The Assessment Playbook

Design assessments that measure and target student learning in both face-to-face and distance learning environments Assessments are the essential link between teaching and learning, yet the assessments used in face-to-face classrooms are not always practical or impactful in remote learning environments. Now that teachers are teaching from a distance, how will you assess what your students have learned? Tapping the expertise of teachers who are successfully engaged in distance learning, The Assessment Playbook for Distance and Blended Learning answers that question. Rich with a wide range of examples, strategies, and assessments that can be leveraged with rigor and fidelity regardless of learning environment, this practical playbook empowers teachers with the decision-making tools needed to gauge the impact of instructional strategies in today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape. It features • "Assessment cookies," or insights that endure in any distance or hybrid learning environment and can be used to inform assessment decisions, including the understanding that "everything is searchable." • A robust "playlist" of distance learning assessment tools—including universal response, teach-back opportunities, composing, taking action, self-assessment, and peer assessment—that teachers can mix and deploy to match every learning intention. • Information on how to evaluate the impact of your teaching on student learning—and how assessment can guide your teaching moves • Characteristics of formal tools of evaluation, such as tests, longer essays, and performance tasks that teachers can use in distance learning environments to document learning for reporting purposes. Designed properly, assessments implemented through the lens of distance and hybrid learning can yield significant impact for student achievement, both in the pandemic teaching of today, and in the educational contexts of the future.

Can we measure what we treasure? Can we build and sustain truly excellent schools focused on the ambitious goal of human flourishing? And can we hold ourselves accountable to the children and families we serve in ways that harness data to advance that goal? The National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector says “yes”! The Montessori Assessment Playbook shows us how to do it. Organized around 33 discrete tools, the Playbook provides a clear and actionable scaffold for building an assessment protocol that captures compelling student outcomes, such as perseverance, compassion, and creativity, and that links those outcomes to the investments we make to classrooms and schools. Emphasizing both coherence and precision, the Montessori Assessment Playbook shows us how to develop and implement a comprehensive assessment framework focused on human flourishing and, just as important, why such a framework is urgently needed.

Design assessments that measure and target student learning in both face-to-face and distance learning environments Assessments are the essential link between teaching and learning, yet the assessments used in face-to-face classrooms are not always practical or impactful in remote learning environments. Now that teachers are teaching from a distance, how will you assess what your students have learned? Tapping the expertise of teachers who are successfully engaged in distance learning, The Assessment Playbook for Distance and Blended Learning answers that question. Rich with a wide range of examples, strategies, and assessments that can be leveraged with rigor and fidelity regardless of learning environment, this practical playbook empowers teachers with the decision-making tools needed to gauge the impact of instructional strategies in today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape. It features · “Assessment cookies,” or insights that endure in any distance or hybrid learning environment and can be used to inform assessment decisions, including the understanding that “everything is searchable.” · A robust “playlist” of distance learning assessment tools—including universal response, teach-back opportunities, composing, taking action, self-assessment, and peer assessment—that teachers can mix and deploy to match every learning intention. · Information on how to evaluate the impact of your teaching on student learning—and how assessment can guide your teaching moves · Characteristics of formal tools of evaluation, such as tests, longer essays, and performance tasks that teachers can use in distance learning environments to document learning for reporting purposes.

Provide students a clear view of what success looks like for any process, task, or product. What does success look like for your students? How will they know if they have learned? This essential component of teaching and learning can be difficult to articulate but is vital to achievement for both teachers and students. The Success Criteria Playbook catapults teachers beyond learning intentions to define clearly what success looks like for every student—whether face-to-face or in a remote learning environment. Designed to be used collaboratively in grade-level, subject area teams—or even on your own—the step-by-step playbook expands teacher understanding of how success criteria can be utilized to maximize student learning and better engage learners in monitoring and evaluating their own progress. Each module is designed to support the creation and immediate implementation of high-quality, high impact success criteria and includes: • Templates that allow for guided and independent study for teachers. • Extensive STEM-focused examples from across the K-12 STEM curriculum to guide teacher learning and practice. • Examples of success criteria applied across learning domains and grades, including high school content, skills, practices, dispositions, and understandings. Ensure equity of access to learning and opportunity for all students by designing and employing high-quality, high-impact success criteria that connect learners to a shared understanding of what success looks like for any given learning intention.

