Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms

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 discussion and activities that elicit evidence of learning
• Provide feedback that moves learners forward
• Activate students as learning resources for each other
• Activate students as owners 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 is one of the world's foremost education authorities. He has helped to successfully implement classroom formative assessment in thousands of schools all over the world, including the United States, Singapore, Sweden, Australia, and the United Kingdom. A two-part BBC series, The Classroom Experiment, tracked Dr. Wiliam's work at one British middle school, showing how formative assessment strategies empower students, significantly increase engagement, and shift classroom responsibility from teachers to their students so that students become agents of and collaborators in their own learning. Siobhán Leahy, MS, was a principal of three secondary schools for 17 years. She has practical experience with embedding classroom formative assessment through implementation of teacher learning communities. She is co-author and developer, with Dylan Wiliam on several publications. She received her Master of Science from South Bank University, London, and her Bachelor of Science in Management Sciences from the University of Warwick, UK.