Assessment in the classroom

We can all think of different ways our knowledge was assessed in school. Probably the first ways we think of are tests, quizes, and papers. That is not the limit to how teachers can assess student knowlede or ability though. Here is a clip of Jack Black doing some impromptu assessment in the movie School of Rock (I should say it is rather weak assessment he gets better).
Jack Black's character is not a good teacher, at least he doesn't start out that way, but he does get that learning can feel spontanious and fun. There are two broad categories of assessment: formal and informal. I think both are necessary and useful. I also think that both do not necessarily have to look completely different. It may be beneficial in a circumstance to make a test feel more relaxed and spontanious. It may be beneficial to plan out exactly what questions you will ask which students but make it seem spontanious and dynamic.
scholastic has a short and sweet guide to the difference between the two. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessments

In My Classroom

Informal assesment

1. Getting the students to read- This will allow me to see if they understand the material

2. asking questions during a lecture- this keeps the class awake and helps me gage if I need to slow down or revisit a subject.

3. performance assessment- this allows students display wholistic knowledge, bringing together knowledge from different disciplines and combining it in a meaningful way.

4. Pop quizes that won't be graded- this one may be a stretch but I may give one at the beginning of a topic just to see what student's know. Plus, after they learn the material, they will still have those questions in their heads and will feel good for increasing their knowledge.

Formal assessment

1. Observation- Doing a careful, empirical observation on how students interact with each other or a challenge could be useful for gaining their intelligence in less assessed areas, like emotional intelligence for instance.

2. Quizes- these keep students on their toes and don't take up a lot of class time.

3. tests- Of course, the big bad test. It's a fact of life, but preparing students for it well and not designing it with the intent to trick a student can make it something the student is proud to take and do well on.

4. Web based assessment-computer programs that give instant feedback and are thoughtfully engineered with past statistics in mind can be extremely effective in teaching new material. Perhaps more for math than social studies, but there is certainly something out there. here is a cool video about what people are doing in the math world. It's really compelling. http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxOrangeCoast-Matthew-Peterso