Formative assessment strategies you can use in every lesson

Most teachers have had the experience of marking a set of books and discovering that half the class misunderstood something on day one. Formative assessment is about finding that out on day one instead, while there is still time to fix it.

The good news is that it does not require extra marking. The strategies below take seconds in the lesson and give you better information than a pile of books.

What formative assessment means

Formative assessment, often called assessment for learning, is any check on understanding that you use to decide what to do next. The idea was popularised by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam's 1998 booklet Inside the Black Box, which argued that improving everyday classroom assessment could raise standards.

The key word is use. A quiz is only formative if the results change your teaching, for example by reteaching a step, giving a group extra practice, or moving on faster.

1. Share what success looks like

Pupils can only aim at a target they can see. Share the learning objective and the success criteria in plain language, and show examples of good work. A strong example and a weak example side by side, with pupils deciding which is better and why, is often clearer than any description.

2. Ask questions that everyone answers

If you ask a question and take the first hand up, you learn what one confident pupil thinks. Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction stress asking many questions and checking the responses of all pupils. Ways to do that:

• Mini whiteboards. Everyone writes an answer and holds it up on "3, 2, 1, show me".
• Finger voting. One, two, three or four fingers for options A to D.
• Coloured cards. Green for true, red for false.
• Write, then share. Everyone writes an answer first; then you choose who speaks.

3. Use no-hands-up questioning, kindly

Asking named pupils, rather than volunteers, keeps everyone thinking. To make it feel safe:

• give thinking time before naming anyone
• let pupils discuss in pairs first, so they answer for the pair
• accept "I'm not sure yet" and come back to that pupil after someone else has answered
• follow up a right answer with "How do you know?" and a wrong answer with "What made you think that?"

4. Plan hinge questions

A hinge question is one multiple-choice question asked at the point in the lesson where you need to decide whether to move on. Its power is in the wrong answers: each one matches a common misconception.

If nearly everyone gets it right, carry on. If many choose the same wrong answer, you know exactly what to reteach.

5. Watch the work as it happens

During practice, walk the room with a purpose. Look at the same question in every book, the one that shows whether the method is secure. Note names of pupils making the same error, then pause the class for a quick reteach if several do. This is far quicker than finding the error in thirty books later.

6. End with an exit ticket

A short written task at the end gives you every pupil's understanding in one pile. Sort the answers into "got it", "nearly" and "not yet" and plan the next lesson around them. See our 20 exit ticket ideas for formats that work.

7. Give feedback pupils act on

Feedback only helps if pupils do something with it. Some principles:

• Make it specific. "Add a reason for each point", not "Good effort".
• Make it about the next step, not just about what was wrong.
• Give time in the lesson for pupils to act on it, such as ten minutes to improve one paragraph.
• Whole-class feedback can save time. Read the work, note common strengths and errors, and give feedback to the class at once, with a task to fix the most common mistake.

8. Use peer and self-assessment with care

Pupils checking their own or a partner's work against clear criteria can help them understand what quality looks like. It works best when:

• the criteria are specific and visible
• pupils have seen examples of good work first
• you check a sample, because pupils often overrate their own understanding

9. Build in retrieval

Formative assessment isn't only about today's lesson. Quick, low-stakes quizzes on earlier topics show you what pupils have kept over time, and the act of recalling strengthens their memory. Our guide to retrieval practice activities has fifteen ways to do it.

Putting it into your lesson plan

You don't need every strategy every lesson. A simple pattern that works for most lessons:

If you plan with Lesson Dino, the lesson plan ends with an exit ticket matched to the objective, and the slides can include question slides such as quizzes, true or false and votes. You can change any of them to fit your class.

Questions teachers ask

What is formative assessment?

Formative assessment means finding out what pupils understand during teaching and using that information to decide what to do next. It is sometimes called assessment for learning.

What is the difference between formative and summative assessment?

Formative assessment happens during learning and shapes teaching. Summative assessment happens at the end of a unit or course and measures what pupils have learned, such as an end-of-year exam. The same test can be used either way, depending on what you do with the results.

What is a hinge question?

A hinge question is a quick multiple-choice question asked at a key point in a lesson. Each wrong answer is linked to a specific misconception, so the class's answers show you whether to move on or reteach.

Is formative assessment more work for teachers?

It shouldn't be. Most strategies take seconds in the lesson, such as everyone holding up an answer. The work is in using what you see to adjust the next step, which replaces planning blind.