Formative Assessments Teaching Resources
Make formative assessment easy this school year with printable exit tickets, self-assessment cards and more teacher-created resources for your elementary or middle school classroom.
Each formative assessment printable or digital resource in this collection has undergone a careful review by one of the expert teachers on the Teach Starter team to ensure it's ready for your classroom and your students!
Curious about how to make formative assessments effective in your classroom? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Is a Formative Assessment?
Formative assessment is a method of monitoring your students’ learning in the midst of your lessons. Because the goal is simply to assess if your students understood the lesson — and if you need to make adjustments in your teaching — there's no grading required.
This assessment type stands out from summative assessments, which are typically subject to grading. Summative assessments occur at the end of a learning progression and are solely focused on evaluating content mastery.
Why Are Formative Assessments Important?
When it comes to assessing students, formative assessments are a crucial tool in any teacher's toolbox because they give you a chance to provide feedback or make adjustments to your teaching quickly, and they come in handy for both you and your students.
As a teacher, a formative assessment helps you see where students might be struggling and address the problem immediately. For students, these brief knowledge checks help them identify their own weaknesses and ask for help.
Use our sticky note template to print lines on sticky notes for students to fill out a simple assessment with some details about what they've learned.
How to Make Your Formative Assessments Effective
Want to get the most out of your formative assessments? In addition to the countless assessment tools in this collection, our teacher team has created a list of ideas to help you enhance their effectiveness.
- Keep it simple. You don't have to reinvent the wheel to assess your students' basic understanding. Something as simple as just one or two questions on the main point of the lesson can be incredibly effective!
- Add these assessments to your classroom routines. In addition to being simple, these assessments should not take up a lot of classtime. Establishing a system and routine for different content will allow you to get the assessment done and move on to the next item on your classroom schedule in a timely manner.
- Don't take it personally. When students hand back an assessment that indicates your lesson did not come across the way you'd hoped, it can feel like a major letdown. It's important to allow yourself to adapt and learn from the experience, rather than taking it personally. Remember that even if one lesson worked last year, you have a whole new set of kids with their own individual needs!
- Be flexible. Nothing is more frustrating than having to revisit a lesson when you have so much to do and only so much instruction time. Remember this assessment data is simply making you a better teacher, and it's important to be flexible!
As noted before, these assessments should not be graded and should not carry any significant weight since they’re only part of the learning process! This enables students to answer without fear of penalty, making them substantially more effective.
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5th Grade Math Review – Test Prep Packet
Encourage your students to work through 8 pages of 5th-grade math problems while charting their progress to measure their success.
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Quiz and Swap - 3rd Grade End-of-Year Test Prep Game
Get your students up, moving, and practicing third grade test prep skills with an End-of-Year Quiz and Swap Review Game.
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Quiz and Swap - 2nd Grade End-of-Year Review
Prepare your students for their end of grade assessments with an End-of-Year Quiz and Swap Review Game.
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Addition and Subtraction Minute Math Booklet
Warm-up (or assess) with this 10-page booklet of addition and subtraction drills.
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World Continents and Oceans Exit Tickets
Determine your students' mastery of Geography concepts with a set of twenty continents and oceans exit tickets.
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3-2-1 Exit Ticket Template
Test your students' knowledge at the end of class with this 3-2-1 exit ticket template.
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Fractions and Decimals Assessment
Assess students' knowledge of various decimals and percentages concepts with this four-page worksheet.
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Fluency Reading Passages - 5th Grade
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 5th grade.
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Mixed Operations Minute Math Booklet (Lower-Level Version)
Jump into your math lessons with this ten-page mental math booklet covering the four operations and number patterns.
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Prefix and Suffix Quiz
Assess your students’ knowledge of prefixes and suffixes with a vocabulary quiz.
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Objects in the Sky – Exit Tickets
Assess understanding of different objects in the sky with this set of 24 exit tickets.
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13 Colonies Map Quiz
Locate and identify the 13 original colonies of the United States with a map labeling assessment.
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Emoji Themed Self-Assessment Desk Cards
Print these emoji themed self-assessment cards for students to reflect on their learning and display on their desk to indicate the level of teacher support they need.
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Interactive Multiple Choice PowerPoint Template - Mathematics
Create an interactive math warm-up, review or assessment activity with this 11-slide PowerPoint template.
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4th Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 4th grade.
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2nd Grade Fluency Reading Passages
Download a printable pack of 2nd grade reading fluency passages with a printable ORF assessment pack.
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3rd Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 3rd grade.
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Back to School - Procedure Exit Tickets
Assess student knowledge of classroom rules and procedures with quick and easy exit tickets.
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Exit Tickets Template
Test your students' knowledge at the end of a lesson with this exit ticket template.
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Fractions on a Number Line - 3rd Grade Exit Tickets
Assess your students' ability to represent fractions greater than zero and less than or equal to one with a set of printable fraction exit tickets.
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Comparing Fractions – Exit Tickets
Compare fractions with the same numerator or denominator with this set of 24 exit tickets.
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Natural Resources – Exit Tickets
Assess student understanding of natural resources with this set of exit tickets.
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5th Grade Whole Number Operations Assessment
Asses student understanding of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers with this math assessment.
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Fluency Reading Passage Pack - Grade 1
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 1st grade.
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Sight Word Lists – Teacher Resource Binder
Use this collection of checklists, student pages and quick-check assessments when reviewing Dolch sight words spanning from pre-primer to 3rd grade.
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Main Idea Exit Tickets
Check for understanding of the main idea and supporting detail with these exit tickets.
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Subtraction Strategies – Worksheet
Assess your students’ knowledge of subtraction strategies with a subtraction assessment.
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Understanding Fractions – Exit Tickets
Assess student understanding of basic fractions with this set of 24 math exit tickets.
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3rd Grade Fractions – Math Assessment
Assess student understanding of fractions on a number line, comparing fractions, equivalent fractions, and more with this math test for 3rd grade.
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Goods and Services Exit Tickets
Assess your students’ abilities to differentiate between goods and services with a set of twenty exit tickets.
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Multi-Step Problem Solving Worksheet
Solve a multi-step problem and explain the mathematical reasoning behind the process with this simple assessment worksheet.
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Quick Phonics Screener- Single Letter Phoneme
Test your students' knowledge of single letter phonemes with this student assessment kit.