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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Multiple Choice PowerPoint - Google Slides Trivia Template
Create an interactive warm-up, review, or assessment activity for any subject area with this Google Slides Trivia Template.
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Reading Comprehension Question Stems - Anchor Charts
Enhance instruction on the six reading comprehension strategies with our printable Reading Comprehension Question Stems Chart Pack.
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Subject and Verb Agreement Test
Assess students’ understanding with this two-page subject and verb agreement test designed to reinforce and evaluate correct verb usage.
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Fluency Assessment Tool
Use our fluency assessment tool to gauge your students’ oral reading fluency, speed, accuracy, and more!
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Four Finger Learning Scale
Help your students self-assess their understanding of a skill using their fingers with this 4-finger learning scale.
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Kindergarten Visual Writing Rubric
Help your little learners perfect their writing with a kindergarten visual writing rubric.
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IEP Goal Tracking Sheets - IEP Planner Template
Keep track of student data and progress toward IEP goals with a printable IEP Planner & goal-tracking binder for teachers.
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Initial, Medial, & Final /s/ - Articulation Worksheets
Build skill with articulating the sounds of beginning, medial, and final /s/ with a set of printable speech articulation worksheets.
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Dolch Sight Word Tracker - Google Sheets
Track mastery of Dolch Sight Words using a digital Google Sheets Sight Word tracking spreadsheet
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Fine and Gross Motor Development Checklists
Use a printable Fine and Gross Motor Development Checklist to easily and effectively note concerns about a student’s motor skills.
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Group Presentation Rubric
Make assigning grades for group presentations a breeze with a printable Group Presentation Rubric.
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Subtraction Fact Fluency Assessments
Assess and track subtraction fact fluency with a printable Math Fact Fluency program for subtraction facts.
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Reading Behaviors - Anecdotal Notes Template
Observe student reading behaviors and easily take notes with an Anecdotal Record Note-Taking Template.
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Alphabet Letter-Sound Correspondence Assessment Pack
Assess your students abilities to write their names, identify letters, letter sounds, and initial/middle/ending sounds with a printable alphabet assessment pack.
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Tiered Tracker for Student Intervention Template
Track student progress and response to intervention with a handy Student Intervention Tracking Data Sheet.
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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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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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Synonyms and Antonyms Quiz
Assess your students’ knowledge of synonyms and antonyms with a vocabulary quiz.
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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 Place Value Assessment
Assess student understanding of place value, rounding, and comparing decimals with this math assessment.
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5th Grade Decimal Operations Assessment
Assess student understanding of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals with this math assessment.
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Multi-Digit Whole Numbers and Decimals – Exit Tickets
Assess student understanding of multi-digit whole numbers and decimals with this set of math exit tickets.
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Test Data - Student Progress Tracker Templates
Help your students track their progress throughout the school year with this set of 6 Student Progress Tracker Templates.
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Texas Landmarks Exit Tickets
Supplement your Texas history and geography lessons with a group of Texas Landmark exit tickets.
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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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Texas Regions Exit Tickets
Supplement your Regions of Texas lessons with a group of exit tickets.
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Number Forms Assessment
Test your students' skills with recognizing and writing numbers in word form and expanded form with this quick formative assessment.
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Maps and Globes-Exit Tickets
Assess student map and globe skills with twenty exit ticket worksheets.
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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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Countries of North America Exit Tickets
Assess student knowledge of the features and countries in North America with quick and easy exit tickets.