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Ahead Of Curve Power of Assessment to Transform Teaching & Learning [HC,2008]
Ahead Of The The Power of Assessment to Transform Teaching and Learning by Anne Davies. Solution Tree,2008
Unknown Binding
First published September 24, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 4, 2009
Can I give no stars? This was the most boring book I've ever read regarding education. I don't think the authors of this study in boredom have ever had a good laugh in their lives. Why publish something if it's going to be so bland? After I finished it I wanted to throw it off the airplane somewhere between Salt Lake City and Jackson, but unfortunately I checked it out, so I would have to pay for it if I did such a thing. I wasn't going to spend a dime on such a snooze of a book.
July 3, 2023
Great compilation of outstanding material by leading assessment experts!
September 30, 2024
Most chapters were solid. They could probably shorten the book and make it a bit more practical.
October 1, 2010
Want to learn more about formative assessment and feedback? This book features chapter articles by the leading throught-leaders in the field of formative assessment and feedback. Featured authors include Rick Stiggins, Dylan William, Doug Reeves, Rick DuFour and others.
One of my favorite quotes comes from this book. Reeves reminds us that today's students are quite familiar with formative assessment and feedback. Here's an excerpt:
"Watch any child play an electronic game, where the supply of accurate, timely, and specific feedback seems endless: He sits transfixed and immobile, for hours at a time as the steady stream of feedback lures him, in the parlance of the gamer, to 'get to the next level.' This same student is inattentive and disengaged in class.
"No student would remain so engaged if feedback were inaccurate or differed based on whether the student is male, female, rich, or poor. No student would be so engaged and devoted to an electronic game if the manufacturer sent the scores by mail to the student days or weeks after the student played the game. No student would stare at a game for hours if, after each defeat, the feedback was only 'you lost the game,' rather than a rich array of feedback on time, available resources, alien attackers, and strategy that games routinely provide.
“Effective feedback not only tells students how they performed, but how to improve the next time they engage [in] the task. Effective feedback is provided in such a timely manner that the next opportunity to perform the task is measured in seconds, not weeks or months.”
—Doug Reeves, "Challenges and Choices," Ahead of the Curve, pp. 228-229
One of my favorite quotes comes from this book. Reeves reminds us that today's students are quite familiar with formative assessment and feedback. Here's an excerpt:
"Watch any child play an electronic game, where the supply of accurate, timely, and specific feedback seems endless: He sits transfixed and immobile, for hours at a time as the steady stream of feedback lures him, in the parlance of the gamer, to 'get to the next level.' This same student is inattentive and disengaged in class.
"No student would remain so engaged if feedback were inaccurate or differed based on whether the student is male, female, rich, or poor. No student would be so engaged and devoted to an electronic game if the manufacturer sent the scores by mail to the student days or weeks after the student played the game. No student would stare at a game for hours if, after each defeat, the feedback was only 'you lost the game,' rather than a rich array of feedback on time, available resources, alien attackers, and strategy that games routinely provide.
“Effective feedback not only tells students how they performed, but how to improve the next time they engage [in] the task. Effective feedback is provided in such a timely manner that the next opportunity to perform the task is measured in seconds, not weeks or months.”
—Doug Reeves, "Challenges and Choices," Ahead of the Curve, pp. 228-229
June 18, 2011
This book is great for an overview of what some contemporaries perceive assessment best practices ought to be. Some of the articles are very pertinent to the classroom teacher, while other ones are pertinent to very different audiences. I think the information on formative assessment and some of the direct classroom implications are helpful. However, Marzano and others in the book get radically into the standards based movement to the point that a lot of their suggestions are far beyond the classroom teacher. My biggest issue is that there is not discussion about how assessments can be racist or culturally insensitive. Additionally, I have a problem that the book doesn't reference UDL (Universal Design Learning) as a method of assessment.
July 6, 2009
Great for educators. Shifts your view of tests and why we give them. MOre importantly what we do with the information. All of us has a "Testing Nightmare" story. This book may illuminate all of the mistakes your teachers made in your career!
November 3, 2009
Required reading. Dry, uninspiring---pedantic drivel.
June 10, 2011
Great ideas about assessment in education.
March 28, 2015
A quick technical read. Good refresher.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews