1.

Quizzes and polls

Quizzes and polls are easy to make and administer. You can give students periodic graded or
ungraded quizzes to assess both individual and group learning in your classroom. You create the
questions, so you decide how complex you want the quiz to be.Consider giving quizzes regularly at
the end of class to determine whether your students understood that day's lesson. You can also hand
out simple one-question quizzes that students can answer quickly and you can grade easily to assess
comprehension. This may help you identify what topics to discuss further before moving on to another
subject.Related: 76 Online Learning Tools for Teachers To Use

2. Interviews

Interview assessments or individual meetings are conferences to discuss what students know.
Schedule five-minute interviews with every student, and decide in advance what topic you want to talk
about or assess during each meeting. Private interviews can be friendly and informal, and they not
only help you assess your students' progress but also help you learn more about your students and
build stronger relationships with them. Many students also feel more comfortable talking about their
progress and challenges privately, without other students or parents present.
3. Entry and exit questions

Give each student a question at the beginning of class to find out what they remember from the
previous day's lesson. Then, give them another question at the end of class to see if they understood
that day's lesson. Collect all the responses and count how many understood the lesson, partially
understood the lesson or didn't understand the lesson. The number of students that fall into each
category should help guide your teaching plans going forward.When creating entry and exit questions,
you can ask targeted questions about specific concepts you taught or open-ended questions such as:

 What did you find most interesting about today's class?

 What did you find most challenging about today's class?
 List three things you learned today.
 Tell me one thing you didn't understand today.

4. Reflective writing

Give your students journals and ask them to reflect on the day's lesson by writing about what they
learned as well as what they found challenging. Encourage them to explain how they might apply the
lesson or skill they learned in real life. You can then review their entries to determine your students'
level of understanding and identify areas to focus on. To modernize and digitize your assessment,
give each student a personal blog to post in rather than a paper journal.Related: How To Write a
Reflection Paper: What It Is and What To Do

5. Choral responses

A choral response is a quick and easy way to assess your students' understanding of a concept they
just learned. Ask the entire class a question, and evaluate their level of understanding based on the
number and type of responses you receive. This exercise also encourages all students to participate
in the question-and-answer process.You might find that asking students to respond by holding up a
certain number of fingers is an easier way to assess a large group's responses. For example, students
may hold up one finger means to show they don’t understand the topic, or they might hold up five to
show they understand it completely. In this example, holding up between two and four fingers shows
some level of understanding.

6. Computer survey

Send your students computer-based surveys they can complete on their own time. A variety of online
platforms offer free survey tools. You can include short-response questions such as multiple choice or
true and false to assess their understanding of the day's or week's lessons. Another benefit of using
surveys is you can organize and evaluate responses by student or class and have a record of
responses to reference.Related: 154 Tech Tools for Teaching

7. Presentations

Have students give short presentations to you or the class sharing what they have learned about a
particular topic. You could also ask them to summarize the lesson's most important concepts. Rather
than grading the presentations, use them as an assessment tool to determine students' level of
understanding.
8. Four corners

Four corners is an engaging assessment strategy that gets students moving around the room. Label
each corner of the room with a different level of comprehension: strongly agree, agree, disagree and
strongly disagree. State facts or details about the current lesson, and ask them to stand in the corner
of the room that represents their response. Encourage students to explain why they chose a certain
response so that you can make decisions about future lessons.Related: 12 Effective Teaching
Practices and Their Benefits

9. Lists

Midway through a lesson, pause and ask your students to list a certain number of things they’ve
learned. Review their lists to determine if students are at the appropriate level of understanding. You
can also use these lists to identify misunderstandings and areas you need to focus on more.

10. One-minute response

Ask your class a question about a topic, and give them one minute to write a response. Encourage
them to focus on their ideas and information rather than correct spelling, grammar and writing
conventions. Alternatively, you can ask your students to write a one-sentence summary of what they
have learned about that topic. Look for detail and understanding in their responses, and use that to
guide your lesson planning.

11. Think-pair-share

Think-pair-share is useful for encouraging students to think critically about a topic and allowing you to check for
understanding. Prompt students with questions about topics like what they learned from a lesson or how they
connect with what you discussed in class today. Pair them with another student, and have them discuss their
ideas. Reconvene as a group, and call on different pairs to ask them to share their thoughts.

