I'm interested to see the opinions of those in the ICC group regarding this book. I have not read it, but I know Gladwell had one of the keynotes at NECC this year and Outliers is brought up fairly often by my colleagues. It's definitely a book I'd like to read at some point, if only for the sake of seeing what all the fuss is about.
When teachers use sound instructional practice for the purpose of gathering information on student learning, they are applying this information in a formative way. In this sense, formative assessment is pedagogy and clearly cannot be separated from instruction. It is what good teachers do. The distinction lies in what teachers actually do with the information they gather. How is it being used to inform instruction? How is it being shared with and engaging students? It's not teachers just collecting information/data on student learning; it's what they do with the information they collect.
well said. I think that putting this into practice will be a challenge. Convincing others that this mentality is where we should be going might be even more of a challenge though. Wow.
another great write-up on formative assessment; this one comes from a secondary (middle school) source. The driver's license analogy is worth sharing with colleagues, in my opinion.
In 2010, legislation defined full implementation of the Iowa Core as "accomplished when the school or district is able to provide evidence that an ongoing process is in place to ensure that each and every student is learning the Iowa Core standards for ELA and Mathematics and the Essential Concepts and Skills of Science, Social Studies and 21st Century Skills.
"If district leaders (administrators, teachers, and the school board) and other educators monitor and increase the degree of alignment among the intended, enacted, and assessed curriculum, then the quality of instruction will improve and student learning and performance will increase."
"The review team's recommendation proposes modifying the Next Generation Science Standards for Iowa so that only the performance expectations section is used, rather than the entire standards document. Members said the performance expectations are easier to understand, especially for teachers in subject areas other than science, and allow for more local control because they are broader than other parts of the standards document.
The team's recommendation also proposes modifying the Next Generation Science Standards for Iowa by separating them by grade level for kindergarten through 8th grade and organizing the high school standards into a span of grades."