Command Terms and Formative Assessments

Formative assessments allow students to practice skills that are crucial to performing well in a summative assessment. The ‘understanding and mastery of the command terms is an ATL skill.’ (ATL Website, IB, 2020) Therefore, it is important to include the command terms early on in the formative assessment process.

An example activity:

• Present the students with an ATL skill they will be practising in the summative assessment. (You can even explain its connection to the coming summative assessment).

• Have the students brainstorm activities that could be used to practice the ATL skill.

• Once you have settled on an activity, have students write the instructions for the task by using command terms.

• Have students share their work with other groups for feedback and refinement.