Database of Formative Assessments

The students are asked to reflect on the events of the day/topic/unit, and to write their reflections/summaries into a journal.  

The teacher might have the students create a journal entry at specific time intervals, or simply at the end of each lesson.  The journal entries can be structured to include various things.  Summaries, reflections, misunderstandings, and self-evaluations are the most common pieces of information that go into a journal entry.  The teacher might use these entries as evidence of student learning in a portfolio, or could have the students look back on them throughout a unit to visualize and track their growth.

Teachers may view the entries from time to time and provide feedback to the student.  Open ended feedback that gets the student thinking in new ways is more helpful than basic feedback or praise.

Students may be asked to review other classmate's journal entries, and offer feedback similar to how a teacher would.

These entries are a great way for students to track their learning, and a teacher may use this information to differentiate their instruction.

This type of activity is essentially a self-reflection for each student.  The teacher can also prompt the thought process for each journal entry with open ended questions.

No technology is required, however it may be helpful to have the students create these entries digitally for easy organization and sharing purposes.