Picture a typical Tuesday in a classroom. The teacher is about three minutes into a lesson on comparing fractions, and she asks the room a quick question: Is one-third larger or smaller than one-fourth? A few hands shoot up. One student suddenly finds their shoelaces fascinating, while a few others gaze out the window. Then one student says, with real confidence, “Bigger, because four is bigger than three,” and several classmates nod along.
In roughly four seconds, with no grade book, no rubric, and not a single bubble sheet in sight, the teacher has noticed something that matters: A common way of thinking about fractions is alive and well in the room, and the next part of the lesson just rewrote itself.
That moment is informal formative assessment. It is one of the oldest, most intuitive, and underappreciated things that teachers do. In this article, we define informal formative assessment and distinguish it from its more formal cousin. Then, we walk through its uses, types, examples, strategies, and the challenges that come with it. Our goal throughout is to name what teachers almost certainly already do and to think about it more deliberately so we can use it effectively and get more out of the practice.
Informal formative assessment: Definition
Informal formative assessment is best understood as part of the larger practice of formative assessment. As defined in the report Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment, formative assessment is the ongoing process of gathering evidence of student understanding throughout instruction and using it to adjust instruction. The purpose is forward-looking: to inform what happens next.
Informal formative assessment is the version of that process that happens on the fly. It is the evidence of understanding that teachers gather during instruction through questioning, conversation, observation, and the small interactions that fill a class period. As researchers Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo and Erin Marie Furtak describe it, informal formative assessment occurs during everyday instructional activities, where teachers continuously notice and interpret what students say and do and then respond.
So, if formal formative assessment is the quick check you scheduled into your lesson plan, informal formative assessment is the check that happened when you noticed a quizzical look on your students’ faces. Informal formative assessment can be thought of as a habit of mind: a way of treating ordinary classroom moments as evidence of student thinking.
Formal vs. informal formative assessment
Formal and informal formative assessment are two expressions of the same purpose, and strong teaching leverages both. The difference is mostly about structure, planning, and how the evidence gets captured. The table below outlines the difference between formal and informal formative assessment. Notice that the bottom row is the same on both sides. Whatever the format, the point of a formative assessment is to inform instruction rather than to rank students.
Feature |
Formal formative assessment |
Informal formative assessment |
How it shows up |
Planned and structured: a short quiz, a set exit-ticket prompt, a quick check tied to a specific skill |
As needed and embedded: a question mid-lesson, a glance at student work, a snippet of student discourse |
Timing |
Scheduled into the lesson at a chosen point |
Happens continuously, often without warning, as learning unfolds |
Evidence |
Captured in a consistent form you can compare across students |
Lives in the moment: talk, gestures, scratch work, a furrowed brow |
Documentation |
Usually recorded, even if briefly |
Often undocumented unless you build in a quick way to jot it down |
What stays the same |
Low-stakes; used to inform instruction rather than to grade or compare students |
Low-stakes; used to inform instruction rather than to grade or compare students |
To be clear, informal does not mean unplanned in every sense. Teachers cannot script the exact moment a misconception appears, but they can absolutely plan to listen for it. Deciding ahead of time which questions to pose, which student talk to listen for, and what to look for while circulating is what turns informal assessment into reliable practice.
Uses and benefits of informal formative assessment
The central benefit of informal formative assessment is instructional agility. Because the evidence arrives in real time, teachers can act on it right away by slowing down, reteaching, pulling a small group, or moving on, instead of waiting for a later opportunity to confirm what they already suspected.
Informal formative assessment is also usually low-stakes or no-stakes, which matters. Frequent, low-pressure checks give students more chances to show what they know and get useful feedback before a grade is at stake.
Informal formative assessment positions students well. It treats in-progress reasoning as valuable data and frames partial or unexpected thinking as a learning opportunity that provides information about how understanding is taking shape. Used this way, informal assessment tells students something powerful: your thinking has value, even before it is perfect or final.
Types of informal formative assessments
Informal formative assessment is easier to use well when you recognize the different channels through which student thinking becomes visible. Most informal checks fall into one of a few broad types.
Observational
Student thinking is also visible in what students do, not just what they say. Working the room, watching how students approach a task, and scanning work are all observational forms of informal assessment. Teachers regularly do this, often without explicitly naming it.
Quick written responses
Short, in-the-moment writing can be effective, especially when it is used to inform the next move rather than to assign a grade. A one-sentence response to a prompt or a problem worked out on a handheld whiteboard can give teachers a quick read on understanding across the whole room.
Student-to-student interaction
When students explain their thinking to a partner or small group, give each other feedback, or talk themselves through a problem aloud, they generate rich evidence that can be used. These interactions also do double duty because the act of explaining helps students build understanding while it also demonstrates to the teacher what they know and can do.
Whole-class signals
Quick, low-tech signals let every student respond at once. Thumbs up or down, handheld whiteboards, or a fast show of hands give teachers an instant, classroom-wide read. They are blunt instruments, but they are efficient for catching the gist before deciding where to go next.
Examples of informal formative assessment
Here are several (recognizable) examples across grade levels and subjects:
- Science: A science teacher glances at students’ notebooks during a lesson on states of matter. Several sketches show gas particles packed closely together. Seeing this misconception, the teacher adjusts the lesson and uses a visual model to reinforce particle spacing.
- ELA: During a class discussion of a short story, a teacher notices that students can summarize the plot but keep treating the narrator’s claims as simple facts rather than interpreting them. The teacher pauses to model reading for perspective.
- Math: A math teacher poses one problem, counts to three, and every student holds up an answer on their whiteboards. At a glance, the teacher sees that about a third of the room is stuck on the same step.
- History: A history teacher circulates while students annotate a primary source and notices that only a few students are attending to who wrote it or when. That observation prompts a quick, whole-class reminder about sourcing before students go further.
