Embedded Formative Assessment

At each break in direct instruction, PSI uses SMART Responders to engage students in live formative assessment. SMART Responders allow the teacher to poll their students using embedded formative assessment questions in the SMART Notebooks used for direct instruction. These ungraded formative assessments allow students to say what they think without the pressure of feeling wrong in front of their peers. Because the results of these assessments are displayed immediately in a pie chart, teachers can determine if students are ready to proceed with a more difficult problem and move onto a new topic or rather if the topic needs to be retaught.

Graded Formative Assessment

All quizzes, quests, and tests are treated as formative assessments by allowing students to retake different versions of these assessments. By giving students a means of improving their grade, it encourages students to learn from their mistakes. Additionally, grades are only given for Quizzes, Quests, Tests & Labs and all unit tests are written in AP format since AP achievement is our goal.