contributed by Ryan Schaaf, Assistant Professor of Technology, Notre Dame of Maryland University
Digital Exit Slips: 21 Formative Assessment Tools for Grades 8-12
You have a classroom full of students packing up after an instructional lesson.
Your mind goes to the critical questions: Did my students get the lesson? Are there any concepts or skills they are still unsure of? Do students have misconceptions about the content? Do I need to review anything tomorrow?
These are the questions reflective educators contemplate. These questions are addressed immediately by using an **exit ticket**. Exit tickets are a simple, quick, and insightful **formative assessment** method employed at the end of a lesson. They require learners to answer a few questions or perform a task based on the content explored during class.
Exit ticket formats vary. You can use multiple-choice, short written responses, matching, or polls. Exit tickets must be short, concise, and engage learners in reviewing the skills explored. They are also ideal for continuing the learning into the next class, often used to activate students’ previous knowledge immediately upon entry.
In the age of digital learning, exit tickets are no longer confined to paper slips. Numerous digital tools are available to collect this valuable performance data instantly.
These tools move beyond simple paper collection, providing you with student data in real time or in easy-to-analyze reports, streamlining your instructional decisions.
You want to teach with what’s been proven to work.
That makes sense. In the ‘data era’ of education that’s mean research-based instructional strategies to drive data-based teaching, and while there’s a lot to consider here we’d love to explore more deeply, for now we’re just going to take a look at the instructional strategies themselves.
But upside to sharing this information as a post is that it can act a starting point to research the above, which is why we’ve tried to include links, related content, and suggested reading for many of the strategies, and are trying to add citations for all of them that reference the original study that demonstrated that strategy’s effectiveness. (This is an ongoing process.)
How should you use a list like this? In 6 Questions Hattie Didn’t Ask, Terry Heick wondered the same.
“In lieu of any problems, this much data has to be useful. Right? Maybe. But it might be that so much effort is required to localize and recalibrate it a specific context, that’s it’s just not–especially when it keeps schools and districts from becoming ‘researchers’ on their own terms, leaning instead on Hattie’s list. Imagine ‘PDs’ where this book has been tossed down in the middle of every table in the library and teachers are told to ‘come up with lessons’ that use those strategies that appear in the ‘top 10.’ Then, on walk-throughs for the next month, teachers are constantly asked about ‘reciprocal teaching’ (.74 ES after all). If you consider the analogy of a restaurant, Hattie’s book is like a big book of cooking practices that have been shown to be effective within certain contexts: Use of Microwave (.11 ES) Chefs Academic Training (.23 ES), Use of Fresh Ingredients (.98). The problem is, without the macro-picture of instructional design, they are simply contextual-less, singular items.”
In short, these instructional strategies have been demonstrated to, in at least one study, be ‘effective.’ As implied above, it’s not that simple–and it doesn’t mean it will work well in your next lesson. But as a place to begin taking a closer look at what seems to work–and more importantly how and why it works–feel free to begin your exploring with the list below.
These strategies are research-based and tuned for 8th-grade classrooms. Each card includes a short description, citations, and two “Try it” moves you can use tomorrow.
Planning & Clarity
Setting Goals & Success Criteria
Make learning goals visible and pair them with concrete success criteria students can self-check.
We tend to teach reading in a very industrial way.
We focus on giving kids ‘tools’ and ‘strategies’ to ‘make’ sense of a text. To ‘take the text apart’. To look for the ‘author’s purpose’—to bounce back and forth between a main idea, and the details that ‘support’ the main idea, as if the reading is some kind of thing that students happen upon by chance while on some purely academic journey.
And we push the illusion of the ‘otherness’ of a text by promoting the lie that they simply need to decode this, recognize that, and analyze that and that and that, and they’ll be able to ‘read.’
While this can work well to emphasize the work that real literacy requires, there’s little wonder why students are increasingly seeking briefer, more visual, social, and dynamic media. Because not only are these media forms effortlessly entertaining, they rarely require meaningful investment of themselves.
And it is this kind of connection that makes reading–or any other media consumption for that matter–feel alive and vibrant and whole. When readers are younger, there is a natural ‘give’ between the reader and the text, their imaginations still raw and green and alive.
But as readers grow older, there is less give–and more need for texts to be contextualized differently.
There is a spirituality involved in reading (really) that is challenging to promote only in the classroom. (That is, not at home, at social or recreational events, but only at school, where it will always be a kind of naked.)
Cognitively, a student ‘makes sense’ of a text through a perfectly personal schema—that is, through the symbols and patterns and enthusiasm and suffering and meaning in their own lives. Students can’t simply be encouraged to ‘bring themselves’ and their own experiences to a text; they have to realize that any grasp of the text decays almost immediately if they don’t.
Without that inward, reflective pattern where students acknowledge the sheer craziness of reading–where they are asked to merge two realities (the text, and themselves)—then that process will always be industrial. Mechanical.
A matter of literacy and ‘career readiness.’
Other.
It’s interesting that we give students mechanical tools that, even used well, can break the text beyond recognition, then wonder why they don’t appreciate Shakespeare or Berry or Faulkner or Dickinson.
We try to divorce the reader from the reading.
The nuance and complexity of literature is its magic. But students dislike reading raised in data-loud, image-based, form-full, socialized and self-important circumstances aren’t accustomed to that kind of selfless—and terrifying–interaction.
The self-reflection true literacy requires is horrifying! To closely examine who we are and what we think we know by studying another parallel examination from another human being who put their thinking in the form of a novel, short story, poem, or essay! You’re not just ‘reading’ another person’s thoughts, but you’re pouring yourself into their marrow.
No wonder they skim.
Most readers are already working from a disadvantaged position, where they view themselves as not only distinct from the text (false), but somehow further along in time and priority, as if they are being brought to some text to see if it’s worth their time.
