1Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TOOLKIT
Eliciting Evidence Strategies
Table of Contents
Select a link below to explore the strategy.
ABCD Cards
Animoto
AnswerGarden
Anticipatory Guide
Backchannel Chat
Basketball Discussions
Buer Zone
Carousel Brainstorming
Cinquain (Modified)
Class Polls
Clickers
Colleague-Generated Questions
Counting O
Diagnostic Questions
Discussion Questions
End-of-Lesson Student Review
Entrance Tickets
Exit Tickets
First Word/Last Word
Fist to Five
Five Card Flickr™
ForAllRubrics
Gallery Walk
Gingerbread People
Go Soapbox
Google™ Forms
Group Tantalizers
Higher-Order Thinking
Questions
Hinge-Point Questions
Hot-Seat Questioning
Individual Response Boards
Jot!
Kahoot!™
Keep the Question Going
Know/Think I Know/Want to
Know Chart?
Lino
Mentimeter
MIP (Most Important Point)
Misconception Questions
Naiku
Name Cards
Nearpod℠
No Hands Up Except to Ask a
Question
Opportunity Sticks
Padlet℠
Pear Deck℠
Pick Me!™
Plickers™
Poll Everywhere
Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce
Post Cards from the Edge
Question Formulation
Technique (QFT)
Question Without a Question
Quizlet™
Random Name/Word Picker
Random Reporter
Randomly
Scattervox
Share One
Socrative
Student-Developed Questions
Synectic
T-Chart
Tagxedo
Tease Out
Three As Plus One
Thumbs Up
Tweet/ Twitter™
Two-Tiered Probe
Wait Time/Think Time
Wait Watchers
What About Today
Where Do You Stand?
Whole-Class Graphing:
Consensogram, Histogram,
Scatterplot
Wordle™
3-2-1 (Three-Two-One)
30-Second Share
2Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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ABCD Cards
Description
The teacher asks or presents a multiple-choice question and waits an appropriate amount of time.
Then students individually and simultaneously hold up one or more cards as their response.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed, multiple-choice questions that reveal information about their
understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
You may choose to orally ask the question or to present it to the class via computer, document camera,
or other method. After an appropriate wait time, ask students to display their responses, often with a cue.
You may choose to summarize the data or have students summarize. Then use the student responses as
evidence of learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/lesson.
You can cheaply make ABCD cards on 4” x 6” white card stock printed with one black, bold-print letter
per card. A full set might include the letters A–H plus T. This format allows all students to select not only
one correct answer but multiple correct answers, answers to questions that have up to eight answer
choices, and answers to true/false questions.
Tips
In the beginning while you develop the classroom culture for this type of strategy, a quick pair/share can
make students feel more comfortable answering publicly. Also consider having students prepare their
individual responses and then display them on cue. For longer questions or for true/false questions,
consider asking or revealing one answer choice at a time.
This is not data collection for grading purposes. Students can respond to a short question orally, by a
show of hands, or by using devices or cards.
You may want to laminate the cards and/or have them attached to the desk on a string.
One option is to print the cards so that each letter is on a dierent color of card stock. Having cards in
dierent colors may be easier for you to quickly digest the answers. Another option may be to use the
same color card stock and make the letters themselves each a dierent color.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
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3Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Animoto
https://animoto.com/
Description
This free, online tool gives students the ability to make a short, 30-second shareable video of what they
learned in a given lesson.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy provides information to the teacher about student understanding of the learning target. This
strategy also works well for peer assessment and feedback.
Implementation
This tool works well for any type of student learning, especially for learning that results in a performance,
which can be more dicult to assess than a product. Teachers apply for a free, 6-month Animoto Plus
account, which allows for up to 50 student accounts. [Note: students under 13 will have to use the teacher
account.]
Creating Animoto is a 3 step process:
• Select and upload pictures or video from stock, personal files, or media sites like Flickr, Photobucket or
Facebook
• Choose the slideshow music from personal or Animoto files
• Finalize video—Animoto processes the video and sends a link that can be shared
Tips
The application process can take up to one week, so it is important to plan in advance. The final
processing takes “a little” time depending on the length of the video
Resources
• Creating your First Animoto Videohttps://animoto.com/blog/guides/getting-started-animoto
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AnswerGarden
https://answergarden.ch/
Description
Teachers can use this free, real-time tool for online brainstorming or polling to see student feedback on
questions and topics—their evidence of learning—in the form of a word cloud.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The use of an all-student response system allows teachers to engage more students quickly, easily, and
eciently.
Implementation
Set up an account, and then set up the activity. Give students a code to access the activity. Students input
their responses via a personal device, and the results show as you refresh the page. This tool oers a
variety of modes:
• Classroom—oers an unlimited number of responses, but each responder has only one response
• Moderator—lets you approve answers before they appear
• Brainstorm—oers unlimited answers and unlimited number of times
• Locked—in essence closes the response option
Tips
In the beginning while you develop the classroom culture for this type of strategy, a quick pair/share can
make students feel more comfortable answering publicly. Also consider having students prepare their
individual responses and then display them on cue. For longer questions or for true/false questions,
consider asking or revealing one answer choice at a time.
This is not data collection for grading purposes. Students can respond to a short question orally, by a
show of hands, or by using devices or cards.
You may want to laminate the cards and/or have them attached to the desk on a string.
One option is to print the cards so that each letter is on a dierent color of card stock. Having cards in
dierent colors may be easier for you to quickly digest the answers. Another option may be to use the
same color card stock and make the letters themselves each a dierent color.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
5Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
Anticipatory Guide
Description
The teacher generates three to six statements about a topic, some true and some false. These statements
are related to key ideas supporting learning targets. Typically used in a pre-/post-assessment, the guide
helps identify understandings and misunderstandings, which the teacher uses to adapt the lesson as
needed.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Prior to introducing new learning, the teacher gathers evidence through the strategy that reveals
information about students’ understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
In addition to serving as evidence of current understanding, the teacher may use this strategy to activate
prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic.
Implementation
You have several ways to construct an anticipatory/anticipation guide, including:
• identifying the major ideas presented in a reading
• considering what beliefs your students are likely to have about the topic
• writing general statements that challenge your students’ beliefs
• adding a critical common misconception that you want to surface early on
The students respond to the statements with either a positive or negative response.
• Model the process with students when introducing the strategy, and explain how the evidence (data)
will be used preand post-assessment. Students may complete the guide individually and not share or
anonymously record their responses on charts with dots or checks.
Have students complete the anticipatory guide before reading or starting a lesson. Students may work
individually, in pairs, or in small groups. Remind students that they should be prepared to discuss and
debate their reactions to the statements on the anticipatory guide after they have completed it.
After students finish the guide, encourage a class discussion of students’ reactions to the statements. The
evidence collection can be anonymous as part of a quick check for you to see if discussion is needed. If
the responses reveal confusions, the discussion will indicate who holds what beliefs, and the class can
help clarify any confusions through the discussion. Remember, you want to activate their critical thinking
about the topic, so dig deeper so students justify their answers. And you might use the discussion to stir
curiosity by letting students know that they’re going to be surprised about statement X or that they’ll
learn more about why statement Y is true.
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Tips
The guide is meant to help students uncover their own thinking.
If students are reading a text, have them do so with their anticipatory guide responses fresh in their minds
so they can react to the text as they read or during the lesson. Encourage students to mark or write
down where the text or facts support their initial reaction to statements or cause them to rethink those
reactions.
Consider whether responses should be anonymous. If only one student, for example, has a critical
misconception, collecting data anonymously would not identify that student.
Have a class discussion after reading or at the end of the lesson. Ask students if any of them changed their
position on any of the statements. Encourage students to share how they reacted to the text, given their
initial responses captured in the anticipatory guide. Make sure students share examples from the text or
the lesson showing where their initial responses were either supported or challenged.
7Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Backchannel Chat
https://backchannelchat.com/
Description
Similar to TodaysMeet, this digital tool oers a teacher-moderated version of Twitter™. It can be used to
supplement or replace verbal discussion, oering more modalities and the opportunity for all voices to be
heard without delay.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Some of the aspects of this tool that make it dierent from just a regular verbal discussion include the
ability for everyone to contribute at the same time, the opportunity to respond to someone (or not), and
the possibility of responding to a specific point someone makes in real time (instead of waiting until the
student has finished and, potentially, three other classmates have also raised their hands to speak).
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify
the source of students’ confusion. Class discussions allow students to uncover their own thinking and
challenge themselves to support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden
their thinking. Class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Log in and create a free account. Explain to students the purpose of a backchannel conversation, and link
it to their use of social media. Have students pick an avatar. Teach the lesson. As the lesson progresses,
have students comment, discuss, and question in Backchannel. Students can mark messages that have
meaning for them, producing additional data for you about the focus of the conversation.
Tips
Encourage students to revisit these chats, as well as information their peers oer, as sources of notes from
the lesson.
An extension of the in-the-moment conversation might be to capture the chat, create a word cloud, and
see what surfaces as a focus of the conversation.
8Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Basketball Discussions
Description
Questions and responses move from teacher to student, to student to student, and so on, rather than from
teacher to student and back to teacher. The teacher uses a “basketball-style” approach (as opposed to the
traditional “ping-pong” approach), intervening only as needed to redirect or heighten a point.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students are often more comfortable engaging in a discussion that is not entirely teacher led. This also
engages more students than the usual handful who normally answer the majority of questions in a typical
classroom.
This strategy promotes all students in active thinking about the topic because they are not sure who will
be the next to speak.
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify
the source of students’ confusion. Class discussions allow students to uncover their own thinking and
challenge them to support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their
thinking. Class discussions let students hear more of their classmates’ thinking without the teacher’s input.
Implementation
After asking a discussion question or giving a prompt, use a randomizer strategy to elicit an initial
response from a student. Once that student has responded, direct the attention and opportunity to
respond to another student, rather than back to you. This continues to develop student reflection and
promote additional discussion.
Sometimes, especially when this is a new strategy, you may need to facilitate the question being “thrown”
to another student. For example, you might prompt another student to respond by asking, What do you
think of Kathy’s answer?; What could we add to Tamika’s answer?; or Juan said this___, and Omar said
this___; how could we bring those ideas together?
