Informal Assessment

As a teacher, you should always be gathering information about how much a student understands about the lesson being taught. This includes asking lots of questions during the lesson and having students explain back to you an idea/skill/concept they are learning. It is important to build these questions into a lesson plan so that you can adjust the lesson when necessary and ensure that students do not become confused or lost. Examples of informal assessment are:

Formal Assessment

A general rule of thumb is that “if it is going in the grade book, it is a formal assessment.” Formal assessments measure what a student has learned and serve as distinct markers for the progress they have made. Examples of formal assessment are: