Everybody seems to be talking about Assessment for Learning. This book shows you how to do it. The thinking behind the highly influential ‘Assessment for Learning’ approach is translated into usable and practical strategies for all those teaching literacy in primary and secondary classrooms. The authors show how thinking, learning and assessment can be linked together in a creative and integrated fashion, so that thinking promotes learning, learning enables assessment to take place and assessment acts as a stimulus to both thinking and learning. Concise teachers’ notes for a broad range of dynamic techniques explain for each: what the approach is how you use it for assessment how you can manage it in the classroom how it helps with learning. Downloadable resources are included with all of the activities and ideas that can be used on Interactive Whiteboards. Active Assessment for English will prove inspiring reading for all literacy teachers at primary and secondary levels, LEA advisers and inspectors.

The significant challenges faced by English Language Learners (ELLs) become greater during the middle and high school years, when they must learn more abstract academic concepts with emergent English language skills and differing levels of background knowledge. To meet these challenges, ELLs need immediate feedback about how the development of their language abilities interacts with their academic performance; and teachers need practical strategies to help ELLs develop the specific content and language abilities necessary for success. In Formative Language Assessment for English Learners, the research team of Rita MacDonald, Timothy Boals, Mariana Castro, H. Gary Cook, Todd Lundberg, and Paula A. White demonstrates what good language assessment for formative purposes is, explains the cycle of formative language assessment, and shows how it unfolds stage by stage in a school setting. Based on a five-year collaborative project with middle and high school teachers in three major school districts, the book presents a process for: Weaving a language focus into content lessons Analyzing students' language from writing samples to help them broaden their linguistic choices Creating active partnerships with students as they learn and practice new ways to use English. When classrooms are defined by effective language assessment for formative purposes, they become dynamic spaces in which teachers can use that information to plan clear, attainable steps to increase student learning, and students develop deeper understandings of both academic content and academic language. Formative Language Assessment for English Learners provides practical strategies to implement a unique process for formative assessment that can truly change classroom practice. This team of authors works together at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and have collaborated on formative language assessment for English Language Learners through their work for WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment), a 36-state consortium that supports academic language development for linguistically diverse students through standards, assessment, research, and professional development.

Using a highly creative approach, this book explains in detail how assessment, thinking and learning can be integrated in science lessons.

From Testing to Assessment: English as an International Language provides a critical review of conventional and alternative approaches to the assessment of English literacy skills in various parts of the world. It presents empirical studies conducted in three major settings: in countries such as Japan and Brazil where English functions as the language of international commernce; in multilingual countries such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe where English is the national language of education and government; and in such countries as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States where English is the dominant language. The book opens with a discussion of language assessment in relation to debates about the nature of literacy; it concludes with a discussion of policy implications, which is grounded in literacy theory as well as in practical constraints such as available human and material resources.

Classroom materials and guidance for teachers of mathematics in primary and secondary schools.

This book presents evidence-based practices for appropriate assessment of and school-based services for young English language learners. It identifies and addresses the challenges of assessing and intervening with these students at the curricular, instructional, environmental, and individual levels, particularly the complexities of determining the presence or absence of learning disabilities. Case studies and comparisons with fluent English speakers illustrate the screening and evaluation process – including multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) and response to intervention (RTI) – and proactive intervention planning in core literacy and math domains. Together, these chapters model effective teaching practice, advocacy, and teamwork with parents and colleagues as well as policy development toward meeting the needs of this diverse student population. This invaluable guide: Examines challenges of data collection when working with English language learners. Traces the development of dual-language fluency and competence. Discusses language-acquisition issues affecting oral language assessment. Reviews commonly used assessment and intervention tools in use with English learners. Features specialized chapters relating to reading, writing, and mathematics competencies. Can be used regardless of first language spoken by students. Assessment and Intervention for English Language Learners is an essential resource for researchers, professionals, and graduate students in diverse fields including school and clinical child psychology; assessment, testing, and evaluation; language education; special education; and educational psychology.

The term scienti?c inquiry as manifest in different educational settings covers a wide range of diverse activities. The differences in types of scienti?c inquiry can be organized along a continuum according to the degree of teacher control and intellectual sophistication involved in each type of inquiry. Types of scienti?c inquiry can also be de?ned according to whether they produce cultural knowledge or personal knowledge. Authentic scienti?c inquiry is de?ned according to ?ve characteristics: devel- ment of personal and cultural knowledge; contextualized scienti?c knowledge; the progression toward high-order problem solving; social interaction for s- enti?c goals; and scienti?c inquiry as a multi-stage and multi-representational process. The de?nition of scienti?c inquiry that forms the basis for the development of an assessment program consists of a two-part analytical frame: the de?nition of knowledge types relevant to scienti?c inquiry and the de?nition of an organi- tional frame for these knowledge types. Four types of knowledge are signi?cant for the de?nition of a speci?c s- enti?c inquiry program: cognitive knowledge, physical knowledge, represen- tional knowledge, and presentational knowledge. All four of these knowledge types are considered signi?cant. These four types of knowledge are organized in a framework that consists of two intersecting axes: the axis of knowledge types and the axis of stages of a s- ci?c scienti?c inquiry. This framework describes scienti?c inquiry as multi-stage process that involves the development of a series of in-lab outcomes (represen- tions) over an extended period of time.