Effective classroom formative assessment helps educators make minute-by-minute, day-by-day instructional decisions. This clear, practical guide for teachers centers on five key instructional strategies, along with an overview of each strategy and practical formative assessment techniques for implementation in K–12 classrooms. The authors provide guidance on when and how to use the techniques, tips, cautions, and enhancements to sustain formative assessment.
Educators will learn how to: - Clarify, share, and understand learning intentions and success criteria
- Engineer productive discussions and activities that elicit evidence of learning
- Provide feedback that moves learners forward
- Activate students as learning resources for each other
- Activate students as agents of their own learning
Contents: Techniques: Tips, Cautions, and Enhancements
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Chapter 1: Why Formative Assessment Should Be a Priority for Every Teacher
Chapter 2: Your Professional Learning
Chapter 3: Strategy 1—Clarifying, Sharing, and Understanding Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
Chapter 4: Strategy 2—Engineering Effective Discussion, Tasks, and Activities That Elicit Evidence of Learning
Chapter 5: Strategy 3—Providing Feedback That Moves Learning Forward
Chapter 6: Strategy 4—Activating Students as Learning Resources for One Another
Chapter 7: Strategy 5—Activating Students as Owners of Their Own Learning
Conclusion
Resources
Appendix
References
Index
Dylan Wiliam, PhD, is a consultant who works with educators in North America, the United Kingdom, and many other countries to develop effective, research-based formative assessment practices. He is former deputy director of the Institute of Education at the University of London. From teaching in urban public schools to directing a large-scale testing program to serving in university administration, his professional path has led to a variety of positions at the forefront of education. Dr. Wiliam was also, from 2003 to 2006, senior research director at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey.
During his early years of teaching in inner-city classrooms, Dr. Wiliam focused on physics and mathematics. He later joined the faculty of Chelsea College, University of London, which later became part of King’s College London. Here, he worked on developing innovative assessment schemes in mathematics before accepting leadership of the King’s College Mathematics Education Program.
For three years, Dr. Wiliam served as the academic coordinator of the Consortium for Assessment and Testing in Schools, which developed a variety of assessments for the national curriculum of England and Wales. He then returned to King’s College to serve as dean of the School of Education before being promoted to assistant principal of the College.
In 1998, he coauthored a major review of research evidence on formative assessment with Paul Black, and he has worked with many teachers in the United Kingdom and United States on developing formative assessment practices to support learning.
In addition to a doctor of education, Dr. Wiliam holds numerous degrees in mathematics and mathematics education. You can keep up with what he is writing at dylanwiliam.net and at www.dylanwiliamcenter.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @dylanwiliam.
Siobhán Leahy, MS, was a principal of three secondary schools for seventeen years. She has extensive practical experience in using teacher learning communities to embed classroom formative assessment and has worked with educators in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia on how to support teachers in developing their classroom practice. She is coauthor and developer, with Dylan Wiliam, of the Embedding Formative Assessment Professional Development Pack. She received her master of science from South Bank University, London, and her bachelor of science in management sciences from the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom.
