Formative assessments give teachers an overall picture of how students are learning and how they can adapt instruction to their immediate needs. In an effort to support Educators during the COVID-19 Pandemic, writers and educators Steven W. Anderson and Shaelynn Farnsworth write about research-based instruction during remote, hybrid or face-to-face instruction.
In this blog post, they explore Formative Assessment, how it works and why it can be a powerful tool especially during remote learning
Free formative assessment tools for remote learning:
There are many (free!) apps and tools to provide both synchronous and asynchronous types of formative assessment and to look at mastery and data over time to continuously adjust instruction to the learner's needs.
These are the tools reviewed in the blog:
Nearpod— Create lessons and sync them across devices in the classroom, with built in tools for questioning, drawing, audio and video responses.
Synth— Available on any device, students can record their thoughts and feelings on any given lesson. There’s also a questions tool where feedback can be posted.
EdPuzzle— Add an interactive layer to YouTube videos. Teachers can build in short questions at various points in the video to ensure students are getting what they need out of it. This is also great for data collection and seeing how students’ progress over time.
Flipgrid— A very cool way to post video questions and gather responses. Videos can be shared so students can see where their peers are in their learning as well.
Padlet—A virtual board for multimodal sticky notes. Great for tickets out the door or reflection activities.