Thanks to the support I’ve received from various members of my learning community (particularly Julie Kopp, Theresa Gray, and Jennifer Borgioli), I’ve discovered much more about the power of formative assessment practices in recent years. Reflecting on questions like these helped me begin shaping a vision for the sort of assessment work that I wanted [...]
Compare and Contrast Constructed Response:
How do your current assessment practices align to the vision you began to articulate here?
Multiple Choice:
If you were a parent approaching a conversation with your child’s teacher, which discussion would be most informative to you?
A. A discussion prompted by the results of an assessment recently given by your district or your state
OR
B. A discussion prompted by the teacher’s assessment of your child’s gifts and needs as a learner, [...]
In recent months, I’ve been growing more and more concerned about the ways in which folks tend to confuse the words testing and assessment. I also have some substantial concerns about what people are calling rubrics these days and the purposes for using them–but I’ll save that for another post. For the next week or [...]
…for my kids to get home from school
…for the laundry load to finish spinning out
…for the teachers that I am working with to return from their lunch break
…for the next episode of my favorite television program to begin
…for my materials to finish printing
…for the next item to appear on my never-ending “to do” list
This is [...]
…….especially if you haven’t had the opportunity to do it in the past. I’m working with quite a few teachers in different places this year who feel very much out of their element when they are asked to teach kids how to write. Sure, “all teachers are teachers of writing,” and I know that most [...]
Just a quick post on the fly this morning, really–but one that I’ve been formulating in my head for some time now. I’ve spent a good portion of this fall working with over 150 teachers of grades 3-12 who have been capturing formative assessment data about their students as writers during guided and independent practice. [...]
Well, if you are at least thirteen years old and you’ve written a young adult novel, you are invited to participate in this first-ever Young Adult Novel Discovery Competition. It’s hosted by Gotham Writers’ Workshop, Serendipity Literary Agency, and Sourcebooks.
What is the NaNoWriMo Young Writers’ Program all about? Program Director Tavia Stewart-Streit shares portions of their inspiring manifesto right here:
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this month?
Are your students?
I’m in! So are the writers of the WNY Young Writers’ Studio. We’re connecting around this inside of our ning and hoping to support each other along the way. If you are a member and want to participate, head over there and join our group. Need some [...]