And so they sit with it only long enough to see if it entertains them, neglecting the most fundamental tenet of literacy: Interdependence.
The Irony Of Reading
In reading, you’re simply uncovering something you’ve always been a part of. Instincts you’ve always had. Circumstances you’ve long been afraid of. Events and ideas and insights you’ve struggled to put into words but have just found right there on the page.
Your brain can’t understand it any other way.
Compared to media experiences most modern students gravitate easily towards–Instagram, facebook, Epic Fail YouTube channels, video games—reading also lacks the immediate spectacle that can catalyze the experience. Something that lights them up inside at a basic knee-jerk level, and will keep them from having to go any further.
Reading isn’t a show. (Not at first anyhow.) It doesn’t exist to make them LOL. (Though it might.) But they often turn the page hoping to be passively entertained. Ironically then, reading isn’t ‘built’ for what we use it for in education. Reading is hugely personal but in education, we often focus on the mechanics instead of the people and the strategies instead of the living and breathing happening all around us.
Reading involves process and tools and strategies, but it isn’t any of those things.
The Ecology Of Reading
It’d be easy to blame the ecology of it all. To suggest that Huckleberry Finn was only interesting because Minecraft wasn’t around to compare it to. Or to blame social media for distracting everyone.
And this is all part of it. Their habits and access to complex texts and personal affinities matter. There is an ecology that schools and students and texts and literacy operate within–an interdependence–that is there whether we choose to honor it or not. A lot of this is much bigger than you and I as teachers.
But that doesn’t excuse us from our own failures in how we teach reading in schools. We give students processes for writing and tools for reading without stopping to humanize the whole effort. Mechanized literacy has all sorts of troubling implications.
You and I–we teach students to overvalue their own opinions when they’re still often baseless and uninformed, which is like teaching them to read without helping them to truly understand why they should read.
We fail to help them navigate the blessed, intimidating, awkward otherness of reading that makes it rise.
And so we lose the reader—the real person–in the process.
Digital portfolios help students document growth, reflect on learning, and share progress over time. The tools below work across grade levels (K–20) and disciplines.
Best for: PreK–8 | Platform: Web, iOS, Android | Price: Free tier; school/district plans available
Student-friendly portfolios with voice, video, drawings, and family access. Easy teacher feedback and timelines of learning. Teachers can assign activities, track growth, and share student progress with parents securely.
Best for: Grades 6–12 & higher ed | Platform: Web, iOS, Android | Price: Free basic; advanced district features available
Competency- and standards-aligned portfolios with goal-setting, evidence uploads, and teacher/peer feedback. SpacesEDU supports reflection prompts, goal tracking, and parent communication, making it a strong modern replacement for traditional binders.
Best for: Middle school–college | Platform: Web | Price: Included with Google Workspace for Education
Simple site-style portfolios that embed Docs, Slides, and Drive files; easy to publish privately or publicly. Often used for capstone or teaching portfolios, it integrates well with Google Classroom and requires no design experience.
Best for: All levels, especially secondary/higher ed | Platform: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Price: Included with Microsoft 365 Education
Process portfolios with sections for each student, content libraries, and collaboration spaces; supports ink, audio, files, and feedback. It’s effective for digital journaling and iterative reflection across subjects and terms.
Best for: Grades 5–college | Platform: Web, iOS, Android | Price: Free for eligible K–12; higher-ed options available
Students design polished portfolio pages, resumes, and showcases with templates; easy sharing and export. Canva supports collaboration, commenting, and multimedia uploads, allowing visual and academic work to coexist seamlessly.
Best for: K–8 (scales up for creative courses) | Platform: Web, iPad | Price: Free tier; paid upgrades
Multimedia “book” portfolios blending text, images, audio, and video—great for storytelling and project collections. Teachers can organize class libraries and encourage peer feedback within a safe, moderated digital space.
Best for: High school & college | Platform: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Price: Free Plus plan for students/teachers; org plans available
Flexible workspace for artifact curation, reflection, goal tracking, and public portfolio pages. Notion is excellent for self-directed learners managing independent research, project-based courses, or professional growth evidence.
Best for: All levels | Platform: Web, iOS, Android | Price: Free
Curate links, media, and files into collections with written reflections—useful for research and showcase portfolios. Educators can create templates for students to collect work samples, citations, and media artifacts in one place.
Best for: K–12 & early college | Platform: Web, iOS, Android | Price: Free tier; classroom/school plans available
Visual boards for collecting artifacts, reflections, and peer feedback; quick to set up for class-wide portfolios. Great for visual learners and quick reflection activities, allowing teachers to moderate and comment on submissions.
Best for: All levels using Google Workspace | Platform: Web, iOS, Android | Price: Included with Google Workspace for Education
Organize artifacts over time via assignments and Drive folders; students can compile work into Google Sites for final portfolios. Teachers can track skill development, attach rubrics, and guide reflection using shared templates.
Best for: Secondary & higher ed using Canvas LMS | Platform: Web | Price: Included with Canvas
Students create ePortfolios (a.k.a. Folio) to collect coursework and experiences; supports sharing beyond the LMS. Many universities use Canvas portfolios for capstones, internships, and program-wide learning outcome assessment.
Create portfolio pages and multimedia stories with templates; publish or export for showcases and applications. Students can integrate video, audio, and text for professional-looking creative portfolios that demonstrate digital literacy.
If you’ve used AR (Accelerated Reader) as a reading motivation tool to set goals and track progress, you’re undoubtedly aware of its ability to assess general reading levels as well.
The problem is, measuring reading level is really outside of its sweet spot as a literacy tool, with better resources available from DRA, DIBELS, Lexile, Reading Recovery, and Rigby, among others.
