Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

Look Inside

Updated Edition of Bestseller

Assessment as Learning

Using Classroom Assessment to Maximize Student Learning

Second Edition
By: Lorna M. Earl

Using clear explanations and cases, this must-have resource shows how formative assessment can improve student learning. Included are lesson plans and ideas for easy implementation.

Full description

Look Inside

Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781452242972
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2012
Page Count: 160
Publication date: January 07, 2013

Price: $39.95

Select Format:

For Instructors

This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

Your key to understanding how formative assessment improves learning!

High-stakes tests and end-of-year assessments dominate educational planning and curriculum. Yet, formative assessments are proven to have the most impact on day-to-day learning.

Teachers who understand how to use assessment to spark learning unlock a powerful educational tool, and Assessment as Learning can show you how. Using clear explanations and poignant cases, this book illustrates how formative assessment can be used to understand student beliefs, inform classroom instruction, and encourage student reflection. Fully revised, this second edition features

Discussion of the complex nature of learning
Ways to use formative assessment in a variety of contexts
Real-life examples and case studies of assessment in action
Sample rubrics and lesson plans for easy implementation
Ideas for Follow-up at the end of each chapter
Insights into common classroom dilemmas along with viable solutions

Unraveling the mystery of formative assessment, this resource reveals how this teaching technique optimizes learning.

"Lorna Earl is an international thought leader when it comes to linking quality assessment to teaching, learning and student success."
—Rick Stiggins, Author and Consultant

"Earl begins at the beginning, focusing on assessing what students believe is true and using assessment information to help students develop and extend learning from those initial beliefs. Readers should do likewise, asking themselves what they believe is true about assessment and then extending their learning with this book."
—Susan M. Brookhart, Consultant
Brookhart Enterprises

Key features

The book does the following:

Defines assessment of learning, assessment for learning and assessment as learning, making a case for assessment as learning.
Addresses assessment in the context of what learning is
Shows how to use formative assessment to motivate student learning, help students make connections so that they move from emergent to proficient, extend their learning and to help them become reflective self-regulators of their own learning
Explores how teachers can make the shift to formative assessment by engaging in conceptual change

Author(s)

Lorna M. Earl

Lorna M. Earl is a director of Aporia Consulting Ltd. and a retired associate professor from the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. She was the first director of assessment for the Ontario Education Quality and Accountability Office, and she as been a researcher and research director in school districts for over 20 years.

Throughout her career, Earl has concentrated her efforts on policy and program evaluations as a vehicle to enhance learning for pupils and for organizations. She has done extensive work in the areas of literacy and the middle years, but has concentrated her efforts on issues related to evaluation of large-scale reform and assessment (large-scale and classroom) in many venues around the world. She has worked extensively in schools and school boards, and has been involved in consultation, research, and staff development with teachers' organizations, ministries of education, school districts, and charitable foundations. Earl holds a doctorate in epidemiology and biostatistics, as well as degrees in education and psychology.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Acknowledgments

1. The Promise and the Challenge of Classroom Assessment

Why This Book?

How the Educational World has Changed

The Power of Classroom Assessment

What is This Book About?

The Case of "Understanding Learning and Assessment"

Using This Book

Ideas for Follow Up

2. Situating Assessment Changes

A Brief History of Assessment

Looking for Change in all the Wrong Places

Rethinking Assessment for Real Change

Purpose is Everything

Classroom Assessment and Large-Scale Reform

Taking Up the Challenge

Ideas for Follow Up

3. Assessment of Learning, for Learning, and as Learning

Assessment of Learning

Assessment for Learning

Assessment as Learning

Getting the Balance Right

Ideas for Follow Up

4. Spotlight on Learning

Learning Makes Us Human

How People Learn

Learning for Understanding

Learning is Hard Work

Learning Happens in Context

Ideas for Follow Up

5. Assessment and Learning

How Does Classroom Assessment Contribute to Learning?

