Supporting formative assessment using SurveyMonkey

Tags: Assessment | Mathematics and statistics | Utilities/tools/gadgets | Primary | Upper primary |

Students used software to support formative assessment in mathematics.

The need

A teacher of year seven students wanted to support students to independently reflect and articulate their understanding of maths. They chose SurveyMonkey software to support formative assessment in their mathematics class.

Choosing the tool

The teacher chose this software because it provided a user-friendly, free online tool that could be used to design a survey, collect responses, and analyse results. It also allowed the teacher to re-purpose the survey and link it to the class Learning Management System (LMS).

Creating the Survey

The teacher registered as a member of SurveyMonkey and designed a survey to elicit information from the students on what they knew and what they needed to know, based on a maths objective. A link to the survey was automatically generated, and in this instance, the teacher embedded the link into the class LMS.

Student responses

After students completed their maths for the day they individually visited the survey (using the embedded link in their class LMS) and responded to the five questions provided. In this instance, they used WALT (We Are Learning To) to articulate their understanding.

Before the next maths lesson, the teacher logged into SurveyMonkey and selected the "analyse response" tab. Both the "view summary" and "browse responses" features provided the teacher with specific information related to each student's understanding of the WALT of the day.

Outcomes

• The teacher used this information to help plan the next teaching and learning steps for groups and individuals.
• The insights gained from the data shaped the teacher's actions as they continued to work with the students.

Other uses

The teacher noted a range of benefits in using the software in a school setting, with the potential for:

• using it in the same way for other curriculum areas
• students to create their own surveys for research projects
• students, teachers, management, and the board of trustees to gain feedback from parents and whānau.