There is also the issue of availability, with most schools only using one or two of these tools, primarily in early elementary school. But what happens if you need to convert a general level from one program to another?
The Lexile Framework is the most commonly used tool in U.S. schools. It measures both text complexity and a student’s reading ability on the same scale.
Pros: Integrated into many platforms (e.g., MAP Growth, Achieve3000), easy to match books to student level
Cons: Doesn’t account for background knowledge or interest
Best for: Grades 2+, especially when used with adaptive assessments
There are many ways to encourage a child, but for students of any age, honest, authentic, and persistent messages from adults that have credibility in their eyes are among the most powerful.
The National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning has put together a graphic below–50 Ways To Encourage A Child. It was designed for younger students (head start/kindergarten), so we thought we’d create another list more diverse in the types of praises and to students of different ages and grade levels.
You can find our list immediately below and their graphic after.
A new interactive resource from the National Council on Teacher Quality calls into question the efficacy of the traditional classroom model, underscoring how it isn’t structured to help teachers succeed.
The resource, Reimagining the Teaching Role: How Strategic Staffing Can Attract and Retain Effective Teachers, illustrates how more modern teacher staffing strategies like team teaching, paying an expert teacher more to take on larger classes, and creating new teacher-leadership roles, can improve teacher retention, alleviate hiring challenges, and ultimately give more students access to high-quality teachers.
Today, in any given classroom, students arrive with varying degrees of knowledge and skill. Teachers are often unrealistically expected to meet the individual academic needs for each child all by themselves, with little support. They largely work alone and without opportunity to advance their careers. In fact, only 26 percent of teachers agree that the teaching profession is dynamic, meaning that it has role flexibility and opportunities for growth and leadership. (Sources: Learning Policy Institute & Educators for Excellence.)
As a result, teachers experience high levels of work-related stress, which leads to declining job satisfaction and higher turnover rates. During the 2022–23 school year, just over 40 percent of public schools in low-income areas and those with mostly students of color were fully staffed. Additionally, teachers don’t stay in the profession as long as they used to. If you polled teachers on their years of experience in 1988, you would have found “15 years” to be the most common response. By 2016, the most common response was “one to three” years of experience. (Source: Ingersoll, R. M., Merrill, E., Stuckey, D., & Collins, G. (2018). Seven trends: The transformation of the teaching force)
Reimagining the teaching role offers a bold solution through innovative strategic staffing structures that make the profession more attractive and sustainable for teachers–and can ultimately boost student learning outcomes.
“Just as the Ford Model T doesn’t serve today’s transportation needs, the traditional model of teaching from the same era isn’t working well for many students and teachers,” said NCTQ President Heather Peske. “States need to take action to catalyze innovative staffing models and districts must capitalize on these opportunities to attract and retain teachers who are going to help our students succeed.”
The new NCTQ resource highlights how state policies have the potential to either help or hinder a district’s ability to implement a better approach to staffing classrooms. While the analysis found that state policy is not a barrier in many cases, there are four key policy areas where states can do more to support innovations:
Class size
Class size and student-teacher ratio laws can stymie strategic staffing models by not allowing more than one adult in the same classroom to be assigned to support students, or they may prohibit a highly effective teacher from taking on additional students, even with additional support and pay.
Five states do not allow districts to request a waiver on class-size or student-teacher ratio restrictions, 25 states allow waivers, and 20 states and the District of Columbia do not address class-size or student-teacher ratio in policy.
Teachers as observers
When policy restricts the ability of teachers to be formal observers, it limits career pathways for teachers who do not want to be administrators yet want to serve in a leadership capacity. It also limits districts’ ability to think creatively about reconfiguring roles to deliver more support to help teachers grow.
Thirteen states block teachers from formally observing other teachers, 28 states allow teachers to observe other teachers, and nine states and D.C. are silent on the issue.
Team outcomes
Districts need flexibility to create team-based accountability, where teachers are held accountable for team outcomes. At present, 30 states include student growth as one measure in teacher evaluation.
Eleven states do not allow districts to attribute team outcomes to teacher evaluations, 21 states do allow it, and 18 states and D.C. do not address the issue in state policy.
Restrictions on the use of support staff and time
Restricting the roles of paraprofessionals, residents, and other support staff too harshly limits how schools can think creatively about tapping into all the adults in the building to best meet student needs. When state policy limits the time teachers have to collaborate, it can impede team-based approaches to instruction.
Fourteen states have policies that restrict the use of support staff or teachers’ time, which may restrict new models or collaboration, and 36 states and DC do not restrict teachers’ time or how support staff are used.
Additionally, only eight states provide some type of supplemental pay for teacher leadership roles beyond mentoring novice or aspiring teachers, meaning even if policy were to allow for these innovative staffing models, many states are not structured to compensate teachers for the additional leadership responsibilities they would assume.
State leaders are uniquely positioned to create opportunities for school districts to reimagine the teaching role by helping districts pilot new staffing models; leading them to evaluate the outcomes of the models and share what works; offering waivers from restrictive policies (like class size), if they have a plan and commit to tracking outcomes; and funding the design, development and evaluation of the models.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
Admit it–you only read the list of the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, not the whole book that explains each level and the rationale behind the Taxonomy. Not to worry, you are not alone: this is true for most educators.
But that efficiency comes with a price. Many educators have a mistaken view of the Taxonomy and the levels in it, as the following errors suggest. And arguably the greatest weakness of the Common Core Standards is to avoid being extra-careful in their use of cognitive-focused verbs, along the lines of the rationale for the Taxonomy.
1. The first two or three levels of the Taxonomy involve ‘lower-order’ and the last three or four levels involve ‘higher-order’ thinking.
