Creating and Using Instructionally Supportive Assessments in Ngss Classrooms

Imagine handing out assessments that spark enthusiasm rather than dread. In six easy-to-follow steps, this book empowers science teachers to create tasks that guide students to use their knowledge, not just memorize facts. The NGSA design process transforms assessments into valuable classroom tools that teachers can use to chart how students’ learning builds with instruction over time. Far from being just another set of guidelines, this step-by-step approach provides a pathway for creating tasks that will support, engage, and encourage students in Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) classrooms. Built with the NGSS in mind, the design process is centered around the three dimensions of science learning: disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. Creating and Using Instructionally Supportive Assessments in NGSS Classrooms: Provides a multi-step approach for creating classroom-based tasks that capture three-dimensional performance; Emphasizes equity and inclusion in the assessment design process; Includes sample assessment tasks, rubrics, and dimension maps; Encourages creativity and innovation in both students and teachers.

Christopher J Harris, a wisdom teacher, life strategist, and purpose pusher, has developed a lengthy reputation as a relevant Pastor, efficient executive, and skilled teacher of scripture and its wise application to life. Having written for a number of national platforms, including Church Central, Streaming Faith, Gospel Today, and a host of other blogs and aggregate social mediums, as well as, co-authored a previous work titled, Embracing The Next Dimension, he has served in ministries, non-profits, and educational institutions for two decades. Harris has had the privilege to have spoken to diverse audiences, both large and small, for the past twenty-five years. He now pens his own literary works to encourage, inspire, and engage the every day person in putting the pieces of their life together to discover how to reinvent themselves for every season of life that they may face, while not losing themselves or forfeiting their divine assignment. His ultimate goal is to provide tools for inspiration and wisdom for life. Harris shared his life work with his wife and three children.

Joseph Krajcik serves as director of the CREATE for STEM Institute and is the Lappan-Phillips Professor of Science Education at Michigan State University. His work focuses in improving the teaching and learning of science, kindergarten through college by engaging in innovation and research. Throughout his career, Joe has focused on working with science teachers to design and test learning environments to reform science teaching practices and to research student learning and engagement in project-based learning environments. He has authored and co-authored books, over 100 manuscripts and curriculum materials. Joe received many professional awards and recognitions for his contributions to the science education thought the years: George G. Mallinson Award from Michigan Science Teachers’ Association in 2014, Distinguished Professorship from Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, South Korea in 2009, Guest Professorships from Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China in 2002 and 2018, and the Weston Visiting Professor of Science Education from Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel in 2005. In 2020, Joe was elected to the National Academy of Education and received the prestigious McGraw Prize in Pre-K-12 Education in recognition for your many accomplishments and contributions to transforming education. He was an ISDDE Price for Excellence in Education Design winner in 2021.

James W. Pellegrino is Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor and Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Co-director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute. He is the former Dean of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. Pellegrino is an American Educational Research Association Fellow, a lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and a past member of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council. In 2007 he was elected to lifetime membership in the National Academy of Education. His research and development interests focus on thinking and learning and the implications of cognitive research and theory for assessment and instructional practice.