Using Formative Assessments to Meet Student Needs

Sarah Elkalban: What kinds of conditions existed in the workplace that were horrible for the worker?

Narrator: Sarah Elkalban uses a variety of approaches in assessing her 7th grade history students.

Student 1: No workers' compensation.

Narrator: One method she's devised for immediate assessment and feedback is the use of color-coded cue cards.

Elkalban: All right, good. So let me ask you this: a picket line, strike, boycott, close shop, and what was the last one?

Student 2: Collective bargaining.

Elkalban: And collective bargaining. How many of you understand what all five of those are?

Elkalban: I use cue cards in my classroom to touch upon formative assessments. We have tests that we give, of course, for every unit, and we also have Aspire assessments, which are our online assessments that we do every four to six weeks. But it's tough to know, day to day, if they are getting the information. So I developed cue cards, which are cards that help me to see that the students understand.

Elkalban: Let's use our cards for this one.

Elkalban: And what they are are three basic cards: one is C for clarification, one is U for understanding, and one is E for enrichment.

Elkalban: Let's talk about the word "trust"; you all remember the word "trust" from our last unit.

Elkalban: The problem was—why I created these cards in the first place—was that you see a lot of students who become the class spokesperson. This person always raises their hand, or this student always raises their hand. So this gives everybody a chance to be part of the class and engaged.

Student 3: I think a "trust buster" is when something refers to the government activities and is designed to break up trusts and monopolies.

Elkalban: OK, good.

Elkalban: So, periodically, I'll ask a question, if there's a tough question that I think the class might not get...

Elkalban: OK, good, I see a lot of clarification cards.

Elkalban: ...And ask them to please hold up either the clarification card or the understanding card.

Student 4: I don't know what collective bargaining or close shop are; I don't get what those are.

Elkalban: And that way, I can find out who doesn't really understand the information. The ones that do understand then get the option to use the enrichment card to help the other ones better understand the material.

Elkalban: OK, raise your card if you understand all five of those.

Elkalban: If you notice, in my class, a lot of my students will turn to another student and say, "Can you explain that to me?" and pose a question to them instead of to myself. So, it's all about climate and feeling that comfort of using those cards and being very honest about, if I don't know something, I'm going to use the clarification card.

Source: From Formative Assessment in Content Areas: Middle School (DVD), 2008, Alexandria, VA: ASCD.