Formative assessment is a chance for teachers to put their creative and evaluative skills to the test. Formative assessment occurs during a learning situation. For example, while reading a short story, a teacher might want to check for understanding by asking questions focused on the topic of concern.

Formative assessment implies ongoing communication between the teacher and students, in the form of observations, questioning, and discussions. These interactions provide valuable feedback about students’ communication skills, social skills, and level of achievement. Classroom interactions are rich sources of information, and certain techniques can help make the most of these opportunities for assessment.

Checking for understanding during the presentation of a topic will allow you to get an impression of your students’ grasp of the matter at hand and to avoid long explanations at the end of the session. Close monitoring during written activities, whether in individual, paired, or group work, will foster the students’ confidence in completing the task, and this will also be a helpful tool in assessing whether any changes or extra explanations need to be done. In addition to checking understanding and levels of knowledge, teachers should focus on students’ attitudes, feelings, and interests. Surveys can be an effective means of assessing student attitudes.

Monitoring provides the information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. It helps teachers make informed decisions and become aware of the extent to which students are learning what is being taught and whether the methods they are using are fostering or discouraging learning.

Formative assessment is the assessment of students’ progress toward a goal, conducted at regular intervals, with the teacher issuing feedback to help to improve the students’ academic achievement. To carry out a formative assessment, you might want to ask open-ended questions and check your students’ understanding of the task.

Assessments must have a clear focus and reflect the content and methods the teacher has been using. In other words, the assessment should respond to the questions what, why, and how. The first thing teachers must do is to properly answer the questions themselves. There is no point in assessing when the purpose and the content are not clearly defined from the very beginning, just as there would be no point in testing students on a topic they have never explored.

I know what you are thinking, conducting a formative assessment seems complicated. Yes, they can be. Fortunately, there are plenty of edtech tools that make formative assessment a breeze. In this article, we will profile 11 of the best of them.

1. Edulastic

Formative assessment tool that tracks achievement of benchmarks.

2. Flipgrid

Ask questions, spark introspective multimedia responses with outstanding tool.

3. GoClass

Give powerful interactive lessons to kids via their mobile devices.

4. The Answer Pad

Easy to use, assessment product for your classroom.

5. Socrative

Powerful assessments to measure student learning.

6. Kahoot!

Gamified student-response tool that can make assessment fun and competitive.

7. Quizalize

Turn formative assessment into a game show.

8. GoSoapBox

Simple, easy to use web-based clicker tool gives instant feedback.

9. Poll Everywhere

Simple student-response tool.

10. TodaysMeet

Simple online conversations allow teachers and their students to communicate outside of the classroom.

11. Piazza

Cutting edge Q&A tool facilitates discussion and develops critical thinking skills.

Did we miss any?