Tips
It is helpful in some classes, particularly when introducing this technique or at the beginning of the school
year, to actually toss a small softball, foam ball, ball of yarn, or bean bag from student to student, and only
the student who holds the ball or bean bag may speak.
Additional tips include the following:
Arrange chairs so students face one another (typically, students have their backs to most of their
classmates).
Stand o to the side to encourage students to look at one another.
To add another layer, impress upon students the importance of listening to one another by asking that
they first paraphrase what their classmate has said before they respond.
9Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Buer Zone
Description
• The teacher leaves a twoor three-day window before a unit test (or other major test) for review and/
or to uncover any student misconceptions. Instead of doing normal class work right up to the time of
the test, the teacher reserves time for review and reteaching. This review can take various forms such as
individual, small-group, or whole-class review.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The use of this strategy emphasizes assessment as a tool for learning rather than for grading. It provides
time for students to get additional help where needed.
Implementation
Oer choices as to how students can seek assistance (e.g., help from peer, self-guided strategies, small
group with teacher), and then let them choose how to get the help they need.
Tips
Pacing guides seldom leave room for reviewing and reteaching topics that students have demonstrated
they are having trouble with. For this time to be used to greatest advantage, consider giving an informal
pre-test.
For students who have already mastered the material, you will need to have challenge/enrichment
activities for them to work on while you are providing feedback.
10Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Carousel Brainstorming
Description
This strategy involves small-group collaboration, making individuals responsible for the learning of their
small group as well as for the whole class. During the carousel, participants have the opportunity to oer
additional knowledge, feedback, and comments and to ask questions.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Brainstorming encourages engagement and out-of-the box thinking. Because it is a nonevaluative activity,
students should feel freer to oer ideas and tap into thinking about possibilities rather than provide a
correct answer. Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more
easily identify students’ confusion and its sources. Class discussions allow students to uncover their own
thinking and challenge them to support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and
broaden their thinking. Class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible
confusions.
Implementation
Create task groups of four to five. Give each group a dierent color marker that will travel with the group
so its work can be identified on each chart. Next, direct group members to a starting point at one of the
charts. Be sure a starting recorder is identified in each group. Each group brainstorms information related
to the question/topic on the chart heading. After an appropriate interval, signal groups to rotate one
station to the right.
Note that the recording task may also rotate at this point. As students move to a dierent chart, they
should read earlier comments, adding new ideas or agreeing with and marking ideas already there.
Students repeat the process at each station until groups are in front of their starting chart. Groups review
the information on their original chart and prepare any questions that might occur to them.
The charts created can stay on the wall for you to go back to after class for further analysis to inform
instruction the next day.
Tips
Suggest that groups use a brainstorm-and-pass pattern (give an idea or pass) to ensure inclusion of all
members.
An added benefit is the opportunity to get up and move around.
Variations:
Have the group generate the chart headings based on their questions, interests, or concerns related to the
topic. When they return to their original chart, have groups categorize the information recorded there.
Create a random rotation by adding one more chart than the number of groups. A group can then move
to any open chart when it is ready.
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Cinquain (Modified)
Description
This five-line stanza can be used as a way to summarize a reading or learning.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy lets the teacher know how well students understand the learning target. In addition to
providing evidence, this is also helpful as a processing strategy to summarize learning or text.
Implementation
After a lesson, assign students to create a cinquain to summarize their learning. Students can work in pairs
or individually.
This stanza is composed of five lines that do not rhyme, with each line containing a diering number of
words.
The first line = one word;
• second line = two words;
• third line = three words;
• fourth line = four words;
• and fifth line = one word.
While you may collect the cinquains, you may also wish to have students share them out loud. By hearing
the thinking of others, students may address confusions, adjust, or solidify their thinking.
Tips
Consider displaying an example on a piece of chart paper to get thinking started.
12Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Class Polls
Description
The teacher surveys the class for students’ attitudes toward (aect) or thinking about (cognition) a certain
topic. The teacher quickly and eciently asks students what their opinion or “gut feeling” is toward a
specific topic/idea.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
Ask or present a question, and wait an appropriate amount of time. Then students individually and
simultaneously use hand-held devices (low* or high tech) to indicate their response, or they may add their
responses to a chart posted in the room (using sticky notes or colored dots prepared or selected ahead of
time).
Then use the student responses as evidence of learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/
lesson.
*low tech = ABCD Cards, individual response boards, etc.
Tips
You may choose to orally ask the question or to present it to the class on a device.
In the beginning, consider having students respond anonymously, later moving to public responses. This is
not data collection for grading purposes.
A wide variety of technology tools support this strategy such as Mentimeter and Poll Everywhere.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
13Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Clickers
Description
The teacher asks or presents a multiple-choice question and waits an appropriate amount of time. Then
students individually and simultaneously use hand-held devices to indicate their response.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed, multiple-choice questions that reveal information about their
understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
Ask or present a question, and wait an appropriate amount of time. Then students individually and
simultaneously use hand-held devices to indicate their response.
Use the student responses as evidence of learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/lesson.
Tips
You may choose to orally ask the question or to present it to the class via a device.
Explore the options for data sharing that your tool oers. In the beginning, consider having students
respond anonymously, later moving to public responses. This is not data collection for grading purposes.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
14Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Colleague-Generated Questions
Description
Fellow teachers share and/or write questions to be used in classroom discussions or activities. Teachers
will then have a collection of questions to use rather than having to create all of them on their own.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Writing questions with colleagues can benefit the teachers in developing their understanding of how
students learn a particular topic, which aids in their planning and instruction. Students answer one or
more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings, misunderstandings, and
misconceptions.
Implementation
Teachers may have tried out the questions in one classroom, or the questions may be brand new to
all, with teachers reporting back on how well they worked. Teachers sometime build time to develop
questions into a regular schedule (such as during team or grade-level meetings), or they may schedule in
extra time, perhaps as part of a Professional Learning Community meeting or during common prep times.
With other teachers, find time to collaborate, think about, and generate questions regarding a topic,
lesson, or concept that you can subsequently use in whole-class or small-group discussions, for lesson
summaries/reviews, or as entrance/exit ticket questions. Formulating quality questions that make students
think takes time and thought. It makes sense, then, to share quality questions and the responsibility for
developing them among a group of colleagues. Once developed, you can use these questions year after
year.
Tips
Some schools use a shared space (e.g., curriculum map, shared drive, Google Docs™) to archive questions
for future use.
15Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Counting O
Description
The teacher uses random number selection to call on students to respond to questions or add to a class
discussion.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy engages all students in active thinking about the topic because they are not sure who will be
the next to speak. This strategy makes student’s thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily
identify students’ confusion and its sources. This strategy allows students to uncover their own thinking
and challenges them to support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden
their thinking.
This strategy lets students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Be sure to pose the question before you begin counting! You want all students to formulate their answers
before identifying who will be called on to share theirs.
Count the number of tables (example is eight). Ask a student to pick a number from one to eight. Then
count each table, and at table eight, proceed to count each person from one to eight. (If there are fewer
than eight people, count people more than once.) The number eight person is the one who responds. For
the next question, ask the responder to pick another number from one to eight, and repeat the process.
Tips
Some students who normally answer lots of questions and others who answer very few may initially
be disconcerted with this technique. However, it can quickly become eective, reasonable, and
nonthreatening if you implement it at the beginning of the school year so that it becomes a part of the
culture of learning.
Students enjoy participating by picking numbers to see who gets to respond to the question.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
16Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Diagnostic Questions
Description
The teacher asks a question that is focused on common misconceptions related to the topic. A diagnostic
question provides the teacher with quick, “on-the-fly” information that he or she can use to immediately
inform instruction.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
For this type of question, the teacher is eciently eliciting evidence of understanding of a concept.
This strategy provides evidence to the teacher that reveals information about students’ understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
Implementation
When creating questions, carefully choose distracters (plausible wrong answer choices) that will provide
you with information about student thinking. The distracters should represent many of the typical
misconceptions that students tend to have. The correct answer should also be “interpretable”—that is, that
the student got it correct for the right reasons.
If using an open-ended diagnostic question, brainstorm all the possible responses you may get and what
each response would indicate about misconceptions/confusions.
Once you create a question, select an all-student response system in order to take the appropriate
instructional action for all students.
Tips
If you ask a diagnostic question during a lesson (see the section on Hinge-Point Questions), consider
asking a multiple-choice question to quickly analyze the results. In this case, be prepared with activities
that would be appropriate for students who respond to each choice.
A question requiring students to construct an answer also takes time to analyze, so consider posing it
at the end of the lesson using an all-student response system, like an exit ticket, so you can respond
instructionally the next day.
17Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Discussion Questions
Description
The teacher asks a question to purposefully generate a discussion. By speaking and listening to one
another, students clarify and improve their thinking.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
By engaging students in a discussion about several correct solutions to a problem or question, the teacher
can raise the cognitive level of the activity.
This strategy makes students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify students’
confusion and its sources. This strategy allows students to uncover their own thinking and challenges
them to support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. This
strategy lets students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Discussion questions are designed to elicit student thinking, rather than just an answer. In some cases,
a discussion question builds o of a diagnostic question to give you more clarity on the thinking behind
answer choices.
These questions often contain more than one correct answer, or else they contain a hierarchy of correct
answers—each one demonstrating a higher level of understanding than the next. They require considering
all options, taking a stance, and defending that stance.
In order for the discussion that comes from these types of questions to be eective for all, employ a
randomizer strategy (for example, Opportunity Sticks).
Tips
A randomizer strategy more likely engages all students in active thinking about the topic because they are
not sure who will be the next to speak.
18Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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End-of-Lesson Student Review
Description
The teacher selects a student(s) to review the lesson that the class just completed and to report to the
class on the learning he or she achieved in the lesson.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy allows students to uncover their own thinking and challenges them to support or explain
their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. This strategy lets students hear
the thinking of others in order to address possible confusions.
Sharing evidence of learning with peers allows students the freedom to test what they think they have
learned.
Implementation
Select a student(s) to review the lesson that the class just completed. When this is a well-established and
valued routine for the class, students volunteer to do the review, and you strategically select the reviewer.
If the reviewer leaves something out or misstates something, other students chime in, in a respectful way.
A connection to the learning targets and success criteria shared at the start of lesson should be either
implicit or explicit.
As an extension, ask students to explain how they know something was learned.
