Thing 18: Student Assessment and Feedback

I am always looking for different ways to assess my students other than common quizzes and anecdotal notes.  I read the article 5 reasons for formative assessment and 5 methods of utilization.  This article, along with the video gave me more insight on how to assess my students.  I never thought to use a sticky note as an exit ticket.  It makes so much sense!  It’s an easy way to check to see if the students are understanding what you are teaching.  I also liked his idea of using it as a way of forming differentiated groups.  I am a certified literacy teacher and can do a great job forming groups based on the literacy needs my students have.  However, I seem to always struggle with finding the right groups for math.  This is a great way to do it!  I love the fact that they can change every day, just based on the knowledge the students have on the topic.  It can drive my instruction and the groups are changing so the kiddos do not get bored being with the same kids or maybe doing the work they already know how to do.

The two tools I explored was AnswerGarden and google forms-self grading quiz.

I loved answer garden and always wondered how people got the word webs!  This is a great way to assess the students quickly, however the only downside that I see is that you do not know who put what for an answer, you can only see the answers.  This is good for the fact that the students are autonomous, but the downside is that I would not know who is understanding it and who is not.  I will still use it because I think it would be fun and engaging for my classroom.  However, I do not believe that I will drive my instruction around it.

HOLY SMOKES!  I had NO IDEA that google forms would grade your own quizzes!  That makes life so much easier for a teacher!   I have done a couple of PD’s through my district on google classroom, we learned to create a quiz, but never did they mention that it could be self graded!  What a game changer!  I love it!  I will use this more often as mini assessments because the students get feedback right away and so do I!