Ideal for preservice and inservice teachers, this user-friendly resource demonstrates how to use formative assessments to guide instruction and evaluate student learning in standards-based science.

"Proven to be one of the most powerful tools for promoting effective learning, formative assessment enables teachers to capture evidence of student thinking and learning and use that information to adjust instruction. In this concise resource, science educator Elizabeth Hammerman clearly outlines the formative assessment process and provides practical strategies for embedding assessments into the Kئ8 standards-based science curriculum. This research-based book demonstrates how student-centered assessment helps students assume more responsibility for what they learn and how they learn. Teachers can use the various models of formative assessments to monitor student progress and evaluate learning. The author guides readers through discussions, "thought and reflection" activities, analyses of assessment techniques, and applications to classroom practice. Ideal for teachers and science and curriculum specialists, this user-friendly resource provides all the necessary tools to: assess student understanding using observation checklists, questioning strategies, notebooks, reports, graphic organizers, projects, and performance tasks; differentiate science instruction to reach all learners; use rubrics as a means of discovering student strengths and weaknesses; collect student data to inform instructional decisions. With this easy-to-implement guide, any teacher can effectively use formative assessment strategies to enhance instruction and increase student achievement in science."--Publisher's website.

Unlock the wonder in each of your students through inquiry-based science! Are you both fascinated and baffled by inquiry-based science? Do you want to tap the strength of inquiry-based science to help your students build deeper understandings? Do you want to use inquiry-based science to foster high-quality instruction across the educational board? This guide provides clear and simple explanations for engaging students in meaningful and hands-on, minds-on ways of understanding science. Eight Essentials of Inquiry-Based Science, K-8 breaks each essential into sample lessons that include sample data, discussion questions, and tools such as graphic organizers and analogies. Hammerman draws on more than 20 years experience in the fields of science instruction and professional development to address basic and complex principles related to inquiry, including: How to discuss data, information, models, graphics, and experiences How to interact with one another to strengthen knowledge and skills How to extend learning through guided or open-inquiry investigations and research How to apply new learning and research-based best practices for improving student achievementWhen you harness the immense power of inquiry-based learning, you can fully discover the inquisitive nature of each of your students!

Assessments, understood as tools for tracking what and how well students have learned, play a critical role in the classroom. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards develops an approach to science assessment to meet the vision of science education for the future as it has been elaborated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). These documents are brand new and the changes they call for are barely under way, but the new assessments will be needed as soon as states and districts begin the process of implementing the NGSS and changing their approach to science education. The new Framework and the NGSS are designed to guide educators in significantly altering the way K-12 science is taught. The Framework is aimed at making science education more closely resemble the way scientists actually work and think, and making instruction reflect research on learning that demonstrates the importance of building coherent understandings over time. It structures science education around three dimensions - the practices through which scientists and engineers do their work, the key crosscutting concepts that cut across disciplines, and the core ideas of the disciplines - and argues that they should be interwoven in every aspect of science education, building in sophistication as students progress through grades K-12. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards recommends strategies for developing assessments that yield valid measures of student proficiency in science as described in the new Framework. This report reviews recent and current work in science assessment to determine which aspects of the Framework's vision can be assessed with available techniques and what additional research and development will be needed to support an assessment system that fully meets that vision. The report offers a systems approach to science assessment, in which a range of assessment strategies are designed to answer different kinds of questions with appropriate degrees of specificity and provide results that complement one another. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards makes the case that a science assessment system that meets the Framework's vision should consist of assessments designed to support classroom instruction, assessments designed to monitor science learning on a broader scale, and indicators designed to track opportunity to learn. New standards for science education make clear that new modes of assessment designed to measure the integrated learning they promote are essential. The recommendations of this report will be key to making sure that the dramatic changes in curriculum and instruction signaled by Framework and the NGSS reduce inequities in science education and raise the level of science education for all students.

Supercharge your formative assessment skills and watch student learning soar! The authors describe an effective four-step process for improving teachers’ formative assessment practices that provides opportunities to reflect, consider alternative instructional approaches, and apply what they have learned. The text suggests that teachers ask themselves the same questions they ask students: Where am I going? What can formative assessment practice look like? Where am I currently in my formative assessment practice? How do I close the gap? Included are case studies, examples of formative assessment in practice, and a companion website with tools and templates.

Boost your students′ 21st century skills How do we measure students′ inquiry, problem-solving, and critical thinking abilities so that we know they are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century? John Barell explains how inquiry leads to problem-solving and provides specific steps for pre, formative and summative assessment that informs instruction of 21st century skills. Included are examples that show how to use today′s technology in the classroom and how to use inquiry to develop and assess students′ ability to: Think critically and creatively Collaborate with others Become self-directed learners Adapt and become resourceful Develop a sense of leadership, responsibility, and global awareness The authors challenge teachers to reflect on their own learning, thinking, and problem-solving processes as well as those of their students. The text provides frameworks for monitoring students′ progress and guidelines for communicating with parents. Teachers will find examples from all grade levels that show how to observe and assess students′ growth in their development of 21st century capacities, making this a timely and valuable resource.

"Assessment in year 7-10 science classrooms was investigated ... formative assessment was defined as the process used by teachers and students to recognise and respond to student learning in order to enhance that learning, during the learning"--P. 5.