Tips
Part of the culture of learning that you carefully implement from the beginning of the school year assures
students that this type of participation does not constitute your “picking on” a particular student but that
it is an eective and reasonable method to help all students’ thinking go deeper and/or wider.
19Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Entrance Tickets
Description
The teacher asks a question at the beginning of a lesson, and students write responses and hand them in.
The teacher then uses the responses to assess initial understanding of a topic to be discussed in that day’s
lesson or as a short summary of understanding of the previous day’s lesson.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy lets the teacher know how well students understand the learning target. The teacher designs
the lesson knowing that he or she will be collecting evidence of student learning at the beginning of the
lesson to improve both teaching and learning during the lesson.
Implementation
These tickets can be 3” x 5” index cards, small strips of paper, or something similar to generate brief,
concise responses. Place the question on the board or display it via a device so that students can begin to
formulate an answer as soon as they enter the classroom.
Design the question so it is easily interpreted and analyzed. Allow time for you and/or the students to
analyze the responses, and adjust the lesson accordingly (or make a conscious decision to leave the
current plan as is).
Tips
Responses may include names or be anonymous.
Ask students to summarize and share the results of the Entrance Tickets. Letting students review the data
(evidence) and help think about next steps is one way to model this process for their self-reflection.
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Exit Tickets
Description
The teacher asks a question at the end of a lesson, and students write responses and hand them in before
they leave the classroom. The teacher uses the exit tickets to assess student learning or understanding of
a key concept or idea from the lesson.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy lets the teacher know how well students understand the learning target. The teacher uses
this information about possible misconceptions or confusions to improve the teaching and learning in the
next lesson so it better meets the learning needs of all students.
Implementation
Formulate the question ahead of time knowing that you will collect the resulting information about
student learning at the end of the lesson and use it to improve the teaching and learning in the subsequent
lesson. Design the question so it is easily interpreted and analyzed. Allow yourself time to analyze the
responses, and adjust the next day’s lesson accordingly (or make a conscious decision to leave current
plan as is).
These tickets can be 3” x 5” index cards, small strips of paper, or something similar to generate brief,
concise responses. Ask the question orally, place it on the board, or use technology to display it. Every
student turns in an answer on an exit ticket before he or she exits the classroom.
Tips
Responses may include names or be anonymous.
At the start of the next lesson, ask students to summarize and share the results of the exit tickets.
Providing students opportunities to review the data (evidence) and help think about next steps is one way
to model this process for their self-reflection.
21Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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First Word/Last Word
Description
Students work in small groups to generate full thoughts that begin with each letter in a designated word.
The word focuses the exploration of the content topic.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy allows students to surface and/or organize concepts, principles, and understandings about
a topic area. It allows students to uncover their own thinking and challenges them to support or explain
their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. This strategy lets students hear
the thinking of others in order to address possible confusions.
Sharing evidence of learning with peers allows students the freedom to test what they think they have
learned.
Implementation
Learners work in small groups to generate full thoughts that begin with each letter in a designated word.
The word focuses the exploration of the topic.
Each group determines a recorder, and the recorders create a chart or paper to capture ideas. After a few
minutes, refocus the groups, and ask for them to share a few ideas.
Tips
To save time, assign dierent letters within the word to dierent groups. Rather than placing sheets at the
table, have groups publicly record on chart paper.
Have the group determine the anchor word.
22Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Fist to Five
Description
Students signal their level of understanding of a topic or lesson to the teacher by using their fingers and
fist.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy lets teachers check understanding at any point in a lesson. It is particularly useful when the
teacher teaches new material, introduces a new procedure, or gives directions. It allows the teacher to
make adjustments on the fly based on the responses of students.
Implementation
Ask your students to demonstrate their current understanding to gain a quick sense of how students are
progressing in the lesson, and make appropriate adjustments to the instruction based on that information.
Students signal their level of understanding using their fingers and fist.
For example:
fist = don’t understand at all;
1 = I need help;
2 = could use more practice;
3 = understand pretty well;
4 = completely understand;
5 = can help someone else.
Tips
For this strategy to work well, students need to have a thorough grasp of the learning targets and success
criteria.
You may use this strategy to assess content or emotions related to the learning.
Some teachers post a chart in the room to remind students how many fingers to hold up.
You might give students the opportunity to test the accuracy of their self assessment by, for example,
asking a number 5 to help a number 1 or 2.
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Five Card Flickr™
https://www.flickr.com/
Description
Designed to foster visual thinking, this digital tool uses the tag feature from photos in Flickr™. Students
summarize their learning by choosing five photos to create the “story” of what they have learned.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The teacher is eciently eliciting evidence of understanding of a concept in a way that is engaging for
students.
This strategy provides evidence to the teacher that reveals information about students’ understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions. When students have to represent their thinking in a visual way, it
often requires them to use higher-order thinking skills (e.g., synthesis, compare/contrast) to find accurate
representations.
Implementation
Determine the learning to be summarized, and provide students access to the tool’s website. Using the
Play a Round tab on the Flickr™ site, students choose photos to summarize what they have learned.
After they select five images, students fill in a title, their name, and an explanation of the “story.” Finally,
students save the stories and share the URL with you.
Tips
If you are in a 1:1 setting, one way to have all students view the summaries of learning may be to have a
gallery walk within the classroom. Have each student open his or her Five Card Flickr™, and then students
rotate and review.
24Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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ForAllRubrics
https://www.forallrubrics.com/
Description
This digital tool is free and allows teachers to import, create, and score rubrics on an iPad®, tablet, or
smartphone.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
ForAllRubrics allows students to access teacher-created rubrics at all stages of the learning process—
from clarifying expectations to providing criteria for revision. For teachers, it is a digital tool for providing
valuable feedback and collecting evidence of student strengths and needs.
Implementation
After creating an account, input student names into either the website or a CSV file, and from there, you
can either import prior rubrics you created or customize one oered at the site.
Next, you can either email or print individual student rubrics.
Tips
You may collect data oine, automatically compute scores, and print or save the rubrics as a PDF or
spreadsheet. You can also link the data with other collection sources like PowerSchool™.
25Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Gallery Walk
Description
Student groups collaborate to display their thinking on a topic using a poster/chart and then hang it on
the wall for other students to review.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy makes student’s thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the source
of students’ confusion. It allows students to uncover their own thinking and challenges them to support or
explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Letting students hear
the thinking of others helps address possible confusions.
This strategy involves small-group collaboration, making individuals responsible for the learning of their
small group as well as of the whole class. It promotes higher-order thinking and communication skills.
Sharing evidence of learning with a peer allows students the freedom to test what they think they have
learned.
Implementation
Divide the class into small groups. Assign an aspect of the topic to each group. Each group charts its
thinking. When all are done, small groups rotate around the room reviewing and discussing each chart and
sometimes making comments. When the rotation is complete, you may facilitate a debriefing in one of
several ways:
• with a prompt(s), such as What was your biggest aha?, How was your learning enhanced?, or What
questions do you have?
• with a summary from each group synthesizing its work and connecting it to the work of other groups
This strategy is similar to a class discussion in purpose, but is done in written form and therefore
encourages more students to engage and supports thinking with peers.
Tips
Post chart paper strategically around the room so that there is enough space separating groups for
them to hear their own conversations. Oer each group a dierently colored marker to easily associate
comments with a specific group. You may want to suggest a way for groups to indicate when they are in
agreement with a point a previous group has made.
26Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Gingerbread People
Description
This strategy allows students to use an analogy to respond to questions and share personal reactions to
the current topic.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Connecting familiar information with a new topic increases the retention and retrieval of information.
Using the strategy as a pre-assessment, teachers can identify learning needs and make explicit
connections for students prior to beginning instruction on a new topic.
Implementation
Hand out paper gingerbread people. Place questions on the appropriate body part on each person (or
on a table template). Examples include What gives you indigestion? (stomach), What drives you crazy?
(head), What do you love? (heart), What do you want to bring? (leg), What do you want to let go of?
(hand), and What do you want to take away? (leg). Each student answers one or more of the questions.
Each gingerbread person can be written on and posted.
Tips
Each student can have a gingerbread person, or each table or the entire room can share one. When you
use this strategy as a pre-assessment activity, you may revisit these questions at the end of the lesson or
topic to see how post-lesson responses might dier.
Some topics may have several analogies that help explain them best. Adapt the questions or the shape
needed to suit the analogy.
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Google™ Forms
https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_us/products/forms/
Description
Google Forms is a Google Drive™ app that allows you to create polls and surveys to use in real time with
smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
Ask or present a question, and wait an appropriate amount of time. Then students individually and
simultaneously use a device (e.g., computer, tablet) to indicate their responses using the Google Form.
Then use the student responses as evidence of learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/
lesson.
Tips
In the beginning you may find it useful to have students respond after discussing with a peer or small
group, later moving to individual public responses. This is not data collection for grading purposes.
Keep in mind that multiple question types are available and that you can view results in real time and
analyze them later in a spreadsheet.
There is a drop-down box listing the question types available, including short answer, paragraph, multiple
choice, drop-down, linear scale, and multiple-choice grid.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• the teacher can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
28Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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GoSoapBox
https://www.gosoapbox.com/
Description
Free for fewer than 30 students, this all-student response system works with the bring your own device
(BYOD) model. The teacher asks or presents a multiple-choice question and waits an appropriate amount
of time. Then students individually and simultaneously use devices to log their response for display.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed, multiple-choice questions that reveal information about their
understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand, while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
Sign up for an account with GoSoapBox. Students do not need an account because you will provide
a code for the question(s). Students use their device to respond to the poll or to post questions. Poll
responses are displayed in real time.
Students may also use GoSoapBox as a method to trac light their learning using their devices.
Tips
You can also create quizzes and polls using this tool. At the end of the quiz, students receive feedback
regarding correct and incorrect responses. If the response is incorrect, the tool tells them the correct
answer.
Students can submit questions and vote on them using this tool. Responses can be shared anonymously.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
29Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Group Tantalizers
Description
This randomizer strategy uses ABCD Cards and Opportunity Sticks to engage small groups of students to
answer questions in class.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This approach is a way of ensuring that all members of a group, not just the note taker or spokesperson,
are accountable since they know the teacher could randomly call on any of them to answer.
