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Assessment as Learning
Using Classroom Assessment to Maximize Student Learning

Second Edition


December 2012 | 160 pages | Corwin

Your key to understanding how formative assessment improves learning!

High-stakes tests and end-of-year assessments dominate educational planning and curriculum. Yet, formative assessments are proven to have the most impact on day-to-day learning.

Teachers who understand how to use assessment to spark learning unlock a powerful educational tool, and Assessment as Learning can show you how. Using clear explanations and poignant cases, this book illustrates how formative assessment can be used to understand student beliefs, inform classroom instruction, and encourage student reflection. Fully revised, this second edition features

  • Discussion of the complex nature of learning
  • Ways to use formative assessment in a variety of contexts
  • Real-life examples and case studies of assessment in action
  • Sample rubrics and lesson plans for easy implementation
  • Ideas for Follow-up at the end of each chapter 
  • Insights into common classroom dilemmas along with viable solutions

Unraveling the mystery of formative assessment, this resource reveals how this teaching technique optimizes learning.

"Lorna Earl is an international thought leader when it comes to linking quality assessment to teaching, learning and student success."
—Rick Stiggins, Author and Consultant

"Earl begins at the beginning, focusing on assessing what students believe is true and using assessment information to help students develop and extend learning from those initial beliefs. Readers should do likewise, asking themselves what they believe is true about assessment and then extending their learning with this book."
—Susan M. Brookhart, Consultant
Brookhart Enterprises


 
About the Author
 
Acknowledgments
 
1. The Promise and the Challenge of Classroom Assessment
Why This Book?

 
How the Educational World has Changed

 
The Power of Classroom Assessment

 
What is This Book About?

 
The Case of "Understanding Learning and Assessment"

 
Using This Book

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
2. Situating Assessment Changes
A Brief History of Assessment

 
Looking for Change in all the Wrong Places

 
Rethinking Assessment for Real Change

 
Purpose is Everything

 
Classroom Assessment and Large-Scale Reform

 
Taking Up the Challenge

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
3. Assessment of Learning, for Learning, and as Learning
Assessment of Learning

 
Assessment for Learning

 
Assessment as Learning

 
Getting the Balance Right

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
4. Spotlight on Learning
Learning Makes Us Human

 
How People Learn

 
Learning for Understanding

 
Learning is Hard Work

 
Learning Happens in Context

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
5. Assessment and Learning
How Does Classroom Assessment Contribute to Learning?

 
Assessment as an Integral part of Teaching and Learning

 
Realizing the Power of Assessment to Optimize Learning

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
6. Using Assessment to Identify What They "Believe to Be True"
"The Case of the Pool Table"

 
Start With What They Believe to be True

 
"The Case of the Blog"

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
7. Using Assessment to Motivate Learning
Assessment That Motivates

 
Relevant Assessment

 
Imaginative Assessment

 
Assessment that Scaffolds Learning

 
"The Case of Othello"

 
Assessment to Reverse Socialization

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
8. Using Assessment to Make Connections
Curriculum as Visible Targets for Learning

 
Plan Learning, Plan Assessment, and Expect the Unexpected

 
"The Case of Planned Literacy"

 
Differentiation

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
9. Using Assessment to Extend Learning
Feedback for Learning

 
Rubrics and Exemplars as Tools

 
"The Case of the Brass Band"

 
Ideas, Connections, and Extensions (ICE)

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
10. Using Assessment for Reflection and Self-Regulation
"The Case of Jojo"

 
Students as Their Own Best Assessors

 
Developing Self-Regulating Habits of Mind

 
"The Case of Choices"

 
Ideas for Follow Up

 
 
11. Getting to Assessment for Optimum Learning
It's About Learning, and It's About Time

 
Getting to the Spirit of AFL Requires Conceptual Change

 
Think About What You Believe to be True

 
Learn About Learning

 
Know Your Subject

 
Be an Expert Teacher

 
Work Together in Collaborative Inquiry

 
Don't Give Up, But be Gentile With Yourself

 
Self-Regulation for You Too

 
Get the Support You Need

 
Put it All Together

 
 
References
 
Index

“This valuable resource goes beyond assessment for learning by shifting from the teacher to the student as the key assessor in self-monitoring personal goals and external standards.”

Julie Prescott, Assessment Coordinator
Vallivue High School, Caldwell, ID

"In Assessment as Learning, Dr. Earl shares her deep understanding of classroom assessment and her commitment to harnessing its power for student learning. She begins at the beginning, focusing on assessing what students believe is true and using assessment information to help students develop and extend learning from those initial beliefs. Readers should do likewise, asking themselves what they believe is true about assessment and then extending their learning with this book."

Susan M. Brookhart, Consultant, Brookhart Enterprises LLC
Senior Research Associate, Center for Advancing the Study of Teaching and Learning, Duquesne University, Helena, MT

"Assessment as Learning is an invaluable resource for teacher candidates. It provides an extensive review of assessment theory, research, policy and practise."

Louis Volante, Associate Professor (Assessment & Evaluation)
Brock University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

"Lorna Earl is an international thought leader when it comes to linking quality assessment to teaching, learning and student success. We are both members of a worldwide community of researchers, teachers, and school leaders intent on advancing our understanding of how to use assessment day to day in the classroom to both promote and verify student achievement. As we collaborate, Lorna points us in the right direction."

Rick Stiggins, Consultant
Portland, OR

"Despite two decades of work by educators to turn assessment into an activity that helps students to learn better, there is still much work to be done. The focus needs to move away from routines carried by teachers, truly to engage students themselves. It is this fundamental shift that Lorna Earl emphasizes in this excellent second edition of her book."

Mary James, Professor, Cambridge University
Founding Member of the Assessment Reform Group

"Lorna Earl has provided one of the most readable books about how to use assessment as learning for teachers and students. It just makes sense! While testing is all around us, Lorna Earl shows how it is efficient to use this information to inform our impact, where to go next, and to identify our successes in learning and teaching. She moves the debate away from assessment as good or bad to assessment as a powerful tool when interpreted by teachers to enhance their impact."

John Hattie, Director, Melbourne Education Research Institute
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia

"Lorna Earl's conceptualization of Assessment As Learning makes a major contribution to the work of educators determined to help all learners achieve deep understanding and powerful levels of learning. Grounded in practice, informed by research, and marked by a genuine respect for teachers and the challenges they face, this is a book that all educators will find enormously helpful."

Judy Halbert, Co-Founder & co-leader
Networks of Inquiry and Innovations and the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network, British Columbia, Canada

This is a great book for student teachers, with clear case studies that allow for extended learning about assessment as it relates to their developing classroom practice.

Mrs Lorraine Godden
Faculty of Education, Queens Univ
October 12, 2014
Key features
The book does the following:
  • Defines assessment of learning, assessment for learning and assessment as learning, making a case for assessment as learning.
  • Addresses assessment in the context of what learning is
  • Shows how to use formative assessment to motivate student learning, help students make connections so that they move from emergent to proficient, extend their learning and to help them become reflective self-regulators of their own learning
  • Explores how teachers can make the shift to formative assessment by engaging in conceptual change

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter Four: Spotlight on Learning


For instructors

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