The Power of Informal Assessments: What Insights Do They Provide About Your Students?

As teachers, we’ve all been there. You’ve spent hours creating a lesson that you believe is going to be a hit with your class. You’ve poured your heart and soul into it, and you’re excited to see how your students respond. But when you start the lesson, you quickly realize that it’s not going as well as you had hoped. Your students are struggling to understand the material and you’re not sure where you went wrong.

This is where informal assessments come in. Informal assessments are a powerful tool that can help you gain insights into your students that you might not have otherwise been able to see. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what informal assessments are and how you can use them to gain a deeper understanding of your students.

What Are Informal Assessments?

Informal assessments are assessments that are not standardized or formalized. They are assessments that are typically created by the teacher and are used to gauge student understanding of a particular concept or skill. Informal assessments can take many forms, such as observations, check-ins, exit slips, and quick writes.

Unlike formal assessments, which are usually given at the end of a unit or a specific amount of time, informal assessments can be given at any time. They can be used to assess student understanding before a lesson begins, during a lesson, or after a lesson has ended.

Why Are Informal Assessments Important?

Informal assessments are important because they give teachers a window into their students’ thinking. By observing and interacting with their students, teachers can gain a better understanding of what their students know and what they don’t know. This information can be used to adjust instruction, provide feedback, and create meaningful learning experiences for students.

One of the biggest advantages of informal assessments is that they can be tailored to meet the needs of individual students. Since informal assessments are not standardized, teachers have the flexibility to customize them to fit the specific needs of their students.

Examples of Informal Assessments

Here are a few examples of informal assessments:

– Observations: Take a few minutes during a lesson to observe your students. What are they doing? Are they engaged? Are they understanding the material? Use your observations to make adjustments to your instruction.

– Check-ins: Ask your students for a quick check-in about their understanding of a particular concept. For example, if you’re teaching a math lesson, you could ask your students to give you a thumbs up if they understand or a thumbs down if they’re confused.

– Exit slips: At the end of a lesson, ask your students to reflect on what they’ve learned. What was the most important thing they learned? What questions do they still have?

– Quick writes: Have your students write a quick summary of what they’ve learned during a lesson. This can help them solidify their understanding and give you insight into what they know.

Conclusion

Informal assessments are a powerful tool that can help teachers gain insights into their students that they might not have otherwise been able to see. By using informal assessments, teachers can adjust instruction, provide feedback, and create meaningful learning experiences for their students. Remember, informal assessments can take many forms, so don’t be afraid to experiment and find what works best for you and your students.