Implementation
For this randomizer strategy, group students for an activity or lesson, place group letters (e.g., A, B, C) on
craft sticks or tongue depressors, and give each small group a short form that lists several (five to eight)
simple survey questions to complete.
The students in small groups respond to every survey question by placing a student’s name next to each
question (e.g., Who lives the farthest from school? or Whose favorite subject is science?). The tantalizer
questions are short and easy to respond to. By the time the students complete the tantalizers, each
student’s name should be listed at least once on the form. This step is not related to the content of the
lesson but serves the method that you use to set up the ability to ask content questions randomly. It also
allows students to get to know each other and be more comfortable as a group.
Next, when you ask a content question related to the activity or lesson, wait an appropriate amount of
time, pull a group stick at random, and ask the student in that group whose name is next to one of the
survey questions to answer.
Example: Pull Juan’s stick. Ask Juan’s group, Juan, who in your group lives the farthest away? That person
is then the person who answers the content question.
As a result, more students are engaged, not just the typical handful who tend to answer the majority of
questions.
Tips
At the beginning of the school year, you can use this strategy to help students learn more about one
another and foster better group dynamics. It may also be used throughout the year.
Some students who normally answer lots of questions and others who answer very few may initially
be disconcerted with this technique. However, it can quickly become eective, reasonable, and
nonthreatening if you implement it at the beginning of the school year so that it becomes a part of the
culture of learning. Most students come to enjoy and respect the randomness embedded in this technique,
because it speaks to their sense of fairness.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
30Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Higher-Order Thinking Questions
Description
Higher-order questions will involve more analysis, comparing and contrasting, and evaluation. Higher-
order questions can come in many formats, including open or closed-ended questions, constructed
response, or well-constructed, multiple-choice questions. The teacher poses questions that get the
students to think more deeply or on a higher level about a topic or idea—that is, moving beyond recall or
simply reproducing the words or thoughts of others.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Teachers ask higher-order thinking questions to help students develop their thinking skills and use them as
tools to process their thoughts.
Students answer one or more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
Higher-order thinking skills help prepare students to function in a workplace where the emphasis is on
using information rather than on just recalling facts.
Implementation
Because of the thinking time needed to answer higher-order questions, and the likely complexity of the
answers and ensuing discussions, asking fewer and more thought-provoking questions in a typical lesson
is helpful.
Tips
Planning questions in advance is one way to generate questions that will take students’ thinking to the
next level. Align questions with the learning targets and the success criteria
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Hinge-Point Questions
Description
The teacher asks a diagnostic question at the critical juncture of a lesson to help him or her determine
which of two or more instructional pathways to take with the remainder of the lesson.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy provides evidence to the teacher that reveals information about students’ understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions. For this type of question, the teacher is eliciting evidence of
understanding of a concept at a point when he or she should adjust instruction during the lesson based on
students’ responses.
Implementation
Select or write a well-designed hinge-point question, and thoroughly map out paths the lesson may take,
depending on the student responses. A hinge-point question is based on the one concept in a lesson that
is critical for students to understand before you move on in that lesson. To ensure understanding, word
the question so that all students with the correct answer “got it” for the right reason.
Tips
Collect and reuse these questions each year. The experiences you’ve had with other students will enrich
your planning about possible pathways.
Some parameters to consider include the following:
Use a hinge-point question within a single topic that you normally teach within a single lesson.
Plan the lesson to go one of two or more ways depending on students’ understanding, as revealed in their
answers to the question.
Ask the hinge-point question about midway through the lesson.
Use an all-student response system
Use any format for a hinge-point question as long as:
• it takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
The correct answer can be correct only for the right reasons, rather than a random guess or an answer
tied to partial understanding or misunderstanding.
32Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
Hot-Seat Questioning
Description
The teacher asks a series of questions of one student in order to probe more deeply into a topic or idea.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Research suggests that the follow-up question or questions are often keys to getting at deeper student
understanding, or the lack thereof.
Implementation
Use hot-seat questioning with one student to further probe a topic or idea for the benefit of the class. To
ensure that all students are engaged in the process, you might ask other students to summarize or react
to their classmate’s response, or to assist them with or elaborate on their response.
Tips
Part of the culture of learning that you carefully implement from the beginning of the school year assures
students that this type of questioning does not constitute your “picking on” a particular student; rather it
is an eective and reasonable method to help all students’ thinking go deeper and/or wider.
Idea Brainstorm and Carousel Idea_Brainstorm.jpg
Description
Students work at stations in small groups brainstorming specific ideas or responses for a few minutes.
Then, the groups move to the next station to add new ideas to those already devised by the last group at
that station.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
As a carousel strategy, this one focuses on generating thinking. It allows students to concur with or build
on the ideas of others. Capturing learning publicly at workstations provides both the teacher and students
insights into student thinking about the topic under discussion.
Implementation
Students work at stations in groups of three to five; each group brainstorms specific ideas for three to five
minutes. Then, the groups move to the next station to add new ideas to those that the last group already
devised. The carousel continues until every group has visited each station. Groups then return to their
original station to review the entire list of ideas they find there.
33Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Tips
As an adaptation, each group can leave one student behind to serve as a docent or reporter as it moves
on to the next station to explain and clarify the group’s ideas.
This strategy is most eective when you pose questions eliciting several ideas or kinds of ideas as
the same time. Groups can simply reflect on the range of ideas generated, or you can ask them to do
something with the ideas.
34Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Individual Response Boards
Description
The teacher asks or presents a question and waits an appropriate amount of time while students
write responses on whiteboards (or other response boards), and then the students individually and
simultaneously hold up their boards for the teacher to see.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions. This is an example of an all-student response system that helps
the teacher quickly get a sense of what students know or understand while engaging all students in the
class.
Implementation
You may choose to orally ask the questions or to present them digitally or written on the board. Students
answer one or more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings and
misunderstandings, which you then use to adapt the lesson as needed. Students wait for a cue from you
to display their responses simultaneously. You and the students discuss the data and potential next steps.
Tips
Take advantage of the possibility that a whiteboard provides to graph/sketch a response and to probe
deeper with a question. This distinguishes it from some of the other all-student response systems. You
can simulate a response board with a white sheet of card stock inserted into a clear, plastic transparency
sleeve or a plastic plate. You will need to oer a dry-erase marker and a wiper tissue/cloth. For other
purposes such as graphing or geography, you can insert a sheet of graph paper or a map of the area into
the plastic sleeve.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
35Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Jot!
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jot-whiteboard-free/id371937922
Description
Use this digital tool like individual whiteboards to express ideas and elicit evidence of student
understanding. The teacher asks or presents a multiple-choice question and waits an appropriate amount
of time. Then students individually and simultaneously respond.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed, multiple-choice questions that reveal information about their
understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
You may choose to orally ask the question or to present it to the class via computer, document camera,
or other method. After an appropriate wait time, ask students to display their responses, often with a cue.
You can summarize the data or have students summarize. Then use the student responses as evidence of
learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/lesson.
Tips
This app is available in a free version and a version with a minimal charge. It requires iOS 5.0 or later.
In the beginning while you develop the classroom culture for this type of strategy, a quick pair/share can
make students feel more comfortable answering publicly.
This is not data collection for grading purposes.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
36Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Kahoot!™
https://kahoot.com/
Description
This free digital tool provides a game-based, all-student response system allowing teachers to create
quizzes using any content.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed, multiple-choice questions that reveal information about their
understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
Create an account, and enter your multiple-choice questions and answers in advance. Students use their
smart devices to answer the questions, which are displayed on a shared screen in the classroom. Both
correct responses and speed contribute to the points awarded to participants.
As motivation, the tool displays a leaderboard with the top five players after each question.
Use the student responses as evidence of learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/lesson.
Tips
You can use this tool during all facets of learning to gather pre-, mid-, and post-learning data from
students. Because quizzes can be repeated, students are able to self assess and prepare based on their
personal responses. Kahoot! is an ideal tool for review as well.
Asking a few practice questions when introducing this tool helps students get used to it.
Create quizzes in advance. You can add videos, images, and diagrams to questions.
Student login is anonymous based on a chosen nickname, or you can assign a login that allows only the
individual student and you to know who the player is.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
37Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Keep the Question Going
Description
The teacher poses a question to one student and then engages additional students to oer more
information or an opinion regarding the other students’ responses.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Probing students’ thinking with additional questions helps keep all students engaged because they must
consider whether they agree or disagree and be able to explain why.
Implementation
When first using this strategy, explain to students that they will provide more information or opinions
on what their peers say. Ask one student a question, and then ask another student if that answer seems
reasonable or correct and why. Then, ask a third student to paraphrase the responses and determine
whether there truly is agreement or not.
To deepen their thinking, prompt students with something like, Could you say a bit more about that? or
What specifically do you agree or disagree with, and what is your reasoning?
Tips
Foster a culture of learning in which all members of the classroom learning team support one another and
value all information shared.
Establishing standard prompts to use for probing or passing the question to another student will help
routinize the use of this strategy.
38Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Know/Think I Know/Want to Know Chart?
Description
This strategy is reminiscent of a Know/Want to Know/Learned chart. The major dierence is that the
focus with this strategy is on getting students activated for learning. A subtler, but noteworthy, dierence
is that the teacher asks students to consider whether they truly know something or think they know
something. Teasing out uncertainty might result in additional valuable feedback from students. The
teacher begins a session by focusing attention and energy on a specific content or topic—a fact, a data
point, or an idea—and extends the exploration to include inferences, interpretations, multiple perspectives,
and implications or predictions based on the point of focus.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy scaolds a sequence of thinking processes, increasing the depth of exploration of individual
points. Beginning with a discrete piece of information, group members elaborate, extend, and explore,
increasing understanding as they do so. This strategy provides a means to extend the exploration of a
specific topic or content area.
Implementation
Set this strategy up as a chart with columns for each category: Know, Think I Know, and Want to Know.
Explain the function of each column to students. Distinguish the Know from the Think I Know so students
will include ideas and information even if they are a bit tentative or unsure. Individuals complete their own
recording sheet first.
After a few minutes, have talk partners or small groups share their thinking. Students should begin by
looking at what is collectively in their Know and Think I Know columns. Through the process of comparing,
students will probably be able to more accurately categorize some of their thinking. Next, groups can
create a collective list of Want to Know items, prioritizing and preparing to share with the whole class.
