Formative Assessments & Technology
Assessments for learning, or formative assessments, support learning during the learning process. Unlike summative assessments, formative assessments allow teachers to quickly check for understanding and adjust instruction accordingly. The whole goal of assessing students throughout the learning process is to gather data quickly in order to adapt content as it is being learned. If formative assessments take too long to analyze, often the data is no longer applicable. This is where technology can truly transform your teaching. How great would it be to ask a question, get instant results, and realize that many of your students are choosing the "distractor," answer? You can immediately address the issue by disecting the question further with your students. What's even better, is that data for 1st period may be very different than 4th period. If the majority of 4th period students are getting the question right, there may not be a need to go further into explaining the correct answer. Using technology to quickly assess your students can save a great deal of time while allowing you to customize learning for all of your students. Former teacher and edtech guru, Tony Vincent, has put together a quick summary of some of the most popular technology tools used for formative assessment. Be sure to follow him on Twitter (@tonyvincent) and visit his website www.learninginhand.com for lots of tips and tricks!
2 MTM / October 2016