Lead Lit Topic: Assessment
Making sense of the enormous amount of student data in any classroom or school is probably the biggest challenge we face individually and in our school communities. Authentic assessment of learning helps us plan quality instruction. Here you'll find everything from one-page templates of formative assessments created by literacy coaches to videos of staff teams poring over large summative data sets.
Results
Rubrics and Muggles: Common Frameworks and Instructional Coaching
My son is obsessed with Harry Potter. It started with an introduction by his older cousins to the first movie and has snowballed from there. He has taken to putting...
Slow Down: The Power of Two-Word Goals
For the past few years, I’ve made a simple two-word goal for myself. Last year, it was “Talk Less.” I established the goal because I had become irritated with my...
Strength in Assessment: A Professional Development Protocol
Recently I worked with a group of literacy leaders representing a number of different schools and experiences from all across the Portland, Oregon metro area. I knew they held a...
The Power of the Spoken Word
I am exploring the new Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (ELA). I flip to a new section and read Speaking and Listening, Comprehension and Collaboration. My eyes...
Picture It: Objectives and the Coach
Setting and communicating clear objectives to students is essential. In his article “Objectives That Students Understand,” Robert J. Marzano points out that an ineffective use of objectives is “writing the...
Assessing Students: Many Hands for a Lighter Load
Many of our informative assessments are administered individually. The benefit of these assessments is the opportunity they provide to notice which reading strategies each student uses, what the child comprehends,...
Improvement Plan
Maria taught sixth-grade language arts in the middle school where I was an assistant principal. When I first came to the building, my principal warned me about Maria. “She’s struggling,”...
Triangulating: The Importance of Multiple Data Points When Assessing Students
We went to a professional development session a few years ago with Elizabeth City and she gave us a name for something we have always believed - the importance of...
Transcription: A Lens for Reflection
Having my picture taken is something I dread. Mostly because I know that later I’m going to have to look at the photo and I’m sure I won’t like what...
Personal Conferring Notebooks
How do you effectively and efficiently share formative assessment data between the teachers providing different types of instructional support when the population of students receiving extra instructional support exceeds more...
Literacy Coaching and Student Work with Diane Sweeney (PODCAST)
Diane Sweeney is the author of Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals. In this podcast with Heather Rader, she talks about the dangers of focusing too much on...
Coaching Monkey
As a kid, Curious George was my hero. Sometimes I had to cover my eyes when he was about to get into trouble, but I knew in the end he'd...
Building on Success and Maintaining Momentum
It’s somewhat known what happens when a school is deemed as failing. After posting dismal test scores, the state department of education comes in and provides more resources along with...