This is false. The only lower-order goal is ‘Knowledge’ since it uniquely requires mere recall in testing. Furthermore, it makes no sense to think that ‘Comprehension’ – the 2nd level – requires only lower-order thought:
The essential behavior in interpretation is that when given a communication the student can identify and comprehend the major ideas which are included in it as well as understand their interrelationships. This requires a nice sense of judgment and caution in reading into the document one’s own ideas and interpretations. It also requires some ability to go beyond mere rephrasing of parts of the document to determine the larger and more general ideas in it. The interpreter must also recognize the limits within which interpretations can be drawn.
Not only is this higher-order thinking – summary, main idea, conditional and cautious reasoning, etc.–it is a level not reached by half of our students in reading. And by the way: the phrases ‘lower-order’ and ‘higher-order’ appear nowhere in the Taxonomy.
2. “Application” requires hands-on learning.
This is not true, a misreading of the word “apply”, as the text makes clear. We apply ideas to situations, e.g. you may comprehend Newton’s 3 Laws or the Writing Process but can you solve novel problems related to it – without prompting? That’s application:
The whole cognitive domain of the taxonomy is arranged in a hierarchy, that is, each classification within it demands the skills and abilities which are lower in the classification order. The Application category follows this rule in that to apply something requires “comprehension” of the method, theory, principle or abstraction applied. Teachers frequently say, “If a student really comprehends something then he can apply it.”
A problem in the comprehension category requires the student to know an abstraction well enough that he can correctly demonstrate its use when specifically asked to do so. “Application,” however, requires a step beyond this. Given a problem new to the student, he will apply the appropriate abstraction without having to be prompted as to which abstraction is correct or without having to be shown how to do it in this situation.
Note the key phrases: Given a problem new to the student, he will apply the appropriateabstraction without having to be prompted. Thus, “application” is really a synonym for “transfer”.
In fact, the authors strongly assert the primacy of application/transfer of learning:
The fact that most of what we learn is intended for application to problem situations in real life is indicative of the importance of application objectives in the general curriculum. The effectiveness of a large part of the school program is therefore dependent upon how well the students carry over into situations applications which the students never faced in the learning process. Those of you familiar with educational psychology will recognize this as the age-old problem of transfer of training. Research studies have shown that comprehending an abstraction does not certify that the individual will be able to apply it correctly. Students apparently also need practice in restructuring and classifying situations so that the correct abstraction applies.
Why UbD is what it is. In Application problems must be new; students must judge which prior learning applies, without prompting or hints from scaffolded worksheets; and students must get training and have practice in how to handle non-routine problems. We designed UbD, in part, backward from Bloom’s definition of Application.
As for instruction in support of the aim of transfer (and different types of transfer), the authors soberingly note this:
“We have also attempted to organize some of the literature on growth, retention, and transfer of the different types of educational outcomes or behaviors. Here we find very little relevant research. … Many claims have been made for different educational procedures…but seldom have these been buttressed by research findings.”
3. All the verbs listed under each level of the Taxonomy are more or less equal; they are synonyms for the level.
No, there are distinct sub-levels of the Taxonomy, in which the cognitive difficulty of each sub-level increases.
For example, under Knowledge, the lowest-level form is Knowledge of Terminology, where a more demanding form of recall is Knowledge of the Major Ideas, Schemes and Patterns in a field of study, and where the highest level of Knowledge is Knowledge of Theories and Structures (for example, knowing the structure and organization of Congress.)
Under Comprehension, the three sub-levels in order of difficulty are Translation, Interpretation, and Extrapolation. Main Idea in literacy, for example, falls under Interpretation since it demands more than “translating” the text into one’s own words, as noted above.
4. The Taxonomy recommends against the goal of “understanding” in education.
Only in the sense of the term “understand” being too broad. Rather, the Taxonomy helps us to more clearly delineate the different levels of understanding we seek:
To return to the illustration of the term “understanding” a teacher might use the Taxonomy to decide which of several meanings he intended. If it meant that the student was…aware of a situation…to describe it in terms slightly different from those originally used in describing it, this would correspond to the taxonomy category of “translation” [which is a sub-level under Comprehension]. Deeper understanding would be reflected in the next-higher level of the Taxonomy, “interpretation,” where the student would be expected to summarize and explain… And there are other levels of the Taxonomy which the teacher could use to indicate still deeper “understanding.”
5. The writers of the Taxonomy were confident that the Taxonomy was a valid and complete Taxonomy
No they weren’t. They note that:
“Our attempt to arrange educational behaviors from simple to complex was based on the idea that a particular simple behavior may become integrated with other equally simple behaviors to form a more complex behavior… Our evidence on this is not entirely satisfactory, but there is an unmistakable trend pointing toward a hierarchy of behaviors.
They were concerned especially that no single theory of learning and achievement–
“accounted for the varieties of behaviors represented in the educational objectives we attempted to classify. We were reluctantly forced to agree with Hilgard that each theory of learning accounts for some phenomena very well but is less adequate in accounting for others. What is needed is a larger synthetic theory of learning than at present seems available.
Later schemas – such as Webb’s Depth of Knowledge and the revised Taxonomy – do nothing to solve this basic problem, with implications for all modern Standards documents.
Why This All Matters
The greatest failure of the Common Core Standards is arguably to have overlooked these issues by being arbitrary/careless in the use of verbs in the Standards.
There appears to have been no attempt to be precise and consistent in the use of the verbs in the Standards, thus making it almost impossible for users to understand the level of rigor prescribed by the standard, hence levels of rigor required in local assessments. (Nothing is said in any documents about how deliberate those verb choices were, but I know from prior experience in New Jersey and Delaware that verbs are used haphazardly – in fact, writing teams start to vary the verbs just to avoid repetition!)
The problem is already on view: in many schools, the assessments are less rigorous than the Standards and practice tests clearly demand. No wonder the scores are low. I’ll have more to say on this problem in a later post, but my prior posts on Standards provide further background on the problem we face.
