goformative.com is a free site for teachers to get live results from formative questions from a class. Formative has pre-made questions or teachers create questions and give students the “quick code” to direct them to the specific questions for their class. The exciting part that makes this program different is the LIVE RESULTS!

1.  After going to www.goformative.com and creating an account, click on the + button.

2.  Click on “new assignment.”  Create a title and select the type of question you would like to add.

3.  The “show your work” question brings a digital whiteboard where students can draw their answers. This is a great option for all students but particularly young students, students who struggle with written expression and English Language Learners.

Using this option the teacher can also load an image with the question(add a background image), Students are given a digital whiteboard for circling, labeling, or adding.

4.  Students can see each student’s answer. By clicking on the group icon at the top of the page. This allows discussion of the thinking process and an opportunity to elaborate on insights and clear up any misconceptions with complete anonymity. Teachers have the option of displaying the answers (with or without names), or keeping the student work available for view by the teacher only.

5.  Under Add Content, you may add YouTube videos.

6.  Results can be loaded to a spreadsheet or a google sheet.

7. Although students can use the code and work without a login, but creating an account will give them these advantages:

*save work to complete at a later day

*quickly join a class without using codes

*get their scores back at a later date

8.  There are many formatives already created. Go to community.goformative.com/samples/

9.  Click on the subject and a spreadsheet will list possible ready-made formative assessments.

Summary:

• no cost
• many types of questions (multiple choice, true/false, show your work whiteboard, short answer)
• real-time answers–teachers can observe as students work
• images, You Tube, Word documents can be added
• data collection
• works with smartphones, tablets, laptops, iPads, chromebooks

Sample ideas for a reading classroom:

• Upload a PDF and add it to a “show your work” question. Students underline the main idea.
• List three ways the character _________ shows he is (honest).
• Sentence prompts I understand……  I don’t understand…..
• Draw a picture of a scene
• Illustrate a vocabulary word