How Do You Know That They Know What They Know? Engaging Formative Assessment!

Do you ever find yourself asking your students (or staff in professional development), "Does everyone understand?" to be met with silence and blank stares? Come find out how to leverage no tech, low tech, and higher tech solutions to accurately know what they know. Walk away with simple strategies that the beginning educator to the instructional coach can use tomorrow to enhance instruction. The session's format will be a balance of a model mini-lesson, small group discussions, and whole group instruction with participant thoughts facilitated through Pear Deck. This session begins with participants in the role of students in a classroom setting learning new content. The formative assessment techniques to be discussed later will be modeled throughout the mini-lesson. Once participants have experienced the techniques from the student perspective, the session will shift to analysis and explanation of how to effectively implement each technique. The end of the session will be dedicated to sharing their new learning first with those seated near them, and then with the whole group. Participants will receive a digital "one-pager" with all relevant links from the session, their own editable copy of the session slides to organize in their Google Drive, and freebies like stickers and candy. This session develops ISTE Educator Competencies of Analyst as they use data to guide instruction and Facilitator as they foster classroom management and student ownership of learning.