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Assessment-Centered Teaching

A Reflective Practice

By: Kathryn DiRanna, Ellen Osmundson, Jo Topps, Lynn Barakos, Maryl Gearhart, Karen Cerwin, Diane Carnahan, Craig Strang

A reflective process for integrating assessment and instruction!

Assessment-Centered Teaching (ACT) is a unique practice that allows teachers to gather information during instruction to uncover learning gaps and guide students toward deeper understandings of complex ideas. Suitable for all grade levels, this resource describes how reflective practitioners can use the ACT portfolio to reflect on, modify, and improve their curriculum and instruction. The forms included on the CD-ROM guide teachers through the process. This book encourages educators to:

Reflect on their own practice
Systematically examine student progress toward identified learning goals over time
Monitor instruction and assessment for continuous improvement

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Assessment-Centered Teaching - Book Cover

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412954624
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2008
Page Count: 224
Publication date: February 25, 2008

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Author(s) Table of Contents Reviews

Description

"Valuable for practitioners who wish to improve their teaching and their students' learning, and for researchers concerned with putting ideas of formative assessment into teaching practice."
—Richard J. Shavelson, Margaret Jack Professor of Education
Stanford University

"Drawing from conceptual principles and empirical findings that establish the crucial role of ongoing formative assessment, the authors describe a professional development framework and program that prepares teachers to adjust their teaching to student thinking in the moment and to refine assessments to better reveal students' understandings throughout instruction."
—Joan I. Heller, Director
Heller Research Associates

A reflective process for integrating assessment and instruction!

Because assessment and instruction are two sides of the same coin, it is critical for teachers to not only assess what students understand, but also use that information to adjust their teaching. Assessment-Centered Teaching (ACT) is a unique practice that allows teachers to gather information during instruction to uncover learning gaps and guide students toward deeper understandings of complex ideas.

Suitable for all grade levels, this resource describes how reflective practitioners can use the ACT portfolio to reflect on, modify, and improve their curriculum and instruction. The forms included on the CD-ROM guide teachers through the process. This book encourages educators to:

Reflect on their own practice
Systematically examine student progress toward identified learning goals over time
Monitor instruction and assessment for continuous improvement

Assessment-Centered Teaching helps teachers, professional developers, and school teams establish quality instructional goals and implement ongoing formative assessment to promote student success.

Author(s)

Kathryn DiRanna

Ellen Osmundson

Jo Topps

Lynn Barakos

Maryl Gearhart

Karen Cerwin

Diane Carnahan

Craig Strang

Foreword

Introduction

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

1. Building the Foundation

2. Assessment-Centered Teaching

3. Reflective Practice: The Assessment-Centered Teaching (ACT) Portfolio

4. Plan Assessment and Instruction: Establish Quality Goals for Student Learning and Progress by Developing the Conceptual Flow

5. Plan Assessment and Instruction: Select or Design Appropriate Assessments Using the Record of Assessments in Instructional Materials (RAIM)

6. Plan for Assessment and Instruction: Prepare for Assessments

7. Analyze: Interpret Student Work Using Scoring Criteria

8. Interpreting Student Work Through Analysis of Patterns and Trends

9. Use Evidence: Guide Instruction

10. Use Evidence: Revise Assessments

11. Professional Development Design

12. Reflective Practice for Transformative Learning: Lessons Learned

Resource A. Resources for Further Learning

References

CD-Rom: Resource B--Appendix

Reviews

"All assessment is formative—what a great idea! Here's a resource to take you from good assessment ideas to good assessment practices. Building on the work of many assessment and professional development experts, DiRanna and her colleagues have created a reasoned and realistic guide to assessment-centered teaching that is grounded in the realities of the classroom and that aspires to greater student learning."

Elizabeth K. Stage, Director, Lawrence Hall of Science
University of California, Berkeley

"An excellent and timely resource for administrators, teachers, teacher educators, and inservice professionals. This book sheds light on the all-too-often missing link in teaching and learning: formative assessment. Applicable across subject areas and grade levels, this resource provides a very helpful balance of educational vision and rationale, practical tools and procedural guidance, and compelling stories of transformed instruction in teachers’ own words."

Pamela Aschbacher, Director of Research and Evaluation
Caltech Precollege Science Initiative, California Institute of Technology

"Makes practical the notion that teaching, learning, and assessment go hand-in-hand. Good teaching activities make good assessment tasks and vice versa. The reflective practitioner, as envisioned in this book, uses assessment information to re-engage students and move them along a progression of learning. This is a valuable book for practitioners who wish to improve their teaching and their students’ learning, and for researchers concerned with putting ideas of formative assessment into teaching practice."

Richard J. Shavelson, Margaret Jack Professor of Education
Stanford University

"This ambitious work provides nothing short of a blueprint for raising teacher education programs to new standards for professional preparation, which in turn would improve student achievement levels. Drawing from conceptual principles and empirical findings that establish the crucial role of ongoing formative assessment, the authors describe a professional development framework and program that actually prepares teachers to adjust their teaching to student thinking in the moment and to refine assessments to better reveal students’ understandings throughout instruction. I highly recommend this book to scholars, practitioners, and interested stakeholders in teaching and teacher development."

Joan I. Heller, Director
Heller Research Associates