Database of Formative Assessments

A timed writing activity that can be used in a variety of ways.   The teacher may ask the students to summarize what they have been learning in a unit, or point the writing in a specific direction by having a specific prompt or driving question.

A language arts class may be analyzing the writing for grammar and spelling, but other classes could use these activities to focus on specific content and applications of ideas.

After the the class has been introduced to the topic, the teacher might prompt the students to write about how that topic relates to their personal lives or to a profession.

Teachers might use these to facilitate a class discussion, or collect them to review at a later time.

students could share their work with a partner and review each other's writing.

These are generally done to help inform the teacher on how the class is doing with the content.

The teacher could provide a rubric to the class and have the students review each other's work against the rubric.  

The teacher might have the student review their own work against the rubric.

Technology is not required.  Some teachers may choose to use a digital environment, such as Google Docs, to allow for digital commenting and saving drafts online.