This school year we introduced ScootPad Solutions, a comprehensive set of student-centered learning solutions for teachers, parents and administrators. This week we’ll help you strategize around Formative Assessments, the 4th of the 8 ScootPad Solutions.
Below we’ve broken down the key components in ScootPad which will ensure you are on the right track:
1. What are Formative Assessments?
Formative Assessments are assessments for learning which means they help you gauge student understanding in order to appropriately guide instruction in the moment. These are very different from traditional summative measures, or assessments of learning, which typically assess student learning up to a certain point and after teaching has happened. An end-of-unit or end-of-grade assessment would be more summative. A quick 3 question quiz before the unit or lesson starts or shortly thereafter would be more formative, giving the teacher ample opportunity to make changes. ScootPad is very comprehensive, super versatile, and can accommodate a variety of formative measures using various features. However, we will focus on using entry and exit tickets for this specific solution.
2. Entry Tickets and Pre-Assessments
You prep your lesson plans in advance. You’ve designed the targeted practice for homework that you want your students to follow up with but how do you know what they already know in order to differentiate? Assign a quick entry ticket and get your results instantly. Our assessments are pre-built and cover an entire standard. This means that they will range in length from 2 questions to sometimes 12. If too long, simply copy it and remove questions.
3. Review and Gauge Knowledge
Once students are done, review the results. You’re probably wondering how much do they know? How deep into the lesson do you have to go? Are there specific students who may need extra help? Are there specific questions or concepts which warrant your attention? The answers to these questions will determine the degree to which you need to pivot your instruction.
4. Re-Teach or Adjust Instruction for Optimal Learning Outcomes
Using the above example, the teacher’s observations are summarized below. This readily available information can be used to navigate the lesson more efficiently, including creating small targeted groups, providing some more challenging content, and creating differentiated homework based on the results.
- There were 3 questions that the majority of the students didn’t understand. These can be projected for classroom review.
- There were 3 students who can be placed into a small group for deeper pre-intervention.
- There was 1 student who answered every question correctly.
Based on this information, the teacher decided not to give every student the same targeted practice. Instead, after the lesson, a small group was created who reviewed an instructional lesson and the student who understood the content was able to continue in his learning path. The teacher then used this opportunity to provide all students with constructive feedback to help them move further in their understanding.
5. Exit Ticket or Post-Assessment and Growth Measurement
Ok, so you’ve taught the lesson, created some small groups, and helped students to understand the content. Now’s the time to launch the exit ticket and see the growth or where further adjustments need to be made. In the below video, the teacher reviews the 2 assessments side by side in the Assessment Growth report. Here the teacher can see students summarized and can compare growth between the 2 assessments. Yes! 30% growth is superb 🙂
Using ScootPad in your Formative Assessment strategy is as simple as 1, 2, 3! Let us work with you each step of the way to inform your instruction. Here are some resources to guide you as you implement this solution.
Watch a video / TED Talk-Formative vs. Summative Assessment
There is always more to learn so don’t hesitate to explore or reach out to our support team by clicking the orange Help button.
Cheers,
The ScootPad Team