After a few more minutes, ask small groups to share their Want to Know lists, and create a master list for
the whole class.
Tips
Consider using this as a pre-assessment or at the beginning of a lesson.
Model the use of columns for the full group.
Have groups use public recording on chart paper to focus their work.
39Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Lino
http://en.linoit.com/
Description
This free digital tool serves as a virtual bulletin board allowing students and teachers to communicate
with each other. Students can use the virtual sticky notes for asking questions or commenting about their
learning.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy allows students to uncover their own thinking and challenges them to support or explain
their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. This strategy lets students hear
the thinking of others in order to address possible confusions.
Sharing evidence of learning with peers allows students the freedom to test what they think they have
learned.
Implementation
Sign up to use the service. Instructions for each type of device walk the user through the process of
creating and manipulating sticky notes and canvases.
To check in on your students’ learning, you can use this strategy as Entrance/Exit Tickets or as a question/
answer board. You can also use it as a calendar and set it up to send reminders.
Tips
The strategy works on a PC, iPad®/iPhone®, or Android™ device.
It will take a few trials to use this eectively for multiple purposes.
40Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Mentimeter
https://www.mentimeter.com/
Description
This digital tool allows the teacher to quickly collect data from students. The teacher presents a multiple-
choice question and waits an appropriate amount of time. Then students individually and simultaneously
indicate their response.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed, multiple-choice questions that reveal information about their
understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
Create a question or questions in Mentimeter, and post a code (URL) for students to access the questions.
Students use smart devices or computers to respond to questions. Results are displayed in real time or
can be hidden until everyone has finished.
Then use the student responses as evidence of learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/
lesson.
Tips
Having students discuss the data and assist in planning next steps teaches them to take more ownership
of their learning.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
41Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Misconception Questions
Description
The teacher asks a question designed explicitly to elicit specific student misconceptions that are
commonly associated with a particular topic, so that he or she can identify and remediate those
misconceptions.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This type of question is a diagnostic question, purposefully designed to quickly uncover specific student
misconceptions or partial understandings, as opposed to discussion questions that take up more class
time and serve to deepen and/or broaden student thinking.
Implementation
Plan and formulate questions related to specific misconceptions tied to the content you are teaching. Pose
questions to students, and then collect and analyze the data.
These questions are often, but not always, in a multiple-choice format. This format allows the students to
quickly respond, usually with ABCD Cards or individual response boards, and lets you eciently analyze
the responses to see what students do and do not understand. Then address the misconceptions that the
questions have revealed by using this information to adapt your teaching and learning in real time.
Tips
If you have taught specific content before with previous classes, reference your notes about frequent
misconceptions.
42Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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MIP (Most Important Point)
Description
This strategy lets students share the significant ideas from the learning and provides feedback to the
teacher about what the group members found important.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This time-ecient strategy for reinforcing the learning for individuals and the class provides an
opportunity for each student to surface and express significant ideas related to the topic and to hear the
ideas generated by others.
It also provides feedback to the teacher about what the class retains and/or values.
Implementation
Ask students to individually produce a key point or significant idea they derived from the lesson: what
they consider to be the MIP. After a few minutes, have students share their MIP with a partner or with their
table group.
Tips
Use this information to adapt what happens during the lesson or in planning for the next lesson.
43Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Naiku
https://www.naiku.net/
Description
Teachers can quickly create quizzes that students can answer using their personal device.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
As a check for understanding, this tool provides teachers a quick and ecient way to know where
students are in their learning and to begin to make a plan for necessary support for each learner.
Implementation
Create an account, and set up your class.
You are able to create, upload, share, or link assessments. You can also create custom curriculum maps
that include specific standards, learning targets, assessments, and other features.
Moreover, you can assign dierent assessments to dierent students and use the tool to observe student
progress as they take assessments.
This tool also has a quick question feature that gives you a chance to ask questions in the moment and
that uses the student login as a clicker device.
You can use this tool for checking for understanding before and after a lesson. Students have the ability to
give feedback/insight on why they chose certain answers and also rate their confidence on the question.
Tips
This tool oers a 30-day free trial. The upgraded tool lets you set up collaboration teams and additional
reporting tools.
Naiku oers an abundance of tutorials and samples to guide with the process.
44Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Name Cards
Description
The teacher places students’ names on index cards. He or she asks a question, waits an appropriate
amount of time, and then pulls a name or names at random to answer.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
By posing the question first and using a randomizer to identify a student to respond, the teacher engages
more students, not just the typical handful who tend to answer the majority of questions.
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the
source of students’ confusion. They allow students to uncover their own thinking and challenge them to
support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Additionally,
class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
First ask a question, and then randomly pull a name card for a student to answer the question. You can
pull additional cards to get more students to respond to the same question or to probe deeper into a
student response.
Remember to put the card back in the stack so that the student doesn’t feel as if he or she is o the hook
for the rest of the lesson. A variety of digital tools are available to support this strategy.
Tips
Some students who normally answer lots of questions and others who answer very few may initially
be disconcerted with this technique. However, it can quickly become eective, reasonable, and
nonthreatening if you implement it at the beginning of the school year so that it becomes a part of the
classroom culture of learning. Most students come to enjoy and respect the randomness embedded in this
strategy, because it speaks to their sense of fairness.
This works well with 3” x 5” index cards or something similar. Some teachers also use the name cards to
keep notes about students.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
45Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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NearpodSM
https://nearpod.com/
Description
This digital tool allows teachers to create interactive multimedia presentations that incorporate polls,
quizzes, and open-ended questions.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
The use of an all-student response system allows the teacher to gather more evidence of learning from
more students more easily and eciently.
Implementation
Create an account, and load a question(s). Then share the question with students. Students respond using
smart devices.
Then use the student responses as evidence of learning to adapt and organize the ensuing discussion/
lesson.
Tips
Free accounts are available for teachers with a class size of up to 30.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
46Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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No Hands Up Except to Ask a Question
Description
The teacher calls on students to answer questions. He or she may call on any student or students. For
their part, the students raise their hands only if they have a question to ask.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
One benefit of this strategy is that when students raise their hands only to ask questions, these tend to be
more on topic and well thought out.
This strategy also engages more students than the usual handful who normally answer the majority of
questions in a typical classroom.
This strategy promotes all students in active thinking about the topic because they are not sure who will
be the next to speak.
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the
source of students’ confusion. They allow students to uncover their own thinking and challenge them to
support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Additionally,
class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Students raise their hands only to ask question rather than to respond to them. Ask a question, and then
call on students using a randomizer technique.
Use the no-hands-up rule, calling on a wide range of students through random selection (see Opportunity
Sticks/Name Cards) or some other strategic technique. As a result, more students are engaged, not just
the typical handful who tend to answer the majority of questions.
This strategy may result in more questions (and engagement) from students—maybe initially to protect
themselves from being asked a question. But eventually the strategy encourages students to be more
critical thinkers.
Tips
Some students who normally answer lots of questions and others who answer very few may initially
be disconcerted with this technique. However, it can quickly become eective, reasonable, and
nonthreatening if you implement it at the beginning of the school year so that it becomes a part of the
culture of learning.
Take time with students to explain the strategy, how it works, and why the class is using it.
47Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Opportunity Sticks
Description
The teacher places students’ names on craft sticks/tongue depressors. He or she asks a question, waits an
appropriate amount of time, and then pulls a name or names at random to respond to a question/prompt
or contribute to class discussion.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
By posing the question first and using a randomizer to identify a student to respond, the teacher engages
more students, not just the typical handful who tend to answer the majority of questions.
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the
source of students’ confusion. They allow students to uncover their own thinking and challenge them to
support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Additionally,
class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
First ask a question, and then randomly pulls a stick for a student to answer the question. You can pull
additional sticks to get more students to respond to the same question or to probe deeper into a student
response.
Remember to put the stick back in the container so that the student doesn’t feel as if he or she is o the
hook for the rest of the lesson. A variety of digital tools are available to support this strategy.
Tips
Some students who normally answer lots of questions and others who answer very few may initially
be disconcerted with this technique. However, it can quickly become eective, reasonable, and
nonthreatening if you implement it from the beginning of the school year so that it becomes a part of the
classroom culture of learning. Most students come to enjoy and respect the randomness embedded in this
technique, because it speaks to their sense of fairness.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
48Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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PadletSM
https://padlet.com/
Description
This digital tool provides a blank digital wall for sharing evidence of learning, questions, and collaboration.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students are often more comfortable engaging in a discussion that is not entirely teacher led. This type
of discussion also engages more students than the usual handful who normally answer the majority of
questions in a typical classroom.
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the
source of students’ confusion. They allow students to uncover their own thinking and challenge them to
support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Additionally,
class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Create an account, and set up a Padlet for use by your students. Give students the URL to the board.
Students can post questions, an entrance or exit ticket, or other evidence of learning and respond to
questions via smart devices at any time.
This tool supports synchronous or asynchronous work. Use it to brainstorm, organize ideas, or gather
initial thinking or responses to a question.
Tips
This tool supports multimedia; you can paste photos, links, or documents on these walls as well
as create notes.
A more secure version for use in schools is available for a fee.
49Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Pear Deck™
https://www.peardeck.com/
Description
Pear Deck provides opportunities for teachers to prepare questions for revealing what students have
learned and for moving the learning forward through a presentation format. Teachers plan and build
interactive presentations in which each student can participate from his or her own smart device.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Pear Deck lets students participate in interactive assessments that promote understanding and reflection.
It provides the teacher with in-the-moment student responses that can guide further instruction and, if the
teacher chooses, provides students with information about what their classmates are thinking.
Implementation
Create an account. From this account, you can create interactive presentations and assessments.
When using a presentation, give students an access code. Students access the presentation, which might
include questions or just be a series of questions posed before, during, or after instruction. Students
respond to the questions, and results are displayed in real time.
Question formats include:
• draggable questions (i.e., agree/disagree)
• drawing questions (i.e., creating a graph or picture)
• free-response questions
• multiple-choice questions
Tips
Google Drive™ is the recommended platform to create the account.
The tool oers limited free usage (some response features are not available). It oers unique question
types.