- General: A warm-up doubles as a check. Students respond to a single question as they settle in, and the teacher uses the spread of answers to decide whether to review yesterday’s concept or build on it.
Informal formative assessment strategies and techniques
Since informal formative assessment can be considered a habit of mind, there are moves that help sharpen it. A useful way to organize them comes from Ruiz-Primo and Furtak, who describe a simple cycle they call ESRU: the teacher Elicits a response, the Student responds, the teacher Recognizes what the response reveals, and the teacher Uses that information to move learning forward. The full loop is what makes the difference, as eliciting a great answer and then doing nothing with it is a missed opportunity, and we have all been there.
With that cycle in mind, here are practical techniques that strengthen each part of it:
- Asking open questions that begin with how or why surfaces reasoning, while questions with a single right answer mostly surface recall. If you want to see thinking, prompt for thinking.
- WAIT. If it feels awkward, lean into it! Research on wait time has found that pausing a few seconds after asking a question, and again after a student answers, leads to longer, richer responses from more students. The silence feels long, but it is worth it.
- Press for reasoning. “How do you know?” or “Can you say more?” turns a thin answer into usable evidence and signals that you care about the thinking, not just the correct answer.
- Make thinking visible. Whiteboards, quick sketches, partner explanations, annotation, brief jots, and graphic organizers pull private reasoning into the open where you can see it.
- Establish a low-stakes routine. The moment students believe a check will be graded, many shift from showing their real thinking to performing the right answer. Create a safe, low-stakes space where students feel free to think out loud.
- Always have a next move ready. Decide in advance what you will do if most of the class has it, if about half does, and if only a few do. The evidence is only as good as the response to it.
Common challenges with informal formative assessment
Informal formative assessment is one of the most responsive tools available to teachers, but it requires in-the-moment observation, interpretation, and decision-making. The information gathered can be powerful, but it is not always easy to collect or act upon. Below are several common challenges teachers may face when using informal formative assessment in the classroom and some tips on how to address them.
The evidence is fleeting
Insights gathered on the fly can evaporate by the time the bell rings, let alone by the time you are able to plan the next lesson. A light-touch system can help. Use a sticky note, a quick tally, a class roster with room for a few check marks, or a single line in your notes about what to revisit. You do not need elaborate records, just a way to keep the most important signals from slipping away.
You will hear from the same students
If you rely on volunteers to raise their hands, you will likely end up sampling the most confident voices and miss everyone else. During the era of remote learning, one of the fascinating outcomes some teachers reported was that their most reserved students found a voice in being able to click “raise hand” or ping the teacher with a question/response. In a classroom setting, the fix is intentional sampling. Use whole-class signals so everyone responds at once, create space for quieter voices by asking to hear from someone new, and build in partner and small-group talk so that every student has an opportunity to contribute.
Acting in the moment is hard
Noticing a misconception and deciding what to do about it while 28 other students wait are two different things. This is where planning your possible next moves pays off. It is worth remembering that a perfectly good response is to sometimes simply slow down, take notes, and say, “Let’s figure this out together.”
Covering is not the same as checking
It is easy to ask, “Does everyone understand?”, see a few nods, and move on feeling reassured. Nods are not always evidence. The remedy is to ask students to show or explain rather than to affirm, so the evidence comes from what students can do, not from general agreement.
Notice that none of these challenges is a reason to do less informal assessment. They are reasons to do it a little more deliberately. The teacher who names these tensions ahead of time is already most of the way to handling them.
Digital tools can also lighten the load, particularly the record-keeping problem. Quick checks such as those featured in some digital platforms can gather a whole class’s responses at once and display them instantly, so the evidence is captured for you instead of evaporating.
Frequently asked questions about informal formative assessment
Is informal formative assessment graded?
Generally, no. The point is to gather evidence of learning in progress, and keeping it low-stakes is what encourages students to show their real thinking. You can certainly note what you observe, but turning every informal check into a grade tends to undermine the very thing that makes it useful.
How is informal formative assessment different from formal formative assessment?
Both are formative, meaning both exist to inform instruction. The difference is in structure. Formal formative assessments are planned and usually recorded, such as a short quiz or a set exit-ticket prompt. Informal formative assessments are spontaneous and embedded in instruction, such as a mid-lesson question or a glance at student work.
Do I need to document informal formative assessment?
Not always, but a little documentation goes a long way. You do not need detailed records of every interaction. A quick way to jot down the signals that should shape tomorrow’s lesson is usually enough to keep your best insights from slipping away.
How often should I use informal formative assessment?
More often than you might think. Informal formative assessment works best when it is woven continuously through instruction rather than saved for a special occasion. Many teachers are gathering this kind of evidence almost constantly once they start noticing it.
Can informal formative assessment be planned?
Yes, at least in part. You cannot schedule the exact moment a misconception appears, but you can plan which questions you will ask, which student signals you will look and listen for, and how you will respond.
Isn’t informal formative assessment just good teaching?
Honestly, yes, and that is rather the point. Skilled teachers have always “read their rooms” and adjusted on the fly. Naming the practice does not replace that instinct. It simply helps you sharpen it, use it more deliberately, and get more out of the moments a teacher is already crafting.
Final thoughts
At its core, informal formative assessment is a way of paying attention. It treats the ordinary business of a class—the questions and answers, the partner talk, the scratch work, and even the look on a student’s face—as evidence worth noticing and acting on. When teachers gather that evidence continuously and respond to it thoughtfully, they tell students that their thinking matters while it is still taking shape.
Share your informal formative assessment ideas
We’d love to hear about how you use informal formative assessment in your classroom. Share your favorite examples of informal formative assessments with us via email at shaped@hmhco.com or reach out on Instagram.
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