24 Formative Assessment Examples To Add to Daily Lessons

Formative assessments are low-stakes ways for teachers to track student understanding. They’re pulse checks used during a lesson or unit to power differentiated instruction and ensure student learning stays on track. Teachers in every grade band use them naturally each day to discover where their students get the information and where they need extra support.

In this article, we’re looking at X formative assessment examples that you can use in your daily lessons to track student progress and adjust instruction:

• Entry and exit formative assessment examples
• Classroom checks and engagement formative assessment examples
• Peer work and self-reflection formative assessment examples
• Formative Assessment FAQs

[Entry and exit formative assessment examples](id-exit)

Entry and exit formative assessments are ones you give at the beginning or end of a class or lesson to help students activate prior knowledge, summarize what they learned, or check in with themselves about the day’s content. Examples of these types of formative assessments include:

1. Bell ringers

Bell ringers are short assessments that students complete at the start of class. The goal is to engage them immediately, review past learning, or spark curiosity about the day’s topic. They’re usually short, between three and five questions long.

Examples of common bell ringers include journal entries, writing, prompts, quick-solve problems, or vocabulary matching games.

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Formative Fact: You can find bell ringers in the Formative Library by filtering for Do Now/Warm-Up exercises, like an identifying fractions bell ringer for ninth and tenth-grade math classes by Kellie Marie Ma. You can also add a bell ringer lesson block to the beginning of any lesson in presentation mode.

2. Question or problem of the day

Questions or problems of the day are specific types of bell ringers. They’re a single question that includes a thought-provoking topic or a single mathematical equation to solve. They are tailored to the daily lesson and designed to build critical thinking skills.

You can return to the question or problem again as an exit ticket and ask students to update or revise their answers based on what they learned.

3. Pre-tests

Pre-tests collect information about what students already know or their proficiency with a skill before a lesson. The results can determine their readiness levels for moving into a new topic and inform your instruction.

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Formative Fact: You can find pre-test lessons and templates by filtering for them in the Formative Library, like Patricia O’Rourke’s polynomial readiness quiz!

4. Exit tickets

Exit tickets, also known as exit slips, are informal assessments administered at the end of a class or lesson. They provide a quick way to see if students understood the material. Exit tickets can be simple, such as writing a sentence on a sticky note or responding to the lesson with emojis.

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Formative Fact: You can access exit tickets for all classes and grade bands in the Formative Library by filtering for Exit Slips. You can also pick from a selection of lesson blocks specifically designed to share with students at the end of a lesson to check in on what they learned.

5. One-minute brain dumps

For brain dumps, students write a short response to a prompt in one minute. This typically happens at the end of a lesson and provides a quick picture of what students learned that day. 

Prompts can range from stating the main idea of the lesson to sharing part of the topic students found confusing or answering a targeted question.

[Classroom checks and engagement formative assessment examples](id-engagement)

Classroom checks and engagement activities help you understand what and how students are learning during a lesson. The information and data you collect can help you adjust teaching in real time to meet students where they are. Examples of these types of formative assessments include:

6. Quizzes

Quizzes are one of the most common examples of formative assessments. They provide valuable data on student performance and mastery of skills, helping to identify learning gaps or misconceptions. 

Formative quizzes are low-stakes and short, consisting of just a few questions and taking between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. 

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Formative Fact: The Formative Library offers a variety of quizzes for different subjects and grade levels that you can copy and customize to fit your lessons, like this fractions quiz for third graders from Lynn Hofer.

7. Checks for understanding

Checks for understanding are formative assessments baked into lessons to evaluate student comprehension. They can be oral, written, or digital, allowing for differentiated checks for all students.

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Newsela Knack: Newsela texts include reading comprehension checks embedded in the content to help students slow down and take in what they read. Teachers can choose to assign these formative assessments, and students must complete them before proceeding in the text. 

8. Mini-Whiteboard responses

Students can use mini whiteboards to write their answers to check for understanding questions or to solve a quick math problem. When they hold up their answers, you can check who knows the material and who needs more practice.

If you don’t have mini whiteboards available, consider using a digital tool like Formative, which can project answers onscreen, or opt for markers and notebook paper as an alternative offline option. 

9. Polls

Polls are excellent for checking the pulse of a lesson. They may look like informal raised-hand votes or digital polls that allow you to collect and analyze student data.

