“My pencil is broken!” Words we hear and panic- the seemingly quick exit ticket is complicated by materials, and is taking time away from valuable teaching and activity time. Yet, as a teacher that knows the value of formative assessment to drive future instruction, you are not willing to give it up. Below are 2 pencil free assessments that are easy enough to use in your classroom tomorrow.

1. Plickers

Materials needed: 1 student plicker response card per student, 1 teacher mobile device.

Cost: Free

Using Plickers, students hold up a specific side of their printed Plickers card to indicate their answer. The teacher scans all of the responses at once, using a phone or tablet, for an immediate visual representation of correct and incorrect student responses.

After viewing student answers live, a visual report of all responses is available online.

Plickers is great for immediate feedback as well as for exposing individual student’s misconceptions, as each student’s card is different than anyone else’s in the class. The app recognizes the individual cards, and reports back to the teacher the answers for whomever the card is assigned. If you teach more than one class per day, the Plickers website allows you to organize students and reports by class. The same paper cards can be used from class to class, as long as students use the permanent card number assigned to them in their “class” on the Plickers website.
Plickers is free to download and use, and can be downloaded for both iOS and Android devices. The Plickers cards can be printed in varying quantities for free from the Plickers website, and laminated versions can be purchased from Amazon.

2. “Tear Along the Dotted Line” Assessment Slip

Materials needed: 1 paper tear assessment slip per student

Cost: Free
The concept of these is simple, students tear the sheet of paper along the dotted line to indicate their answer. It is a quick and easy task, and easily shows you what misconceptions students may have. These are great to pass out during lesson close, and as students exit the gym they drop their assessment in the bucket or hand it to the teacher. Tear assessment slips are not limited to lesson closure either- they are easily used at the beginning of class and during transitions from instruction to activity and the slips are easily reviewed as collected. Although you will not know which students submitted which slip, you learn which concepts to revisit or reteach after reviewing the assessment responses. Customize and print your own using this template (4 assessments per page).

What strategies have you used to formatively assess students in the classroom? Share the pencil free assessments have you used in your classroom.