Embedded Formative Assessment

If we are to maintain our status as one of the world¿s leading economies and secure our economic futures, and if we want our students to thrive in the impossibly complex, unpredictable world of the 21st century, we must concentrate on increasing educational achievement by increasing the quality of the teachers in our schools. Dylan Wiliam faces this challenge head-on by making a case for the important role of formative assessment in increasing teacher quality and student learning. While there are many possible ways in which we could seek to develop the practice of serving teachers, attention to minute-by-minute and day-to-day formative assessment is likely to have the biggest impact on student outcomes. Wiliam¿s view of formative assessment differs from the popular view in that he regards formative assessment as a process rather than a tool. Wiliam outlines what formative assessment is, and what it is not, and presents the five key strategies of formative assessment: 1. Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success 2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, activities, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning 3. Providing feedback that moves learning forward 4. Activating learners as instructional resources for one another 5. Activating learners as owners of their own learning The book presents a summary of the research evidence that shows the impact of each strategy and offers a number of practical techniques that teachers have used to incorporate the strategy into their regular classroom practice.