FTT - Formative

Use Formative to see Every student's work in real time at the same time

@LisaBerghoff/@Joe_EdTech

Regardless of subject or title, we're all teachers. We show up every day to help kids learn. How do we know kids are learning? This seems like an easy enough question but it is one that I constantly grapple with. We all know kids who don't test well at all but we know they are learning. On the other hand, there are kids who can ace every test but do we know if they can apply what they've learned across settings? The kids in all of our classes are dramatically diverse learners, Even in classes where it seems that they should be relatively similar, we see a wide range of abilities, interests, engagement levels, and skills. In all of my reading and understanding of differentiation, I keep coming back to the idea of formative assessment. It's that in-process gauging of where my students are in their learning and it informs how and what I teach. Here's the problem.

Sometimes, formative assessment is really hard/time consuming/complicated, etc.

I intend to do formative assessments with integrity and then use that information in my planning but it doesn't always happen.

I often say to myself, I wish there was an easier way to do this. 

Formative is a free online web tool that allows teachers to quickly and easily create or upload assessments and get real time live results.  It will automatically score results for multiple choice questions and it allows you to give feedback to short answer questions while students are responding! You can upload any pdf if you have an assessment that you already use and like, or you can create from scratch right on their platform. It allows you to add images, youtube videos, and other media. You can even ask your students to type, show their work with drawings, or submit images. You can use it as classwork, homework, or assessments. Formative can be used for any subject and on any device.

Here's how Formative works.

1. Just log in using your Google account. Formative accounts are free for teachers and students.

2. Create or upload an assignment using the dashboard. I found it to be very intuitive but there are short video tutorials on hand just in case you need some help.

3. Assign it to your class using the quick link that it gives you, or a code that is also included. Google Classroom users will be so happy to know that there is also a G Classroom icon to click so you can easily assign it that way.

4. Get live results. As your students are answering the questions, you will see the live results right on your dashboard.

5. Give feedback. Assign points values or give written feedback right there on the dashboard.

When you log in you will see that some sample assessments are created for you so you can try them out. There is even one with student responses so you can see how it looks and practice giving feedback.

Have you tried Formative?  Let me know how you use it in your classes. Want to try Formative but feel like it's a little overwhelming? Let's do it together!
I'm happy to help:)