Read on to find out our tips for using Formative to support differentiation in the classroom!
🌟Tip 1: Use pre-assessment
Try assigning a formative as a pre-assessment (or putting some pre-assessment questions at the beginning of a formative), then using the results to guide the next steps of instruction. Formative shows you scores in real time, so you can use the scores to put students into groups based on readiness right then and there!
If you set scores to return instantly, you could even have students decide which questions (or station, or reading material) would be appropriate for them to work on next, based on their pre-assessment scores. Here is a great example of a Math formative that takes this approach: click HERE to clone!
🌟Tip 2: Clone and modify your assignments
Cloning your formatives is quick and easy! You can then make adjustments to the content and questions as needed to support different levels of readiness, interests, and learning profiles.
If you are a Paid Teacher plan subscriber or a School & District licensed member, you can assign your differentiated formatives to individual students within a class, allowing you to ensure that every student is working on the assignment that's best for them.
Cloned and differentiated formatives can work especially well in flipped classrooms. Students get the content and questions at the right level for them to work on independently at home, and you can provide tailored support and extension in the classroom.
🌟Tip 3: Use different question / content types
Formative has many visual and auditory options for you to choose from. Try:
Paid Teacher plan subscribers / School & District licensed members can add audio to questions and give students the option to record an audio response instead of typing or even embed a video response site, such as Flipgrid.
Allow students to show their thinking in different ways by using a Drawing question type. Students can type, draw, and upload images of their work to the answer field.
🌟Tip 4: Embed leveled reading assignments
You can embed almost any other site into your formatives! This is a great option when you have different reading levels in a class. Embed a site that automatically adjusts to students' reading levels (such as NewsELA, or ReadWorks), and the differentiation is done for you!
Note: for the site to adjust to your students, you will need to create classes on these sites and assign the reading to the class, before embedding it into your formative.
🌟Tip 5: Send differentiated feedback
Formative allows you to send personalized feedback to your students - instantly!
Paid Teacher plan subscribers / School & District licensed members can differentiate their feedback even more by adding images, video, emojis, and audio to their feedback. You can even embed a website into your feedback, too!
🌟Tip 6: Enable edits or retakes
Students learn at different rates. If you'd like a student to retake a formative after re-teaching or further practice, you can delete their responses so that they can log back in and take the assignment from scratch. Another option is to enable edits after submission (this will enable edits for the entire class).
🌟Tip 7: Provide different extension options
You can provide links to extension work at the end of a formative, so that students can continue (and deepen) their learning! You could even provide a "menu" of links so that students can choose the option that best suits their interests or level of understanding.
If you return scores or correct answers to students, they will be able to click into the formative and continue to see the links after submitting. If you do not return scores/answers, then make sure to explain that your students need to click on the relevant link before hitting "Submit"!
🌟Tip 7: Utilize the Student Translator tool (Balanced Assessment Suite feature)
The Translator tool is exclusively available to organizations licensed with our Balanced Assessment Suite plan. When this tool is enabled, students will have the ability to translate *most content of the assignment into other languages, as they are defined on individual students' Translations Accommodation (the translator support more than 30 languages!).
***Note:
Translator, when enabled, will only be available when using Student accounts. Translator is not intended to work when using teacher accounts (i.e. the Preview environment)
The Translator is not supported on feedback messages between students and teachers
The Translator will affect the following items:
Website's native buttons/headings
Text content typed into text fields by the teacher (i.e. questions, answer choices, text / paired passages, etc.)
The Translator does not support content items such as PDF, Images, Audio, Video, or embedded content.
Enable/Disable the Translator on a specific activity
Select a class to assign the activity to
Click the carat next to the class name to open the assign settings window
Toggle on "Learning Tools"
Select the desired translation language from the dropdown
Note: A Translations Accommodation MUST be set for individual students to gain access to the Translator tool. Please refer to this help article for step-by-step instructions.
The student view:
When this setting is selected, the Translator option will appear on the right-side bar when students open the activity . Students will select the Translator icon and proceed to click on the 'Translate to [language]' button. The activity will be immediately translated. To return back to the original language of the activity, students will click on the 'Return to [language]' button (appearing in the translated language).
The Translator will be disabled when students exit the activity. Students will need to re-activate the translation when re-accessing the activity.
📌Have ideas you'd like to share?
We'd love to hear how you use Formative to differentiate in your classroom. You can post your tips, and formatives you've created, in our Community Center!