Update: Already people are arguing with me on Twitter as if I agree with everything said here. I nowhere say here that Bloom was right about the Taxonomy. (His doubts about his own work suggest my real views, don’t they?) I am merely reporting what he said and what is commonly misunderstood. In fact, I am re-reading Bloom as part of a critique of the Taxonomy in support of the revised 3rd edition of UbD in which we call for a more sophisticated view of the idea of depth and rigor in learning and assessment than currently exists.
There are many ways to encourage a child, but for students of any age, honest, authentic, and persistent messages from adults that have credibility in their eyes are among the most powerful.
The National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning has put together the following list, 50 Ways To Encourage A Child. It was designed for younger students (head start/kindergarten), but with the exception of 4, 17, 21, and maybe 40, they’re actually useful for K-12 in general. It all depends on your tone, the situation, and who else is listening.
In addition, they’ve got a couple of other useful documents under their tips for fostering teacher connections series you can check out as well.
contributed by Dr. Kymm Ballard, Executive Director for SPARK
Think about any time you’ve seen “army boot camp” portrayed in pop culture — are you picturing the traditional drill sergeant, ordering his troops to do endless laps and push-ups, as punishment for their errors that day?
Now, with that scenario in your mind, imagine it being played out by children and teenagers at school — and instead of drill sergeants, their teachers are at the helm. Believe it or not, it’s actually quite common in certain areas of the country for teachers to have students do physical activities as punishment for misbehaving.
While this may have been perceived decades ago as a way to ‘toughen kids up,’ it’s a trend that ought to be falling out of favor by now – particularly when children today are already less likely to be active than generations before them.
If you’re a teacher yourself, you know how impressionable students can be. Reinforcing the idea that exercise equals punishment promotes negative feelings towards physical activity.
While some feel that running a few laps as punishment sounds reasonable, this can have an adverse effect on a child’s psyche that lasts for decades. Researchers have found that PE teachers and coaches think physical punishment is an effective way to show students that there are consequences to their actions; they’re not wrong, and in fact, that’s exactly the problem. Physical punishment happens to work a little too well.
When we demand physical activlity to punish misconduct, the message we’re sending — loud and clear — is that physical exercise is a terribly unpleasant activity, and something we all should try to avoid. And, our children are certainly hearing it. At a time when not enough children (or adults, for that matter) are getting the recommended amount of daily exercise, the last thing we should do is reinforce the idea that physical activity is something to dread. If kids are already trying to find reasons to be less active, viewing exercise as a punishment is all the more reason not to do it.
This mentality can carry over into adulthood as well, leading to an aversion towards physical exercise for the rest of one’s life – naturally pushing a person in the direction of inactivity, obesity, and other health problems. The goal of any physical educator should be to teach students that exercise is a positive and productive way to spend time, rather than something to rebel against.
To add to the pile of psychological and physical health repercussions of this trend, there’s even more serious reason not to use physical education as punishment: it could be illegal in your state.
That’s right. It’s actually against the law in 29 states – deemed a form of corporal punishment. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) states that “Administering or withholding physical activity as a form of punishment and/or behavior management is an inappropriate practice.”
So while your school’s PE teacher or team coach may think it’s perfectly fine to have students run drills as a disciplinary measure, it might be breaking the law – and acting against the best interest of the students.
Better Alternatives for Student Discipline
Teachers and coaches often struggle to find methods for disciplining students that are both appropriate and effective. This may account for why some still prefer to go the route of physical education as punishment; it’s easy to dole out, it’s over fairly quickly, and a heavy workout can wear a student out by exhausting them. For the sake of the children and their future physical health habits (not to mention the law), teachers and coaches should avoid the easy route, and strive to find more appropriate ways to discipline the class troublemakers.
On the flip side of this trend, some teachers go in the opposite direction, banning misbehaving students from participating in recess; in fact, 77% of teachers prevent children from taking part in recess in order to diminish bad behavior. Unfortunately, this extreme isn’t ideal, either.
Taking away children’s outlets for exercise can also skew their perception of activity and participation. Although the presumption is that children will learn that getting exercise is a privilege (the opposite of using it as punishment), it also eliminates their daily chance to interact socially and physically at school. Researchers have found that recess acts a “reset button” for students’ cognitive function, so removing it (for any reason, good or bad) can actually set students up for failure the rest of the day.
Instead, look into disciplinary tactics that don’t involve the threat of overexertion, or forced physicality. Children, especially in their formative years, need to be able to develop their own boundaries when it comes to their own comfort with physical activity. Though it’s good to keep them moving – which is why banning recess is a bad idea – pushing them into exercise under negative circumstances leaves a lasting impression. The important thing should be to promote physical activity (through phys ed classes, recess, and so on) as a fun and positive way to spend time.
If you’re facing ongoing issues with a student and you’re at a loss, talk to your school administrators to see what they advise as appropriate punishment. Disciplinary tactics may include calling a meeting with the student’s parents, or assigning detention. While there can be some argument for banning a student from participating in sport, it can be looked at as a last measure to try to curb negative behavior.
Make Exercise Fun, not Fearful
Physical education teachers and coaches know, better than anyone, the importance of physical activity for a long and healthy life. They’ve devoted their careers to instilling healthy values in children, and inspiring positive associations with exercise. They may not realize that sometimes, their attempts at discipline are acting against those very values.
Forcing students to run laps or do push-ups as penance for bad behavior has long-ranging effects that may turn them away from physical activity altogether. Even just threatening to add extra sit ups, jumping jacks, and drills — whether you act on it or not — promotes an unhealthy aversion towards exercise, as a weapon that can be used as a threat.