This might be a good tool for asking Hinge-Point Questions.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
50Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Pick Me!
http://www.classeapps.com/
Description
Pick Me! is an easy-to-use app for the iPod®, iPad®, and iPhone® that facilitates random student selection.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This digital tool promotes learning by increasing engagement through its randomizing capabilities and
informs learning by allowing the teacher to access and review the individual student performance.
Implementation
Download the app, create an account, and upload a class list. Then ask a question, and, using the app,
allow the roller dial to randomly select a student to respond. In the app, you can record a thumbs up or
down for correct and incorrect responses. Because the data are saved and may be exported to your email,
not only may you respond immediately in class, but you may also consider future adjustments on further
review of the data.
Tips
This app costs $1.99.
You can organize this app by class for convenience. Input student names via a CSV file stored in
DropBox™.
Keep in mind that there is a Remove if Correct setting that you can turn on or o. To ensure that all
students remain engaged, it’s best for students to expect that you may still call on them in the future.
51Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Plickers™
https://get.plickers.com/
Description
As an all-student response system, this free digital tool allows teachers to collect real-time evidence of
learning without the need for student devices. Students are given a “bar code” that is unique to them, and
they display their code in response to questions posed.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Using an all-student response system allows teachers to quickly and eciently gather more evidence of
learning from more students. The fact that each student’s bar code looks dierent ensures that he or she
is not influenced by classmates’ answers.
Implementation
Only one device is required. Download the app, and sign up to use it. Then print a standard Plickers
card set for students to use to respond to questions posed in class. Add your class to the app (up to 63
students). Then create and add your questions.
In response to a multiple-choice or true/false question, students hold up their Plickers card rotated in a
way that reflects their answer choice. Use the camera on your smart device to scan student responses and
receive instant feedback. Results may be displayed, with dierent levels of anonymity, to students using
the website. The app also generates a scoresheet for progress monitoring purposes.
Tips
Teachers may choose to laminate the cards or have students paste or tape them to the outside of their
work folders.
Card sets range in size from 40 to 63 cards and come in two sizes of cards and two font sizes.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
52Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Poll Everywhere
https://www.polleverywhere.com/
Description
This digital tool provides a quick and easy way to create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students use
smart devices to provide their answers, and teachers can cull information for reports.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students answer one or more well-designed questions that reveal information about their understandings,
misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
Polls serve as an all-student response system that facilitates teachers gathering more evidence of learning
from more students easily and eciently. Using these data to adjust and monitor instruction helps the
teacher and the students plan what’s next.
Implementation
Use this tool to create questions in advance or on the fly. Create an account, and enter your question(s).
Supply students with the URL they can use to answer the question(s) using a computer or mobile device.
Results are displayed in real time on a screen.
Use this tool to pre-assess, solicit opinions, and engage discussion.
Tips
Free accounts are limited to 40 respondents.
Investigate dierent question types and options for sharing results in dierent ways (e.g., real time, after
the poll is closed).
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
53Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce
Description
This randomizer strategy is a combination of calling on students randomly and having students respond to
or build on the previous student’s response.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students are often more comfortable engaging in a discussion that is not entirely teacher led. This
strategy engages more students than the usual handful who normally answer the majority of questions in
a typical classroom.
This strategy promotes all students in active thinking about the topic because they are not sure who will
be the next to speak, and the pause provides them with more processing time.
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the
source of students’ confusion. They allow students to uncover their own thinking and challenge them to
support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Additionally,
class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Pose the question, pause for at least five seconds, “pounce” on one student at random, and then “bounce”
that student’s answer to another student (picked randomly), asking What did you think of that answer and
why?
Making student choices random means paying attention to who gets called on and how often.
Tips
You may want to consider combining other randomizer strategies with this one for choosing who is
“pounced” on and who is “bounced” to.
You may also choose to vary the question you pose after bouncing a student’s answer. Some alternatives
include What was your classmate’s response, and what is your reaction to it? or What would you add,
subtract, or change?
54Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Postcards from the Edge
Description
Postcards from the Edge is a unique way for students to share background knowledge related to current
content.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy encourages students to make personal connections by creating analogies based on their
background knowledge of and experiences with the content. Making connections to their background by
making analogies can be useful in connecting to new learning.
Implementation
You might typically use this strategy as a pre-assessment. Pose a question related to the topic, and
then distribute fun, random postcards. Each student picks one that relates to his or her experience in or
knowledge about the topic. Students then share their connections.
You can also use this strategy as a summarizing tool.
Tips
Collect a variety of postcards (e.g., photographs of individuals, artwork, scenery, quotes), or cut out
pictures from magazines and use them in the same way.
55Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
Description
The teacher shares a statement that prompts students to generate a list of questions. Students and
teachers then work together to decide where the questions fit into the lesson.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy prompts students to think about what they know and want to know about a topic. It helps
deepen and expand student thinking, and the resulting questions serve as a resource to guide learning.
Implementation
Step 1: Design a question focus (QFocus) in the form of a statement or as a visual. The QFocus serves as
the focus for student questions so students can, on their own, identify and explore a wide range of themes
and ideas.
Step 2: Students produce questions without assistance from you. The four rules are to ask as many
questions as they can; to not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any of the questions; to write down every
question exactly as it was stated; and to change any statements into questions.
Step 3: Students improve their questions by analyzing the dierences between openand closed-ended
questions and by practicing changing one type to the other.
Step 4: Students prioritize their questions using criteria or guidelines you provide.
Step 5: Together with students, decide on next steps and how to use the questions.
Step 6: Students reflect on what they have learned by producing, improving, and prioritizing their
questions. Making the QFT completely transparent helps students see what they have done and how it
contributed to their thinking and learning.
56Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Tips
Consider working with a colleague to generate some sample questions.
Consider these questions as you plan to use this strategy:
What might be in your criteria?
Do you want to ensure there is an assortment of questions at dierent levels of thinking?
Do you want to see a progression of increasing diculty/complexity?
Should some questions be designed clearly for individual thinking and some for thinking with a partner?
The QFocus is dierent from many traditional prompts because it is not a teacher’s question. It serves,
instead, as the focus for student questions so students can, on their own, identify and explore a wide
range of themes and ideas. The QFocus:
• has a clear focus
• is not a question
• provokes and stimulates new lines of thinking
• doesn’t reveal teacher preference or bias, for examples:
• pollution harms Chinese residents
• smoking pot has health benefits
• text titles
Keep classification simple, for example:
• closed—one-word response
• open—requires more explanation
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Question without a Question
Description
The teacher makes a statement related to the topic or makes a statement about a student’s response to a
question. These statements are used in lieu of questions to probe student thinking.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Making a statement and pausing for comment allows students time to think and determine, what if
anything, that they want to say.
Implementation
Plan statements to use as questions prior to the start of the lesson. Pose a statement to the class (orally or
displayed). Next, pause and then randomly call on a student to express an opinion.
For example, when using ABCD Cards, you might say to a student, You chose A. Typically students will
begin to explain their response.
Tips
When using this strategy with the whole class (instead of just responding to one student), you may
eectively combine the strategy with all-student response systems. Use this as a way to check in on why
students chose the response they did.
For example: Share a statement like a rectangle is a square, and all students indicate whether they agree
or disagree using thumbs up or thumbs down. Then, move into a discussion by probing further with
individual students by simply stating You disagreed. Then pause while each student prepares to defend
his or her position.
As a variation, you may also provide the answer as a statement and then have students formulate the
question.
Search for “all-student response systems” for complementary strategies.
58Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Quizlet™
https://quizlet.com/
Description
This digital tool allows teachers to create quizzes and study games that are engaging and accessible
online and via a mobile device.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Quizlet promotes and informs learning through the manipulation of interactive learning sets that students
can study, share, and discuss. Competition among the teams may benefit student engagement.
Implementation
Create an account, and set up your questions to be used with students. Then share the login code with the
class. Students, in teams, use smart devices to respond to the question(s).
The program allows the account holder/users to:
• create flashcards
• track correct/incorrect responses
• spell from audio presentation
• test from the flashcard study sets
• play games against the clock to match flashcards
• type answers as terms and definitions
Tips
You may group students into teams. Both correct answers and speed of response are considered, but
accuracy is more important.
Teachers may create up to eight classes for free.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
59Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Random Name/Word Picker
https://www.classtools.net/random-name-picker/
Description
This digital tool allows the teacher to input a class list and facilitates random name picking.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This tool engages more students than the usual handful who normally answer the majority of questions in
a typical classroom. This strategy promotes all students in active thinking about the topic because they
are not sure who will be the next to speak.
Class discussions help make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the
source of students’ confusion. They allow students to uncover their own thinking and challenge them to
support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Additionally,
class discussions let students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Input a class list or key ideas into the tool. The tool uses a spinning wheel interface to select from the class
list or key ideas.
Tips
You can also add a list of keywords and use the tool to review content or elicit evidence of learning.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
60Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Randomly
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/randomly-call-on-student-split/id843986848
Description
This app helps the teacher pick a student from the class. It also uses turn-based selection so every student
is selected once before any student is picked again. It also oers a totally random selection process.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students are often more comfortable engaging in a discussion that is not entirely teacher led. This also
engages more students than the usual handful who normally answer the majority of questions in a typical
classroom. This strategy promotes all students in active thinking about the topic because they are not sure
who will be the next to speak.
Implementation
Enter the class name, and add the student names, and then the app is ready to use.
You can choose Anyone or Uncalled, and the screen displays a randomly chosen student name.
For purposes of formative assessment, we suggest using the Anyone setting all or part of the time to keep
students actively engaged; because students don’t know if they will be called on again, they must pay
attention to each question asked.
The Uncalled option setting may be useful, for example, when the randomizer has called on several
students more than once.
Tips
You can also use the tool to create random groups. It can even vocally call out the chosen student’s name.
You can use the app on an iPad® or iPhone®.
It supports multiple classes and has a number of selection options.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
61Eliciting Evidence Strategies | NWEA.org | 503.624.1951 | 121 NW Everett St., Portland, OR 97209
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Random Reporter
Description
The teacher randomly picks a reporter after group work is completed to summarize or explain results from
the group to the whole class.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The fact that students are selected at random encourages greater student engagement. Additionally,
the summarizing task calls on higher-level thinking that includes synthesizing and distilling what is most
important.
Implementation
Explain ahead of time that you plan to use this strategy, and oer clear guidance and structure so that
every student engages in the group work and that virtually every student is prepared to eectively report
out.