Assessment as an Integral part of Teaching and Learning

Realizing the Power of Assessment to Optimize Learning

Ideas for Follow Up

6. Using Assessment to Identify What They "Believe to Be True"

"The Case of the Pool Table"

Start With What They Believe to be True

"The Case of the Blog"

Ideas for Follow Up

7. Using Assessment to Motivate Learning

Assessment That Motivates

Relevant Assessment

Imaginative Assessment

Assessment that Scaffolds Learning

"The Case of Othello"

Assessment to Reverse Socialization

Ideas for Follow Up

8. Using Assessment to Make Connections

Curriculum as Visible Targets for Learning

Plan Learning, Plan Assessment, and Expect the Unexpected

"The Case of Planned Literacy"

Differentiation

Ideas for Follow Up

9. Using Assessment to Extend Learning

Feedback for Learning

Rubrics and Exemplars as Tools

"The Case of the Brass Band"

Ideas, Connections, and Extensions (ICE)

Ideas for Follow Up

10. Using Assessment for Reflection and Self-Regulation

"The Case of Jojo"

Students as Their Own Best Assessors

Developing Self-Regulating Habits of Mind

"The Case of Choices"

Ideas for Follow Up

11. Getting to Assessment for Optimum Learning

It's About Learning, and It's About Time

Getting to the Spirit of AFL Requires Conceptual Change

Think About What You Believe to be True

Learn About Learning

Know Your Subject

Be an Expert Teacher

Work Together in Collaborative Inquiry

Don't Give Up, But be Gentile With Yourself

Self-Regulation for You Too

Get the Support You Need

Put it All Together

References

Index

Reviews

“This valuable resource goes beyond assessment for learning by shifting from the teacher to the student as the key assessor in self-monitoring personal goals and external standards.”

Julie Prescott, Assessment Coordinator
Vallivue High School, Caldwell, ID

"In Assessment as Learning, Dr. Earl shares her deep understanding of classroom assessment and her commitment to harnessing its power for student learning. She begins at the beginning, focusing on assessing what students believe is true and using assessment information to help students develop and extend learning from those initial beliefs. Readers should do likewise, asking themselves what they believe is true about assessment and then extending their learning with this book."

Susan M. Brookhart, Consultant, Brookhart Enterprises LLC
Senior Research Associate, Center for Advancing the Study of Teaching and Learning, Duquesne University, Helena, MT

"Assessment as Learning is an invaluable resource for teacher candidates. It provides an extensive review of assessment theory, research, policy and practise."

Louis Volante, Associate Professor (Assessment & Evaluation)
Brock University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

"Lorna Earl is an international thought leader when it comes to linking quality assessment to teaching, learning and student success. We are both members of a worldwide community of researchers, teachers, and school leaders intent on advancing our understanding of how to use assessment day to day in the classroom to both promote and verify student achievement. As we collaborate, Lorna points us in the right direction."

Rick Stiggins, Consultant
Portland, OR

"Despite two decades of work by educators to turn assessment into an activity that helps students to learn better, there is still much work to be done. The focus needs to move away from routines carried by teachers, truly to engage students themselves. It is this fundamental shift that Lorna Earl emphasizes in this excellent second edition of her book."

Mary James, Professor, Cambridge University
Founding Member of the Assessment Reform Group

"Lorna Earl has provided one of the most readable books about how to use assessment as learning for teachers and students. It just makes sense! While testing is all around us, Lorna Earl shows how it is efficient to use this information to inform our impact, where to go next, and to identify our successes in learning and teaching. She moves the debate away from assessment as good or bad to assessment as a powerful tool when interpreted by teachers to enhance their impact."

John Hattie, Director, Melbourne Education Research Institute
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia

"Lorna Earl's conceptualization of Assessment As Learning makes a major contribution to the work of educators determined to help all learners achieve deep understanding and powerful levels of learning. Grounded in practice, informed by research, and marked by a genuine respect for teachers and the challenges they face, this is a book that all educators will find enormously helpful."

Judy Halbert, Co-Founder & co-leader
Networks of Inquiry and Innovations and the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network, British Columbia, Canada

Other Titles in: Formative Assessment | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

Select Format:

For Instructors

This book is not available as a review copy.