Student Led Assessment

The single greatest authority on student learning is the student doing the learning—but the right structures must be in place for students' voices to be clearly heard and truly valued. Conventional formative and summative assessment are most often conducted through one-size-fits-all quizzes and tests that yield narrow, predetermined categories of data about students' academic progress. But if we want a truly accurate look at what, how, and to what extent students are learning, who better to consult than the obvious experts on the matter: the students themselves. In this lively and comprehensive guide, veteran teacher and author Starr Sackstein provides the tools needed to help students compile and present evidence of learning through portfolios and student-led conferences—from templates and rubrics to personal testimonials, reflection questions, and activities. The book features * Forms—applicable across grade levels and content areas—for unpacking standards, co-constructing success criteria with students, evaluating current classroom practices, and more. * Real-life perspectives and scenarios from educators in the field who have embraced portfolios and student-led conferences over standardized tests and letter grades. * Practical, experience-based guidance for building classroom and schoolwide learning cultures that promote both learner agency and academic achievement. The resources, recommendations, and reflections in Student-Led Assessment allow educators at all levels to develop systems and protocols for ensuring student ownership of—and pride in—their own hard-won achievement.

The author, Michael Absolum, shows how building learning-focused relationships between teacher and student helps make "assessment for learning" principles work effectively. He does this by breaking down the bigger ideas of assessment into smaller parts that make it easy for educators to understand. Throughout the book, Absolum shares his ideas about the: - Nature of student learning; - Nature of the student/teacher relationship; - Skills that teachers need to support students; and - Skills that students need to learn. Originally written for a New Zealand readership, Clarity in the Classroom has been adapted for North American educators. This book is an essential resource for every teacher and administrator looking to support and enhance the learning opportunities for all students. The adaptions to the North American edition were done by James Gray, a vice-principal in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Meagan Mutchmor, a K-8 mathematics consultant for the Winnipeg School Division.

Assessment for learning is meant to engage, motivate, and enable students to do better in their learning. However, how students themselves perceive assessments (both high-stakes qualifications and low-stakes monitoring) is not well understood. This volume collects research studies from Europe, North and South America, Asia, and New Zealand that have deliberately focused on how students in primary, secondary, and tertiary education conceive of, experience, understand, and evaluate assessments. Assessment for learning has assumed that formative assessments and classroom practices would be an unqualified success in terms of student learning outcomes. Making use of a variety of qualitatively interpreted focus groups, observations, and interviews and factor-analytic survey methods, the studies collected in this volume raise doubts as to the validity of this formulation. We commend this volume to readers hoping to stimulate their own thinking and research in the area of student assessment. We believe the chapters will challenge researchers, policy makers, teacher educators, and instructors as to how assessment for learning can be implemented.

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. Written for pre-service teacher candidates who have little or no classroom experience, Rick Stiggins’ multiple award-winning and market-leading text focuses squarely on preparing new teachers to assess students in classrooms, providing them with their initial orientation to classroom assessment and to the challenges they will face in monitoring student learning, in using the assessment process, and its results to benefit their students. The text clearly instructs teaching candidates on how to gather dependable evidence of student learning using quality assessments and how to use those assessments to support and to certify student learning. The book has an exceptionally strong focus on integrating assessment with instruction through student involvement in the assessment process; it is clearly the most non-technical and hands on practical orientation to assessment validity and reliability yet developed. It offers five easy-to-understand keys to effective classroom assessment practice that any teacher can learn to apply. The presentation covers the full range of classroom assessment methods, when and how to use them and how to communicate results in ways that support learning. Examples and models are offered across grade levels and schools subjects to assist candidates in learning these things. The treatment of student-involved assessment, record keeping, and communication as an instructional intervention is a unique entity of the text. Specific assessment strategies are offered throughout for helping students see the learning target from the beginning and then watch themselves move progressively close over time until they achieve ultimate learning success. Showing how to use assessment to accurately reflect student achievement and how to benefit–not merely grade–student learning, the text examines the full spectrum of assessment topics, from articulating targets, through developing quality assessments and communicating results effectively.

