Formative

Assessments
Formative assessment can be one of the most powerful tools in raising student
achievement. This type of assessment allows students to learn as progress is being
measured and is heavily based in constructive, on-the-spot feedback, rather than
simply assessing mastery after learning through a summative assessment.1
Formative assessment is especially wonderful for gifted students because it takes
many forms and can easily be differentiated according to learning style or need.
Here are just a few examples of formative assessment types that can help you to
differentiate assessment needs in your classroom:

Class conversation or student interactions: Teachers can circulate or informally
observe during discussions to gain information on student learning. Strategically
observing student responses to questioning can provide valuable information on
progress or misconceptions. Likewise, students can continue to learn and build
upon their own thought processes through discussions and interactions with other
students. For gifted students, teachers can strategically formulate higher-level
questioning that will more adequately assess skills on their level, rather than asking
more basic questions in which they are probably already proficient. The teacher can
thus see more concretely what skills are needed as a focus for these students.

Teachers can gain valuable information through one-on-one conferencing and
conversations with students. Rather than giving one paper and pencil assessment,
where students might not necessarily justify their work in a way that illustrates
thought processes, teachers can use conferencing to differentiate the questions they
ask and spend time listening to individualized responses. For example, in
conferencing with a gifted student about math work, a teacher could ask them to
work out a strategy as they observe and then ask the student to verbalize their
thinking. The discussion with students can change over time to match student need
and learning ability, building on observations in previous conferences in a highly
individualized way. The information gathered provides rich material for teachers to
consider what to do next to support student learning. Importantly, this approach
also allows teachers to convey to [all] students that their ideas matter.2

Rubrics: Regular use of rubrics ensures that gifted students and teachers have
grasped the importance of assessment as a fundamental part of the learning
process, not something external to it. Rubrics are a useful formative assessment
that gives valuable information about student skill levels, rather than ability to
answer questions correctly. Rubrics can be designed to consider categories that
match student need. More advanced students can also design their own rubrics and

1 Burke, K. (2010). The balanced assessment model: When formative meets

summative. Balanced assessment: Formative to Summative, (pp. 19 26). Bloomington, IN:

Solution Tree Press.
2 Kazemi, E., Gibbons, L. K., Lomax, K., & Franke, M. L. (2016). Listening to and Learning

from Student Thinking. Teaching Children Mathematics, 23(3), 182-190.

actively assess themselves, which can differentiate ownership over progress and
learning.3

Work Portfolios: Portfolios include a variety of samples that can illustrate strengths
and weaknesses in student performance. Both the student and the teacher can work
together to determine what samples are included, to update the work samples over
time, and to evaluate progress using a pre-determined scale. 4 Portfolios are highly
useful for gifted students because they can contain individualized assignments,
differentiated to student level and need. Work portfolios may also help to show
(and monitor) a more holistic picture of gifted potential that one standardized test
might not. The cumulative nature of portfolios allows monitoring of growth over
several points of time, rather than one fixed point (as with a standardized test).
Therefore, students who reach proficiency can be given different goals that will
continue to monitor additional growth.

Remember, feedback is a central tenet of any type of formative assessment. Specific

feedback can be differentiated to gifted students, geared specifically towards their
strengths or needs in a way that helps foster growth. This is also extremely helpful
in allowing all students to conceptualize and improve learning. More advanced
students can also be differentiated to provide self-assessment or feedback to peers.5

3 Van Tassel-Baska, Joyce (2016). Assessment of Gifted Student Learning in the Language

Arts. Journal of Advanced Academics 13 (2), 67 72.

4 Tierney, R. J., Carter, M., & Desai, L. (1991). Portfolio assessment in the reading-writing

classroom. Christopher-Gordon Publishers.

5 Burke, K. (2010). The balanced assessment model: When formative meets

summative. Balanced assessment: Formative to Summative, (pp. 19 26). Bloomington, IN:

Solution Tree Press.