You can select random reporters in a variety of ways. One method is to assign each table or group a
number and then have members of the group count o. Draw two numbers randomly: one identifies the
group, and one identifies the reporter. Another method is to draw a number, say three, to represent the
reporter, and the number three in each group reports out.
Tips
Some students may be disconcerted initially with this technique. However, if you implement it at the
beginning of the school year, it will become a part of the culture of learning. Most students soon come to
enjoy and respect the randomness embedded in this strategy because it speaks to their sense of fairness.
Another way to select the random reporter is to use the results of a Group Tantalizers list. Each group
member’s name should appear at least once on the list next to a question.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
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Scattervox
http://www.scattervox.com/
Description
This digital polling tool makes each question two-dimensional by having respondents use quadrants for
their responses, thus creating a scatter plot.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The use of an all-student response system makes collecting more evidence of learning from more students
more ecient. Teachers and students can respond to the data in real time, making adjustments to
instruction and learning.
The fact that each answer reflects a student’s thinking along two dimensions adds a level of complexity to
the thinking required.
Implementation
Determine the question and two aspects you want students to respond to. You can either create the poll
in advance or log in and create the poll just in time. Share a link to the poll with students. Students access
the poll using smart devices, enter their choices on the grid, and submit their responses. Results are
viewed in real time.
Both you and the students can use the data to determine next steps in learning.
Tips
Scattervox is appropriate for preand post-assessment, checking for understanding and misconceptions
during the learning, and for moving learning forward.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
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Share One
Description
At any point in the learning, the teacher has students pair up to share something that has impacted them
from the learning.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Sharing evidence of learning with a peer allows students the freedom to test what they think they have
learned.
This strategy lets students hear the thinking of others in order to address possible confusions.
Implementation
At either a pre-determined point or a moment of need in the lesson, have students make a note about one
idea to share by providing a prompt. Prompts may include ideas like:
• most important concept or idea shared so far
• most useful thing learned so far
• a question that is bugging them
Students take their note and find another student with whom to share. Use a variety of methods for
determining talk partners.
Tips
After students have had an opportunity to share with a peer, you may wish to have a few students share
with the whole group what they discussed. Selecting pairs to share who had a disagreement or who
had very dierent responses might lead to particularly valuable discussions. The discussion can provide
you with information about any remaining confusions or misconceptions that you can clear up before
moving on.
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Socrative
https://www.socrative.com/
Description
This digital tool allows teachers to design questions and quizzes for students based on their
classroom needs.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The use of an all-student response system makes collecting more evidence of learning from more students
more ecient. Teachers and students can respond to the data in real time, making adjustments to
instruction and learning.
The use of Socrative enables teachers to instantly grade, group, and use visuals of student results to
identify additional learning opportunities.
Implementation
Create an account on any device in Socrative, and enter a quiz, question, or poll. Students connect
through the app or join your room online with the code you provide to respond to the question(s). Results
are available in real time.
You may discuss the data with students to help determine what next steps should be.
Reporting is particularly robust, oering whole-class overview, student-specific results, or question-by-
question breakdown.
Tips
This digital tool allows you to create quizzes, polls, exit tickets, and “space races” for student engagement.
Apps are available from Apple, Chrome™, and Google Play™.
The student and teacher apps are dierent downloads.
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
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Student-Developed Questions
Description
Students develop questions to deepen their own understanding and that of their peers related to the
content under study.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The students explore their understanding or confusions and make their thinking visible by generating
questions. The class benefits from student-owned questions that use language that may be easier to
understand because peers wrote them.
Implementation
Give all students time to think about and generate questions regarding a topic, lesson, or concept that
they can subsequently use, for example, in discussions (general, whole class, or small group), for lesson
summaries/reviews, or as exit ticket questions or classroom tests.
Provide guidance as needed. You can use question prompts, tools, or specific strategies to help teach
students how to generate good questions. This process also provides information to you about student
learning, which you may use to modify and adapt future instruction.
Once you develop the questions:
• if they are diagnostic questions, select (or enlist the students to help select) an all-student response
system to collect the data
• if they are discussion questions, select (or enlist the students to help select) a randomizer strategy to
collect the data and engage students in discussion
Tips
One adaptation may be to have students generate both a question and answer about what he or she has
learned so far. Then ask one or two peers to answer the question.
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Synectic
Description
Students use images to create an analogy about the focus of the learning.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy is useful as a pre-assessment or to spark conversation about a topic and establish readiness
for further exploration. The teacher may also use it as a way to summarize the learning that has occurred.
Implementation
Students work in small groups. Display a visual image on the screen, or supply picture cards on each table
(these can be the same image or dierent illustrations at each table). Explain that the task is for each
individual to complete the stem: This topic is like this image because . . .
Students individually complete the stem and then share with their small group. After the small-group
discussions occur, ask students to share with the whole class. If you use the strategy as a pre-assessment,
you may want to record student responses to revisit them at the end of the lesson/unit to check in on
connections and growth. If you use it as a summary of learning, you can verify that the class has met the
learning targets or success criteria by listening to students explain why they chose particular images. The
language of the learning targets and success criteria, as well as direct connections to the content, should
surface in these explanations.
Tips
A number of the technology tools listed in this toolkit allow images as well as open-ended responses to be
used. Poll Everywhere is one example.
Variations:
In addition to making comparisons, groups may also generate contrasts: This topic is not like this image
because . . .
Give groups a category or an individual item (without illustration) for brainstorming comparisons. This
topic is like this item because . . . or This topic is like something in this category because . . .
Place an object or several objects on each table, and ask each group to make comparisons, or have them
use something from their book bags or backpacks.
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Tagxedo
http://www.tagxedo.com/
Description
This free digital tool is a word cloud generator that allows teachers to examine student consensus and
facilitate dialogue. Teachers gather text from students to load into the tool, or students may load their
own text.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Teachers can quickly pinpoint major patterns of content that students understand and identify areas that
they need to explore further to uncover misconceptions or confusions.
The dialogue that follows lets students hear the thinking of others in order to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Identify a source text to import into the word cloud generator. You can collect results from student
assignments, responses to questions, backchannel chats, or discussions as a text document and upload
it to the tool. The words are sized proportionally to the frequency of occurrence. Look for words directly
related to learning targets, success criteria, or the content in general.
Students can take the text from their own work and load it into the tool as well. Having students load their
own text might provide a quick check for them to see if they are talking about what is important in the
content or not.
Tips
This tool allows you to change the shape of the cloud and the colors of the text.
Remember that the word cloud uses words, not phrases, as building blocks. If you enter a phrase, the tool
will break it into multiple words.
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T-Chart
Description
This graphic organizer is used for brainstorming or listing two facets of a topic.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
The visual display makes students’ thought process visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify
the source of students’ confusion. Students uncover their own thinking and are challenged to support or
explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking.
Additionally, this strategy lets students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Create small groups of four to six, providing each group with colored markers and a recording sheet or
blank notepaper for recording its self-assessment. Given the matrix display, ask participants to generate
ideas to respond to the prompts. When groups have posted all responses and completed the graphic
organizer, organize a whole-class exploration of the data.
Facets might include:
• advantages and disadvantages
• facts about two related topics
• pros and cons
• facts and opinions
• problems and solutions
Tips
This strategy facilitates the public display of shared ideas or learning.
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Tease Out
Description
A student gives an answer to a question that needs improvement or elaboration, so the teacher says, Wait
a minute until we see what others think. This strategy engages the rest of the class while keeping the first
student listening and thinking.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
To engage more students in the thinking, the teacher does not immediately respond to the first answer.
Students who oer alternative answers are using higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation,
and divergent thinking.
Implementation
Pose a question to the class, and, using a randomizer, identify a student to respond. The student’s
response needs elaboration or improvement or may be incorrect. Then gather additional answers from a
few other students, and ask the first student, Which answer do you like best? Why? This technique avoids
fixating negatively on one student and provides the first student the opportunity to learn from peers and
perhaps change his or her initial response.
Tips
Part of the culture of learning that supports formative assessment assures students that this type of
questioning does not constitute your “picking on” a particular student but that it is an eective and
reasonable method to help all students’ thinking go deeper and/or wider.
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30-Second Share
Description
Students have 30 seconds to share what they have learned in a lesson.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy provides a way to quickly and immediately assess student learning and connections to
content. Providing this short period of time challenges students to summarize succinctly.
Implementation
Several students take a turn to report something learned in the lesson. Many (sometimes all) students
share something that they learned in the lesson just completed, usually in 30 seconds or less. When this
is a well-established and valued routine for the class, everything shared is usually on target. If a student
misstates something, other students may correct him or her in a nonthreatening way. The connections to
the learning and targets stated at the beginning of the lesson should be implicit or explicit.
Tips
When you implement this strategy at the beginning of the school year, it becomes part of the culture
of learning. This assures students that this type of participation does not constitute your “picking on” a
particular student. It is an eective and reasonable method to help all students’ thinking go deeper and/or
wider.
You may want to combine this strategy with a randomizer tool to select the students who will report out.
Use the term “randomizer” to search for additional strategies for this purpose.
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Three As Plus One
Description
Students read an identifying piece of text and explore their values, beliefs, and assumptions related
to the text.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy lets students explore values, beliefs, and assumptions related to content while exercising and
developing paraphrasing and inquiry skills in a small group. The teacher can see and hear what students
understand and connect to in the content taught.
Implementation
Review the strategy before students begin by announcing that they will be reading or watching a video
and reflecting on four questions:
• What do they agree with?
• What might they argue with or for?
• What might they aspire to or act on?
• What is an aha from this content?
After students read or watch, they respond individually to each of the questions. Then small groups (or
the whole group) share their answers to the first question. After a few minutes or after all group members
have responded, groups move on to the next question, and so forth.
Tips
You can use this activity with reading passages or video clips.
Sharing in small groups allows all voices to be heard more eciently.
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3-2-1 (Three-Two-One)
Description
To summarize their learning, students respond to three dierent prompts providing information,
questions, or actions.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Teachers can use this strategy with a wide variety of topics to summarize understanding and increase
retention and transfer of new information at a lesson’s close.
