Brain Dumps

In a recent blog post from the Infused Classroom, Holly Clark mentioned BrainDumps as a formative assessment.  So how does it work? Here are the basic steps:

1. Give students 5 minutes to write down (either on paper or online) everything they know about a specific topic.

2. Students then partner for 5 minutes to review/share lists and add material.

3. Students then have 5 minutes to research (books, Google, class notes) to add to their list.

4. Students (now without their notes) make a two-minute recording sharing what they know. (In Holly’s post, she suggested FlipGrid- I would suggest Screencastify Submit).

5. Students watch other videos and the teacher used the videos as a formative assessment to identify areas for growth.

Here is another example of Brain Dumps as a prior knowledge activity. In the blog post DOING A STUDENT BRAIN DUMP SCOOT, Lori Gracey outlines using paper and student movement (aka scoot) to have students add information to lists.

Formative Assessment Ideas

In this article by Catlin Tucker, she shares a variety of strategies for formative assessment.  It is not just a paper (or online) test but activities to help you gauge the student's learning and understanding.

Mentimeter

This is an interesting site I read about in Richard’s Byrne’s blog (Free Technology for Teachers).  Mentimeter reminded me a PearDeck (you create the questions, share with the students via a code, and then see the group’s response).  Unlike PearDeck, this is not a Google Add-On but rather a website. In addition, you can use presentations created by other users (think Kahoot! Or Quizz).

Looking for Formative Assessments?

Kasey Bell (from Shake Up Learning) recently shared a blog post

with 20 formative assessment tools.  It is a nice blend of tried and

true favorites as well as new contenders.  Please click here to read.

Formative Assessment Strategies

While I love technology based formative assessments, I found this blog post from Barbara Blackburn to contain several engaging and easy formative assessment ideas.  Please click here to read her ideas.

Now Google Quizzes are even easier!

If you can make a Google form, you can now create a multiple choice quiz without using the add on Fubarool!  (Note- it can only be multiple choice, no short answers.)  You can change the point values, see data on responses, and add explanations to your answers. Here are step by step directions from Google.  I’ve also included a video from Matt Bergman. Richard Bryne compares the options here.

ELA and Math - get your exit ticket!

Zeal is a free site that offers ELA and Math exit tickets based on subject.  Like many of these types of products (i.e., Socrative), the student logins and enters the code for your class.  Once they complete the exit ticket, you can see the results. For grades K-8.

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.

Bring out your inner wizard

With Wizer!  Here you can make online worksheet like projects ( matching, fill ins,and many more).  You can sign in via Google and then share the link (including a link to classroom) for your students.  Here’s the link to a sample I created.

For the complete post from TeachersFirst, please click here.