A Quick Check Formative Assessment Idea

Hello bloggy friends!! I want to share a quick idea that I used in my classroom this week. By quick, I mean you can whip this out in 5 minutes on your lunch break with half of a sandwich in your mouth (don't judge).  I promise that is all it takes and it will be time well spent.

So you might be thinking," why do this?" or "I already have a system for this."   That's fine and you do what works best for you.  But my kids were getting bored of the ol' tried and true individual white boards.

**Another strategy I used is the sticky-note quick check, which you can check out Cheryl's Classroom Tips Blog!** 

I do absolutely LOVE the sticky-note strategy, and have used it a ton in my classroom. The only problem I found is that I needed a way to differentiate some of the questions since I have such a mixed group this year.  I know I could do exit slips or small pieces of paper with questions on them, but that's a lot of work! Not to mention, my kids seem to think learning is SUPER fun all of a sudden when I switch it up a bit! So, switch it up I did. 

I swear nothing fancy is going on here, but it was worth a million dollars! All I did was take a piece of anchor chart paper, make some quick lines, write my students' numbers down the left hand side and laminate it. 

(It kind of makes me want to cringe because it is not very pretty. But it most definitely serves its purpose! 

Then, whatever the particular skill is that we are working on (writing algebraic expressions), I write a question for each student for them to walk up and answer with wet-erase markers.

I had it hanging up first thing in the morning. As students were walking in, they read our morning message, and then had to put their answer next to their number. I currently have a few students who are still really struggling with this concept, but I also have some students that have mastered this concept and are begging me for some harder stuff. With this style of a quick check, I was able to differentiate each students' question and take note of each students' level of mastery with this strand.

The beauty of this is that it took me about 5 minutes to put together, about 3 minutes to write out the students' questions, and there is no paper involved! CAN I GET AN AMEN?!!

(Sorry for the poor quality! Forgot my camera this day!

That's it! Nothing fancy, but it sure feels great to have a clear picture of the students that need some reteaching (and if you look closely, I got a few that need it...OY)

I'd love to hear how you do quick checks of your students in your rooms! Happy Valentine Party planning!!!! ;)