Keep the focus on activity as a positive and fun pastime, rather than something to be feared — it’ll go a long way towards fostering a lifelong love of movement.
4 Dos and Don’t For Physical Education In The Classroom
Here are four dos and four don’ts for incorporating physical education into the classroom:
Dos
Do integrate short physical activities: Incorporate brief movement breaks or exercises between lessons to help students stay focused and energized.
Do promote inclusivity: Ensure all students, regardless of physical ability, can participate in physical activities by offering modified exercises or alternative options.
Do link physical activities to academic content: Use movement-based activities to reinforce learning, such as using physical games to practice math or spelling.
Do encourage teamwork and cooperation: Design activities that promote collaboration and communication among students, fostering social skills and a sense of community.
Don’ts
Don’t use physical activity as a punishment: Avoid making students do physical exercises as a consequence for misbehavior, as it can create negative associations with physical activity.
Don’t focus solely on competition: While competitive games can be fun, ensure they are balanced with non-competitive activities to avoid alienating students who may not excel in sports.
Don’t neglect safety: Always prioritize safety by providing clear instructions, ensuring the physical space is free of hazards, and supervising activities closely.
Don’t disregard individual differences: Recognize that students have different fitness levels and abilities, and avoid pushing students beyond their limits or comparing them to one another.
Dr. Kymm Ballard is the Executive Director for SPARK, a division of School Specialty, Inc. Kymm is the former Physical Education, Athletics and Sports Medicine Consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Her professional experiences include service for more than a decade as a physical education teacher, several years as an administrator and the co-developer of North Carolina’s first high school demonstration school. Kymm’s direct service to children influences her work at the national level today. She wrote, advocated for and promoted the Healthy Active Children Policy of the NC State Board of Education and the state’s Standards for Physical Education
While most teachers and students have so much to look forward to as the new school year begins, at times the groans you will hear from the students are almost as loud as the more subtle groans of the teachers. The end of summer is always seen as a tragic end to freedom and fun. Like on Mondays, when the whole long week seems to loom threateningly in front of you, new school years can sometimes fill you with the same sort of dread. The good news is that dread is only based on imagined outcomes.
Your classroom indeed feeds off your energy. You are handed a classroom full of students excited to return but not so enthusiastic to study. You can even use their summer slide to your advantage and bring back the joy of learning. It isn’t as monumental a task as it seems.
Ideas For Easing Students Back to School
1. Reboot your teaching techniques
The new school year presents you with an unbelievable opportunity to start afresh. This means you can spend quality time with yourself, reflecting on the things that went well in the past year and the things you can revise and improve. It’s always a good idea to find out who is in your class and to start personalized learning. Introduce technology into your classroom, use more visual aids, and make your lessons more practical. It’s a good time to create goals that promote student-centric learning.
2. Create a Welcoming Environment
No matter your students’ age, we are all visual creatures. Returning to a drab and grey class can put most people off the idea of learning. Make their return a thing to celebrate. Throw a welcome back party. Open up the windows. Add some color to the room. Create student boards they want to be featured on. There are are a million things you could do depending on how much time and access you have to resources.
Decorate the Classroom: Use vibrant and welcoming decorations. Consider themes that are engaging and inclusive.
Personalize the Space: Allow students to bring something from home to decorate their desks or classroom bulletin boards.
3. Establish Routines Early
Morning Meetings: Start the day with a meeting to set the tone and review the schedule.
Consistent Schedules: Maintain a consistent schedule to help students feel secure and understand expectations.
4. Icebreaker Activities
Get-to-Know-You Games: Activities like “Two Truths and a Lie” or “Find Someone Who” can help students learn about each other.
Team-Building Exercises: Simple team-building activities can foster community and collaboration.
6. Engage in Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness Exercises: Start the day or transition times with short mindfulness exercises to help students focus and reduce anxiety.
7. Incorporate Fun Learning Activities
Interactive Learning: Use games and interactive activities to review material from the previous year.
Creative Projects: Assign creative projects that allow students to express themselves and share their summer experiences.
8. Talk to Parents/Families
Parent Newsletters: Send home newsletters to keep parents informed and involved in the back-to-school process.
Open House Events: Host an open house for parents to see the classroom and meet the teacher.
Provide Emotional Support
Check-Ins: Regularly check in with students to see their feelings and address any concerns.
Counseling Resources: Ensure students are aware of counseling resources available to them.
9. Set Goals and Expectations
Goal Setting: Help students set personal and academic goals for the year.
Classroom Contracts: Create a classroom contract with input from students to establish clear expectations and responsibilities.
10. Rewind & Recap
There is no point in starting your lessons if your students will see stars anyway. Use the first week to ease them back into your classroom processes by exciting them. Time is of the essence, but there is no debating the importance of a good foundation. Remember how you hated Math when the concepts the teacher taught you went over your head? Do you think you would have understood better if you were more comfortable–not just engaged, but at ease in the classroom?
One idea? Create an elaborate hangman game: Divide the class into teams and divide their lessons. Each group will have to think up words for the other groups to guess. Once the word is guessed correctly, the group can explain the term/concept.
11. Use Video Games
Also, consider teaching with video games. You will see that gamification and using new-age media in education can be powerful tools to ease students back into the classroom. You may find students—especially those put off by a traditional classroom—completely at ease when dealing with video games and related technology. One example is this small town in Mexico that is unleashing a new generation of geniuses using the very simple concept of self-study and technology.
Let your students enjoy a couple of hours a week in the computer lab, engaging in online learning games, discovering things about a subject a textbook can’t teach you. After all, kids learn and retain these lessons better when they use them practically – even if they only have access to a virtual lab.
