Informal assessments after introductory lessons can provide teachers with useful data on the effectiveness of their lessons, allowing teachers to tweak their instructional strategies based on their findings. Informal assessments at the middle of a unit allow teachers to make decisions on reteaching strategies that can clarify any issues before the end of a unit. Finally, informal assessments allow teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their students before formal and state mandated assessments.
Once a new concept is introduced, teachers can ask questions that students can respond to orally or in a written format. Higher-order questioning is a type of ongoing informal assessment that most teachers use frequently during a lesson. Class discussions are another method of informal assessment that teachers can use to both assess students and allow for clarification of complex topics at the same time. More formal assessments like exit slips, tests and quizzes can be given at the end of a period or lesson to determine how effective the previous informal assessments were.
Knowing which informal assessment to use is largely a matter of where you are in your unit. If you just started a new unit, students won’t have a full grasp of the material, so you can give a verbal assessment at the end of the first lesson to check for understanding. Teachers can use a thumbs up or thumbs down assessment; depending on the number of thumbs up or down, the teacher can see if a majority of the class understands the information. However, if you are approaching the end of a unit of study and have conducted numerous informal assessments, it's time to conduct more formal written assessments or quizzes.
Ideally, some sort of informal assessment should be given at the end of each day, so that teachers make sure their lessons were effective and to ensure that students are retaining information. Because informal assessments are not necessarily graded or written, these types of assessments are not time-consuming and should become a regular part of the class routine. Informal assessments are important for teachers to measure student understanding before more formative assessments take place.