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Spring 2010 Issue
Formative Assessment
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In this issue we focus on formative assessment. Jennifer Borgioli's feature article describes how teachers in one of her districts use formative assessment on a regular basis, and Linda Hughs provides a reflection about the value of formative assessment for understanding children. Follow this link to access our new wiki on quality rubrics and explore their role in helping students self-assess. We hope that this issue promotes new insights and questions about best practices
in formative assessment.
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Feature Article Capturing Learning: The Powerful Role of Formative Assessment and Feedback
by Jenifer Borgioli
 In this era of accountability, the role, timing, and appearance of assessments are receiving increased focus and study. The very definition of the term assessment has expanded and has been clarified, emerging as a separate concept, independent of evaluation and tests (Brookhart & Nitko, 2007). Several publications on assessment seek to clarify the difference between assessment of learning and assessment for learning (e.g. Osborn, 2006; Stiggins, 2007; Threlfall, 2005; Wiggins, 1993; William, 2006). Formative assessment has come to be defined as, "a process used by teachers and students as part of instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students' achievement of core content. As assessment FOR learning, formative assessment practices read more |
 Consultant Spotlight
Julie Kopp has been working with LCI for nearly ten years. Her work focuses on designing standards-based curriculum, instruction and assessment with specific emphasis on increasing the quality and depth of classroom instruction, fostering quality classroom discourse and supporting self-directed, student learning.
Recently, Julie has spent much of her time
facilitating programs on using collegial inquiry to support literacy,
incorporating critical thinking into instruction, and engaging students
in the assessment process. Involving teachers in reflective practice
through professional dialogue, peer reviews, analysis of student work
are the cornerstones of her work. Click here to learn more about Julie's work.
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What We're Thinking About...
Encouraging Reflection
Linda H. Hughs
One day in October I visited the third-grade classroom of a new teacher, Virginia, who was working on a lesson about making connections. Her students were gathered on the rug with a palpable eagerness. They were discussing the way that the text was related to the world, and two boys were so involved that they both moved from sitting on their bottoms to resting on their haunches, all the better to get the teacher's attention. I could tell that Virginia was glad to have their participation but was trying to get the others involved as well... I remember thinking that this young learner was going to be a challenge. Managing such eager participation in the most productive way is critical... read more and share your thoughts on the Learner Centered Practices Ning. |
Upcoming Events
WSWHE BOCES 5th Annual Spring Data Conference
Angela Lalor and Jennifer Borgioli will be presenting at the WSWHE BOCES 5th Annual Spring Data Conference In Saratoga Springs, NY on April 29 - 30, 2010. Their session, From Theory to Practice: Developing a Standards-Based Gradebook, is designed as a sharing and collaboration session with educators interested in the topic.
Negotiating
the Assessment Maze (Brighton, NY)
LCI consultants Julie
Kopp and Jennifer Borgioli will facilitate the second year of the LCI Teaching and Learning Assessment Institute on July 6-8. On July
9th there will be a single day session just for administrators.The
goal of the Institute is to provide educators with the time and content
knowledge to understand what quality assessment looks like in their
classrooms and schools. The conference is designed for teachers,
instructional coaches, teacher leaders, assistant principals,
principals, and district personnel who want to understand the theory and
practice of quality assessment.
Shifting the Conversation
from What's my grade? to What did I learn?: Designing Assessments that
Enable Students to Monitor their Learning (Brighton, NY)
Julie and Jennifer will also be facilitating a new institute on July 21-23. This conference is
designed for teams or individuals who want to design assessments that
engage students in the assessment process. Curriculum coordinators and
administrators will have the opportunity to collaborate with teachers
from their districts and/or develop a plan for supporting assessment
work at their schools. Please contact us for more information on participating.
ASDC National
Conference, TX
Angela
Lalor and Joanne Picone-Zocchia presented at ASCD's national conference in San
Antonio, TX. For those who could not attend her
session, Joanne's presentation on Strategies for Changing the Way You Teach: Improving the Way Students
Learn will be available from ASCD.
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Client Corner One of LCI's hallmarks is the long relationships it develops with many of its clients and the way that the work evolves over time, with past outcomes built upon to create new programs, designed specifically to meet present needs. An example of this can be seen in PS 340, an elementary school located in the Bronx, NY.PS 340 has worked with LCI consultant, Linda Hughs, for five years. The first initiative, on vocabulary acquisition, began in second grade classrooms. Based on Isabel Beck's book, Bringing Words to Life, Linda worked closely with literacy coach, Emma Suarez-Baez, to develop a systematic vocabulary instruction method for grades one through six. As students' vocabularies expanded, the work shifted to helping students to develop more cogent writing, especially comparison-contrast development. As an outgrowth of that work, reading comprehension became an additional focus. This year, in addition to working on writing and reading comprehension, the teachers are focusing on application of reading strategies and response to literature from independent reading. It has been gratifying for everyone involved to have professional development that began with a focus on vocabulary acquisition grow into work whose results include students using words like "determined," "feisty," "devoted," and "resilient" to describe their favorite characters from independent reading books.
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One of the exciting side effects of Web 2.0 is the quality of resources available online. The conversations and recommendations available on the English Companion Ning are worth exploring for any educator or professional developer involved in literary or English instruction.
Started by Jim Burke, the site is now home to multiple conversations about teaching and learning, populated by educators who love the language and challenging each other. Topics range from effective test prep to tackling controversial literature. Additionally, the community hosts monthly book discussions with frequent input from authors. If you've limited your professional reading to books, The English Companion is a good starting point for finding helpful resources and commentary from classroom practitioners.
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NEW from LCI
ALFI, LCI's Adult Learning
and Facilitation Institute is growing! We've added a Leadership strand,
with two new series: "Leading in Times of Scarcity" and "Leading in the 21st
Century". Check our website in April for descriptions of these
institutes and updates on where and when they will be presented. Educators who are using, or are curious about quality rubrics are invited to join us on our new wiki: Quality Rubrics. Explore the attributes of quality rubrics, examples, and tools including a series of guiding questions for using rubrics found online.
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Editors: Diane
Cunningham and Joanne Picone-Zocchia
Production: Jennifer
Borgioli
LCI: cultivating best practice, inspiring
excellence
Contact
Us
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