Formative Assessment Strategies for Enhanced Learning in Science, K-8

This user-friendly resource defines formative assessment and provides strategies for embedding formative assessment into the K-8 science curriculum. Based on the IDEA approach: Introduce, Discuss, Elaborate, and Apply this research-based book guides readers through discussions, ‘thought and reflection’ activities, analyses of assessment techniques, and applications to classroom practice. Formative Assessment Strategies for Enhanced Learning in Science, K-8 demonstrates how teachers can use various models of formative assessments to instruct, monitor student progress, and evaluate learning, helping to broaden teachers’ understanding of assessment and how assessment tools can be used to guide successful standards-based teaching and learning in science. To support teachers’ application of formative assessments in the classroom, the author covers: a framework for planning and implementing high quality instruction and formative assessments; planning guides with examples and suggestions for differentiating instruction; rubrics as a means of discovering student strengths and weaknesses; and, additional specific tools for collecting student data to inform instructional decisions.