12. Socratic seminar

Hosting a Socratic seminar empowers students to facilitate their own discussions to develop their ideas further.
Students ask each other questions about a certain topic, text or starting question. This prompts more questions
and comments to enhance their understanding of the main topic.Read more: A Guide to the Socratic Method
of Teaching (With Tips)

13. ABC brainstorming

ABC brainstorming challenges students to create a list of all the letters in the alphabet and write down
something that begins with each letter that relates to the unit. This can be an effective individual, pair or group
activity. Reviewing these lists may help you learn what students understand and what requires more attention,
allowing you to modify your lesson plans as needed.

14. 3-2-1

This is another technique to encourage students to reflect on the lessons. It’s particularly useful to check for
understanding at the end of or near the end of lessons. While the format may vary, this strategy typically
involves asking students to write down:
  Three things they learned
 Two things they want to learn more about
 One question they have about

15. Concept maps

Concept maps are useful for helping students visualize what they understand about a topic. Students can
create individual concept maps, or this may be an activity you complete as an entire class. Start with the main
topic or idea in the middle of the paper, then draw lines out to circles that discuss information related to it.
Depending on the subject and the age of the students, you may also ask them to draw lines connecting similar
ideas.Read more: How To Make a Concept Map in 4 Steps

16. Ticket out the door

Ticket out the door may be a good activity to perform at the end of the day or period. Give students a prompt to
write about during a short period of time, and collect their responses as they leave your classroom that day.
Their responses may give you insight into their understanding, and, depending on the topic, students may be
able to use these responses later to complete other projects, such as longer-form writing.

17. Demonstration stations

Demonstration stations allow students to interact with items they’ve learned about and show you their
understanding of them. For example, if your students are learning about magnets, you might set up stations to
help them learn about how they attract and repel to different materials. For further assessment of their
understanding, consider asking them to write about their experiences in journals.

18. 30-second share

During a 30-second share, each student discusses something they learned during the lesson. Things like what
the student discusses, what language they use and how their response connects to the learning targets can
help you assess their understanding. Including this strategy often in your lessons may give more students the
opportunity to participate and provide better insights.

19. Graffiti wall

Creating a graffiti wall is another assessment strategy that may be useful for working with visual learners. Cover
one of your classroom walls with a large piece of paper, and invite students to write or draw on it to show what
they learned about a topic. Using this activity allows you to identify what students understand and what may
require additional lessons for them to master. Consider completing this activity during the middle of a unit and
leaving the wall up for them to continue to add to as they learn more.

20. Inside-outside circle

Inside-outside circle, also called onion ring, involves dividing students into two groups. One group creates a
large circle while the other creates a smaller circle inside of it, and the students face each other in pairs. One
option is for you to provide questions for both students to answer in the pairs, then rotate the students in one of
the circles to the left or right before the next question. The other option involves having the inside student ask
the outside student a question, then flipping the roles for a new question before rotating the students for further
questions.Related: 8 Common Types of Learning Styles
Get interview-ready with tips from Indeed
Prepare for interviews with practice questions and tips
41 more assessment strategies
Some additional assessment strategies to consider trying in your classroom include:

1. Response cards
2. Peer instruction
3. Choral reading
4. Misconception check
5. Analogy prompt
6. Drawings
7. Email questions
8. Checklists
9. Pencil and paper assessments
10. Cloze procedure
11. Discussions
12. Fist of five
13. Index card summaries
14. Observation
15. Portfolio checks
16. ABC summaries
17. Idea spinner
18. Traffic light
19. Tic-tac-toe
20. Newspaper headlines
21. Three-minute pause
22. Numbered heads together
23. Learning logs
24. Matching activities
25. ABCD whisper
26. One-sentence summaries
27. Paper pass
28. Gallery walk
29. Word sort
30. Whip around
31. Placemats
32. KWL
33. Show of hands
34. Three facts and a fib
35. Turn and talk
36. Debriefings
37. Summary frames
38. Cubing
39. Muddiest point
40. Reciprocal questioning
41. Slap it