Great "How-To" Resource for Formative Assessments

This chapter gives a detailed explanation of how science teachers can effectively plan and execute formative assessments. It provides a "checklist" of sorts that I find very useful as a teac... See More

This chapter gives a detailed explanation of how science teachers can effectively plan and execute formative assessments. It provides a "checklist" of sorts that I find very useful as a teacher to use during my planning. It is also an easy read.

Grades vs Learning

Sometimes we lose sight of how “grades” seem to be a synonym for what we learn in a class. This chapter used examples from Connections, a program in a large middle public middle school, th... See More

Sometimes we lose sight of how “grades” seem to be a synonym for what we learn in a class. This chapter used examples from Connections, a program in a large middle public middle school, that sought to change students’ focus from grades to learning. The chapter relates how the entire teaching staff addressed this issue by planning teaching and learning around student learning through: more student involvement, organization around meaningful criteria, everyday student interaction, specific and meaningful feedback that the students could act on, and a focus (both student and teacher) on progress and improvement. These are good strategies for all teachers to make use of in their classrooms. It’s good to be reminded how these strategies can work so well.