15 Formative Assessment Examples No Teacher Should Miss

In traditional classrooms, summative assessments like final exams or unit tests are often the main way to measure student progress. But waiting until the end of the term to evaluate students can be time-consuming and misses the opportunity to address learning gaps early on. That’s where formative assessments come in.

Formative assessments are quick, ongoing checks of student understanding during the learning process. Instead of waiting for the final exam, teachers can use formative assessments to get real-time feedback on how well students are grasping the material. This allows teachers to adjust lessons immediately, identify struggling students, and provide targeted support before it's too late.

In this article, we’ll explore 15 practical formative assessment examples to help you enhance student learning and engagement. Also, we’ll show how tools like Tarphi can help teachers carry out these assessments efficiently and effectively.

Formative assessment is a type of assessment process where teachers collect data about students' learning and progress during the lesson or unit. Unlike traditional assessments, which occur after the completion of a unit or lesson, formative assessments help teachers monitor and guide learning in real-time. 

This approach allows teachers to make necessary adjustments to their teaching strategies based on the needs of their students. It also encourages students to reflect on their learning, recognize areas where they may be struggling, and take steps to address any misunderstandings.

The key features of formative assessments include:

• They occur during the learning process, rather than at the end.

• They focus on progress, not final results.

• They help guide both teaching and learning.

• They are typically low-stakes or ungraded to reduce student anxiety and pressure.

The ultimate purpose of formative assessments is to identify how well students are grasping the material, give immediate feedback, and provide opportunities for students to improve before any final assessments are made.

Here are 15 practical and adaptable formative assessment examples that you can start using in your classroom today. These examples are simple, effective, and will provide valuable insights into your students' understanding.

1. Entrance or Exit Tickets

Entrance and exit tickets are one of the most popular ways to gather student feedback and adjust lessons in real time. Entrance tickets capture students’ prior knowledge at the start of a session, helping teachers plan more effectively, while exit tickets at the end let students share what they learned, questions they have, or areas of confusion.

Traditionally, these tickets are paper-based, which can be slow to collect and difficult to analyze quickly. Teachers often spend time sorting responses and guessing trends rather than immediately acting on the insights.

This is where Tarphi changes the game. With Tarphi, entrance and exit tickets become digital, interactive, and fun. Teachers can launch live polls or linear scales that students respond to instantly from their Chromebooks, or tablets. The platform provides real-time feedback, showing clear statistics like which options or ratings were most common, highest, or lowest; insights that are nearly impossible to get from traditional tickets. Polls can even be gamified, making the activity engaging for students while giving teachers actionable data on the spot.

2. Quick Quizzes

A quick quiz is a simple and effective way to check student understanding. It usually includes just a few focused questions designed to assess whether students have grasped the key concepts of a lesson. Quick quizzes provide immediate feedback, helping teachers make on-the-spot adjustments to their instruction.

However, creating standards-aligned quizzes can be time-consuming. Administering the quiz, grading responses, and analyzing results to extract meaningful insights often adds even more workload for teachers.

This is where Tarphi simplifies the entire process. Teachers can choose from 8 different quiz types to assess multiple skills, not just recall. Using AI, they can turn lessons, notes, or class lectures into interactive quizzes in minutes. 

Teachers can also host quizzes as competitive game sessions with embedded games that students love. After each session, Tarphi automatically generates detailed reports that highlight student strengths and weaknesses, fully supporting formative assessment goals.

3. Think-Pair-Share

Think-Pair-Share encourages students to think independently first about a question or topic, then discuss ideas with a partner, and finally share their thoughts with the class. It promotes peer learning, fosters communication skills, and gives you insights into both individual and group understanding. It especially allows all students to engage, even in larger classes.

4. Thumbs Up/Down/Sideways

One of the quickest ways to check students’ understanding during a lesson is through the Thumbs Up/Down/Sideways technique. After explaining a concept, ask students to show a thumbs up if they understand, a thumbs down if they’re confused, or a sideways thumb if they’re unsure. This immediate feedback helps you decide whether to move on or spend more time reviewing the topic.

5. Whiteboard Responses

Give each student a small whiteboard and a marker. Ask them a question, and they can quickly write down their answer and hold it up for you to see. It’s a great way to check their understanding in real-time. Also, it’s fun and interactive, which keeps students engaged!

6. Four Corners

In the Four Corners activity, students physically move to one of four corners of the room based on their opinion or answer to a question. Each corner is labeled with a different option, such as “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly Disagree.” This method really gives teachers a quick visual of the depth of understanding and encourages discussion, allowing students to explain their reasoning.

7. One-Minute Papers

At the end of a lesson, ask students to write a quick one-minute reflection like a summary of the lesson, a question they still have, or something they found confusing. This quick writing activity encourages students to process what they’ve learned and gives you a snapshot of their understanding. It also provides an opportunity for clarification in future lessons.

8. Peer Assessment

Peer assessment lets students review and give feedback on each other’s work using a rubric or checklist. This helps students think more deeply about the material and strengthens their understanding. It also saves teachers time on grading. 

