[Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools Through Student-Engaged Assessment] [By: Berger, Ron] [January, 2014]

by Ron Berger

This book provides a new approach to assessment that draws on the assessments that occur naturally and internally for students every day. All learners continually assess the quality of their work, skills, understanding, and behavior and decide what is good enough. They assess and decide when written work is good enough to turn in; when they have put enough effort into a reading assignment or math test; when they understand a concept sufficiently; and whether they have been respectful and helpful to others. But for a variety of reasons, students and teachers often don't tap into this level of assessment and learn how to capitalize on it. Teachers frequently fall into the trap of simply saying "try harder," without giving students specific targets, feedback, time to revise, and encouragement. What students really need are tools to assess and improve their own learning and the motivation to do so.Leaders of Their Own Learning offers school leaders and classroom teachers a new way of thinking about assessment based on the celebrated work of Expeditionary Learning Schools across the country. Student-Engaged Assessment is not a single practice. It is an approach to teaching and learning that equips and compels students to understand goals for their learning and growth, track their progress toward those goals, and take responsibility for reaching them. This requires a set of interrelated strategies and structures and a whole-school culture in which students are given the respect and responsibility to be meaningfully engaged in their own learning.This book provides everything teachers and school leaders need to implement a Student-Engaged Assessment system in their schools. It contains chapters on eight key practices that will engage students in making academic progress, improve achievement, and involve families and communities in the life of the school. Each chapter describes a practice, gives advice on how to begin, and explains what teachers and school leaders need to put into practice in their own classrooms and schools. The chapters include descriptive text, resources, advice, and stories from schools successfully using the practice. The companion DVD offers compelling video clips that illustrate each key strategy in real schools with real students--to serve as models, raise questions, and stimulate discussion.Leaders of Their Own Learning shows educators how to ignite the capacity of students to take responsibility for their own learning, meet Common Core and state standards, and reach higher levels of achievement.

Genres: Education, Professional Development, Teaching, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published October 28, 2013

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be an exciting school-wide read to help us move forward with celebrating student learning and the work it takes to accomplish that rather than wallowing in the minutia of meeting minimums and outside expectations of one-size fits all.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up a few ideas for creating useful formative assessments. And I confirmed my use of standards-based graded, but this book was far too repetitive and long-winded. Many of the suggestions, while laudable, would in no way be practical in a large school, or in any school. I would never be able to work with students to master the content because I would be spending inordinate amounts of time prepping them for conferences and celebrations.

I'll admit it: I skimmed towards the end. It was just too much.

[Charnae LaLuzerne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reflects what many great PBL schools are already doing well. Readers will learn more about checking for understanding, using data with students, student-led conferences, and standards-based grading. As a new teacher, it was an eye opening read. After a few years teaching, the text serves as a healthy reminder of common goals we should have at an institutional level and in the classroom. I enjoy slowing down to read passages and skimming the rest.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last summer, my school gave everyone on faculty a copy of this book. We only read one chapter and so the book sat on my shake for a while. Picking it up again right before Christmas, I made my way through it and do feel that it is one I will return to in the future. Each section is stand alone and I found the sections on portfolios, Student- led conferences and standards based grading to be particularly interesting and helpful.

[junia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really did enjoy this book! It's not purely about project-based learning and it just has a lot of great examples, clear pedagogy, and resources for schools. I wrote a larger review for it for my Edu 610 class, so if I'm curious, I can go there for something more in-depth.

My biggest wondering though is.. can any school do all 8 well? I really don't think so.

[Claire Nolan]

meh

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is everything I yearn for in our academic program. I think TfT is a starting point.

[ck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceeding Expectations

In school and in life, people tend to meet our expectations. They work even harder to meet their own. That's the simple beauty of enabling students to be active partners in their own learning: with guidance in metacognition, they know what they know, and quickly figure out what else they need to know to succeed.

One of my fondest classroom memories is of the day I asked students to work together to design the rubric for a multimedia unit. We talked about rigor, academic expectations, and metacognition before we began. They were eager. They were specific. They were comprehensive. And in some cases, their expectations for themselves were one or two grade levels higher than what was called for by then-current state standards.

This energy and enthusiasm buoyed them during the next six days, and their peer-designed rubric held them accountable for working together to construct knowledge.

It is developing and nurturing this spirit of achievable expectations that this book addresses. Ron Berger provides structure and tools to help teachers invigorate and elevate students' self-assessment. Introduced with respect and consistency, this approach benefits students in the classroom. Equally important, with practice and reinforcement, it will support students in becoming more metacognitive about independent learning.

I received a review copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program.

[Mar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for educators. Lots of good ideas, that will work best as school-wide initiatives, but for teachers not in such settings, still very helpful for personal edification, development and improvement. Without using the exact words of the Ontario ministry of Education curriculum, it ties in nicely to assessment for, as and of learning, Achievement Charts and Levels (1-4) and Learning Skills. It als can be used with PBL/inquiry based initiatives and Celebrations of Learning, and Student portfolios. Examples from K-12 so applicable to all educators. Also comes with a DVD resource to watch individually or with staff/teaching groups.

[Diana Pettis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My school is using this text for professional development for teachers. The chapters in this text are very thought provoking and full of practical information that educators can implement in their school settings. My favorite chapter was on the checking for understanding and my second favorite chapter is on students using data to help with goal setting. I am going to be leading a book club at my school in the fall on this text so I wanted to get a head start. Idlehurst friends, I have about 12 copies if anyone wants to start reading it over Summer break.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about helping students understand what the learning targets are, what they need to do to show mastery and how to assess themselves. We started trying this out in our classrooms and immediately saw positive results - the turned-off, difficult twelfth grade class became fascinated with what they were doing and completely engaged.

[Marcel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents a great system of student-engaged assessment. There are a lot of powerful and practical ideas here, particularly regarding portfolios and training students to look scientifically and analytically at their own learning. Many of the best ideas, however, will be difficult to implement unless you have more time and more authority than most teachers usually do.

[Melissa Hiltbrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Describes the teacher I want to be and the school I want to be involved it. Critical information for my school's transformation to an EL school. I will read this one many times over while I strive to improve my practices.

[Kate]

Just finished chapter 1

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

there are many good ideas found here. It's a meaty book though, and I know I'll need to reread it at some point.

[Abbey T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every teacher needs to read this book! It will change the way you look at everything.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas for the classroom.

[Kathy Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a fan of expeditionary learning, Leaders of Their Own Learning resonated on several levels. Ron Berger has used a format for conveying information that allows educators to dig into the ideas of student-engaged assessment. Other may think of this in terms of formative assessment, assessment for learning or even formative instructional practices. It is all of those with Berger’s twist.
Each chapter contains
 * the definition of the specific aspect of student-engaged assessment
 * background information
 * why the practice matters
 * Common Core connections
 * video resources
 * classroom examples
 * ideas about school-wide implementation and a checklist of what to expect at various stages
 * common challenges
One of the things that made this book even more impactful for me was that after I read the book, I had the opportunity to see two of the school administrators who shared stories in the book speak at a conference.