Fun Formative Assessment Activities Inspired by UDL

Even after years in the classroom, it’s easy to overlook how much low-stakes checks reveal about student learning. Guided by Universal Design for Learning (UDL), quick formative assessments can provide multiple ways for students to engage, represent, and express understanding.

Cognitive scientist Pooja K. Agarwal and educator Patrice Bain compare assessments to organizing a file drawer. Retrieval practice (which is student-focused) organizes files and helps students recall and reinforce learning, like reorganizing a messy file drawer so it’s easier to find things next time. Formative assessment (teacher- and student-focused) actively inspects the files to uncover understanding, pinpoint gaps, adjust, reteach, or extend. Summative assessment, in contrast, gives students and teachers a complete inventory of all the files before moving to the next cabinet.

Ongoing formative assessments provide teachers and students with timely, evidence-based insights into learning. Using tools such as comprehension questions, informal checks, and exit tickets, teachers can identify student strengths, correct misunderstandings, and plan for next steps. By allowing students to demonstrate understanding in varied ways, formative assessment supports individual needs and informs instructional decisions. The strategies below are adaptations I’ve used in my classroom to blend formative insight with UDL-inspired flexibility, building on ideas from many educators who have inspired me along the way.

Quick Comprehension Checks

Playful formative checks make student thinking visible while letting teachers adjust pacing, provide support, extend learning, and guide discussion. They work well at the start of a lesson to gauge prior knowledge, during instruction to check understanding, and at the end to summarize or reflect.

Thumbs up / middle / down: Students show understanding with thumbs, either openly or silently with eyes closed.

Fist to five: Students show a closed fist to indicate “I don’t understand,” and up to five fingers to indicate their degree of understanding or confidence.

On the count of three, move: Students move to a side of the room to respond (e.g., agree/disagree, true/false, A/B answer choice).

Would you rather: Give students two or more ways to respond to demonstrate understanding (e.g., draw, write, act).

Sticky note summary: Students summarize a key idea on a sticky note to post for discussion or gallery walk.

Total physical response: Cocreate actions for words or concepts; act them out or write keywords in the air for a partner to guess. For example, in science, students might mimic the water cycle; in math, act out operations; in history, represent events; in English language arts, show story actions or emotions.

One-word shout: Students share a single word that captures the lesson, aloud or written as an exit ticket.

Word sprint: List as many related words as possible in one minute.

Spot the error: Identify intentional mistakes in a sentence or short text and share.

With these, teachers gain quick, actionable feedback while students engage, express understanding, and access content through multiple UDL-aligned modes such as movement, discussion, visuals, writing, or speech. By scanning the room for comprehension, teachers can identify misconceptions, adjust pacing, group students strategically, or reteach or extend concepts in future lessons.

Gamified formative assessments

Games and activities can become formative assessments if you use the results as feedback to inform instruction, clarify misconceptions, or reinforce understanding.​​

Picture this: In pairs, one student describes a projected photo, diagram, or objective while the other draws facing away. This exercise offers a quick view of vocabulary and listening skills while letting students express understanding visually, verbally, and collaboratively, encouraging engagement, representation, and action/expression.

Word cloud check: Turn key vocabulary and concepts into a word cloud using Flippity. Pair students and give them markers. As you tell a story using the words, students race to highlight them in the word cloud. Then, read statements about the lesson; students grab the marker if true, leave it if false. This activity reveals gaps in understanding while encouraging multiple ways to engage, represent, and express learning.

Comprehension corners: Label corners of the room: “Got it,” “Almost there,” “Missing a gap,” “Not feeling it.” State a learning goal. Students move to the corner that matches how they feel about their progress toward the learning goal; then they collaborate to fill in gaps and create summaries of information. Comprehension corners provide a low-stakes, visual snapshot of understanding and confidence. Students choose how to share thinking, collaborate, and express learning through movement and discussion.

Gallery walk: Post images, diagrams, or sentences around the room. Students walk around to match, sequence, or answer using provided descriptions, story events, or questions. To make the activity more engaging and easier to check, label each paper in the gallery walk with a letter. When students determine the correct sequence, the letters can spell out a word. Students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups. This allows students to engage physically, access content visually, and demonstrate understanding through matching, sequencing, or explaining.

Creative Formative Exit Tickets

These are some of my low-stakes favorites to see whether students mastered the objective or what may need revisiting.

Rose, thorn, bud: Students identify a success, emerging idea, and challenge.

Teach a teenie: Summarize the lesson so a 5-year-old could understand.

Stump the teacher: Create a question the teacher might not know the answer to.

Rock–paper–scissors: Identify the hardest part, one takeaway, and one activity to cut out—this is great for seeing what’s working or not in your lesson.

Absent friend: List five things a classmate who missed class needs to know.

Friday feedback: Engage in a quick reflection on what students understood and what worked or didn’t work for them that week. One way to do this is to ask students to reflect on two of these prompts each Friday: celebrate a surprise / tiny tweak / hungry for more / clarify confusion/ mind blown. The prompts help students reflect on lessons, activities, or their own progress, sharing insights about their learning, surprises, or areas to adjust for the following week (e.g., adding more detail to speaking or writing). Their responses provide actionable feedback to guide instruction and support individual growth.

Mini-quiz: Conduct a quick verbal quiz by reading statements from previous readings, videos, stories, or lesson objectives. Students determine whether each statement is true/false or happened/didn’t happen. Students jot answers on sticky notes or paper, then self- or peer-check.

Write and discuss: Students pair up to write a summary sentence. Groups share their sentences on the board, and everyone copies them, building a cocreated class summary.

Why these work

These activities provide students with multiple ways to reflect (rose, bud, thorn), summarize and communicate (teach a teenie; write and discuss), and practice recall and decision-making (mini-quiz; stump the teacher), supporting engagement, representation, and action or expression.

Choice can also be offered between two comprehension checks or exit tickets, allowing students to decide how they want to demonstrate learning through movement, discussion, or independent work. They can show understanding through writing, speaking, or drawing (action and expression), and by accessing content visually, orally, or through manipulatives (representation). These strategies make thinking visible, reveal gaps, and give teachers quick, actionable feedback for future instruction.

Formative assessment is more than a check for understanding. It values mistakes as opportunities for learning, fosters curiosity, encourages self-reflection, and promotes risk-taking. When playful and low-stakes, it reveals what students know while creating moments of insight, growth, and connection.