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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3rd Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 3rd grade.
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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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Fluency Assessment Tool
Use our fluency assessment tool to gauge your students’ oral reading fluency, speed, accuracy, and more!
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Kindergarten Visual Writing Rubric
Help your little learners perfect their writing with a kindergarten visual writing rubric.
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Subtraction Fact Fluency Assessments
Assess and track subtraction fact fluency with a printable Math Fact Fluency program for subtraction facts.
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Alphabet Letter-Sound Correspondence Assessment Pack
Assess your students abilities to write their names, identify letters, letter sounds, and initial/middle/ending sounds with a printable alphabet assessment pack.
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3rd Grade Fractions – Math Assessment
Assess student understanding of fractions on a number line, comparing fractions, equivalent fractions, and more with this math test for 3rd grade.
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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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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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4th Grade Reading Fluency Passages
Assess student fluency with a printable pack of reading fluency passages for 4th grade.
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5th Grade Geometry Test
Assess your students' skills with quadrilaterals, coordinate grids, and volume of solid figures using a printable 5th Grade Geometry Test.
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Pizza Math Fact Fluency Tracker
Motivate and inspire students to learn their math facts with printable math fact fluency trackers.
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Reading Behaviors - Anecdotal Notes Template
Observe student reading behaviors and easily take notes with an Anecdotal Record Note-Taking Template.
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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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Subtraction Strategies – Worksheet
Assess your students’ knowledge of subtraction strategies with a subtraction assessment.
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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 (Higher-Level Version)
Incorporate this mental math drills booklet into your math lesson warm-up (or assessment) routine.
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Addition and Subtraction Minute Math Booklet
Warm-up (or assess) with this 10-page booklet of addition and subtraction drills.
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2nd Grade Fluency Reading Passages
Download a printable pack of 2nd grade reading fluency passages with a printable ORF assessment pack.
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Verb Tenses Quiz Worksheet
Assess your students' knowledge of verb tenses with this 5-question quiz.
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Four Finger Learning Scale
Help your students self-assess their understanding of a skill using their fingers with this 4-finger learning scale.
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IEP Goal Tracking Binder
Keep track of student data and progress toward IEP goals with a printable IEP goal-tracking binder for teachers.
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Initial, Medial, & Final /s/ - Articulation Worksheets
Build skill with articulating the sounds of beginning, medial, and final /s/ with a set of printable speech articulation worksheets.
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Dolch Sight Word Tracker - Google Sheets
Track mastery of Dolch Sight Words using a digital Google Sheets Sight Word tracking spreadsheet
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Fine and Gross Motor Development Checklists
Use a printable Fine and Gross Motor Development Checklist to easily and effectively note concerns about a student’s motor skills.
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Group Presentation Rubric
Make assigning grades for group presentations a breeze with a printable Group Presentation Rubric.
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Tiered Tracker for Student Intervention Template
Track student progress and response to intervention with a handy Student Intervention Tracking Data Sheet.
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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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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.