A New Companion to Leaders of Their Own Learning Puts Students in Charge of Their Learning and Growth Five years after the publication of Leaders of Their Own Learning, EL Education is back with a new companion guide to help you tackle the common challenges of student-engaged assessment. This unique, student-centered approach to assessment equips and compels students to understand goals for their learning and growth, track their progress toward those goals, and take responsibility for reaching them. EL Education has more than 25 years of experience supporting school transformation through student-engaged assessment. With their new book, The Leaders of Their Own Learning Companion, they have harvested the best tools and wisdom from schools across the country to help you hone student-led assessment practices in your classroom and school. Identifies the common challenges of implementing each of the eight interrelated student-engaged assessment practices from Leaders of Their Own Learning, and provides strategies and tools for tackling them Offers practical tips for school leaders Deepens your learning with 46 videos and an online toolbox The Leaders of Their Own Learning Companion is designed for teachers and leaders of all grade levels and no prior knowledge of the original Leaders of Their Own Learning is necessary to make the most of this book.

Formative assessment is one of the best ways to increase student learning and enhance teacher quality. But effective formative assessment is not part of most classrooms, largely because teachers misunderstand what it is and don't have the necessary skills to implement it. In the updated 2nd edition of this practical guide for school leaders, authors Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart define formative assessment as an active, continual process in which teachers and students work together—every day, every minute—to gather evidence of learning, always keeping in mind three guiding questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? What strategy or strategies can help me get to where I need to go? Chapters focus on the six interrelated elements of formative assessment: (1) shared learning targets and criteria for success, (2) feedback that feeds learning forward, (3) student self-assessment and peer assessment, (4) student goal setting, (5) strategic teacher questioning, and (6) student engagement in asking effective questions. Using specific examples based on their extensive work with teachers, the authors provide - Strategic talking points and conversation starters to address common misconceptions about formative assessment; - Practical classroom strategies to share with teachers that cultivate students as self-regulated, assessment-capable learners; - Ways to model the elements of formative assessment in conversations with teachers about their professional learning; - "What if" scenarios and advice for how to deal with them; and - Questions for reflection to gauge understanding and progress. As Moss and Brookhart emphasize, the goal is not to "do" formative assessment, but to embrace a major cultural change that moves away from teacher-led instruction to a partnership of intentional inquiry between student and teacher, with better teaching and learning as the outcome.

A Practical Guide to Assessment for Learning: School Leaders is one book in the Creating Independent Student Learners set. The set includes guides for N–9 teachers and school leaders. A Practical Guide to Assessment for Learning: School Leaders, is an easy-to-read guide for those wishing to encourage teachers to change their practice to included assessment for learning. Intertwining real experiences and examples from teacher, the authors offer a helpful plan for dealing with tough choices when attempting change. The authors take you through three stages of growth: starting off, consolidation and spread, and preparing for sustainability.

Student-led peer review can be a powerful learning experience for both giver and receiver, developing evaluative judgment, critical thinking, and collaborative skills that are highly transferable across disciplines and professions. Its success depends on purposeful planning and scaffolding to promote student ownership of the process. With intentional and consistent implementation, peer review can engage students in course content and promote deep learning, while also increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of faculty assessment.Based on the authors’ extensive experience and research, this book provides a practical introduction to the key principles, steps, and strategies to implement student peer review – sometimes referred to as “peer critique” or “workshopping”. It addresses common challenges that faculty and students encounter. The authors offer an easy-to-follow and rigorously tested three-part protocol to use before, during, and after a peer review session, and advice on adapting each step to individual courses.The process is applicable across all disciplines, content types, and modalities, face-to-face and online, synchronous and asynchronous. Instructors can guide students in peer review in one course, across two or more courses that are team-taught, or across programs or curriculums. When instructors, students, and university stakeholders create a culture of peer review, it enhances learning benefits for students and allows faculty to share pedagogical resources.Student peer review is a high-impact pedagogy that’s easily implemented, inculcates lifelong learning skills in students, and relieves the assessment burden on faculty as students collaborate to improve their own work.