Activating Assessment for All Students: Innovative Activities, Lesson Plans, and Informative Assessment

by Mary Hamm, Dennis Adams

Overview

Hamm and Adams present models to help teachers identify student learning problems_recognizing when to re-teach, when to move ahead, and when to explain or give more examples. Activating Assessment for All Students takes all of these into account when it provides differentiated science/math methods and goes on to suggest ways that formative assessment practices can inform differentiated teaching, learning, and assessment. These methods promote success for more students by helping teachers develop informative assessment for lessons and related tools for reaching the varying levels of student competencies within their classes. This book builds on the expanding knowledge of what works in classrooms and suggests approaches that can open up individual and group possibilities for science and mathematics instruction. It intends to help you answer the following questions: * What is differentiated instructional assessment? * How can I amplify the results of DI by using formative assessments? * How might quality assessment tools (like portfolios) benefit all students? * How will I know that differentiated formative assessment works?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607092100
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	10/15/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	156
File size:	420 KB

About the Author

Mary Hamm is a professor of science and mathematics at San Francisco State University. She has published more than ten books and eighty journal articles on these topics. Dennis Adams is an educational consultant who has taught classes at McGill University in Montreal. He is author of more than twelve books and a hundred journal articles on various educational topics.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Instructional Assessment: Using Formative Assessment and Differentiated Instruction to Improve Learning
Chapter 2 Integrated Performance Assessments: Portfolios and Other Methods for Assessing Differentiated Learning
Chapter 3 Science Instruction: Collaborative Inquiry, Assessment, and the Differentiated Classroom
Chapter 4 Differentiated Math Instruction: Problem-Solving and Assessment in the Math Classroom
Chapter 5 Lesson Plans for Science and Math: Informative Assessment and Adjusting the Teaching/Learning Process

Editorial Reviews

Activating Assessment for All Students is both innovative and practical. It is a unique and compelling guidebook for teachers and others who are interested in assessment and differentiated instruction. Special attention is given to how formative assessment practices can help elementary and middle school students learn science and math. Mary Hamm and Dennis Adams present precisely the kind of standards-supported activities that can motivate even the most reluctant learners. The book is grounded in a constructivist approach to differentiated instruction and informative assessment that opens exciting learning opportunities for an increasingly diverse student body. It encourages educators to reflect on their teaching practices—while building a conceptual framework for new directions and new assessment strategies.

Rebecca Angeles

This book, part of the Exemplary Science series, provides excellent examples and practical guidelines for implementing differentiated instruction….The wealth of such practical suggestions for planning a differentiated instruction lesson makes Activating Assessment for All Students a standout on the crowded professional development bookshelf.

The Science Teacher

This basic "how-to" guide for implementing differentiated instruction uses formative assessment in elementary and middle school science and math classes. There are chapters on how to use these techniques for improving student learning, portfolios and other alternatives to traditional summative assessment tools, and collaborative learning and problem solving in science and math classes. A chapter of sample lessons rounds out the book. This book is exactly what it purports to be—a training guide for using diverse teaching techniques to teach a diverse student population....But what makes this book worth recommending is its excellent use of examples and practical guidelines for implementing differentiated instruction. It's one thing for a book on teaching to say that a lesson should include something for those students with musical-rhythmic intelligence; it’s another to suggest "sing the fours multiplication table to Jingle Bells" and explain how. The wealth of such practical suggestions for specific methods for how to plan a differentiated instruction lesson for elementary and middle school children makes this book stand out on the crowded professional development bookshelf.

National Science Teachers Association