If you are a teacher, you may be considering using a tool known as Formative. Before making a final decision whether to use it or not, you may want to know more about it first. Besides, you may also want to know what the other users who have used this think so that you will be able to make a good decision. So, what is Formative? Is it really good for teachers like you? Check out the review for this below:
About
Details:
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- Grades: 3-12
- Subjects and skills: Communication and collaboration, character &SEL, critical thinking
- Best for: Assessment, formative assessment
Formative is counted as an interactive student response and assessment tool. There is a web and app version of this tool. It is compatible with nearly every device. After the process of signing up, the teachers are able to add classes, which can be done via class code, URL, or through integrations such as Clever or Google Classroom. Then, they are able to take the advantage of detailed tutorials and a library of user-created content. Aside from that, another option is to upload or create assignments on their own. As for the latter, the students will be able to do a few things, including typing, recording audio and video, entering numbers, drawing by using a mouse or their finger (everything depends on the device), uploading an image, answering multiple-choice questions, and so on. Besides, the students can also complete tasks and then submit them to get feedback. If they are asked by the teachers to track their progress over time, they have to make accounts. While it is recommended to create an account, it is actually optional as it is also possible to respond as a guest even without logging in.
There are some different kinds of progress monitoring. They range from real-time formative feedback to a student growth tracker, the one that makes it possible for the teachers to track the progress of the student by standard. There is a dashboard for the teacher that allows them to see the work of the students. In the end, the teachers can either manually or automatically send grades and narrative feedback in response.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
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- Creating simple or detailed assessments can be done easily.
- There is real time monitoring and feedback.
Cons:
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- There is no family access.
- It could use more collaboration.
Reviews
From Common Sense reviewer:
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- Marianne Rogowski, an instructional technology facilitator:
Engagement:
“Students can write, draw, watch or record videos, work out problems, and receive instant feedback from teachers.”
Pedagogy:
“Real-time feedback can help students of all ability levels improve, and the dashboard’s great at-a-glance tracking supports progress monitoring and learning conversations.”
Support:
“Because teachers and students can communicate in so many ways, it’s easy to accommodate different learning needs. Supports for additional languages, fonts, and immersive reader would help teachers reach more learners.”
From community:
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- Meghan L., a classroom teacher:
“Overall, I think Formative is a wonderful formative assessment tool that any educator would benefit from using (if there is access to computers, tablets, cellphones, etc.). I absolutely love the fact I can see the students’ responses on my screen without having to walk laps around my classroom! The instant data is so helpful for catching misconceptions right away and for planning instruction/small groups. Not only do I receive immediate information, but the students can too with real-time feedback. I can extend some students with a higher-level question while providing guiding questions to those who are struggling at the same time using the feedback tool. It was incredibly easy and quick to create my own formative task. The students also found it easy to adjust to this new tool. Despite the simplistic design, my students were engaged the entire time! I would like to continue to explore the different response options and tools within the questions for other subject areas. My students REALLY enjoyed being able to show their work in a digital way while also presenting it to their peers. Two setbacks I did have while using this tool were focusing on an individual’s response and eliminating student responses. When the students were presenting their work to the class, I was not able to figure out how to display an individual response on the whole screen. It would only show up small on the right-hand side. I had to stretch my screen to make their work take up the whole screen. Also, while I was testing out the formative task, I typed in my own responses, along with colleagues, but I could not figure out how to get rid of them without deleting the entire formative. I wish there was a way to delete a student’s response if the need arose. I have reached out to Formative with both of my questions using their online chat box. I will be happy to edit my response with their answers if the site allows me to.” - Karen D., a technology integrationist:
“I LOVE this teaching tool! The only way it could be improved is to have an easier way to draw which could be the use of an external drawing pad. I appreciated the way it showed me “real time” what the students were doing on their machines so I could go over and help them self correct their problems with a short instruction point.” - Cathie G., a classroom teacher:
“Formative is not a game show. If your students have been caught up with fast moving formative assessments, then this is going to be a bit of let down. However, this tool allows students to give longer responses and the ability to think through or explain their thinking. I highly recommend Formative for preassessments and longer worksheets. This application allows teachers to plan for the bigger picture of instruction. As a teacher, I like the ability to see live on my screen how my students are working and thinking concepts through.”
- Meghan L., a classroom teacher:
Bottom Line
Formative is the name of the tool that is well-designed. With this, as a teacher you will be able to collect a lot of different responses from the students and then give them feedback.
AUTHOR BIO
On my daily job, I am a software engineer, programmer & computer technician. My passion is assembling PC hardware, studying Operating System and all things related to computers technology. I also love to make short films for YouTube as a producer. More at about me…
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