I spent yesterday with the high school English Department at Depew Union Free School District. These folks invited me in to help them approach formative assessment as a process that leads to instructional improvement rather than a product that leads to grades. They’ve begun exploring the 6+1 Traits of Writing, considering what their middle school colleagues have been up to, and looking to new tools for support. Wordle was a big hit yesterday. I introduced…
Allowing assessment to become an informative piece of the instructional process can start with very small steps, and in my experience, starting small prevents overwhelm and allows the true meaning of the formative assessment process to be preserved a bit better over time. Many of the teachers that I work with rely upon the 6+1 Traits of Writing in their efforts to help students better understand what good writing looks like and how they might…