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Newsela Knack: Every Newsela article includes the option to add a poll before students read an article or take a quiz. Poll prompts have up to four potential responses, which you can edit to change the question text and answer responses, or create your own from scratch.

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Formative Fact: One of our lesson block features allows you to generate a customizable end-of-lesson confidence poll that gauges how well students think they understand the content covered in a lesson. 

10. Performance tasks

Performance tasks ask students to demonstrate knowledge with a tangible product or performance. Oral presentations, book reports, or creative projects like writing a newspaper article or creating a Rube Goldberg machine all fall into this category. 

Performance tasks are appropriate for every subject and grade level. They’re especially useful in subjects outside the core curriculum, like art, music, and PE, where you want to test students' abilities rather than content knowledge.

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Formative Fact: The Formative Library offers plenty of performance task assessments you can adapt for your classroom. For example, Meghan Borg’s PhET States of Matter assessment invites students to work with a simulator to see how atoms behave in different states.

11. Emoji ratings

Emoji ratings help you quickly pulse-check how students feel about a topic or lesson, providing a quick overview of confidence levels. This type of formative assessment is good for younger students or English language learners (ELLs) because it provides alternative methods for comprehension and expression.

Digital tools can also offer anonymous responses, which can encourage honesty. 

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Newsela Knack: Our article polls allow you to create emoji reaction questions, and some pre-created poll prompts already include them. 

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Formative Fact: The Formative Library has emoji response activities and assessments you can customize to fit your lesson. Try the beginning-of-lesson emotion check lesson block, Liliana Guitierrez’s emoji exit ticket, or search the keyword “emoji” to find more.

12. Thumbs up/down/side reactions

Similar to emoji reactions, asking students to give a thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs to the side is a quick visual way to check if they understand the content and feel confident moving on. Each motion can mean the following:

• Thumbs up: I understand and I’m ready to move on.
• Thumbs down: I don’t understand and need more help before I move on.
• Thumbs to the side: I think I understand, but I may need to go back or get more information as we move on.

For anonymous voting, have students use a digital poll or put their heads down before giving their thumbs response.

13. Spot the mistake activity

Present a list of statements or “facts” to your students that include one common misconception. Ask them to identify the mistake and explain why it’s incorrect.

Students can do this individually with a teacher-paced Formative activity, or you can have students work in small groups or teams and compete to see who can answer first or correctly identify the most mistakes.

14. Observations

Your observations of students’ whole-class, small-group, and individual participation also count as formative assessments. The data you collect from these observations can help you gauge their understanding of any topic and learn where it’s best to adjust instruction to meet their needs.

[Peer work and self-reflection formative assessment examples](id-self)

Peer work and self-reflections help students learn from each other and better understand their own learning needs and processes. Examples of these types of formative assessments include:

15. Peer feedback and assessments

Peer feedback and assessments allow students to share their constructive observations about each other’s knowledge and work. This type of formative assessment helps develop critical evaluation skills. It also helps students actively engage in their own learning.

16. Student reflections

Student reflections and self-assessments enable students to review their learning and knowledge, and rate or rank their understanding of it. This type of formative assessment allows them to reflect on their work, identify strengths and weaknesses, and demonstrate gaps in their knowledge.

Student reflection activities are crucial for developing self-regulated learners.

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Formative Fact: You can find self-reflection activities by filtering for them in the Formative Library, like Andrew Franck’s group project self-reflection. You can also add the end-of-lesson “Today I learned…” lesson block to your presentations to prompt students to reflect on the day’s content.

17. Jigsaws

Jigsaws are group activities where students learn about a subtopic of a larger theme independently or in small groups. Then, they come together to share information and fit their pieces together like a puzzle.

This type of formative assessment can help students deep dive into a content area and see how it connects with the larger themes you’re covering as a whole class.

18. Write-Pair-Share activities

Write-Pair-Share activities ask students to write a question related to the lesson, pair up with a classmate to discuss it, and then share their conclusions with the class. You can listen to students' paired discussions and their whole class responses to gauge their understanding on the topic.

19. Know-Wonder-Learn activities

Similar to Write-Pair-Share activities, Know-Wonder-Learn (KWL) activities involve students using graphic organizers to list what they know, what they want to know, and what they have learned about a topic. 

