Formative Assessments Teaching Resources
Make formative assessment easy this school year with printable exit tickets, self-assessment cards and more teacher-created resources for your elementary or middle school classroom.
Each formative assessment printable or digital resource in this collection has undergone a careful review by one of the expert teachers on the Teach Starter team to ensure it's ready for your classroom and your students!
Curious about how to make formative assessments effective in your classroom? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Is a Formative Assessment?
Formative assessment is a method of monitoring your students’ learning in the midst of your lessons. Because the goal is simply to assess if your students understood the lesson — and if you need to make adjustments in your teaching — there's no grading required.
This assessment type stands out from summative assessments, which are typically subject to grading. Summative assessments occur at the end of a learning progression and are solely focused on evaluating content mastery.
Why Are Formative Assessments Important?
When it comes to assessing students, formative assessments are a crucial tool in any teacher's toolbox because they give you a chance to provide feedback or make adjustments to your teaching quickly, and they come in handy for both you and your students.
As a teacher, a formative assessment helps you see where students might be struggling and address the problem immediately. For students, these brief knowledge checks help them identify their own weaknesses and ask for help.
Use our sticky note template to print lines on sticky notes for students to fill out a simple assessment with some details about what they've learned.
How to Make Your Formative Assessments Effective
Want to get the most out of your formative assessments? In addition to the countless assessment tools in this collection, our teacher team has created a list of ideas to help you enhance their effectiveness.
- Keep it simple. You don't have to reinvent the wheel to assess your students' basic understanding. Something as simple as just one or two questions on the main point of the lesson can be incredibly effective!
- Add these assessments to your classroom routines. In addition to being simple, these assessments should not take up a lot of classtime. Establishing a system and routine for different content will allow you to get the assessment done and move on to the next item on your classroom schedule in a timely manner.
- Don't take it personally. When students hand back an assessment that indicates your lesson did not come across the way you'd hoped, it can feel like a major letdown. It's important to allow yourself to adapt and learn from the experience, rather than taking it personally. Remember that even if one lesson worked last year, you have a whole new set of kids with their own individual needs!
- Be flexible. Nothing is more frustrating than having to revisit a lesson when you have so much to do and only so much instruction time. Remember this assessment data is simply making you a better teacher, and it's important to be flexible!
As noted before, these assessments should not be graded and should not carry any significant weight since they’re only part of the learning process! This enables students to answer without fear of penalty, making them substantially more effective.
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5th Grade Math Review – Test Prep Packet
Encourage your students to work through 8 pages of 5th-grade math problems while charting their progress to measure their success.
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3-2-1 Text Reflection Template
Quickly assess your students' comprehension after reading a fictional text with this 3-2-1 reflection activity.
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Emoji Themed Self-Assessment Desk Cards
Print these emoji themed self-assessment cards for students to reflect on their learning and display on their desk to indicate the level of teacher support they need.
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Fluency Reading Passages - 5th Grade
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 5th grade.
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Quiz and Swap - 3rd Grade End-of-Year Test Prep Game
Get your students up, moving, and practicing third grade test prep skills with an End-of-Year Quiz and Swap Review Game.
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Multi-Step Problem Solving Worksheet
Solve a multi-step problem and explain the mathematical reasoning behind the process with this simple assessment worksheet.
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Sight Word Lists – Teacher Resource Binder
Use this collection of checklists, student pages and quick-check assessments when reviewing Dolch sight words spanning from pre-primer to 3rd grade.
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Objects in the Sky – Exit Tickets
Assess understanding of different objects in the sky with this set of 24 exit tickets.
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3-2-1 Exit Ticket Template
Test your students' knowledge at the end of class with this 3-2-1 exit ticket template.
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Quiz and Swap - 2nd Grade End-of-Year Review
Prepare your students for their end of grade assessments with an End-of-Year Quiz and Swap Review Game.
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Prefix and Suffix Quiz
Assess your students’ knowledge of prefixes and suffixes with a vocabulary quiz.
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Comparing Fractions – Exit Tickets
Compare fractions with the same numerator or denominator with this set of 24 exit tickets.
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5th Grade Decimal Operations Assessment
Assess student understanding of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals with this math assessment.
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Mixed Operations Minute Math Booklet (Lower-Level Version)
Jump into your math lessons with this ten-page mental math booklet covering the four operations and number patterns.
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Fractions and Decimals Assessment
Assess students' knowledge of various decimals and percentages concepts with this four-page worksheet.
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Phonics Assessment - Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
Test your students' knowledge of the uppercase and lowercase letters in the alphabet with this assessment kit.
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Fluency Reading Passage Pack - Grade 1
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 1st grade.
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Back to School - Procedure Exit Tickets
Assess student knowledge of classroom rules and procedures with quick and easy exit tickets.
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Exit Tickets Template
Test your students' knowledge at the end of a lesson with this exit ticket template.
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Main Idea Exit Tickets
Check for understanding of the main idea and supporting detail with these exit tickets.
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Fractions on a Number Line - 3rd Grade Exit Tickets
Assess your students' ability to represent fractions greater than zero and less than or equal to one with a set of printable fraction exit tickets.
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Understanding Fractions – Exit Tickets
Assess student understanding of basic fractions with this set of 24 math exit tickets.
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5th Grade Algebraic Relationships Assessment
Assess student understanding of prime and composite numbers, numerical expressions, graphing numerical patterns, and more with this math assessment.
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Goods and Services Exit Tickets
Assess your students’ abilities to differentiate between goods and services with a set of twenty exit tickets.
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World Continents and Oceans Exit Tickets
Determine your students' mastery of Geography concepts with a set of twenty continents and oceans exit tickets.
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Types of Landforms - Exit Tickets
Explore the features of various landforms with this set of 20 exit tickets.
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U.S. Mountain and River Exit Tickets
Assess your students’ knowledge of the major rivers and mountains in the United States with a set of exit tickets.
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Mixed Operations Minute Math Booklet (Higher-Level Version)
Incorporate this mental math drills booklet into your math lesson warm-up (or assessment) routine.
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Exit Ticket – Editable Google Slide
Assess your students’ understanding of concepts just covered with this editable exit ticket template.
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Quick Phonics Screener- Single Letter Phoneme
Test your students' knowledge of single letter phonemes with this student assessment kit.
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Multiplication and Division Minute Math Booklet
Warm-up (or assess) with this 10-page booklet of multiplication and division drills.
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Verb Tenses Quiz
Assess your students' knowledge of verb tenses with this 5-question quiz.