Chapters International

Overview:

While there is a great deal of conversation in schools about formative assessment, it is relatively rare to see it implemented in classrooms as it ought to be if the goal is to improve teaching and learning. This 4-part webinar will explore formative assessment as a powerful tool that, when used correctly, enhances student achievement, professionalizes teachers, improves instruction, and builds student agency. We’ll examine formative assessment as a process and way of thinking about teaching and learning and will also look at many examples of teachers’ approaches to formative assessment in their classrooms. We’ll also discuss why formative assessment is tightly bound to differentiation.

Agenda:

Session 1: What is Effective Formative Assessment and why Does it Matter so Much?

Session 2: Strategies and Approaches for Formatively Assessing Learners

Session 3: Using Formative Assessment Information to Plan (Better) Instruction

Session 4: Using Formative Assessment to Help Students Develop Agency as Learners

At the close of each session, participants will receive two questions/prompts for consideration in the week ahead that should help them (1) extend their understanding and use of formative assessment in their own classrooms, and (2) prepare them for the next week’s session.

Potential Audience:

K-12 and university teachers, curriculum coordinators, teacher leaders, teacher coaches, and staff developers.

Carol Ann Tomlinson

Carol Ann Tomlinson is William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education where she is also Co-Director of the University's Institutes on Academic Diversity. Prior to joining the faculty at UVa, she was a teacher for 21 years. During that time, she taught students in high school, preschool, and middle school and also administered programs for struggling and advanced learners. She was Virginia's Teacher of the Year in 1974.

Carol is author of over 250 books, book chapters, articles, and other educational materials including: How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom, (with Jay McTighe) Differentiating Instruction and Understanding by Design, (with Kay Brimi join and Lane Narvaez) The Differentiated School, (with Marcia Imbeau) Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, and (with David Sousa) Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom. Her books on differentiation are available in 13 languages.

Carol was named Outstanding Professor at Curry in 2004 and received an All-University Teaching Award in 2008. In 2019 she was #8 on in the Education Week Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings of university-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debates about schools and schooling. In that same list, she was ranked #3 most influential voices in Teacher Education, Curriculum, and Instruction. Carol works throughout the United States and internationally with educators who seek to create classrooms that are more effective with academically diverse student populations.