Join Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher as they outline a clear-cut, realistic, and rewarding approach to formative assessment. They explain how four discrete steps work in tandem to create a seamless, comprehensive formative assessment system—one that has no beginning and no end. This ongoing approach enhances an active give-and-take relationship between teachers and students to promote learning.
Where am I going? Step 1: Feed-up ensures that students understand the purpose of an assignment, task, or lesson, including how they will be assessed.
Where am I now? Step 2: Checking for understanding guides instruction and helps determine if students are making progress toward their goals.
How am I doing? Step 3: Feedback provides students with valuable and constructive information about their successes and needs.
Where am I going next? Step 4: Feed-forward builds on the feedback from step 3 and uses performance data to facilitate student achievement.
Dozens of real-life scenarios demonstrate how to apply these steps in your classroom, always focusing on the presence or absence of student learning to guide the action. By enabling teachers and students alike to see more clearly what they need to do for learning to be successful, this approach builds students’ competence, confidence, and understanding.
No matter what grade level you teach, The Formative Assessment Action Plan will help you make better use of assessment data so you can more quickly adjust instruction to keep every student on the path to success.
According to author Mike Schmoker, there is a yawning gap between the most well-known essential practices and the reality of most classrooms. This gap persists despite the hard, often heroic work done by many teachers and administrators. Schmoker believes that teachers and administrators may know what the best practices are, but they aren't using them or reinforcing them consistently. He asserts that our schools are protected by a buffer–a protective barrier that prevents scrutiny of instruction by outsiders. The buffer exists within the school as well. Teachers often know only what is going on in their classrooms–and they may be completely in the dark about what other teachers in the school are doing. Even principals, says Schmoker, don't have a clear view of the daily practices of teaching and learning in their schools. Schmoker suggests that we need to get beyond this buffer to confront the truth about what is happening in classrooms, and to allow teachers to learn from each other and to be supervised properly. He outlines a plan that focuses on the importance of consistent curriculum, authentic literacy education, and professional learning communities for teachers. What will students get out of this new approach? Learning for life. Schmoker argues passionately that students become learners for life when they have more opportunities to engage in strategic reading, writing with explicit guidance, and argument and discussion. Through strong teamwork, true leadership, and authentic learning, schools and their students can reach new heights. Results Now is a rally cry for educators to focus on what counts. If they do, Schmoker promises, the entire school community can count on unprecedented achievements.
In this follow-up to the best-selling Transformative Assessment, W. James Popham takes you inside the classrooms—and inside the heads—of teachers who are using the formative assessment process to improve student learning.
Instead of providing yet another collection of data-gathering techniques, Popham focuses on the real challenge of formative assessment: the decisions involved in its planning and implementation. When does it make the most sense to gather assessment data for the purpose of adjusting teaching and learning? What are the various ways in which the formative assessment process can be applied? How much and what kinds of preparation does formative assessment require? How does it fit into existing unit and lesson plans? How does it fit into preparation for high-stakes testing? And how can teachers best ensure that their formative assessment efforts will really make a difference?
According to the author, until the formative assessment process is used in every classroom, students will not be taught as well as they could be—as well as they should be. This book, which includes chapter-specific reflection questions perfect for professional learning communities, provides the practical guidance and models you need to turn “formative assessment talk” into “formative assessment action.”
Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School: Strategies That Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners responds to growing concerns about a crisis in boys’ academic achievement. Kathleen Palmer Cleveland seeks to help K–12 educators cut through the hype to get at the real problem: who is underachieving, why are they struggling, and how can educators respond to these students’ needs in new and productive ways?
Cleveland presents findings from four large-scale studies about how boys learn best and combines these findings with insights about ongoing social and learning-style factors that affect learning in the classroom, plus lesson plans and anecdotes from real teachers working across all grade levels and subject areas.
Cleveland’s Pathways to Re-Engagement represents the culmination of her substantial research and personal experience. A flexible and practical framework for decision making in the classroom, the Pathways model seeks to * Replace the underachieving boy’s negative attitudes about learning; * Reconnect each boy with school, with learning, and with a belief in himself as a competent learner; * Rebuild learning skills that lead to success in school and in life; and * Reduce the need for unproductive and distracting behaviors as a means of self-protection.
Each aspect of the Pathways to Re-Engagement model offers educators a way to move underachieving boys from a position of weakness toward one of strength–giving them the tools to succeed in school and beyond.
In Learning Targets , Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart contend that improving student learning and achievement happens in the immediacy of an individual lesson–what they call «today's lesson»—or it doesn't happen at all. The key to making today's lesson meaningful? Learning targets. Written from students' point of view, a learning target describes a lesson-sized chunk of information and skills that students will come to know deeply. Each lesson's learning target connects to the next lesson's target, enabling students to master a coherent series of challenges that ultimately lead to important curricular standards. Drawing from the authors' extensive research and professional learning partnerships with classrooms, schools, and school districts, this practical book – Situates learning targets in a theory of action that students, teachers, principals, and central-office administrators can use to unify their efforts to raise student achievement and create a culture of evidence-based, results-oriented practice. – Provides strategies for designing learning targets that promote higher-order thinking and foster student goal setting, self-assessment, and self-regulation. – Explains how to design a strong performance of understanding, an activity that produces evidence of students' progress toward the learning target. – Shows how to use learning targets to guide summative assessment and grading. Learning Targets also includes reproducible planning forms, a classroom walk-through guide, a lesson-planning process guide, and guides to teacher and student self-assessment. What students are actually doing during today's lesson is both the source of and the yardstick for school improvement efforts. By applying the insights in this book to your own work, you can improve your teaching expertise and dramatically empower all students as stakeholders in their own learning.
