Formative Assessment in a Professional Learning Community

The ideas and examples in this book help teachers successfully collaborate to raise student achievement through the use of formative assessments. Here, Todd Stanley and Betsy Moore, educators with over 40 years of combined experience, offer proven formative assessment strategies to teachers in a professional learning community.

Contents include:
Why a PLC?
How to Work Effectively in a Group;
How to Write Assessments;
Adjustments in the Classroom;
Keeping Up with Collaboration.

If you're looking to extend the benefits of formative assessments throughout your school, this user-friendly guide will help to unite teachers in improving classroom learning!

Todd Stanley began teaching in 1997. A National Board Certified Teacher, he started out in the traditional classroom, teaching junior high students for two years, but quickly was given different growth experiences as a teacher. He taught on a gifted-accelerated team for three years, compacting three years of curriculum into two years of classroom time. He then taught at the Christopher Program, a project-based, integrated curriculum that serviced juniors and seniors, providing many outside learning experiences for students. During this time he also trained teachers from all around the state of Ohio for the Literacy Curriculum Alignment Project (LCAP), helping teachers to align their lessons to state standards and best prepare students for the state achievement tests. Next, Todd created the Ivy Program, a pull-out gifted program for third and fourth graders relying heavily on project-based learning. He currently teaches in the Reynoldsburg School District on the Quest Program, teaching Social Studies and Science to fifth and sixth graders and is the leader of the Critical Friends Group in his school. Todd lives in Pickerington, Ohio with his wife Nicki and his two daughters Anna and Abby., >Betsy Moore is a veteran teacher who retired from Reynoldsburg City Schools after 30 years of service and is currently the Executive Director of Teacher 2 Teacher (www .teacher2teacher.info), a national educational consulting company based in Ohio. Betsy began her career as a special education teacher, eventually moving on to the regular education classroom. While in the regular classroom she worked on many cutting-edge strategies including student-led conferences and short-cycle assessments. From 2000-2007 Betsy worked in the Literacy Curriculum Alignment Project (LCAP), training over 1500 teachers in more than 60 schools. She co-authored the book Short-Cycle Assessment: Improving Student Achievement through Formative Assessment, which details the process developed in the LCAP work. Betsy co-authored a second book titled Critical Thinking and Formative Assessments: Raising the Rigor in Your Classroom, which provides strategies to teach critical thinking skills to all students. In her role with Teacher 2 Teacher, Betsy provides quality professional development in the areas of differentiated instruction, vertical alignment, short-cycle assessment development, and developing critical thinking skills, to name a few. Betsy lives with her husband Dave, a retired high school assistant principal, in Columbus, Ohio. She has two grown children: Amy, who lives in Hilliard, Ohio, and Bryan, who lives in Lake Elsinore, California. Also living in Temecula are Betsy's grandchildren Aria Nicole and Micah Rhys.