12. Create A Simple Game Show
Host your own game show: I know pop quizzes are a universally hated concept but imagine you play it in the style of your favorite game show – Minute to Win It, Hollywood Squares, Family Feud, and one quiz show I recently discovered on my trip to England – Never Mind the Buzzcocks. If you cannot pick the kind of quiz format you want to follow, you could always divide the class into teams and each group could pick a format and create their own quizzes around foundation topics that are important to know this year. Create fun rounds, each round carrying certain points. Add a buzzer to the mixture and you are all ready to go.
Take a deep breath, brew yourself some nice tea, and sit back. The ideas in your head will become a concrete plan, and going back to school will seem like a cinch this year. Whatever your plans for your class this year, know that you are going to be amazing, and in being that, you’re going to let your class come into its own.
Team-building activities are great–especially for the first day of school or early in the school year,
Not only can they help establish routines, tone, and expectations, they’re also fun, and can help learners feel comfortable. Though many older students in high school and college may groan at their thought, they’re usually fun, and great ways to help students feel at ease. Before you dismiss them as too juvenile, try one. You might be surprised.
Note that which game you choose, your rules for the game, and any revisions to the rules depend on the nature of the class you’re using them with. Certain students may feel overly liberated—especially in middle school—with the idea of a ‘game,’ and so expectations must be carefully given to younger K-8 learners—and even 9-12—to ensure that every student is set up for success.
10 Team-Building Games For The First Day Of School
1. Me Too!
Ideal Grade Levels: K-20
The first student gives a fact about themselves—I love basketball, I have two sisters, etc. If that statement or fact is true about another student, they stand up and say “Me too!” They can also stay seated, but simply raise their hand and say “Me too!”
2. Park Bench
Ideal Grade Levels: 6-20
Two chairs are placed together to resemble a park bench. Two students volunteer—or are selected—to act out ‘what happened’ in a fictional news story. They are given one minute to prepare a scene where they discuss the ‘event’ without ever actually saying what happened. After given time period (1-5 minutes), peers guess ‘what happened,’ but they must give up all four important details: Who, What, Where, and When, e.g.:
What: College Basketball game
Who: Any two college or professional sports teams
When: Early April
Where: New Orleans
3. Fact or Fiction
Ideal Grade Levels: 3-12
In a circle, the first student offers two facts and one piece of fiction about themselves. Others raise their hand or are called on to identify which were facts, and which were fiction. The correct guesser goes next. Play is completed when all students have gone.
4. Green Door
Ideal Grade Levels: 5-20
A leader chooses a topic, but keeps it quiet, only saying that “You can bring a ____ through the green door.” Students are then forced to deduce the topic by asking if other things can be brought through the green door as well, e.g., “Can I bring a _____ through the green door?”
The leader can only reply yes or no. When a topic is identified, topic resets. Topics can be content-related, such as parts of speech, colors, geometric figures, historical figures, etc.
5. One Minute Talk
Ideal Grade Levels: 5-20
Students are chosen to give 60-second talks on anything, from self-selected topics they are passionate about, have specific expertise in, etc., to topics given from teacher. Classmates can then follow-up with one thing–no matter how innocuous–that they can ‘connect’ to or is somehow related to their life.
6. Count to Ten
Ideal Grade Levels: 3-20
All students stand in a circle. The first student says ‘1,’ or ‘1, 2.’ The next student picks up where that student left off and can say a maximum number of 2 numbers. The movement continues clockwise until it gets to 10, where that student has to sit, and the game starts back over at 1 at the next student.
Note that there can be no pausing or silent counting—any pauses or indications the student is counting/calculating forces them to sit. Also, pouting or talking during counting results in elimination from future rounds. The big idea is to count strategically so that you can keep from saying ’10.’
Students form a circle. The first student says something they’ve never done. Each student that has done the thing the other student has not steps briefly into the center. The game continues until every person has stated something they’ve done.
8. Magic Ball
Ideal Grade Levels: K-20
Students form a circle. The first student is ‘given’ an imaginary magic ball. The student sculpts an imaginary ball into a new shape, handing it to the person to their right. The activity is silent. Any talking/noise results in student sitting. After the game, guessing may be done to predict what ‘sculpture’ was.
9. Silent Line
Ideal Grade Levels: K-8
Students are given criteria, and must silently put themselves in a line as quickly as possible, to meet a goal, compete against other classes, or receive some reward (free reading time, no homework, etc.) The criteria can simple (birthdays), or slightly more complicated (alphabetical order of college or career ambition).
10. Inside-Outside Circle
Ideal Grade Levels: 3-20
Students form a circle within a circle with (ideally) an equal number of students in both circles. Inside circle members pair with outside circle members. Activity leader (usually teacher, but can be a student) presents a topic, prompt, or question.
Partners share for 10 seconds (or less), the leader asks inside the circle to move clockwise a certain number of spaces to collaborate with new partners directly across from them. This is usually content focuses and helps spur quick discussion on content-related topics, or even current events.
10 Team-Building Games For The First Day Of School; Source ‘The Advisory Book’ by Linda Crawford
BLOOMINGTON, MN – Renaissance, a global leader in pre-K–12 education technology resources and insights, announces the launch of Renaissance Next, a uniquely powerful new teacher experience that aims to transform classroom instruction and empower educators with in-the-moment recommendations to support their most critical decisions.
“We started out by asking the question that is on the mind of every educator as they consider what’s next in their classroom: ‘How do I provide each learner with the right support, help, or acceleration?’” said Todd Brekhus, Chief Product Officer at Renaissance. “That’s what led us to create Renaissance Next, which gives teachers actionable insights and quality instructional resources to meet their students’ needs.”
Renaissance Next provides teachers with real-time recommendations in the classroom, combining accurate assessment, purposeful practice activities, and instructional data in a single view.
