways than traditional testing."

We take this idea of alternative assessments further by pairing it with an idea in the book Make It Stick - The Science of Successful Learning. It is here that the authors, who are Cognitive Learning Scientists, explain the idea that active retrieval is very beneficial for students. They report that "recalling facts or concepts or events from memory - is a more effective learning strategy than reviewing by reading." They also report that "retrieval strengthens the memory and interrupts forgetting."

In traditional teaching practices, this type of active retrieval has often been done via a quick multiple choice quiz, but we are about to turn this old and outdated practice on its head and change this into a rich formative assessment practice that strategically uses technology.

Possible Apps: Flipgrid, Seesaw, or Screencastify

Have students work alone to brainstorm all they can remember about what they have learned about a topic, unit or whatever you are trying to assess. This should be done without any help from their notes or the textbook if you are using one.

To do this - students might use a Google Doc - or simply write down what they recall on a regular piece of paper.

Students now work collaboratively and meet with another student in class to compare notes and then add or remove anything they might have missed based on that conversation. The students work together to strengthen their own list using this pairing of the minds.

Here is a TEMPLATE I use in class for this activity.

Allow students to research. They can go on Google, look at notes, check the book - whatever they need to make the list as complete as possible. The trick here is they only have 5 minutes. Set a timer and remind them of how much time is remaining. This way they stay focused and on task.

Students head to a video-based program like Flipgrid. Once in Flipgrid or a similar app, they will begin by recording themselves recalling everything they have learned.. They do this WITHOUT the help of any notes - they explain/recall as much as they can remember about the idea or topic. They should do this in under two minutes.

This way they have to do it from memory causing the kind of cognitive struggle that helps the information stick.

Students watch each others videos - and from their once again strengthen their own list. The teacher then uses the video to do a formative assessment of learning. Students can even do a vote on who had the most thorough response in the class.

This type of multi-dimensional experience where they are looking for holes in their learning and connecting with other examples is also quite helpful in long term memory. It is also a very strong metacognitive experience as they spend a lot of time thinking about their learning and comparing it with other examples. This is a great way to infused technology in your classroom!

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Formative Assessment Ideas: Brain Dumps - The Infused Classroom

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This is the second post of a five part series focusing on formative assessments for teachers trying to incorporate technology in more powerful ways.