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Use open questions rather than
closed questions to elicit abstract
thinking skills
e.g: Is Iago or Othello responsible for
Othello’s downfall?
e.g: Was the fall of communism in
Eastern Europe the end of history as
Francis Fukyama proclaimed?
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Designing questions to generate
discussion
Change the question into a statement:
e.g: Instead of asking: “Who was most
responsible for the Irish Civil War?”
Make a statement: “DeValera was
responsible for the Irish Civil War.”
Invert the question: Demands reasoning.
e.g: “Is Ireland a republic?”
Change to: “What does it mean for a
country to become a republic?”
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Start your questions with
“why?” or “how?”
Instead of asking: “What is a prime
number?”
Try: “Why is 7 prime and 9
composite?”
Instead of asking: “What was life like
under the Taliban in Afghanistan?”
Try: How were the lives of men and
women different under the Taliban in
Afghanistan?”
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ABCD Cards
For a real time test on common river
terms.
Each student is given laminated cards labelled
A, B, C, and D. Terms and definitions are written
on the board. Teacher asks students to match
the definition to the term using the cards.
A Confluence
1. The land area from which a
river and its tributaries drain
water.
B Estuary
2. A small stream or river that
joins up with a larger one.
C Tributary
3. The part of the mouth
that is tidal.
D Basin
4. The point at which the
tributary joins the river.
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Exit Pass
Index cards given at the end of class
and handed to the teacher as the
students leave the class room.
This allows the teacher to assess
student’s learning of the day’s lesson.
Science: “What is the function of the
nucleus in a cell?”
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Learning Logs
Students reflect on what they have
learned in the lesson and then
respond to no more than three of the
following prompts:









Today I learned…
I was surprised by…
The most useful thing I will take from
this is…
I was interested in…
What I liked most about this lesson
is…
One thing I’m not sure about is…
The main thing I want to find out
more about is…
After this session I feel…
I might have gotten more from this
if…
Dylan Wiliam 2011 Embedded Formative Assessment
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Generating Test Questions
Have students create their own test
questions and answers. This allows
teachers to see what the students think
they have been learning.
Traffic Lights
At points when teachers want to know
that the students are understanding the
concepts or theories being taught they
ask a question.
Students hold up a red, green, or amber
disc to show their understanding.
Minute Paper
At the end of class students write the
most significant thing they learned in the
lesson.
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Effective feedback
Three Questions: When reading a
students work and seeing something
the student should reflect on or readdress the teacher places a
numbered circle at that point.
At the end of the paper the teacher
writes a question related to the first
numbered point and leaves a number
of lines for the student to respond.
The teacher repeats for the second
and third points.
The first 10-15 minutes of the
following class is spent allowing
the students to respond to the
feedback.
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Ask the students to spot their own
mistakes
This can be very effective in a subject
like maths. Rather than marking the
incorrect problems with a circle or an
x, give the test back to the student
and say, “Three of these are wrong;
you need to find them and fix them”
This technique can also be used for
written assignments. For instance, in
English you could simply place a
circle in the margin of each line that
needs more attention. For less able
students the teacher could put a p in
the circle for an error in grammar, PT
for poetry term etc…