The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning during the process and to provide feedback on how to improvement. There are many tools that you can use to gather formative data. You can use them to either determine concepts/skills that need to be retaught to the entire class or target interventions with small groups of students.
Below is a list of formative assessment tools that are commonly used across Shakopee Schools. The list is not comprehensive, but does include our recommended tools to use.
| Tool Name | Description | Unique Features | Recommended Grades |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kahoot! | A gameshow-style game that allows teachers to ask multiple choice questions and students to respond during a live lesson. Results are displayed to the entire class and points are awarded for the fastest and most accurate responses. | Kahoot is a fun, competitive game that students usually enjoy. The leaderboards are motivating and exciting. There are many ready-made games available to use right away. You can also assign a Kahoot! quiz as a student-paced activity. There are additional question types and options, but they are now part of Kahoot! Pro. | K-12 |
| Quizizz | Similar to Kahoot!, but students typically answer the questions at their own pace. Teachers can also create "lessons," which allow the teacher to lead students those a quiz and add text, images, videos, and questions. | Quizizz has multiple choice, poll, fill in the blank, open ended, draw, and slide questions that students can respond to. All are free. In addition, making a Quizizz quiz from multiple quizzes is very easy to do quickly. The "lessons" feature is great for focus lessons. | K-12 |
| Formative | Formative is a web-based tool that allows teachers to create formative assignments with a ton of question types. Teachers can upload PDFs and other files or use a blank canvas. | Formative has a wide variety of question types that allow students all sorts of responses to worksheets. You can also embed HTML, add text, video, and blank whiteboards. There is a limit on the number of files you can upload per month. While it is a harder tool to use, it has a ton of options. If you are looking for a tool that is easier to use, Classkick is similar. | 6-12 |
| Lumio | Lumio (a product of SMART) allows you to take existing PDF, PPT, Notebook, and Google files to create interactive teacher or student-paced lessons. | Lumio is basically the only product on the market that allows you to import SMART Notebook files and allow every student in the class to be able to interact with it and answer formative questions. There are also collaborative features such as "Shout it Out" and group assignments that you can do with this tool. There are also fun, competitive game modes available. | K-6 |
| Pear Deck | Pear Deck is a Google Slides add-on that allows you to add formative questions to your existing Google Slideshows. Students to respond with multiple-choice, text, and drawings. | The ability to integrate Pear Deck into any Google slideshow really makes this an easy-to-use and powerful tool. They also have SEL and formative assessment templates that are ready for you to use. In order to view data from a session however, you have to have a paid account. | K-12 |
| Classkick | Classkick is an app that allows teachers to create a handout for each student in the class and see their work in real time as they draw on it. | Classkick has a really easy interface that makes it fast to use. The dashboard view of Classkick allows a teacher to monitor an entire class in real time. Teachers can join a specific student's work and help them on the spot. Students can request help silently through the app as well. | K-8 |
| Blooket | Blooket is a tool that allows teachers to create a set of questions. Students then respond to the questions and compete against their classmates. They can be completed solo or as a class. | Blooket has a number of fun and engaging game modes such as Tower Defense, Cafe, Tower of Doom, Crazy Kingdom, and Factory. The teacher determines how long students will play each game so it's likely that questions are repeated. | K-5 |
| Gimkit | Gimkit allows teachers to create a list of questions or import Quizlet flashcards. Students then compete using either the Classic, Teams, or a rotating featured game mode. | Gimkit takes your typical review game and inserts some creative game strategies. Students answer the questions and then earn money to purchase power-ups that allow them to earn more money. The featured game modes (which are free) keep things exciting and fresh for students that are bored with other formative assessment tools. | 3-12 |
| Canvas Studio | Canvas Studio is a tool built into Canvas that allows you to upload instructional videos (or add from YouTube) and then insert quizzes into the video. Questions are limited to true and false, multiple choice, and multiple answer. | Canvas Studio is unique from tools such as Edpuzzle because students can insert comments into the video in addition to answering the quiz questions created by the teacher. This allows for feedback on the video and for students to ask questions. Students also can upload to Studio, create quizzes in Studio, and submit Studio videos to assignments. | 3-12 |
| Edpuzzle | Edpuzzle is similar to Canvas Studio and has more question types. Upload videos or load them from YouTube and then you can add questions. | Edpuzzle is unique in that it has tons of question types and also allows the teacher to lock the video so students can not skip ahead in it. You can integrate this with Canvas as well. The biggest drawback of Edpuzzle over Canvas Studio is that our web filter and Edpuzzle do not always cooperate. | K-12 |