Implementation
Students complete an exit ticket on which they respond to three prompts to elicit evidence of learning
from the lesson. An example of prompts might be 3 things they want to practice, 2 things from the lesson
they expect to be on the test, and 1 thing from the lesson they enjoyed. The students turn these in to you
as they end the lesson or leave the class. You can then use these responses to modify or adapt your future
instruction.
Students can record responses on an index card, sticky note, or graphic organizer.
A variation of this strategy might be to direct individuals to complete their 3-2-1 recording sheets. After
a few minutes, table groups then share and explore their ideas, using a round-robin process to ensure
balanced participation. After several minutes, ask each group to choose some aspect of the conversation
to share with the full group. Give groups a couple of minutes to organize their reports.
Tips
A structured worksheet, individual think time, and shared exchange increase focus and engagement. This
strategy is also eective at the start of a session to activate readiness.
To save time, you can prepare 3-2-1 worksheets in advance.
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Thumbs Up
Description
Students signal their level of understanding of a topic or lesson to the teacher by using thumbs up (get it),
down (do not get it), or sideways (not sure).
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students’ responses to prompts about the content of a lesson reveal information about students’
understandings, misunderstandings, and misconceptions.
This is an example of an all-student response system that helps the teacher quickly get a sense of what
students know or understand while engaging all students in the class.
Implementation
Ask students to demonstrate their current understanding to gain a quick sense of how students are
progressing in the lesson and to make appropriate adjustments to the instruction on the basis of that
information.
For this strategy to work well, students need to have a thorough grasp of the learning targets and success
criteria.
Tips
Explaining why you’re using this strategy helps encourage students to be honest and self-reflective.
A variation to using just thumbs is to use whole hands: hand up (get it), hand flat (not there yet), or hand
down (need help).
For best use of an all-student response system:
• the question takes no longer than 30 seconds to a minute to ask or present
• students respond in 2 minutes or less
• every student can respond simultaneously
• you can quickly assess the answers in less than 30 seconds
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Tweet/Twitter™
https://twitter.com
Description
Students distill what is important about the learning concisely into 140 characters.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Teachers can quickly pinpoint major patterns of content that students understand and identify areas that
they need to explore further to uncover misconceptions or confusions.
Implementation
Ask students to summarize their learning on a piece of paper as if they were Tweeting (staying within the
140-character limitation). Without talking, students may respond to another person’s Tweet on the paper
or wall.
Tips
Depending on the age of the students, you may set up a hashtag in Twitter to which students may post
their learning, or they may post tweets within the classroom on a wall.
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Two-Tiered Probe
Description
This strategy is a combination of asking a selected response question and having students respond with
an all-student response system followed by individual response board justification.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This probing method allows teachers to gather initial responses and to glimpse student thinking behind
the response.
Implementation
This is a two-step process. For the first step, pose a multiple-choice question to the class, and have
the students respond with cards, hand signals, or hand-held devices. For step two, ask students to use
individual response boards to explain their thinking for choosing the response they did.
Tips
Remember when introducing a new strategy that students learn more easily when using a familiar
combination of tools.
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Wait Time/Think Time
Description
This strategy is about pausing to let students process a question before responding and then allowing
time after their response to process the answer.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Students reflect and consider their own thinking before formulating their responses. This often leads to
students clarifying their own thinking before they share. Pausing after a student responds (and before the
student elaborates on it or others respond) promotes even more deep thought and reflection.
This strategy encourages class discussion and peer support in learning.
This strategy helps make students’ thinking visible in order to help the teacher more easily identify the
source of students’ confusion. It allows students to uncover their own thinking and challenges them to
support or explain their reasoning, which also helps them deepen and broaden their thinking. Additionally,
the strategy lets students hear the thinking of others to address possible confusions.
Implementation
Wait Time: After asking a question, wait before calling on a student or students for an answer to give
them time to think before responding. Use extended Wait Time (three to five seconds) in a consistent and
eective way by giving students ample time to frame a thoughtful response to the particular question. For
example, recall questions require a shorter wait time than conceptual questions.
Think Time: During Think Time 1, students are formulating their answers to the question you posed. After
students respond, stay attentive and silent for a few seconds before asking the next question to give
both students and you time to think about the question and responses. Students have time to consider
expanding or elaborating on their initial responses, and you have time to thoughtfully interpret student
responses. This period is Think Time 2. Gear the length of Think Time 2 to the amount of time students
need to frame a thoughtful elaboration.
You can eectively combine this strategy with a method of randomly calling on students to increase
student engagement.
Tips
Think Time is sometimes referred to as the “second Wait Time.” A key idea with Think Time is to learn to
listen interpretively (for understanding of what the student has said), instead of evaluating the answer to
see if it “matches” your expected answer.
Teachers and students need to shift the way we think about Wait Time to consider it Think Time. “Think
Time 1” occurs after you pose the question so students can formulate their responses. “Think Time 2”
occurs after a student responds so that he or she can elaborate on the response or others can respond.
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Wait Watchers
Description
A student or students act as timers to help the teacher increase Wait Time/Think Time and to use it
routinely.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy is very useful when developing a classroom culture for learning; it specifically establishes a
culture of thinking before responding in the classroom.
Involving students in this way shows that the teacher values the thinking of all students enough to devote
time and structure to ensuring that thinking happens.
Students become more aware of how much time they spend on thinking about an answer before giving it.
Implementation
First, explain the importance of having all students actively think about a question or prompt before they
respond. Being transparent in classroom routines like Wait Time that promote and foster a growth mind-
set improves understanding. You may couple this explanation with examples of what happens when Wait
Time is and isn’t used.
A student (or colleague) can use a simple timing device to clock your Wait Time after each question. The
students can record the results on a time sheet for a specified period of time or until you are satisfied with
the results.
Ensure that the student or students involved as Wait Watchers have a thorough understanding of the Wait
Time interval before they begin to “watch.”
Tips
The role of Wait Watcher may help students who tend to call out answers right away break that behavior
pattern and contribute to the benefit of the class.
Rotate the student who is serving in the time-keeper role, since he or she may not be considering the
actual question while serving as a Wait Watcher.
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What About Today
Description
Learners create summary statements based on the learning from the day using sentence stems.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Having learners explain what they learned and placing it in context (“here’s why it’s important”) is
essential for building knowledge of a topic over time. This also promotes cross-curricular connections as
learning develops, which is building the connections habits we want learners to build.
Implementation
Draft sentence stems ahead of the learning event and provide 10 minutes at the end for learners to
complete them.
Tips
Explain to learners at the beginning of the learning event that they will be summarizing at the end.
Examples
“Here’s what (I am learning)”
“So what (it’s important because)”
“Now what (as a result of my experience in this lesson, I will”)
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Where Do You Stand?
Description
The teacher provides students with two options and has them physically move to stand in one of two
places based on what they know. A potential third option is “don’t know.”
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
This strategy is useful for identifying preconceived notions, assumptions, background knowledge, and
information gaps. It also moves students to become instructional resources for one another. Physical
movement encourages more blood flow throughout the body (including the brain).
Implementation
Letting students see whom they physically stand with and whom they don’t stand with provides peer
resources to tap into later. It also allows for members of the like-minded group to share their thoughts
with one another to solidify their common stance.
Topics might be polarizing such as Are you pro-/anti-guns? or more simple such as Camels store water in
their humps, true or false.
Tips
As a variation, you may oer a continuum that allows students to stand anywhere along a designated line
to reflect the degree to which they agree or disagree.
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Whole-Class Graphing
Description
These survey strategies help teachers and students assess needs, attitudes, or knowledge. The teacher
poses a question and asks each student to record his or her thoughts on a chart that everyone can see or
asks each student to physically move to a designated location within the classroom.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
These strategies let students share their feelings about a topic, give teachers quick data to modify
instruction, and tell students that their ideas, beliefs, and feelings are valued.
Implementation
Prepare the chart or mark places in the room. Pose a question to the students or make a statement.
Students indicate their responses on the chart or by moving to the appropriate point in the classroom.
Distinguish pre/post learning with dierent colored marks. Once everyone has placed his or her mark on
the chart, the teacher and the class analyze the results, and determine next steps.
In place of charts, have students stand in lines to represent where they would fall on the scale. The use of
a scatterplot allows you to collect pieces of data at the same time. You can also use chart paper or have
students stand between axes.
Tips
You can use these whole-class graphing tools on chart paper or have students physically move
in the classroom. If students physically move, consider using tape to mark the floor, or stretch string
between walls.
A consensogram is a chart that shows the frequency of distribution of responses, measures a group’s
perceptions, and allows individuals to view their responses in relation to the whole group. Observing
where most of the stickers/colored marks are or where actual students are lined up shows consensus on
the topic, allowing you to assess degree of knowledge on the issue.
A histogram is a graphical display of data using bars of dierent heights, based on the frequency
that each variable occurs. An example might be having students physically stand in rows that show
transportation methods for getting to school: walking, riding the bus, riding in a car, riding a bicycle, or
other. You can then use these frequency data to create bar graphs.
A scatterplot is a type of plot or mathematical diagram that allows the investigation of the possible
relationship between two variables. If the points are color-coded, you can increase the number of
displayed variables to three. An example might be having students weigh in on causes of the Civil War
showing where both the North and South fell regarding economics and leadership.
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Wordle™
http://www.wordle.net/
Description
This digital tool generates word clouds from any entered text to help aggregate responses and facilitate
discussion.
Promotes Learning/Informs Learning
Creating a word cloud oers another modality for students to access learning. It oers a visual
representation of what the class is thinking about.
Implementation
You can generate a word cloud in multiple ways, including collecting words from students early in a
section of learning (to surface assumptions or uncover prior knowledge) or near the end of a section
(to assess/summarize). To limit the influence of students’ thinking on one another, you may want to ask
students to jot down their words before sharing and then do a round robin. Have students, individually or
in small groups, create their own word clouds related to a particular topic.
From the resulting word cloud, invite students to react to what they see: Are you surprised at what was
mentioned most frequently? How does this help you to make sense of the topic?
Tips
Remember that the word cloud uses words, not phrases, as building blocks. If users enter a phrase, the
tool will break it apart into multiple words.
Users can format the word cloud in a variety of ways. The tool automatically gives greater prominence to
words that appear more frequently.
If you are collecting input from students digitally, you can simply copy and paste chunks of text to quickly
create your Wordle.
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December 2020 | PL25378