An ASCD Study Guide for Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom This ASCD Study Guide is designed to enhance your understanding and application of the information contained in Checking for Understanding, an ASCD book written by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey and published in September 2007. You can use the study guide before or after you have read the book, or as you finish each chapter. The study questions provided are not meant to cover all aspects of the book, but, rather, to address specific ideas that might warrant further reflection. Most of the questions contained in this study guide are ones you can think about on your own, but you might consider pairing with a colleague or forming a study group with others who have read (or are reading) Checking for Understanding. Chapter 1: Why Check for Understanding? What are common ways that teachers check for understanding? Chapter 2. What is oral language? Chapter 3: Using Questioning to Check for Understanding Why has questioning been used to assess comprehension for so long?
About DLM Tests | DLM Information for Parents Parents can access additional resources to support their child’s learning on our professional development site, which is facilitated by our partners at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This site includes 50 instructional modules, a variety of instructional resources including books you can read with your child, writing tools if your child cannot use a standard pencil or computer keyboard, and communication supports if your child struggles to use speech to communicate. You can also join a virtual community of practice to interact with other families and post questions to the Dynamic Learning Maps professional development team. Parents of students in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, or North Dakota may read more information about DLM assessment results and individual student reports in our Parent Interpretive Guide for Instructionally Embedded Model States.
Using Google Slides to Make Virtual Middle and High School Math Classes More Engaging Many of us will be teaching remotely this fall due to the pandemic. How can we ensure that effective mathematics instruction and deep learning will still take place? Using Google Slides is a simple yet versatile way to teach mathematics remotely. Google automatically saves each slide deck, the toolbar is user-friendly, and the decks can be shared (and saved) by students. Giving students access to the slide deck by sharing an editor’s version of the deck link is a necessary first step toward student collaboration. Last spring, I used Google Slide decks to engage my sixth and seventh graders in intriguing and enjoyable online lessons that coincided with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ eight Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP), which promote mathematical thinking, understanding, and application: SMP 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. SMP 2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. SMP 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Verbal marking / feedback "If a child can't talk about it, they can't write about it. If a teacher can't talk about it, they shouldn't mark it." There's been a lot of silence on my blog over the summer period, but that doesn't mean my brain's been off education completely. This post is really a throw-out idea to see what you think - please do leave a comment or drop me an email with any kind of feedback. Allow me to begin - Verbally Marking. Back in my school days, I used to love getting my marked work back. Occasionally, the teachers would talk to me about my written work. Halfway through the last academic year I made a conscious effort to mark as much Literacy work as possible with the child present, or go and speak to the child after marking their work to ask questions and tease out improvements. The child was able to justify choices which showed them to be greater writers than I had considered.The child could hear a better suggestion (if I had one!) Perhaps you do this already?
PARCC Skip to content Resources Resources Latest News * * * This page has been archived. The content on this page may no longer be in effect. * * * Contact Information 100 N. 1st Street, E-216Springfield, IL 62777Phone: (866) 317-6034Fax: (217) 782-6097 Assessment Department Contact List Email: assessment@isbe.netSean Clayton, Ed.D., DirectorDaniel L. Texte d'origine Proposer une meilleure traduction
How to Help Middle School Students Learn to Work Independently We know that students are joining virtual classes in all kinds of different situations. Some students have their work-from-home parents closely monitoring their schoolwork. Other students are babysitting three cousins while their parents are at work. It can feel impossible to move at a pace that works for all students. Last school year, I rolled out a self-pacing model in my seventh-grade math class. But about two months into self-pacing last year, I was ready to give up. They showed me that self-pacing could work for middle school students, and I spent the rest of the year helping my students figure out how to succeed in a self-paced classroom. Introduce Self-Pacing Gradually I began by showing students how a self-paced class works in a four-lesson introduction. In our second unit, I reset the expectations around self-pacing. During distance learning this fall, I’m rolling out self-pacing in much the same way. Self-Pacing Is a Set of Skills Completing Isn’t the Same as Learning