What is Response to Intervention and why should we care? With this question, Margaret Searle begins her exploration of the RTI approach to classroom instruction and intervention from the perspective of a seasoned teacher, principal, and administrator.
Built on a solid foundation of best practice, RTI draws on the strengths and successes that many districts and schools already have in place. For the plan to be effective, however, proactive and consistent leadership is essential. With this in mind, Searle outlines the critical roles played by school leaders at each step and offers practical answers to the questions they will likely face.
* Where should I start implementing or improving our RTI plan? * Where do I find high-quality research-based interventions? * What’s a pyramid of interventions and what do I put in the tiers? * How can I help teachers set and reach student goals? * How is RTI different from what we’ve tried before? * How can we make this whole thing work without going crazy?
Searle shows how school leaders can use the RTI model to coordinate resources and foster continuous student improvement and achievement. This breakthrough approach replaces the old “wait to fail” mind-set with proactive efforts that will support all students in danger of not reaching their potential.
This is an essential guide for school leaders who want to support, focus, and sustain their RTI goals and build a culture of data-driven decision making.
What is the purpose of education? What kind of people do we want our children to grow up to be? How can we design schools so that students will acquire the skills they’ll need to live fulfilled and productive lives? These are just a few of the questions that renowned educator Dennis Littky explores in The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone’s Business. The schools Littky has created and led over the past 35 years are models for reformers everywhere: small, public schools where the curriculum is rich and meaningful, expectations are high, student progress is measured against real-world standards, and families and communities are actively engaged in the educational process. This book is for both big “E” and small “e” educators: * For principals and district administrators who want to change the way schools are run. * For teachers who want students to learn passionately. * For college admissions officers who want diverse applicants with real-world learning experiences. * For business leaders who want a motivated and talented workforce. * For parents who want their children to be prepared for college and for life. * For students who want to take control over their learning . . . and want a school that is interesting, safe, respectful, and fun. * For anyone who cares about kids. Here, you’ll find a moving account of just what is possible in education, with many of the examples drawn from the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (“The Met”) in Providence, Rhode Island–a diverse public high school with the highest rates of attendance and college acceptance in the state. The Met exemplifies personalized learning, one student at a time. The Big Picture is a book to reenergize educators, inspire teachers in training, and start a new conversation about kids and schools, what we want for both, and how to make it happen.
What if it’s the system that’s the problem? What if the key to breakthrough school improvement is not mandating new solutions built on an elusive combination of the right standards, pedagogy, and assessments but removing entrenched bureaucratic barriers and rethinking restrictive norms and routines? What if we were free to start from scratch? This is the greenfield reform strategy: Create an environment that invites new solutions to surface and provide the infrastructure necessary for them to succeed. In Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling, Frederick M. Hess advocates for an entrepreneurial approach focused on supporting outstanding teaching and learning. Sharing the examples of organizations whose bold alternative strategies represent promising shifts in K–12 education, Hess builds a case for * School systems marked by data on performance and productivity and compelled to compete on cost and quality.* Personnel policies designed to attract, retain, and reward teachers and leaders committed to excellence. * Education funding configured to support new ventures and foster creative problem solving.The goal, Hess argues, ought not to be the creation of a new “best” system but schools capable of evolving with the students and society they serve. Education Unbound is a catalyst for conversation and change and a must-read for practitioners, policymakers, would-be education entrepreneurs, and anyone committed to school excellence and the next steps in education reform.
How can every teacher, school, and district improve the quality of their schools? The answer is to empower teachers to take charge of their own learning, says author and teacher Joseph H. Semadeni. In this book, you'll learn how the Fusion professional development model can help you do just that.
This accessible, customizable, and affordable model gives you proven ways to successfully establish teaching and learning practices that are grounded in solid educational research. In some schools, you may wish to begin the program with just a few teachers and let it gain recognition, support, and buy-in from the biggest skeptics. In other schools, the whole staff may be inspired to create their own lists of best practices, funding levels, and new school-day schedules. In both scenarios, schools have successfully implemented Fusion where it was needed the most.
What's most appealing to teachers is that this approach gives them the chance to determine what strategies they want to learn, how much professional development they want to access, and when it best fits their schedules. As teachers learn, use, observe, and are observed practicing the strategies in their classrooms, they determine which practices best fit their students and foster achievement. With experience, teachers become eligible for related pay increases and Fusion helps teachers to foster the qualities, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to establish and nurture a collaborative culture within the school community.
At a time when globalization and technology are dramatically altering the world we live in, is education reform in the United States headed down the right path? Are schools emphasizing the knowledge and skills that students need in a global society–or are they actually undermining their strengths by overemphasizing high-stakes testing and standardization? Are education systems in China and other countries really as superior as some people claim? These and other questions are at the heart of author Yong Zhao’s thoughtful and informative book. Born and raised in China and now a distinguished professor at Michigan State University, Zhao bases many of his observations on firsthand experience as a student in China and as a parent of children attending school in the United States. His unique perspective leads him to conclude that “American education is at a crossroads” and “we need to change course” to maintain leadership in a rapidly changing world. To make his case, Zhao explains* What’s right with American education; * Why much of the criticism of schools in the United States has been misleading and misinformed; * Why China and other nations in Asia are actually reforming their systems to be more like their American counterparts; * How globalization and the “death of distance” are affecting jobs and everyday life; and* How the virtual world is transforming the economic and social landscape in ways far more profound than many people realize. Educators, policymakers, parents, and others interested in preparing students to be productive global citizens will gain a clear understanding of what kinds of knowledge and skills constitute “digital competence” and “global competence,” and what schools can–and must–do to meet the challenges and opportunities brought about by globalization and technology.