9. Self-Assessment Checklists

Self-assessment helps students reflect on what they’ve learned and identify areas where they need improvement. By providing a checklist to rate their understanding of key concepts, skills, or goals, teachers encourage students to take ownership of their learning and track their progress over time.

For self-assessment, Tarphi offers a dedicated Study Mode. In this mode, students can take self-paced quizzes with interactive formats such as drag-and-drop, touch, and swipe-based interactions. At the end of each session, students receive a clear summary report showing their accuracy, correct and incorrect responses, and overall performance, helping them effectively self-assess their understanding and learning progress.

10. Concept Maps

Concept maps are diagrams that help students organize and visualize the connections between different ideas or concepts. Students draw these maps to show how the lessons they’ve learned fit together, which deepens their understanding and helps you assess how well they grasp the material. It also highlights any gaps in their knowledge that need attention.

11. Journal Prompts: Encouraging Thoughtful Reflection

Journal prompts are an excellent tool for students to reflect on their learning in a more personal way. These prompts can be used at the start or end of a class to ask students to summarize what they’ve learned, reflect on how they can apply it, or identify areas of confusion.

12. Gamified Assessment

Gamified assessment is a formative assessment approach where teachers use short, game-like activities to check student understanding during learning, not just at the end. By adding light competition, points, or challenges, teachers can quickly see which concepts students understand and which need reinforcement.

In traditional settings, gamification is often limited or hard to manage while still collecting meaningful learning data. Tarphi makes gamified formative assessment practical by turning curriculum-aligned questions into interactive game sessions. Students progress, earn points, or affect outcomes only when they answer correctly, allowing teachers to assess understanding in real time.

With instant feedback and live results, teachers can identify misconceptions immediately, adjust instruction on the spot, and keep students engaged, making gamified assessment both an effective formative strategy and an enjoyable classroom experience.

13. Classroom Poll

Classroom polling is a simple formative assessment strategy that helps teachers quickly check student understanding during a lesson. Teachers may use hand signals or quick questions to see how students are responding to a concept before moving forward.

With Tarphi’s Live Poll, this process becomes instant, digital, and more engaging. Teachers can launch a poll on the screen, and students respond in real time from any device. Results update live with clear percentages and trends, allowing teachers to immediately spot misconceptions and adjust instruction on the spot. This makes classroom polling both efficient and actionable.

14. Misconception Checks

Misconception checks are designed to identify and correct common misunderstandings. Present students with a typical mistake or misconception related to the topic and ask them to explain why it’s wrong and how to fix it. This helps students fix errors early on and prevents them from carrying misconceptions forward.

15. Rubric-Based Drafts

Instead of waiting until the final submission, have students submit drafts of their work for feedback based on a rubric. Provide constructive feedback that guides them in making improvements, rather than focusing solely on grades. This allows students to revise their work before it’s graded and helps them focus on the learning process rather than just the outcome.

Tarphi integrates seamlessly into your classroom, offering a complete platform for lesson delivery, assessment, and engagement. With curriculum-aligned quizzes, interactive classroom activities, and real-time feedback, Tarphi saves teachers time while ensuring that every student gets the support they need.

Unlike traditional quiz platforms, Tarphi combines fun with real learning outcomes. Whether you’re using different quizzes incorporating different review games, or opinion polls like live polls, or linear scales, Tarphi allows you to easily assess student progress while keeping them engaged. With its built-in AI, teachers can create, modify, and differentiate content based on each student's needs, perfect for any teaching environment.

So, to experience a more efficient, engaging, and effective classroom environment, you can use Tarphi as an interactive and digital formative assessment tool.

To maximize the value of formative assessments, teachers should use the data gathered to improve their teaching and provide more targeted support for students:

1. Reteach Confusing Concepts: If students are struggling with a particular topic, use the assessment data to revisit it from a different angle.

2. Form Small Groups: Based on assessment results, group students by their needs to offer more focused support or additional practice.

3. Provide Targeted Instruction: Adjust your teaching methods based on the areas where students need the most help.

4. Offer Extra Practice: Give extra exercises for students who need more time to master a concept.

5. Adjust Pacing: If students understand the concept quickly, move on; if they need more time, slow down.

Check out how formative assessment can help improve the learning experience:

Improves Student Learning

Formative assessments help students see what they already understand and where they need more help, making learning clearer and more focused.

Supports Differentiation

Teachers can use formative data to see where different students are struggling or excelling, allowing them to provide support according to each student’s needs.

Increases Student Motivation

When students see that their progress is being tracked and that they can improve, they are more motivated to put in effort and keep learning.

Reduces Test Anxiety

Since formative assessments are low-stakes and often ungraded, students feel less pressure. This allows them to be more open to feedback and helps build their confidence over time.

Formative assessments are key to improving student learning by providing real-time feedback that helps both teachers and students identify areas that need improvement. By incorporating these 15 formative assessment examples, you can create a more responsive and supportive classroom environment. With Tarphi, you can make formative assessments even easier. It helps you automate feedback and gives you deeper insights into student progress, all while keeping students engaged and focused on learning.