What do you think?
Rate this book
What Teachers Really Need to Know About Formative Assessment
What does formative assessment look like, and when should I use it? What kind of planning does it require, and what kinds of data does it generate? How will formative assessment improve my teaching and help my students succeed in a standards-based environment? How does it relate to my application of multiple intelligences theory, to differentiated instruction, and to everything else I'm already doing in my classroom? In this volume, author Laura Greenstein has gathered what you really need to know in order to make formative assessment a seamless part of your everyday practice. Emphasizing formative assessment application in secondary schools but applicable to teachers of all grade levels and all subject areas, this book provides
* Straightforward answers to teachers' most frequently asked questions
* Dozens of strategies for measuring student understanding and diagnosing learning needs before, during, and after instruction
* Illustrations of formative assessment across the content areas, from math to language arts to science to social studies to health and physical education
* Guidance on making data-informed instructional adjustments
* Sample templates for organizing assessment data to track both whole-class and individual progress toward identified goals
* Case studies to illustrate effective and ineffective formative assessment and deepen your understanding
If you're looking to take formative assessment from theory to practice—and from practice to genuine learning improvement—this is the place to begin.
* Straightforward answers to teachers' most frequently asked questions
* Dozens of strategies for measuring student understanding and diagnosing learning needs before, during, and after instruction
* Illustrations of formative assessment across the content areas, from math to language arts to science to social studies to health and physical education
* Guidance on making data-informed instructional adjustments
* Sample templates for organizing assessment data to track both whole-class and individual progress toward identified goals
* Case studies to illustrate effective and ineffective formative assessment and deepen your understanding
If you're looking to take formative assessment from theory to practice—and from practice to genuine learning improvement—this is the place to begin.
198 pages, Paperback
First published June 28, 2010
6 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 30, 2022
Gripping title, right?
When I started this class for my master's degree, I didn't have any sense of the differences between formative and summative assessments, but after reading this book and developing a unit of study, I was able to feel confident in my ability to conduct formative assessments as a daily practice at school.
Greenstein offers dozens of techniques to measure student understanding. These can take place before, during, and after classroom instruction.
My biggest take away from this book and this class was not just how to collect the data that would tell me how students were doing. The most important part was what I'd do with that information. Collecting data that you don't analyze and make plans for is just data with no purpose. Utilizing formative assessments can really improve teaching, particularly in a standards-based culture.
Teaching is already such a heavy lift, that adding this to everything else you're doing in the classroom can feel like just one more thing. But Greenstein will show you how to make this part of your daily practice. Her samples of formative assessments and samples of data collation sheets help make the task less formidable.
If you'd like to improve in using formative assessments, this is a great beginning place.
When I started this class for my master's degree, I didn't have any sense of the differences between formative and summative assessments, but after reading this book and developing a unit of study, I was able to feel confident in my ability to conduct formative assessments as a daily practice at school.
Greenstein offers dozens of techniques to measure student understanding. These can take place before, during, and after classroom instruction.
My biggest take away from this book and this class was not just how to collect the data that would tell me how students were doing. The most important part was what I'd do with that information. Collecting data that you don't analyze and make plans for is just data with no purpose. Utilizing formative assessments can really improve teaching, particularly in a standards-based culture.
Teaching is already such a heavy lift, that adding this to everything else you're doing in the classroom can feel like just one more thing. But Greenstein will show you how to make this part of your daily practice. Her samples of formative assessments and samples of data collation sheets help make the task less formidable.
If you'd like to improve in using formative assessments, this is a great beginning place.
December 15, 2017
Focusing on the high school level, this book is very helpful with our school's move to competency-based education. Many teachers struggle with the concept of formative vs. summative assessment, and this book offers clear explanations, case-studies, and specific examples. Full of many strategies for checking for student understanding before, during, and after instruction, the author provides details on how to use these strategies and even lists them briefly in the appendix which allows a teacher to copy them and put them in a notebook for easy reference. I also appreciated the information on rubrics, on emotional and social support, and the many samples/templates the author provides.
Very easy to read, very informative, and very timely, this book would make a great all-staff read.
Very easy to read, very informative, and very timely, this book would make a great all-staff read.
September 29, 2017
Amazing read for teachers!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.