Since 2006, the Formative Assessment for Students (FAST) SCASS has expanded the implementation of formative assessment in the classroom to positively impact teaching and learning. This work focuses on advancing the thinking of states about formative assessment. More information and resources are located at: 

CCSSO Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers (FAST) Resources

What Teachers Really Need to Know About Formative Assessment (ASCD, 2010).

"At the National Research Council, Bransford, Brown, and Cocking's work How People Learn (1999) became the basis for the book Knowing What Students Know (Pellegrino, Chudowsky, & Glaser, 2001) and drew the following conclusions:

• An assessment plan must come first, not last, in the educational process.
• Assessment, by necessity, integrates knowledge, skills, procedures, and dispositions.
• Assessment as a diagnosis of student progress shifts the emphasis from summative to formative."

Don't Grade Formative Assessments

In a previous blog (3), I wrote:

Why don't I grade formative assessment? For one, a grade is supposed to answer the question: "Did the student learn and achieve the learning targets or standards?" If this is the case, then the summative assessment primarily represents achievement. Formative assessment is practice. It is part of the journey.

If you punish students in the learning process, then they are less likely to engage with it. Grit requires that there are multiple stages in the learning process and that the journey of learning is valued. You can read the above-mentioned blog for strategies on how to use formative assessments more effectively if this is challenging for you. If you want grit, then you can't punish students for making mistakes.