What Are Different Types of Formative Assessment?

Assessments in education are often grouped into three different types: diagnostic, summative, and formative. While diagnostic assessments identify student knowledge prior to instruction, and summative assessments evaluate student learning after instruction, the purpose of formative assessment is to monitor student progress during learning in order to provide feedback and adapt instruction. Informal, versatile, and ongoing, these assessments take many forms.

Types of Formative Assessments in Education

Determining what students have learned and responding in real time can feel like a lot to incorporate into an already packed schedule. That’s why it’s important to keep formative assessments simple and to the point. A key way to ensure formative assessments are quick, seamless, and effective is to focus on what information you’re looking for and why. Being comfortable with various formative assessments will allow you to flexibly select the best assessment tool for each task. Let’s take a look at some use cases for types of formative assessments and the reasons you might use them.

7 Use Cases for Different Types of Formative Assessments

1. Check for Understanding and Identify Learning Gaps

Formative assessments can reveal misconceptions, provide immediate insights into comprehension levels, and help you identify which students are ready to move on and which ones need more support. The following assessments are well suited to checking for understanding and identifying learning gaps:

• Concept Mapping: Students visually represent relationships between concepts and ideas. With a quick review, concept maps can provide information about students’ depth of understanding, as well as which concepts and connections need reteaching.
• Exit Tickets: Students write down something they learned during a lesson or one question they still have before leaving the classroom.
• Low-Stakes Quizzes: Students take short, ungraded quizzes with multiple-choice or true/false questions covering the main points of a lesson.
• Hand Signals: Students respond to a question related to the lesson’s key concept with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or sideways thumb to indicate their level of understanding.
• 3X Summaries: Students summarize a topic in three ways: in 10–15 words, 30–50 words, and 75–100 words, adding more detail as the word count increases to demonstrate their depth of understanding.

2. Monitor Progress toward Learning Objectives

Progress monitoring is vital for tracking individual and class advancement toward learning objectives. Continuous formative assessment provides real-time information about where students stand in relation to goals and what changes are necessary to stay on track. The following assessments support ongoing progress monitoring:

• Rubrics: Though often used to evaluate summative assessments, rubrics are also a tool for providing feedback and direction while work is still in progress.
• Weekly Check-ins: During brief one-on-one or small-group meetings focused on progress, concerns, and goals, teachers can gauge students’ comprehension and areas of need.
• Quick Check: Quick, objective-aligned assessments can be embedded within lessons to measure progress on an ongoing basis.

3. Provide Targeted Feedback to Students

Formative assessments that provide timely feedback help guide students’ efforts and encourage them to take ownership of their learning. Descriptive feedback that highlights gaps in understanding and specifically informs students on how they can improve is more effective than simply identifying mistakes. The following assessments are useful for providing targeted feedback to students:

• Rubrics: When used as a guide before work is turned in, rubrics provide descriptive feedback about how students can improve in relation to the criteria for success.
• TAG Feedback: Either the teacher or other students provide feedback on an assignment in three steps known as “TAG”—tell me something you like; ask a question; give me a positive suggestion to improve my work.
• Peer Assessments: Using predetermined criteria for group projects, students provide feedback to one another on their contributions.

4. Inform Instructional Decisions and Teaching Strategies

Formative assessment data provide valuable guidance on which instructional practices produce the desired results and which do not. Because what works for one group of students may not work for another group, the following formative assessments allow for continuous adjustments:

• Exit Tickets: Organizing exit tickets into three piles—got it, almost there, and not yet—provides quick information on what the class needs next.
• Observations: Informal monitoring of student behavior and understanding during class discussions or group work helps direct instructional decisions.
• Interview Assessments: One-on-one discussions provide insights into students’ understanding, thought processes, and areas of difficulty.
• Directed Questioning: Students respond to targeted questions during class discussions to guide their thinking, encourage deeper understanding, and show which concepts may need reteaching.

5. Encourage Active Learning

Formative assessments that involve interactive and engaging activities increase student participation and, with that, understanding. Measuring progress toward goals can help students find meaning in their learning, increase accountability and motivation, and show students that their success matters to their teacher and learning community. These formative assessments encourage active learning:

• Group Discussions: Gathering observational data during class discussions provides information about students’ collaboration and depth of understanding while also encouraging active participation.

• Interactive Polls: Using a polling tool, students answer questions to be displayed for class discussion.

• Whiteboard Activities: Students respond to questions, solve problems, or draw diagrams on individual whiteboards, fostering active participation while giving the teacher specific responses to assess and discuss.

• Corners: After posing a question for the class, different corners of the room are designated to represent different responses or viewpoints. Students physically move to the corner that aligns with their response, providing a visual representation of the class’s collective understanding.

• Doodle Notes: Students take visual notes during a lesson or discussion, incorporating drawings and symbols to represent key ideas. Teachers can then assess their interpretation of the lesson from their responses.

6. Promote Self-Reflection

Formative assessment methods designed to promote self-reflection provide students with opportunities to think critically about their learning. The following assessments foster a deeper understanding of strengths and areas for improvement while enhancing metacognition and self-awareness:

• Self-Assessment with Rubrics: Students use a rubric or scoring guide to assess their own performance on an assignment before submitting their work to reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement.
• Learning Journals or Reflection Papers: Students write about their understanding, challenges, and areas for improvement. Teachers can provide feedback on these reflections through notes or individual discussions.
• Doodle Notes: After a lesson, students revisit their visual representations and ask themselves questions, such as: Did I accurately show the main concepts in my doodle notes? Or how would I explain my doodles in words?
• Three-Minute Pause: During a brief class break, students reflect on the material covered and jot down what they notice and wonder.

7. Prepare for Summative Tests

When formative assessments occur frequently and are not graded, they can promote a positive attitude toward assessments, making students more comfortable and less stressed when it comes time to take summative assessments. These assessments can help reduce test anxiety and prepare for summative tests:

• Low-Stakes Quizzes: Ungraded assessments to measure understanding can help students become more comfortable with the assessment process and more confident in their test-taking abilities.
• Games: Quiz-style games allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in a fun and engaging context.

Exploring different types of formative assessments and their practical uses can help you select the most suitable tools to meet your instructional goals. By mixing it up and using various assessment methods, you can stay flexible and responsive, which is key to student success.

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For more on data-driven assessments and instruction, explore HMH assessments that help educators gain a complete picture of student achievement.