This type of formative assessment is flexible and helpful in discovering students’ prior knowledge on a topic. It also helps to track their learning over time.

20. 3-2-1 Countdowns

The 3-2-1 countdown activities prompt students to share three sets of information in groups of three, two, and one. For example, they may list three things they didn’t know about the topic, two things that surprised them, and one thing they’ll do to learn more about the topic.

This formative assessment type is highly customizable and can be tailored to fit any lesson or topic. 

21. Homework assignments

When used for formative assessments, students complete homework to understand the material and receive an evaluation (though not necessarily a grade) for correctness. This can help you identify the skills or concepts that require additional attention to enable students to become proficient on their own. 

Some teachers treat homework assignments as admission tickets to the class, reviewing them at the beginning of the lesson or day to prepare for the next set of material.

22. Three-way summaries

Three-way summaries require students to create three different write-ups on a topic at varying lengths. For example, the maximum word count for each piece may be 15 words, 50 words, or 100 words. Writing three summaries of different lengths can show students' abilities to condense or elaborate on a topic and give insight into their range of comprehension.

23. Invented dialogue

In this type of formative assessment, students create a fictional dialogue between two real people or fictional characters. Their conversations help you see where they make connections among important figures or characters and how those relationships influence their comprehension of a topic.

24. Documented problem solutions

In documented problem solutions, students record each step they took to solve a problem. These types of formative assessments can help you understand their thought processes when working through complex tasks and identify obstacles. Proofs in math class are just one example of common documented problem solution activities.

[Formative Assessment FAQs](id-faq)

Have more questions about formative assessments? We have answers!

What types of questions can I use in my formative assessments?

Choosing the right questions and prompts for your formative assessments depends on what types of information you want to collect from your students. Try incorporating these question types into your formative assessments:

• Diagnostic questions: Closed, multiple-choice questions with carefully selected incorrect answers designed to reveal specific misconceptions
• Strategic or targeted questions: High-level, open-ended questions that gauge understanding and spark discussion.
• Student-generated questions: Students write test questions and sample answers to show their comprehension of concepts.
• State test practice items: Released items are state standardized tests that previous students have already taken and aren’t used in active testing anymore. States release this information to help educators and students prepare for standardized testing.

How can I make my formative assessments more effective?

Want to ensure your formative assessments are working and providing the right information you need to check student progress and adjust instruction? Try these tips:

• Set clear criteria: Students need clear and understandable instructions or directions to help meet their goals. Share rubrics or clear guidance for how to complete each assessment.
• Provide actionable feedback: Formative assessment feedback should be specific, actionable, and constructive. The goal is to enhance students' ability to produce high-quality work. 
• Encourage student ownership: Formative assessment is most impactful when students are actively involved in their learning. Use formative assessment types that facilitate peer feedback and self-assessment whenever possible.
• Continually monitor and observe: Constant observation and data evaluation can help identify learning gaps and allow you to adjust instruction in real-time.
• Set a low-stakes environment: Formative assessments are about learning and evolving, not getting everything right every time. A low-stakes assessment environment encourages students to actively participate and take risks with their learning.
• Create a parking lot: Have a designated spot in your classroom, like a whiteboard, where you can add ideas or questions that aren’t immediately relevant to a lesson, but are worth revisiting. These questions can provide insight into students’ thinking.
• Vary your strategies: Using a variety of strategies for formative assessment can help you cater to different learning styles, content areas, and diverse student needs.
• Integrate technology: Edtech tools can enhance your formative assessment delivery, data collection, and analysis. Plus, it can make the experience more interactive and exciting for students.

Create engaging formative assessments with Newsela’s Product Suite

Newsela’s product suite and resources provide plenty of opportunities to add and embed formative assessments right into your everyday lessons. Newsela ELA, Newsela Social Studies, and Newsela Science let you assign subject-specific formative assessments paired with high-quality resources.

Formative lets you create a variety of formative assessments for any subject or grade band. It provides lesson blocks to easily add pre-made formative assessment activities to the beginning, middle, and end of lessons. Plus, it has all the customization features you need to make each assessment fit the needs of your students and your lesson content. 

Want to see how these and other scaffolds and supports can boost your formative assessment strategy? Explore our product suite and discover all the features it offers.