Integrating key products from the Renaissance ecosystem, including Star Assessments, Freckle, Accelerated Reader, myON, and Lalilo, while surfacing recommended Nearpod resources based on math and ELA assessment performance, Renaissance Next harnesses the power of these tools to offer educators in-the-moment insights to guide teaching and learning. Teachers can quickly view students’ performance, understand each student’s progress and skill mastery, and review relevant lesson plans and activities to adapt, amplify, or adjust.
“Renaissance Next gives me a quick glimpse of where my kids are, where they need to go, and what I need to do,” said Julia Witges, a third-grade teacher at Carbondale Elementary School District 95 in Illinois, and a Renaissance Next beta tester. “It provides all of these tools that make my job so much easier, including the ability to differentiate down to individual student needs.”
Thousands of teachers with access to Renaissance products beta tested the new platform, which presents data that schools can use to inform decisions ranging from individual student learning to the district as a whole. The teachers’ feedback helped to shape the design of Renaissance Next, ensuring that it meets a wide variety of classroom needs.
“We plan to embed insights from Renaissance Next across our district and systems,” said Janice Pavelonis, the superintendent of Carbondale Elementary School District 95. “Renaissance Next complements our strategic plan for the 2024–2025 school year, which involves students understanding their own data and progress, and setting their own goals, with support from and in consultation with their teachers.”
The insights and recommendations for differentiated instruction offered through Renaissance Next are made possible, in part, through the strategic use of AI. During development, Renaissance leveraged AI to better catalog its large library of pre-K‒12 instructional resources and practice activities, so that this content would be more readily accessible to educators in the classroom.
“The Renaissance database is a rich resource that incorporates over 38 years of real student and teacher data and insights,” said Brekhus. “The Renaissance Next platform brings those insights to teachers so they can truly see every student, and it leverages lesson and activity recommendations to accelerate learning for all.”
About Renaissance As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 100 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
And more importantly, when should you use which? If curriculum is the what of teaching and learning models are the how, assessment is the puzzled ‘Hmmmm’–as in, I assumed this and this about student learning, but after giving this assessment, well….’Hmmmmm.’
In The Difference Between Assessment Of Learning And Assessment For Learning, we explained that “assessment for learning is commonly referred to as formative assessment–that is, assessment designed to inform instruction.” Below, we identify types of assessment of learning–very briefly, with simple ways to ‘think about’ each so that you hopefully wake up with a better grasp of each type.
6 Types Of Assessment Of Learning
1. Diagnostic Assessment (as Pre-Assessment)
Diagnostic assessments are used at the beginning of a course or unit to determine students’ prior knowledge, skills, and understanding of the subject matter. This type of assessment helps teachers identify students’ strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to plan instruction that meets their students’ specific needs. Examples include pre-tests, surveys, or initial observations.
One way to think about it: Assesses a student’s strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills before instruction
Another way to think about it: A baseline to work from
Tip: Done at the beginning–of the school year, beginning of a unit, beginning of a lesson, etc.
Formative assessments are ongoing processes that teachers use to monitor student learning and provide feedback during instruction. These assessments help teachers adjust their teaching strategies to improve student understanding and performance. Examples include quizzes, class discussions, and homework assignments that inform teachers about student progress.
One way to think about it: Assesses a student’s performance during instruction, and usually occurs regularly throughout the instruction process
Another way to think about it: Like a doctor’s ‘check-up’ to provide data to revise instruction
Tip: Using digital exit ticket tools like Loop can be an easy means of checking whether students have understood lesson content, while also promoting student reflection.
3. Summative Assessment
So what are the different types of assessment of learning? The next time someone says ‘assessment,’ you can say “Which type, and what are we doing with the data?” Summative assessment, for example.
Summative assessments evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional period, such as the end of a unit, course, or school year. These assessments are used to determine if students have met the learning objectives and to assign grades. Examples include final exams, end-of-term projects, and standardized tests.
One way to think about it: Measures a student’s achievement at the end of instruction. It’s like talking to someone about a movie after the movie is over. : )
Another way to think about it: It’s macabre, but if formative assessment is the check-up, you might think of summative assessment as the autopsy. What happened? Now that it’s over, what went right and what went wrong?
Tip: Summative assessments can be useful for teachers to improve units and lessons year over year by measuring student performance because they are, in a way, as much a reflection on the quality of the units and lessons themselves as they are on the students.
4. Norm-Referenced Assessment
One way to think about it: Compares a student’s performance against other students (a national group or other ‘norm’)
Another way to think about it: Place, group or ‘demographic’ assessment. Many standardized tests are used as norm-referenced assessments.
Tip: These assessments are useful over time in student profiles or for placement in national-level programs, for example.
5. Criterion-Referenced Assessment
One way to think about it: Measures a student’s performance against a goal, specific objective, or standard
Another way to think about it: a bar to measure all students against
Tip: These can be a kind of formative assessment and should be integrated throughout your curriculum to guide the adjustment of your teaching over time. Mastery or competency-based learning would use criterion-referenced assessments.
6. Interim/Benchmark Assessment
One way to think about it: Evaluates student performance at periodic intervals, frequently at the end of a grading period. Can predict student performance on end-of-the-year summative assessments. A benchmark assessment is an interim assessment so it could be useful to think of them as distinct even though they function similarly.
Another way to think about it: Bar graph or chart growth throughout a year, often against specific ‘benchmarks’
Tip: Benchmark assessments can be useful for communicating important facts and data to parents, district officials, and others. One goal is to inform the allotment of resources (time and money) to respond to that data.
Bloom’s Taxonomy was a remarkable attempt to create a system of learning that focuses on how people learn and organize content around those natural aptitudes.
Created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956, Bloom’s Taxonomy offered a method and structure to think about thinking. Below, we’ve collected a list of blog posts, apps, tools, videos, and strategies to help educators become more proficient with the system.
