Effective assessment gives teachers information about how well students understand the material, provides feedback for future lesson planning and gives teachers the opportunity to correct misconceptions.

Sometimes, informal assessments can be more meaningful and less anxiety-provoking than traditional tests or exams for students. Three informal assessments I use in my high school chemistry classes are 10-Point Bingo, a whiteboard activity and “I Can” statements.

A formative assessment strategy called 10-Point Bingo can be used during or at the end of a unit. To start, make a grid of squares, each containing a question. (I usually make a 3x4 grid for a total of 12 questions.)

Each question is designed to conform to Bloom’s Taxonomy or the “Depth of Knowledge” wheel, a way of visualizing the different stages of learning. One-point questions ask students simply to recall or define certain elements of the unit, such as vocabulary or terminology. Two-point questions are knowledge/skill questions, starting with words such as compare, distinguish, list out and why. Three-point questions emphasize strategic thinking, such as explain, construct or critique. Four-point questions extend thinking, such as analyze, create or synthesize.

During the activity, students work independently and can choose the questions they want to answer, as long as the questions add up to 10 points.

Students who need extra support to learn the content can pick one- or two-point questions, and students who want to challenge themselves can pick three- or four-point questions.

My whiteboard activity is a peer assessment approach that can be formative or summative. Teachers present their questions to the class, and students write their answers on a small individual whiteboard.

Students then share their boards with a partner and evaluate one another’s answers. This approach promotes deeper discussions and meaningful collaboration, which boosts material retention. Meanwhile, teachers observe and note how well students formulate and justify their answers and how they interact and provide feedback to each other.

The “I Can” statement is a summative self-assessment that can be used at the end of a topic or a unit. Students get a list of “I Can” statements and evaluate how well they understand each concept (from Level 1, needs help, to Level 5, can work on the task independently).

This self-assessment provides helpful information for how to group students for the review practice session. Level 5 students can peer tutor Level 1 and 2 students. If many students circle Level 1 and 2 for a particular “I Can” statement, the teacher will need to spend more time clarifying or reteaching those concepts to the whole class.

This “I Can” statement activity is both a tool to promote higher-level thinking in students and a device for teachers to evaluate and reflect on their own teaching.

These informal assessments will give teachers a broader picture of how well their students understand the material they are teaching, and they will save teachers time as they plan lessons that build on that content.

Xue Qing Liang, a New York State science finalist for the 2023 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, has been a chemistry teacher at New Utrecht HS for seven years.