Effective teaching is effective teaching, no matter where it occurs The pandemic teaching of mid-2020 was not really distance learning, but rather crisis teaching. But starting now, teachers have the opportunity to prepare for distance learning with purpose and intent—using what works best to accelerate students’ learning all the while maintaining an indelible focus on equity. Harnessing the insights and experience of renowned educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie, The Distance Learning Playbook applies the wisdom and evidence of VISIBLE LEARNING® research to understand what works best with distance learning. Spanning topics from teacher-student relationships, teacher credibility and clarity, instructional design, assessments, and grading, this comprehensive playbook details the research- and evidence-based strategies teachers can mobilize to deliver high- impact learning in an online, virtual, and distributed environment. This powerful guide includes: Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for each module to track your own learning and model evidence-based teacher practices for meaningful learning A diversity of instructional approaches, including direct instruction, peer learning, and independent work that foster student self-regulation and move learning to deep and transfer levels Discussion of equity challenges associated with distance learning, along with examples of how teachers can work to ensure that equity gains that have been realized are not lost. Special guidance for teachers of young children who are learning from a distance Videos of the authors and teachers discussing a wide variety of distance learning topics Space to write and reflect on current practices and plan future instruction The Distance Learning Playbook is the essential hands-on guide to preparing and delivering distance learning experiences that are truly effective and impactful. To purchase from an Authorized Corwin Distributor click here. A Spanish translation of the Distance Learning Playbook, Grades K-12, Aprendizaje a Distancia Guia, Guia de Preescolar a Bachillerator, can be purchased by contacting Irene Yepez from Editorial Trillas at [email protected].

First, let’s commend ourselves: how in the midst of a pandemic we faculty stepped up at record speed to teach in such a foreign learning environment. Try we did, adapt we did, and learn we did. But to be clear, and we already recognize this, this past spring was less about distance learning and more about crisis teaching. This time around we have the opportunity to be much more purposeful and intentional, and that’s where The Distance Learning Playbook for College and University Instruction will prove absolutely indispensable. Much more than a collection of cool tools and apps, The Distance Learning Playbook for College and University Instruction mobilizes decades of Visible Learning® research to reveal those evidence-based strategies that work best in an online environment. Supplemented by video footage and opportunities to self-assess and reflect, the book addresses every dynamic that must be in place for students to learn, even at a distance: Faculty-student relationships from a distance Teacher credibility from a distance Teacher clarity from a distance Engaging tasks from a distance Planning learning experiences from a distance Feedback, assessment, and grading from a distance Keeping the focus on learning, from a distance or otherwise What does our post-COVID future hold? "We suspect," Fisher, Frey, Almarode, and Hattie write, "it will include increased amounts of distance learning. In the meantime, let’s seize on what we have learned to improve post-secondary education in any format, whether face-to-face or from a distance." "We are all still active faculty members, committed to teaching, scholarship, and service. The unexpected transition to remote learning doesn’t mean we no longer know how to teach. We can still impact the lives of our students and know that we made a difference. The Distance Learning Playbook for College and University Instruction will show you how." ~Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, John Almarode, and John Hattie

Explore the powerful synergy between your credibility with students and your collective efficacy as a member of a team. When you increase your credibility with students, student motivation rises. And when you partner with other teachers to achieve this, students learn more. This one-stop resource illuminates the connection between teacher credibility and collective efficacy and offers specific actions educators can take to improve both. It includes: Tips for becoming more trustworthy, competent, and responsive in the eyes of students Tools for teams to use to polish their collective effectiveness through better communication and problem-solving Coaching videos that challenge teachers to improve teacher practice and grow professionally

Expert guidance for creating a successful partnership! Whether you’re new to co-teaching, new to your partner, or just see room for improvement in the way you connect, you probably face challenges with communication, planning, grading, and more. When co-teaching is done well, though, the benefits for students are immeasurable. So grab a cup of coffee and your co-teacher—this hands-on book is designed for you to work through together. Features include: • Stories from experienced co-teachers • Reflective activities to help each of you discover your collaboration style • Reproducible lists, checklists, templates, agreements, and more to complete together • A downloadable unit-planning tool

Why are assessments important? What's the difference between formative and summative assessments? How are assessments designed? What are their fundamental components? How can we know if they are working? How can we improve our assessments? In The Assessment Playbook: A UDL Approach, a companion to the popular Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Assessment Video Series available on CAST's YouTube channel, CAST's professional learning and research experts answer these and other questions. They share tips and strategies as well as more than 100 resources to help you better understand what K-12 learners know and can do-and how to improve your instruction accordingly.

Serravallo, a literacy consultant, speaker, and author, leads third through sixth grade literacy teachers through a four-step assessment process that focuses on meeting the needs of students and planning for students based on what they already know, understand, and are able to do.