Database of Formative Assessments

Having students underline, circle, and highlight a piece of text as they are reading.  The teacher can also set the expectation of having the students summarize or pose a question about each section of the literature on a post-it note.

The teacher assigns a moderately difficult or lengthy piece of text for the students to read.  The instructions are to tag the important information by underlining, bolding, highlighting, or circling it.  After each major section the students need to either summarize what was covered in that section, or write down a question they have about the section to discuss later.

Teachers can bring the class together to facilitate the discussion about the summaries and questions that the students come up with.

Students can be put into small groups after they finish reading to discuss/compare their summaries.  They may also find answers to their questions during their discussions.

These activities are generally used as an introduction to the material, and would simply inform the teacher of where to focus the next steps of the lesson.

As the students think about what they read to summarize or ask a question about it, they really are doing a mini self-assessment.  

If the teacher facilitates a class discussion, or a small group discussion, then there is an opportunity for feedback from the teacher and other students.

There is no technology required to do this type of activity, but the teacher may design a digital version if they want to.