CommonLit Archive Get a Clear Picture of Student Progress with Unit Assessments

In each CommonLit unit, there are countless opportunities for teachers to gather formative data on student performance through:

  • During Reading questions in every reading lesson
  • Exit Tickets that include a mix of multiple-choice reading and short-answer writing questions,
  • The extended writing assignment.

The Final Assessment that you’ll find at the end of each unit provides an opportunity for teachers to see whether students truly mastered what was taught in the unit. For this reason, Final Assessments include no scaffolding support. The Final Assessments include roughly 10–12 multiple choice questions that assess the skills and standards that students have practiced throughout the unit.

CommonLit Unit Overview page with assignment 13 and 14 highlighted.

You can find the Final Assessment at the end of each unit.

Teachers should remember that Final Assessments have a few unique characteristics:

1- First, these are the only assignments within the CommonLit curriculum that must be completed online, through the CommonLit platform. To learn more about assigning these unit assessments, check out the video below:

How to Assign a Final Assessment on CommonLit.org from CommonLit on Vimeo
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2- Next, we highly recommend that students take these Final Assessments under real test-taking conditions, in a silent classroom. This will help to ensure that the data you receive from these assessments accurately reflect what students can do independently.

"FYC: A Slander" by Anton Chekhov lesson with Assessment Questions highlighted.
Students take the CommonLit Final Assessment online. We recommend completing them under test-taking conditions.

3- By completing CommonLit’s unit assessments online, teachers also receive access to actionable data reports, which highlight areas of student strengths and weaknesses. To check out these reports, just go to your “My Classes” tab in your CommonLit account. From there, you’ll be able to grade student writing and analyze your class’ performance on the Final Assessment.

Student data table for the final assessment.
After students complete their Final Assessment, you’ll receive an actionable data report on student performance.

One Final Step

As you approach the end of each unit, we would love to hear from you. Please don’t forget to complete the End of Unit Survey. This is a great opportunity to share what you loved about the unit and what you think the CommonLit team can improve upon. As a small thank-you, we’ll send along a $5.00 Amazon gift card for completing the survey.

To complete this survey, click here!

Contact Us

If you have any questions about to utilize our Final Assessments, please email Pilots@CommonLit.org. Our team is excited to support you!