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This book demonstrates how formative assessments, unlike standardized tests, provide the kind of communication between teachers and students that help teachers make instructional decisions to improve student performance.
This book demonstrates how formative assessments, unlike standardized tests, provide the kind of communication between teachers and students that help teachers make instructional decisions to improve student performance.
The significant challenges faced by English Language Learners (ELLs) become greater during the middle and high school years, when they must learn more abstract academic concepts with emergent English language skills and differing levels of background knowledge. To meet these challenges, ELLs need immediate feedback about how the development of their language abilities interacts with their academic performance; and teachers need practical strategies to help ELLs develop the specific content and language abilities necessary for success. In Formative Language Assessment for English Learners, the research team of Rita MacDonald, Timothy Boals, Mariana Castro, H. Gary Cook, Todd Lundberg, and Paula A. White demonstrates what good language assessment for formative purposes is, explains the cycle of formative language assessment, and shows how it unfolds stage by stage in a school setting. Based on a five-year collaborative project with middle and high school teachers in three major school districts, the book presents a process for: Weaving a language focus into content lessons Analyzing students' language from writing samples to help them broaden their linguistic choices Creating active partnerships with students as they learn and practice new ways to use English. When classrooms are defined by effective language assessment for formative purposes, they become dynamic spaces in which teachers can use that information to plan clear, attainable steps to increase student learning, and students develop deeper understandings of both academic content and academic language. Formative Language Assessment for English Learners provides practical strategies to implement a unique process for formative assessment that can truly change classroom practice. This team of authors works together at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and have collaborated on formative language assessment for English Language Learners through their work for WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment), a 36-state consortium that supports academic language development for linguistically diverse students through standards, assessment, research, and professional development.
A practical, in-depth guide to implementing formative assessment in your classroom! Formative assessment allows teachers to identify and close gaps in student understanding and move learning forward. This research-based book walks readers through every step of the process and offers illustrative examples across a range of subject areas and grade levels. This book explains how to: Clearly articulate learning progressions, learning goals, and success criteria Select strategies for assessment and provide quality feedback Engage students in self-assessment and self-management Create a classroom environment that values feedback as part of the learning process
This second edition gives you more than 60 tools--with tips and implementation steps--for creating and using formative assessments in every grade level and subject. --from publisher description
A teacher presents a lesson, and at the end asks students if they understand the material. The students nod and say they get it. Later, the teacher is dismayed when many of the students fail a test on the material. Why aren’t students getting it? And, just as important, why didn’t the teacher recognize the problem? In Checking for Understanding, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey show how to increase students’ understanding with the help of creative formative assessments. When used regularly, formative assessments enable every teacher to determine what students know and what they still need to learn. Fisher and Frey explore a variety of engaging activities that check for and increase understanding, including interactive writing, portfolios, multimedia presentations, audience response systems, and much more. This new 2nd edition of Checking for Understanding has been updated to reflect the latest thinking in formative assessment and to show how the concepts apply in the context of Fisher and Frey’s work on gradual release of responsibility, guided instruction, formative assessment systems, data analysis, and quality instruction. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey are the creators of the Framework for Intentional and Targeted (FIT) Teaching™. They are also the authors of numerous ASCD books, including The Formative Assessment Action Plan: Practical Steps to More Successful Teaching and Learning and the best-selling Enhancing RTI: How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention.
Common formative assessments—the centerpiece of an integrated, standards-based system! Now you have powerful means to closely align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the standards essential for student success. This timely resource presents the "big picture" of an integrated, standards-based instruction and assessment system, and offers guidelines for: Aligning school-based common formative assessments with district benchmarks and large-scale summative assessments Predicting likely student performance on subsequent assessments in time to make instructional modifications Implementing and sustaining common formative assessments within the school’s or district’s culture
Formative assessment and differentiated instruction made manageable We all recognize the countless benefits of differentiated instruction. The challenge is in its implementation. This start-to-finish guide will show you how through formative assessment and seven classroom-tested practices for maximizing student learning. Packed with vignettes, sample worksheets, and charts, this toolkit demonstrates how to: Establish new classroom norms Involve students in the use of assessment data and feedback to inform their next steps Clarify end-of-unit criteria to help map learning progression Apply assessment data to grouping students for tiered activities Differentiate assignments based on student readiness, characteristics, and interest
