Professional Development
In KnowAtom classrooms, formative assessment during reading happens when teachers are listening carefully to how students are making sense of a phenomenon—and pressing their thinking at the right moments to deepen, clarify, or connect ideas.
Nonfiction reading in KnowAtom is designed around routines like Wows and Wonders and the Picture Thinking Routine, which already surface student thinking. The teacher’s role is not to interrupt those routines with assessment, but to use formative assessment moves within them so thinking does not drift by unnoticed.
This article reframes formative assessment during reading as a matter of what teachers attend to, respond to, and elevate, rather than something students complete.
Why Listening Is the Core Formative Assessment Skill During Reading
KnowAtom reading routines are built to make student thinking audible and visible from the start. Students are asked to:
- Notice what stands out
- Wonder about what they don’t yet understand
- Interpret images and text together
- Share partial ideas without pressure to be correct
Because thinking is already being externalized, the most important formative assessment decision a teacher makes during reading is what to listen for. A helpful starting point is listening for how students are explaining their ideas, rather than whether those ideas are correct.
Experienced teachers listen for:
- Ideas that connect directly to the unit phenomenon
- Early explanations that reveal assumptions or misconceptions
- Language that signals partial understanding (phrases like “I think,” “maybe,” or “it seems like,” which often indicate emerging reasoning rather than confusion)
- Questions that could drive investigation
This aligns with KnowAtom’s definition of formative assessment as an ongoing, in-the-moment process that informs instruction as learning unfolds (KnowAtom, 2019).
Nothing needs to stop. Nothing needs to be added. Teachers do not pause reading to assess. Formative assessment happens as teachers listen to and respond to student thinking in the moment.
Why Pressing Thinking Matters—and Why Timing Is Everything
Listening alone is not enough. If teachers only collect student ideas, thinking can remain shallow or fragmented.
Pressing thinking is what moves sensemaking forward—but only when done selectively and purposefully.
Pressing can include:
- Asking for clarification when ideas are vague
“Can you say more about what you mean by that?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Tell us more about what you’re noticing.”
- Reflecting student thinking back to the group
“I’m hearing you say ___—did I get that right?”
“Let’s pause on what ___ just said. What are others thinking about that idea?”
- Highlighting tension between ideas
“I’m noticing we have two different ideas here.”
“This sounds different from what we heard earlier.”
“These explanations don’t quite line up—let’s hold onto that.”
- Connecting ideas back to the phenomenon or big idea
“How does that idea help us explain what we’re seeing?”
“How does that detail connect to what we’re trying to figure out?”
“What evidence would help us sort this out?”
Crucially, pressing does not mean correcting, explaining, or steering students toward the “right” answer.
Pressing is a selective decision about which ideas are worth slowing down for. Teachers press when:
- An idea is promising but underdeveloped
- A misconception is emerging that will matter later
- A student’s language is masking their reasoning
- A connection to the phenomenon is within reach
They do not press every comment. Over-pressing collapses the routine into interrogation and shuts down participation.
How This Looks Inside Wows and Wonders
Wows and Wonders are not a pre-reading activity to get through quickly. They are a central mechanism for formative assessment.
Kindergarten example:
In Living Things Change, students share wonders about why some plants grow faster than others. One student says, “Maybe they’re bigger because they’re older.” Another adds, “Maybe they get more sun.”
The teacher does not settle the question. Instead, they press lightly:
- “What makes you think age matters for how a plant grows?”
- “What have you noticed about where the plants are placed?”
These questions surface the reasoning behind each idea without pushing toward an answer. The teacher is listening for explanations that can later be tested through observation and investigation. The formative assessment happens through which ideas are taken up—and which are intentionally left open for future sensemaking.
How This Looks Inside the Picture Thinking Routine
Images are where many students, especially English learners, first articulate scientific ideas.
Grades 1–2 example:
In Changing Seasons (Grade 1), students examine images of Earth at different points in its orbit. A student points and says, “This side is hotter.”
Rather than correcting or expanding, the teacher presses:
- “What do you notice in the picture that makes you think that?”
- “Is there anything the picture shows us about sunlight?”
These questions invite the student to ground their idea in visual evidence rather than prior experience. The teacher is listening for whether the student is using features of the image—such as the direction of sunlight or the illuminated side of Earth—to explain the idea. That information helps the teacher decide how to guide the discussion and what connections to elevate next.
How Pressing Thinking Guides the Class Toward Big Ideas
One reason thinner treatments of formative assessment often fall short is that they focus on what teachers do without making clear why a move matters instructionally.
Pressing thinking during reading helps teachers:
- Identify which ideas belong on the concept map
- Decide which questions are worth investigating
- Frame investigations around real student uncertainty
- Maintain coherence across the lesson sequence
These decisions do not happen all at once. They accumulate across lessons as teachers listen to how student thinking develops over time.
Grades 3–5 example:
In Energy and Motion (Grade 3), students read about light and heat from the sun. One student explains, “The sun heats things because it’s really close to Earth.”
Rather than correcting the explanation, the teacher presses:
- “I’m curious, what makes you say distance affects heat?”
- “What evidence from the images or text supports that idea?”
The teacher keeps this explanation visible across subsequent readings and investigations. As students later model how sunlight hits Earth at different angles, the class returns to the idea to explain patterns of heating and cooling. What began as a single pressed explanation becomes central to the unit’s big ideas—without the teacher resolving it in advance.
How This Evolves in Middle School
In middle school, pressing thinking becomes more explicit—but remains informal.
Grades 6–8 example:
In Climate and Human Activity (Grade 6), students wonder whether droughts are caused by lack of rain or human water use. The teacher reflects the tension:
“I’m hearing two different explanations. Let’s keep both in mind as we read and investigate.”
Rather than resolving the question, the teacher uses this moment to orient students toward evidence. As the class examines climate data and water-use patterns in later readings, students return to these explanations to determine which conditions contribute to droughts in different contexts. The initial tension helps frame what counts as relevant evidence and keeps the investigation grounded in student-generated questions.
How Teachers Protect Sensemaking During Reading
To stay aligned with KnowAtom’s design, teachers make deliberate choices about what to hold back during reading so student sensemaking can unfold.
- Teachers keep reading uninterrupted by written prompts.
Written tasks shift attention toward completion and away from making meaning in the moment. During reading, listening and pressing are more productive than capturing responses on paper. - Teachers treat early ideas as starting points, not evidence of mastery.
Wows, wonders, and first explanations are meant to surface thinking, not evaluate it. Holding off on judgment keeps students willing to revise ideas as they encounter new evidence. - Teachers press selectively and allow space for uncertainty.
Silence, ambiguity, and partial ideas are productive when students are still orienting to a phenomenon. Over-pressing too early can shut down participation and narrow thinking before it has time to develop.
Why This Matters
In KnowAtom classrooms, formative assessment during reading is not something students experience as assessment at all. It grows out of daily classroom moments that treat student ideas as worth hearing—and worth revisiting.
It is experienced as:
- Being listened to
- Being taken seriously
- Being asked to think a little harder
- Being invited to revise ideas over time
That is how thinking stays visible—and how reading becomes the foundation for everything that follows.
References
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KnowAtom. (2019). Formative Assessment Guide.
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Ritchhart, R. (2015). Creating Cultures of Thinking. Jossey-Bass.
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Ritchhart, R., & Perkins, D. (2008). Making thinking visible. Educational Leadership.