Tag Archives: formative assessments

Top 10 Posts of 2012

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Expat Educator MovingThe year 2012 marks the end of another chapter in my expat life. I say good-bye to Hong Kong and relocate to Australia. You can look forward to hearing about the wonderful ideas I get from Australian colleagues. You may notice I’ve re-set my spell-check to the Oxford Dictionary as a step in getting accustomed to a slightly new form of English :) .

As 2013 begins, I want to thank you for taking time to read my posts this past year. In case you missed them, my most popular posts of 2012 are listed below. I hope they will help as you plan for the New Year.

As I reflect on the posts I’ve read this year, the very best was written by a professor, Darryl Young, who spent a year teaching High School math. His thoughtful reflections make for a post I wish would go viral.

The most popular Expat Educator posts of 2012:

Expat Educator Electronic PortfoliosStudent Electronic Portfolios: A Model

Electronic portfolios continue to gain in popularity. Portfolios can be done using Evernote and Edublogs. Student Electronic Portfolios: A Model demonstrates how Google sites can be used to display student work.

Expat Educator 1_1Keeping Students Engaged in a 1:1 Project-Based Classroom

Aren’t computers a distraction? is a question many have asked. Distractions can be minimised with a few specific classroom management strategies. Read more…

Expat Educator Flipped ClassroomCan All Classroom Lessons be Flipped?

Yeah, this is a rather unpopular opinion in the online teacher community. I argue that individual lessons can be strategically flipped, but using the flipped model for every lesson is unwise. Read more…

Expat Educator SMART goalsPreparing Parents and Students for Fall Goal-Setting Conferences

My first few years of teaching, I prepared for parent conferences by figuring out what I would say. When I stopped leading the conversation, students began making more personalised, meaningful goals. Read more…

Expat Educator First Year OverseasTop 10 Lessons Learned the First year Overseas

Moving to new countries comes with challenges. Rereading this post reminded me of those challenges as I embark on my new adventure.

Expat Educator Civil War JournalsA Low-Tech Project Students Treasure: Civil War Journals

Even if you don’t teach about the American Civil War, tea-stained bare books can be used to create projects that look rather authentic. Even after High School, former students tell me that they still have their 5th Grade Civil War Journal. How often can you say that about a project? Read more…

Expat Educator Report Card CommentsReport Card Comments: Outlines and Examples

You probably just finished your comments. You might find it more helpful to read how you can pre-plan to make comments more manageable next semester. As for the outline, read on…

Quick Formative Assessments

Google forms and Google docs are tools that allow for quick, ongoing formative assessments. Both you and students’ peers can give powerful feedback during the entire writing process. Videos on this post show you how. Read more…

Student News Videos: An Alternative to Newsletters

If you really want parents to pay attention to your communication, have students write and present the news. This post takes you through the process of creating the videos. Read more…

Expat Educator Problem Solving 1Math Problem Solving Series: Classroom Procedures

Problem Solving skills are tricky to teach. This post began a five-part series on everything from procedures to assessments. Read more…

Are there any topics you’d like to discuss in the New Year? Please tell me in the comment box.

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photo credit: angloitalian followus via photopin cc

Quick Formative Assessments: Essay Thesis Statements

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In an earlier post, I showed you how Google docs can be used to formatively assess student writing.

My students are now writing literary essays. Following lessons on finding the “big idea” of a short story (character analysis + “most important sentence” analysis and multiple literature letters), I asked the students the following question: What is the story REALLY about?.

Whatever the story is really about can be translated into a thesis statement. When students believe they know the “big idea”, I invite them to check their email and fill out a Google form.

Background on Google forms:

Next, I need to quickly assess whether or not students are formulating clear thesis statements. I use the formative assessment to quickly sort students into reteaching groups. In this case, student groupings are not random. Rather, student groupings are based on student needs.

Here is a talk-through of what I notice about my students’ thesis statements:

The same formative assessment could be done without technology by asking students to write their thesis statements on note cards and sorting accordingly. Total amount of time needed for assessment: less than 10 minutes.

Next steps:

  • Either my teaching partner or I take the “yellow” group to discuss the next lesson on topic sentences. Alternately, this yellow group might become “experts”, helping the “green” group  better refine their statements.
  • My teaching partner, the learning specialist, or I split the red group into smaller groups to review character traits and “bigger themes” within students’ short stories.

In what ways might you use Google Forms as formative assessment?

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