Resources

Formative assessment is an ongoing process that involves gathering and analyzing evidence of students’ thinking, then using what is learned to inform instruction.

This collection of formative assessment tasks is specifically designed as a tool to allow students to share their thinking.

These tasks:

• Go beyond facts or simple recall and encourage students to think
• Require students to decide what knowledge to apply when
• Can be solved in a number of ways
• Give students a chance to explain their thinking and ways of figuring things out
• Ask students to communicate in several modes (e.g., words and drawings)
• Are accessible and interesting

There are many ways to use these tasks to augment existing instructional activities. The tasks are not intended for use as end-of-unit tests or final assessments, nor are they a complete curriculum.

These tasks are an ideal complement to WestEd’s Making Sense of Student Work protocol — a guide that supports groups of teachers collaboratively analyzing and interpreting student work to inform their instruction.

Additional Formative Assessment Task Banks:

SCIENCE
Energy for Grades 6–8
Matter for Grades 6–8
Force & Motion for Grades 6-8

MATHEMATICS
The Number System for Grades 6–8

Visit the Making Sense of Student Work website for more information about the Making Sense of Student Work protocol and teacher professional development.