A Quick Check Formative Assessment Idea

I want to share a quick formative assessment idea that I used in my classroom this week. By quick, I mean you can whip this out in five minutes on your lunch break with half of a sandwich in your mouth (don’t judge). I promise that is all it takes and it will be time well spent.

So you might be thinking,”why do this?” or “I already have a system for this.”   That’s fine and you do what works best for you. But my kids were getting bored of the ol’ tried and true individual white boards.

**Another strategy I used is the sticky-note quick check, which you can check out Cheryl’s Classroom Tips Blog!**

I do absolutely LOVE the sticky-note strategy above, and have used it a ton in my classroom. The only problem I found is that I needed a way to differentiate some of the questions since I have such a mixed group this year. I know I could do exit slips on small pieces of paper with questions on them, but that’s a lot of work! Not to mention, my kids seem to think learning is SUPER fun all of a sudden when I switch it up a bit! So, switch it up I did.

I swear nothing fancy is going on here, but it was worth a million dollars! All I did was take a piece of anchor chart paper, make some quick lines, write my students’ numbers down the left hand side, and laminate it.

Then, I write a question for each student on their student numbered line. They then walk up and answer their question with wet-erase markers next to their question.

I had it hanging up first thing in the morning. As students were walking in, they read our morning message, and then had to put their answer next to their number. I currently have a few students who are still really struggling with this concept, but I also have some students that have mastered this concept and are begging me for some harder stuff. With this style of a quick check, I was able to differentiate each students’ question and take note of each students’ level of mastery with this standard.

The beauty of this is that it took me about five minutes to put together, about three minutes to write out the students’ questions, and there is no paper involved!

(Sorry for the poor quality! Forgot my camera this day!)

That’s it! Nothing fancy but it sure feels great to have a clear picture of the students who need some reteaching.

I’d love to hear how you do quick checks of your students in your rooms!

12 Comments

    1. Linda Pare says:

      try contact paper

      Reply

  3. Wow, I love this! My kiddos would thing this is just the coolest. Thanks for the idea!!

    Ashley

    Reply

  6. I absolutely love this idea! I’ll have to give it a try. And it could be used for any subject! YAY! Thank you!

    Kelly Anne

    Reply

  8. Thanks everyone! Working while shoving my face with lunch is how I’ve been working these days! ;)

    @AMC- I’ve used contact paper in place of lamination before!

    Reply

  9. Wow!! This is awesome!! Will be doing this… Thank you!!

    Reply

  10. Love this! You could even make a quick table on your computer and project it onto your whiteboard or smart board and have students answer on that. Of you don’t go over it with your class, you can take a picture of it to look at later. Much more portable as well!

    Reply

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