Assessment and Improvement of Instruction: Types of Informal Assessments

Hand Signals:

Ask student(s) to display a thumbs up to indicate they understand a specific concept, principle, or process; a thumbs down if they do not understand; and a waving hand if they are not completely sure about a specific concept, principle, or process.

Visual Representation (Web, Concept Map, Flow Chart, or Time Line – as appropriate to the lesson):

Ask student(s) to create a visual representation in the form of a puzzle, crossword, word search, and/or cryptogram to show the elements or components of a topic or process (their choice of whole numbers from zero to one hundred as a numeric and as a word representation) to check for relationship understanding among the elements.

Oral Questioning:

Use follow-up questions and probes to check for student’(s) understanding of a specific concept, principle, or process. Examples include: What are the parts of the word representations of various whole numbers?; In what other way might we show/illustrate when whole numbers as word representations are used in various texts and printed media?; What are the clues to decipher how to write a number’s representation as a numeric?; What are the clues to decipher how to write a number’s numeric as its word representation?; What is the rule for writing a two-digit number that isn’t a “teen” or a multiple of ten? (example: 21, 34, etc.).

Follow-up Probes:

Ask student(s) to explain or give reasons for what they wrote as the word representations of a numeric; or explain or give reasons for what they wrote as the numeric for a number’s word representation. In addition, ask the student to give an example of where they can expect to find a word representation of a date.

Misconception:

Present the student(s) with common or predictable misconceptions about number word representations such as one-hundred, ninety nine, ninty, fiveteen, etc.; as well as numeric representations of written number words such as that for eleven, fifteen, and one hundred.

Summative Index card summary or questions:

(on side one): Today’s lesson was about…

OR … What do you think today’s lesson’s focus was about?

(on side two): I do not understand…

OR …

What do you not yet fully understand about today’s lesson?

References:

Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2^nd Edition). Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

EXAMPLES OF INFORMAL ASSESSMENTS:

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These pre-assessment quizzes can be completed electronically using adaptive technology if a learner has fine motor medical challenges.

Post-Instruction, these assessments can be used as Formative Assessments for all learners (using adaptive technologies for learners with fine motor medical challenges).