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The IB PYP Teacher's Guide to Formative Assessment for Conceptual Understanding
Hello again, fellow PYP teachers!
Formative assessment for conceptual understanding is a different job than formative assessment for facts. You're not just checking whether a student remembers something. You're trying to see whether they can hold onto an idea, connect it to something else, and use it somewhere new. That takes the right tools, used often and lightly, not one big test at the end.
Here's how I build formative assessment for concepts into my week, not just my unit.
Keep It Small and Frequent
A five minute check at the end of a lesson tells you more than a twenty minute test at the end of a unit. Small, frequent checks let you adjust your teaching in real time, while there's still time to adjust it. And this is how these concept reflection task cards came about.
I created these for our unit of inquiry as a quick reflection to be used largely as part of a THINK-PAIR-SHARE strategy. But we also used them in circle time at the end of the day as a casual chat together. Over t...
Using Exit Slips for Assessment with Conceptual Understanding in the IB PYP
In the IB PYP classroom, we don’t assess learning at the end; we assess as learning happens. That means we need simple, consistent tools that show what students understand, how they are thinking, and where misconceptions are starting to form.
Exit slips are one of the most simple & effective formative assessment tools for this.😉
Used well, they give you immediate insight into:
- conceptual understanding
- student thinking and reasoning
- learning gaps and misconceptions
- next steps for teaching
But not all exit slips are equal.
In this blog, I’m sharing how I use “This or That” Exit Slips to move beyond basic reflection and into meaningful conceptual assessment in IB PYP classrooms.
👉 If you want the practical classroom strategies, skip ahead to the sections below on Maths, Literacy, and Units of Inquiry.
You can also access the full ready-to-use resource here:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/IB-PYP-Assessment-Concepts-This-or-That-Exit-Slips-12076610
