Mentora
Join the waitlist

Formative assessment strategies: the five that matter, with classroom examples

Formative assessment works through five strategies, as described by Dylan Wiliam and colleagues: make the goal clear, get evidence from every student, give feedback students can act on, and get students checking their own and each other's work.

Updated October 2026

The strategies are not activities to add to a lesson. They are what any activity has to do to count as formative assessment. The techniques under each one are interchangeable; for a longer list, see 20 formative assessment examples.

1. Clarify learning intentions and success criteria

What it means: Students know what they are trying to learn today and what good work looks like, before they start.

What it looks like:

  • Write the goal as something students can do ("compare fractions with unlike denominators"), not an activity ("fractions worksheet").
  • Turn it into two to four success criteria students can check their own work against.
  • Show a strong and a weak example and ask the class which meets the criteria, and why.

The mistake that undoes it: Copying the standard onto the board. If students can't use the criteria to judge their own work, they aren't clear yet.

2. Engineer discussions and tasks that show what students understand

What it means: Plan questions and tasks that reveal thinking from every student, not just the volunteers.

What it looks like:

  • Hinge questions: one multiple-choice question whose wrong options each match a known misconception, answered by all at once.
  • All-student response: mini whiteboards, ABCD cards, or a quick poll.
  • No hands up, with wait time, so everyone has to think before anyone answers.
  • Exit tickets at the end of the lesson.

The mistake that undoes it: Asking "Any questions?" or "Does everyone get it?" The silence tells you nothing.

3. Give feedback that moves learning forward

What it means: Feedback tells the student what to do next, and they get a chance to do it.

What it looks like:

  • Comment on the next step ("Add a piece of evidence for your second reason") rather than the past ("Good effort").
  • Give comments without a grade on drafts, so students read the comments.
  • Build in time for students to act on feedback in class, the same week.
  • When the same mistake shows up across the class, give the feedback to the whole class at once.

The mistake that undoes it: Feedback that arrives after the work is over. If there is nothing left to improve, it is a grade with comments.

4. Activate students as learning resources for one another

What it means: Students help each other learn, using the same criteria you would.

What it looks like:

  • Peer review with the rubric: two things that meet the criteria, one thing to improve.
  • Think-pair-share before whole-class discussion.
  • Students explain a worked solution to a partner, who has to restate it in their own words.

The mistake that undoes it: Peer feedback without criteria. "It's good" helps nobody; criteria give students something specific to look for.

5. Activate students as owners of their own learning

What it means: Students monitor their own understanding and know what to do when they are stuck.

What it looks like:

  • Self-assessment against the success criteria before handing work in.
  • Traffic lights or a 1-to-4 confidence rating at the end of a task.
  • Students keep track of which goals they have met and which they are still working on.

The mistake that undoes it: Asking for a self-rating and never looking at it. Students quickly learn the honest answer doesn't matter.

Where to start

Trying all five at once is how formative assessment gets dropped by November. A sequence that sticks:

  1. Start every lesson with a clear goal and end it with a three-minute exit ticket on that goal.
  2. Add one all-student response question in the middle of the lesson.
  3. Once the checks are routine, turn the success criteria into a self-assessment.
  4. Then bring in peer feedback, with the same criteria.

Evidence from every student, without reading every answer

Mentora grades written answers against your success criteria as students turn them in, and the debrief shows what the class understood, which wrong answers came up, who needs help, and what to do in the next class.

Early access, in small batches. One email when your spot is ready; nothing else.

See how Mentora works

Frequently asked questions

What are the five formative assessment strategies?

Clarify learning intentions and success criteria; engineer discussions and tasks that show what students understand; give feedback that moves learning forward; activate students as resources for one another; and activate students as owners of their own learning.

Who came up with the five strategies?

They are associated with Dylan Wiliam and colleagues, including Siobhan Leahy, Christine Lyon and Marnie Thompson, who described formative assessment as five strategies teachers use minute by minute and day by day.

What is the most important formative assessment strategy?

They depend on each other, but most teachers start with the second: getting evidence from every student. Without it, the feedback and the next steps are guesses.

What is the difference between a strategy and a technique?

A strategy is the goal, such as getting evidence from every student. A technique is one way to do it, such as mini whiteboards or a hinge question. You can swap techniques; the strategies stay.

Free tools