Schools are awash in data, and teachers are being asked to gather data in a myriad of high-tech and low-tech ways. But gathering is not analyzing, and without analysis there's little reason to gather the data in the first place. It's like picking apples off the tree, only to let them rot rather than consume them.
We need data-collection systems that lend themselves to rapid analysis and action. Here are a few methods we've seen teachers use to leverage formative assessment data in ways that inform instruction and learning.
Low-Tech Methods
Data can be quantitative (quiz scores, the number of words written in a timed writing sample) or qualitative (observations of student behavior, responses to a writing prompt). Both kinds of data are important—but both get stale pretty quickly if they're not analyzed and made actionable. Consider the following low-tech, high-leverage ways to check for understanding and then do something about it.
Exit slips to plan for tomorrow. Teachers have used exit slips forever as an assessment tool. These are commonly short responses to a question related to the day's lesson, which students complete near the end of class and hand to the teacher as they leave the room. The problem is that students often dash off their responses with little investment in their learning; their focus is to leave as quickly as they can.
You can turn exit slips on their head by posing the question or prompt at the beginning of the lesson. High school precalculus teacher Jorge Fernandez posts a problem at the beginning of class that students are not familiar with and asks them to speculate on how they would arrive at a solution.
On this day, he posts a word problem asking them to calculate interest on money that compounds continuously. Even though the students have not yet had experience using the algorithm to calculate compounded interest, Mr. Fernandez explains that "I want them to use mathematical reasoning first, before I introduce them to the formula. The algorithm makes sense only after you've had a chance to work through its logic."
The rest of the lesson is related to the math concepts and skills needed to solve the problem, but he never directly revisits the problem. As the class draws to a close, the teacher asks his students to return to their written response and add to or change their answer given the new information they've learned.
After class, Mr. Fernandez sorts the exit slips into two piles—students who changed their answer and those who did not. "I'm looking to see whether their thinking has evolved in light of new knowledge," he says. Sometimes a student is correct from the start. "When I see that, I make a note to myself. I'm watching to see if he or she sticks to the original correct answer during the next day's activity."
During the next day's lesson, still not revealing the correct answer, he reposts the question and divides the students into small groups on the basis of their exit slips, inviting them to explain their thinking and justify their answers. This exercise gives students opportunities to practice constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others. "The collective thinking that goes on is pretty amazing," he said. "They usually end up figuring out the right approach in a matter of minutes."
My favorite mistake. Fifth grade math teacher Ilsa Davidson sometimes poses a problem for students to solve at the beginning of the lesson, and then gathers the responses and quickly looks for her favorite incorrect answer. "Often they have so many elements done correctly, but there's that one step that makes it incorrect."
For example, when she teaches dividing decimals, Ms. Davidson often sees students placing the decimal points incorrectly. On the lookout for this error, she finds a student's incorrect answer to the following problem: 30.05 ÷ .04 = ? Ms. Davidson copies the student's work in her own handwriting to protect the student's identity. She then puts it on the document camera and models her thinking. "The correct answer is 752. My favorite mistake today was a student who moved both decimal points correctly, but then put the decimal point back in the answer. He came up with 7.52."
Together the class identifies where the error happened, and Ms. Davidson models how to think about the reasonableness of an answer and what happens when we divide decimals: Should the answer be bigger or smaller? "This practice has helped us cultivate a community where mistakes are important to our learning," she says. "In fact, errors are celebrated because they give all of us an opportunity to learn."
See It in Action: A Higher-Tech Method
Teachers can also achieve quick and actionable analysis of data with a growing number of digital tools. Audience response systems, for instance, have been used for a decade or so. These tools traditionally require specialized response devices for each member of the class. But newer systems use readily available technologies to gather and analyze data without using specialized devices.
For example, middle school math teacher Staci Benak, featured in the that accompanies this column, uses Plickers to rapidly assess what her students know. The app is free, and teachers can download an accompanying set of 40 or more black-and-white cards with individual designs (which look something like QR codes). Each card is linked to a student's name. Ms. Benak's students keep their cards in their math journals. She poses questions with up to four possible responses, and students answer by holding up their unique card with their response (A, B, C, or D) facing up.
In the video, we see Ms. Benak posing a question, giving students two minutes to solve the problem individually, and then using the app on her tablet to scan the upheld cards. The program immediately produces a graph of the answers, which she displays on the whiteboard. The graph shows that most students got the right answer, but some did not. Ms. Benak ask students to discuss and justify their choice within their groups, and then she poses the same question again. "There's almost always a shift the second time, with more students answering correctly," she says. When there isn't, she knows it's time to provide more direct instruction on the concept being studied.
Leverage Data to Improve Learning
Data that sit unused are no different from data that were never collected in the first place. We recommend using a few high-leverage formative assessment procedures routinely in your classroom. It's an effective way to adjust instruction to meet students' needs and to avoid spending precious moments reteaching content to students who have already mastered it.
