Formative Assessment for Literacy, Grades K-6 : Building Reading and Academic Language Skills Across the Curriculum

"This book presents an easy-to-understand approach to a complex skill by employing accessible concepts and a research-based conception of classroom assessment. For today′s and tomorrow′s elementary teachers, this book is mandatory reading!"
―W. James Popham, Emeritus Professor
University of California, Los Angeles

Use formative assessment to build language and literacy skills across the curriculum!

Grounded in research and practice, this book shows both new and experienced elementary teachers how to use formative assessment as an integral part of effective language and literacy instruction for all students, including English language learners.

This reader-friendly resource discusses the stages of literacy skill development and offers strategies for developing students understanding of academic language―the vocabulary used in classroom instruction and found in textbooks and tests. Alison L. Bailey and Margaret Heritage explain how formative assessment differs from other assessment models and demonstrate how their unique approach fits within broader frameworks for assessment and instruction. This guide provides instructors of both English language learners and native English speakers with the necessary tools to:

• Implement different kind of formative literacy assessments such as observations, planned-for interactions, and analyses of student responses
• Interpret the evidence gathered from formative assessments
• Develop a comprehensive system for assessing students
• Collaborate with colleagues, instructional leaders, and principals to build a culture that supports the use of formative literacy assessment

Featuring authentic examples from classroom teachers and guidance for planning professional development in literacy assessment, this book gives educators the tools to implement this proven approach to literacy success!

Alison L. Bailey is Professor of Human Development and Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, working on issues germane to children’s linguistic, social, and educational development. She has published widely in these areas, most recently in Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, Teachers College Record, Educational Researcher, and Review of Research in Education. Her previous books with Margaret Heritage include Formative Assessment for Literacy, Grades K-6 (Corwin Press) and Self-Regulation in Learning: The Role of Language and Formative Assessment (Harvard Education Press). Other recent books include Children’s Multilingual Development and Education: Fostering linguistic resources in home and school contexts (Cambridge University Press), and Language, Literacy and Learning in the STEM Disciplines: How language counts for English Learners (Routledge Publishers). She serves as a member of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Standing Committee on Reading, the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) Task Force on Classroom Assessment, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Consensus Committee on English Learners in the STEM Disciplines.

Margaret Heritage is an independent consultant in education. For her entire career, her work has spanned both research and practice. In addition to spending many years in her native England as a practitioner, a university teacher, and an inspector of schools, she had an extensive period at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), first as principal of the laboratory school of the Graduate School of Education and Information Students and then as an Assistant Director at UCLA’s National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing. She has also taught courses in the Departments of Education at UCLA and Stanford University. She is a regular presenter at conferences across the United States and internationally. Her most recent book with Corwin, co-authored with Christine Harrison, is The Power of Assessment for Learning: Twenty Years of Research and Practice in UK and US Classrooms.