Illinois Documents List


Book Description













Assessment-Powered Teaching


Book Description

"There is now compelling research that assessment can be used to improve both student learning and professional practice. Nancy Sindelar provides practical examples of how teachers, teams, schools, and districts are using assessment to drive continuous improvement." —Richard Dufour, Educational Author and Consultant "This book provides specific strategies to unlock the mystery of data, outlining step-by-step processes on how to use it to impact teaching and create tools to keep students actively involved in their improved learning." —Gail Gorry, Principal Frontier Elementary School, Payson, AZ Everything you need to become an assessment-powered teacher is right here! Knowledge is power, and this book puts assessment data and instruction together in a step-by-step format. Instead of dreading the time testing takes from teaching, you can harness its power to define learning targets, build standards-based assessments, gather and use test data in the classroom, and develop data-driven teaching strategies. Assessment expert Nancy W. Sindelar provides practical tools that help teachers: Use formative and summative assessment results to enhance instruction Motivate students by providing clear learning targets Utilize technology to analyze students′ progress Raise test scores Included are testimonials from teachers, numerous data analysis examples, rubrics, and a chapter on culturally diverse schools. Designed to be adaptable, this book is a powerful resource for teachers, teacher teams, and all educators dedicated to enhancing student learning.




Blueprint for Student Success


Book Description

This book presents a reality-based approach to classroom instruction designed to help learners at all levels achieve lifelong success. It offers teaching strategies, activities, and applications to enhance student achievement, stressing the importance of learning through discovery, creativity, application, adaptation, and high level thinking. It also reiterates the need for a positive atmosphere, rituals, and procedures enabling educators to strengthen students' knowledge and achievement for lifelong success. Nine chapters focus on: (1) "Laying the Groundwork for Learning: Meaning and Memory"; (2) "Fertile Fields for Learning: Supple as Cotton, Rigid as Steel"; (3) "First Get 'Em on the Line--Then You Can Reel 'Em In!"; (4) "Add it Up: The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts"; (5) "Paint Me a Picture, Show Me the Way: Reconciling the New with the Known"; (6) "Get Real! Transforming Learning to Real Life"; (7) "Who Said It Couldn't Be Done? Blueprints for Student Success"; (8) "I've Got It! Now How Do I Keep It?"; and (9) "Hey, How Am I Doing? Feedback in the Learning Process." (Contains 24 references.) (SM).




Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing


Book Description

With this updated document, IRA and NCTE reaffirm their position that the primary purpose of assessment must be to improve teaching and learning for all students. Eleven core standards are presented and explained, and a helpful glossary makes this document suitable not only for educators but for parents, policymakers, school board members, and other stakeholders. Case studies of large-scale national tests and smaller scale classroom assessments (particularly in the context of RTI, or Response to Intervention) are used to highlight how assessments in use today do or do not meet the standards.