What is formative assessment?

• What does my teacher want me to learn today?
• What steps will I take to achieve an understanding of this lesson?

Teachers at Caledonia -Mumford use formative assessments in their classrooms every day. Formative assessment begins when teachers provide a specific learning goal that identifies what the students need to learn by the end of the class, along with a set of criteria that identifies steps to achieve the learning goal. The teacher continuously checks for understanding (formative assessment) to help monitor their students' progress and provide feedback on how they can improve. You are probably wondering how technology fits into this model. Technology can be powerful when used in the classroom to conduct formative assessments. Why? Technology can provide feedback instantly. Teachers and students can use the results to adjust their path to the learning goal. Sit back and watch how we are using technology to transform our classrooms.

Nearpod and Pear Deck are both interactive presentation tools that can be used to create an engaging environment that allows teachers to continuously check for students' understanding (formative assessment). A teacher can create presentations that can contain quiz’s, polls, videos, images, drawing-boards, web content and so on.

I used Nearpod to enhance my lesson about Ronda, Spain. Nearpod made it possible for me to take the students on a virtual field trip to Ronda's most notable tourist attraction- Puente Nuevo. The students were able to navigate on their personal tablets by zooming in/out, and looking north, south, east, and west. This sparked a number of questions and interest in the lesson. This added valuable learning experiences as well as exposed them to a new part of the world. Another great tool I was able to use was the drawing pad. I asked my students to draw key vocabulary from the unit and submit. As a class, we discussed the results, shown on the board. The students see this as a fun activity but I am able to use it as formative assessment data.

"I think Nearpod is fun! It makes you learn in a fun way. It's awesome!"-Frankie

"I like Nearpod because it is fun and you can keep up with your teachers. I like that most of the questions are multiple choice and the quizzes are fun!"-Keira

"I like Nearpod because it helps me learn about the stuff I already learned, to remind me." -Carter

"I like Nearpod because it is fun! We get to learn Ela or math. We almost do it every day. Here are a few things we have done: equations and cause and effect too!" -Shea

Mrs. Wells' class used Kahoot to assess their knowledge of the War of 1812.

Kahoot! is a tool for using technology to administer quizzes, discussions or surveys. It is a game-based classroom response system played by the whole class in real time. Multiple-choice questions are projected on the screen. Students answer the questions with their tablets.

The students in Mrs. Wells' class ask every day if they can play Kahoot!

Mrs. Romaguera's class created characters using Google Drawings. After creating the drawings, they had to do an oral presentation in Spanish practicing their use of adjective and noun agreement.