Abstract Formative assessment (FA) is an expression that covers several practices. While this variety has led to the development of different studies in the international context, there is a lack of experimental research in Italy on the topic. Therefore, this experiment explores the effects of implementing FA practices in the classroom, in terms of students’ text comprehension abilities. A two-group experimental design was carried out involving students from two first-year classes of a lower secondary school in Italy, who were randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. After administering a task on text comprehension abilities, the researcher developed 15 FA activities in the treatment group. At the end of the study, the students’ abilities were measured again and the pre- post-test difference between the two groups was verified. Non-parametric tests were run that did not reveal statistically significant differences. Regardless, a trend shows a slightly higher increase in the achievement of the treatment group.