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"What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately." A great short article to make one aware of the nature and value of formative assessment. Unlike summative assessment, which evaluates student learning according to a benchmark, formative assessment monitors student understanding so that kids are always aware of their academic strengths and learning gaps. Meanwhile, teachers can improve the effectiveness of their instruction, re-teaching if necessary. "When the cook tastes the soup," writes Robert E. Stake, "that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative." Formative assessment can be administered as an exam. But if the assessment is not a traditional quiz, it falls within the category of alternative assessment."

Recording of assessment strategies relating to accessibility from a panel of university representatives. Helping faculty become more aware of accessibility issues through enhanced assessment processes and tools.

This blog entry shows two examples, one of a teacher-created rubric, and the other of a rubric created with the help of the students. The comparison shows that the students had a slightly different idea of what was being evaluated -- always good information to have. See also Parts 1 and 2 on creating assessment rubrics.

"If we hope to construct enduring understanding in our students, it's critical that, now more than ever, we know their strengths and interests. By incorporating students' strengths and weakness into authentic learning experiences from the beginning of each unit, while at the same time including opportunities for feedback, metacognition and revision, we promote a variety of cognitive and emotional benefits that can lead to academic success. " A thoughtful description of ways to successfully integrate learner feedback into the assessment process.

This blog entry describes what a rubric is and how to create rubrics for your own purposes. "Authentic assessments typically are criterion-referenced measures. That is, a student's aptitude on a task is determined by matching the student's performance against a set of criteria to determine the degree to which the student's performance meets the criteria for the task. To measure student performance against a pre-determined set of criteria, a rubric, or scoring scale, is typically created which contains the essential criteria for the task and appropriate levels of performance for each criterion. "

This e-book is free from British Council and is quite short, but contains important chapters on secondary and adult language teaching with technology, ESP, EAP, assessment (co-authored by Russell Stannard), and professional development.

This has great videos on how to teach a wide variety of subjects, as well as how to manage students' behavior in class, set up collaborations, assessment, and esp. for US teachers, the common core standards. Very useful for teacher training, though not specifically oriented toward ESL/EFL.

"Based on the motivational theories of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, the game encourages students to assess themselves not on how smart or talented they are, but on how hard they work. And the reward for completing quests with characters is significant: Help the Cheshire cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and he'll help you turn invisible so you can sneak through the virtual world a la Harry Potter and his invisibility cloak. "The more characters from literature you get to know, the more powerful you become," says Schell. "

About the role of rewards and motivation

A video demonstrating some of the things Google Classroom might do for your classes, and how to use it.

"Many schools are currently using Forms as a way to easily and quickly record data from teacher observations. The advantage is of using a Google Form is that it compiles all the data into a spreadsheet which allows school leaders to quickly and easily see trends in the school's classrooms." Suggests that the administrator can also use the Google spreadsheet to collect data on what teachers are doing in the school as a whole. Video shows how to go to the Template and create your own by copying the document. Links to template, which has an auto-mail feature.

Download and print Flashcards in several different sizes. Math, science, language arts; pre-K - Grade 2. In English, Spanish, Chinese, or other languages of study.

From R. Byrne: "Creating and delivering quizzes and tests online offers a number of advantages over paper-based quizzes and tests. Many online quiz services allow you to create quizzes that give your students instant feedback. Some of the services provide the option to include picture and video prompts in your quizzes. And all of these services save you the hassle of printing your quizzes. "

Another superb teacher-training video from R. Stannard on using Goggle Forms to create questionnaires, surveys, and quizzes.

Have you ever tried this idea?