MWSubstack 010: Formative Assessment; Civic Education

Teachers' formative assessment skills are always being put to the test. Here's some expert help. We also look at the state of civic education. How can schools help preserve American democracy?

Welcome to MiddleWeb Substack. It’s a twice-monthly, two-topic, five-minute read for middle grades educators, featuring several of MiddleWeb’s most popular and influential articles, a book review, and a noteworthy 4-8 resource or project we’ve spotted. That’s it!

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►FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Tracking progress and checking for understanding

Dr. Laura Robb is a leading expert on methods to effectively teach reading and literacy. Her practical approaches and expertise with middle grades students shine through in How to Teach Reading in the Middle Grades, a master-class article on using formative data to target and address “small confusions.”

Formative assessments are your opportunities to provide immediate feedback to students. Assessments contain the information you need to support instructional planning such as deciding whether to generate a small group with common needs or to provide interventions for individual students. Based on students’ daily performance, formative assessments identify their strengths, small confusions, and larger challenges.

While this article focuses on reading, Robb's discussion has implications for formative assessment across the curriculum.

Find other tips and insights about checking for understanding and helping students assess themselves here:

• Try These Creative Ways to Do Formative Assessment (Cheryl Mizerny)

• 6 Cool Tools Help Us Know Where Kids Are (Curtis Chandler)

• Teaching Students How to Assess Themselves (Jackie Walsh)

• 7 Ways to Help Students Self Assess Effectively (Barbara Blackburn)

►CIVIC EDUCATION
Preparing students for a dynamic democracy

If you attended civics class in the mid-to-late 20th century, more than likely you studied the mechanics of America's democracy and were left with little doubt that our government was "the best there ever has been." Times have changed. As social studies educators Shawn McCusker and Tom Driscoll write in 5 Civic Education Steps to Preserve Democracy, our national political system is in crisis and renewed civic education is our best (and perhaps only) solution:

Regardless of politics, one thing that is universally agreed upon is that if we do not invest more of our time and resources in creating well educated citizens who are prepared to participate in democratic society, there will be consequences. According to a recent NPR/IPSOS poll, 60% of Americans believe democracy is at risk. And of those Americans, 70% believe that as a result, the country is at risk of failing.

Many point to today’s political quagmire as an excuse for not diving into civic education reform. That is a mistake. Today’s political landscape makes having the conversation even more important, not less.

Drawing on their book Becoming Active Citizens, McCusker and Driscoll describe five actions they believe will help "prepare students to take the reins of our democracy."

For more democracy-saving ideas, see:

• How iCivics Helped Me Refresh the Constitution (Sarah Cooper)

• Teach Current Events by Double-Dipping Lessons (Dina Strasser)

• 4 Online Ideas for Civics and Current Events (Brian Rock)

• Why We Need to Invite Politics into Classrooms (Kent Lenci)

►ELSEWHERE
Browse a menu of teaching strategies

Here's an intriguing resource we came across. This Harvard webpage offers a how-to guide to some of the most effective teaching activities identified by research – from polling and think-share to jigsaw and speed dating. Great as a refresher and source for new teachers. Bonus: Check out these teaching strategies with a special Cult of Pedagogy video tweak.

►OUR BOOK REVIEW
Educator Bandwidth: How to Reclaim Your Energy, Passion, and Time by Jane Kise and Ann Holm

Kise and Holm – both certified executive coaches – "stress that one of the keys to maintaining energy and focus is not about finding more time," writes reviewer Stephanie Choate. "It’s about working toward contentment with how you spend your time." Choate looks forward to taking the authors' bandwidth survey "at key moments of the school year to see how my results change." Read the complete review.

►REVIEW THIS SPOTLIGHT BOOK FOR US
Deeper Competency-Based Learning: Making Equitable, Student-Centered, Sustainable Shifts (Karin Hess, Rose Colby, Daniel Joseph). Corwin, May 2020

The one-size-fits-all instructional and assessment practices of the past no longer equitably meet the needs of all students, Hess and her colleagues contend. Competency-based education (CBE) has emerged not only as an innovation in education, but as a true transformation of the approaches to how we traditionally “do” school. GO HERE to see the free book and our reviewing guidelines.

►NEXT TIME
Get a head start on planning for your end-of-year activities with a rich set of articles from our contributors. And, as the school year begins to draw to a close and a new wave of educators look ahead to their first year in the classroom, we'll share some of our favorite posts about the love of teaching, even when times are hard.