Formative assessments are typically non-graded assessments that help a teacher gauge student learning or competency related to the learning objectives. Data from formative assessments are usually used to influence teaching strategy during a course.
Examples of formative assessment include:
- Classroom assessment techniques (CATs)
- Homework as review for summative assessment
- Reflective journals
- Group or small group feedback (discussion forum)
One of the most popular CATs is called “Muddiest Point.” Students are asked the question, “What was the muddiest point in the lesson?” and then are given a few minutes to write down their answer. In a face-to-face classroom this could be accomplished on scrap paper and turned into the teacher as they leave. In an online class, this could be accomplished through a survey question. (Moodle has Feedback and Questionnaire activities that works well for this.) Whatever the mechanism for collecting the responses, the teacher can then look through them and see what she needs to clarify in the next lesson.