Why Formative Assessments Matter Summative assessments, or high stakes tests and projects, are what the eagle eye of our profession is fixated on right now, so teachers often find themselves in the tough position of racing, racing, racing through curriculum. But what about informal or formative assessments? Are we putting enough effort into these? What Are They? Informal, or formative assessments are about checking for understanding in an effective way in order to guide instruction. They are used during instruction rather than at the end of a unit or course of study. What this means is that if we are about getting to the end, we may lose our audience, the students. We are all guilty of this one -- the ultimate teacher copout: "Are there any questions, students?" Ever assign the big project, test, or report at the end of a unit and find yourself shocked with the results, and not in a good way? To Inform, Not Punish Believe me, I've been there: wanting to punish the lazy, the cocky, the nonchalant. When and How? Exit Slips
What Is Curriculum-Based Measurement and What Does It Mean to My Child? Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) is a method teachers use to find out how students are progressing in basic academic areas such as math, reading, writing, and spelling. CBM can be helpful to parents because it provides current, week-by-week information on the progress their children are making. When your child's teacher uses CBM, he or she finds out how well your child is progressing in learning the content for the academic year. CBM also monitors the success of the instruction your child is receiving – if your child's performance is not meeting expectations, the teacher then changes the way of teaching your child to try to find the type and amount of instruction your child needs to make sufficient progress toward meeting the academic goals. How does CBM work? When CBM is used, each child is tested briefly each week. After the scores are entered on the graphs, the teacher decides whether to continue instruction in the same way, or to change it. Other ways CBM can help you Resources
Teaching world languages in the virtual classroom Sign up for ACTFL SmartBrief for stories about foreign-language instruction in your inbox. Teachers of all content areas are likely to agree that virtual instruction is not ideal. In a communicative, dynamic world language class, teaching remotely seemed especially daunting. How do I ensure that my students are gaining proficiency in the language through a computer screen? After much contemplation and acceptance of the fact that virtual learning simply was not going to be the same as in the classroom, I knew that I needed to make the best of the situation for my students. I could not change the reality. I considered the four language domains: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Here’s what I did. Interpretive Tasks Giving my students opportunities to read in the target language is a constant goal of mine. I use Screencast-o-Matic to help develop listening comprehension skills. EdPuzzle is also good for creating listening comprehension tasks. Interpersonal Tasks Presentational Tasks
Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students? A few months ago, I wrote for Edutopia.org about the power of focusing on a few, high-priority standards as a strategy to improve student learning. Many other elements also need to be in play in a classroom in order to produce the results that we all want to see for our students. To name just a few: The learning environment needs to be one in which students feel respected and safe to take risks; kids need to feel that their learning has a purpose and that the curriculum is relevant to their lives; and students need feedback on their progress -- they need to know what they're trying to accomplish, where they are in relation to the goal, and what they need to do in order to get there. It is the teacher's role to make sure this happens. The Multi-Tasking Teacher Although to be an effective teacher it often feels like you need to be one of those Hindu gods with a dozen arms, I believe that educators do need to hold standards and objectives in one hand and formative assessments in the other.
10 Innovative Formative Assessment Examples for Teachers to Know – Wabisabi Learning Innovative formative assessment examples are part of what defines any modern classroom. They provide crucial information about what students understand and what they don’t. These ungraded assessments are also valuable guides for students. Using innovative formative assessment strategies consistently and effectively removes the surprises from getting final grades. Formative assessment is assessment as learning. "... a parent teaching a child to cook would never say, “That was 74 percent.” With this in mind, think of formative assessment as not necessarily identifying what was done well or correctly. Innovative Formative Assessment: 10 Useful Approaches Formative assessment is assessment for learning and as learning. Analyzing Student Work A great deal of information can be learned from students’ homework, tests, and quizzes. A student's current knowledge, attitudes, and skills about the subject matterStrengths, weaknesses, and learning stylesNeed for further, or special, assistance