the other main division in assessment is a tool that is informal and a tool that is formal informal assessment allows teachers to gather information on student learning through natural activities things that they are already doing in the classroom and this is done on a frequent basis and it allows you to make daily teaching decisions uh and the neat thing about informal assessment is it's not scary for children many times they don't even know that uh assessment is happening may be observing them in a dramatic play center and recording notes you may be interacting with them in a Learning Center or in a small group activity uh and and putting data on a checklist they may have a project that they're doing to show you what they have learned about penguins and you're evaluating that on a rubric it's very casual it's very authentic it's very real world and these assessments are the ones that drive our daily decision-making on the other side we have formal assessment and formal assessment is something that is done uh that follows a specific procedure and specific conditions and also the reporting tool is often standardized so you think about our formal tests maybe not even teacher made tests in the classroom although I guess they could be considered formal assessments but I'm thinking diagnostic tools screening tools our pssa our teacher certification exams these are tools that are administered under a specific set of conditions it's very standardized in the way that is done uh and it's very specific in the outcome that you receive these are usually not the kind of assessment tool we're using to plan our daily instruction we may need these tools at some point even with our youngest Learners to diagnose something or to you know figure out a specific plan for their learning but on the the daily decision-making we're not going to be using formal assessment tools with our younger learners