Check for Understanding 65 Classroom Ready Tactics


Book Description

Check for Understanding: 65 Classroom-Ready Tactics Formative Assessment Made Easy! In Visible Learning, John Hattie describes a powerful strategy to enhance student learning-formative assessment (effect size .90). Implemented with fidelity, the result is assessment-capable learners, a pivotal skill for post-secondary success. "Are my students learning?" Join us in reimagining formative assessment-a fluid, robust, daily practice. Step-by-Step Activation Guide 65 Tactics to Check for Understanding Live-Action Classroom Videos for Each Tactic THE STORY OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT Part I - Formatives: What they are and what they are not Part II - Why formative assessment matters Part III - Best practice formative assessment Part IV - Leveraging formative data to enhance teaching and learning 65 CLASSROOM-READY TACTICS Contributing authors share tactics to check for understanding. Includes user-friendly instructions and video clips to model implementation at any grade level, any content area.




Checking for Understanding


Book 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.







The Perfect Assessment System


Book Description

It's time to move our assessment practices from the 1950s to the century we're living in. It's time to invest in our teachers and local school leaders instead of in more tests. It's time to help all students understand how to unleash their strengths and gain a sense of themselves as learners capable of choosing their own paths to success. In The Perfect Assessment System, Rick Stiggins calls for the ground-up redevelopment of assessment in U.S. education. Speaking from more than 40 years of experience in the field—and speaking for all learners who hope to succeed, the teachers who want them to succeed, and the local school leaders whose aspirations for success have been thwarted by assessment traditions—Stiggins maps out the adjustments in practice and culture necessary to generate both accurate accountability data and the specific evidence of individual mastery that will support sound instructional decision making and better learning in the classroom. He addresses Assessment purpose—how (and why) to clarify the reason for every assessment and the users it will serve. Learning targets to be assessed—how to make sure we focus on the right competencies and set consistent definitions of success. Assessment quality—how to ensure every assessment, at every level, is an excellent one. Communication of assessment results—how to share information in ways that best support diverse purposes. Assessment impact—how to link assessment to truly productive, universal student motivation. We have not yet begun to explore assessment's true potential to enhance both school quality and student well-being. Stiggins kicks off this critical conversation and charts a course for a new system that promises much higher levels of student success at a fraction of our current testing costs. The door is open for assessment reform; here is a bold plan for getting it right.




The CAFE Book


Book Description

For the past ten years, Gail Boushey and Allison Behne worked with hundreds of teachers and students nationwide to gain insightsinto the best practices for reading instruction. Using their findings, they developed The CAFE Book, Expanded Second Edition: Engaging All Students in Daily Literacy Assessment and Instruction to share what their research has proven - that reading instruction is not about the setting or the book level, but rather effective reading instruction is based off of what the student needs in that moment.With the release of The CAFE Book in 2009, the CAFE system (Comprehension, Accuracy, Flluency, and expanding Vocabulary) has been implemented in classrooms all over the world. It changed the way educators assess, teach, and track student information and has positively impacted the way students learn, practice, and talk about reading.The CAFE Book, Expanded Second Edition builds on the same research-based, student-centered foundations, but now includes: Seven Steps from Assessment to Instruction to plan data-driven classworkThe Instruction Protocol - a framework to guide your teaching and planning CAFE's Essential Elements resource to guide your understanding of student-focused instructionA revised CAFE menu and a checklist of skills vital for emerging readersReady Reference Guides that include when to teach the strategy, options for differentiating methods, and partner strategiesSignificantresources to help with lesson planning, assessments and goal setting, and parent involvementNew and improved forms for bothonline conferring notebook and a pencil/paper notebookto support more effective conferring with studentsThe CAFE Book, Expanded Second Edition offers a variety of tools to structure your literacy block and create an environment where your students are engaged readers and writers with resources that set them up for success. The CAFE system is all you need to support, guide, and coach your students toward the strategies that will move them forward.




The Knowledge Gap


Book Description

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.




How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-ability Classrooms


Book Description

Offers a definition of differentiated instruction, and provides principles and strategies designed to help teachers create learning environments that address the different learning styles, interests, and readiness levels found in a typical mixed-ability classroom.




The Formative Assessment Action Plan


Book Description

Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher reveal how to create a failsafe assessment system that leads to purposeful lessons, clear indicators of student understanding, and forms of feedback that improve student performance. --from publisher description.




Comprehension Strategies for Your K-6 Literacy Classroom


Book Description

"Invites readers on a meaningful adventure into classrooms where children actively think. Successfully brings comprehension strategy instruction to life through explicit frameworks for literacy instruction, authentic classroom examples, and high-quality instructional resources for K–6 teachers." —From the Foreword by Debra A. Miller "Focused and practical. The authors present a solid instructional model based on years of research. This book provides teaching tactics to help teachers, particularly those new to the profession, imagine how comprehension strategy instruction might actually look and sound in the elementary classroom." —From the Afterword by Ellin Keene "A resource unlike any I have encountered in my career. Both new and experienced teachers will use this book to aid their instruction, maximizing the most effective reading comprehension in their students." —Jonathan Hart, Third-Grade Teacher, Copper Hill School, Ringoes, NJ Enhance your thinking about teaching with these research-based comprehension strategies! Teaching comprehension and insuring that students think about what they read can be a challenging task for educators. In reader-friendly terms, Comprehension Strategies for Your K–6 Literacy Classroom illustrates how teachers can effectively use six critical comprehension strategies to enhance student understanding: activating schema, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining important ideas, and synthesizing. Divonna M. Stebick and Joy M. Dain present a "before," "during," and "after" instructional framework that provides the three elements necessary for strategic comprehension learning to take place: explicit instruction through teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent application. Combining theory with classroom research, this helpful resource: Offers step-by-step direction, guiding teachers through sample lessons Includes ready-to-use lessons that are easily adaptable and aligned with NCLB and NCTE standards Provides real-life case studies illustrating classroom application Uses hands-on activities and visual aids such as anchor charts, sketches, treasure chests, and builders′ plans to capture students′ attention and promote critical thinking




How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students, Second Edition


Book Description

Properly crafted and individually tailored feedback on student work boosts student achievement across subjects and grades. In this updated and expanded second edition of her best-selling book, Susan M. Brookhart offers enhanced guidance and three lenses for considering the effectiveness of feedback: (1) does it conform to the research, (2) does it offer an episode of learning for the student and teacher, and (3) does the student use the feedback to extend learning? In this comprehensive guide for teachers at all levels, you will find information on every aspect of feedback, including • Strategies to uplift and encourage students to persevere in their work. • How to formulate and deliver feedback that both assesses learning and extends instruction. • When and how to use oral, written, and visual as well as individual, group, or whole-class feedback. • A concise and updated overview of the research findings on feedback and how they apply to today's classrooms. In addition, the book is replete with examples of good and bad feedback as well as rubrics that you can use to construct feedback tailored to different learners, including successful students, struggling students, and English language learners. The vast majority of students will respond positively to feedback that shows you care about them and their learning. Whether you teach young students or teens, this book is an invaluable resource for guaranteeing that the feedback you give students is engaging, informative, and, above all, effective.