Whiteboards:
There are many assessment practices that I use that have yielded tremendous benefits for students. The first is a very simple, yet effective practice that I use regularly. After guided practice on an objective, I will use my classroom set of whiteboards to formatively assess students. I will post a problem on the board. Students will work it on their whiteboards, and hold them up once they are finished. As they finish and hold them up, I will tell them yes or no, and they will either erase their boards and work on the next problem, or they will correct their mistakes. This is a quick and easy way to assess students for multiple reasons. First, it is very little prep on my part (less prep is always a plus!). I don’t have to make as many copies on days that I use the whiteboards. Second, it lets me very quickly see who understands the objective (and how well they understand it) and who does not. I use this information to create RTI groups directly following the activity.

Mastery Checks
Another assessment practice that I really like is what I call Mastery Checks. After students have had guided and independent practice on an objective, I give them a Mastery Check on that objective. It is essentially a four question quiz (graded for completion, not accuracy) that is aligned to both the summative assessment and the EOC or ACT. There is one question that requires them to explain part of the concept, and three questions that require them to apply the skill. The three questions are easy, medium, and hard level. We check these immediately after we take them so students get quick feedback. At the end of a unit, the students staple their Mastery Checks together, and this becomes their study guide (this is also less prep because I do not have to come up with another study guide- as long as I made the mastery checks aligned to the summative assessment).