can close.” The information teachers obtain informs ongoing instruction in the classroom—to refine,
reinforce, extend, deepen, or accelerate teaching of skills and concepts.
Effective assessment begins with clear conceptions of the goals and objectives of learning.
The CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy provide statements of expected mastery by the end of each year of
instruction (or in the case of high school, grade spans nine–ten and eleven–twelve). Translating the
year-end goals into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarter-
or semester-long instructional increments, or backwards
planning, is the challenge of standards-based instruction.
Monitoring the ongoing progress of students toward
the longer-term goals of instruction is key. As Hattie
(2012, 185) suggests, teachers and leaders should “see
assessment as feedback about their impact” on students
and should focus more on “the learning than the teaching.”
It is a cycle of inquiry that moves learning forward (Bailey
and Heritage 2008).
The process of formative assessment equally involves
students as it does teachers. Applied effectively, formative
assessment can help students understand “learning
intentions and criteria for success,” receive feedback
about their progress toward learning goals, and use that
feedback to plan next steps (Black and Wiliam 2009; Hattie 2012, 143). Hattie notes the research
evidence supporting the value of effective feedback and poses three feedback questions that teachers
and students can use to jointly assess and guide learning: “Where am I going?” “How am I going
there?” and “Where to next?” Frey and Fisher (2011) term these steps as Feed Up (clarify the goal),
Feed Back (respond to student work), and Feed Forward (modify instruction). Effective feedback to
students is timely, “focused, specific, and clear” (Hattie 2012, 151). Moreover, feedback and formative
assessment strategies “activate students as instructional resources for one another and as owners of
their own learning” (Black and William 2009, 8).
The results of assessment lead teachers, specialists, and school leaders to consider structural
changes to improve instruction and learning—regrouping, reconfiguring elements of the curriculum,
changing schedules, or seeking additional instructional supports for students—as needed. Assessment
is central to the implementation of UDL and MTSS. See chapter 8 for more information on assessment.
Planning
Planning takes on special importance with integrated
instruction. For “reading, writing, and discourse... to support
one another’s development” and for “reading, writing, and
language practices... [to be] employed as tools to acquire
knowledge and inquiry skills and strategies within disciplinary
contexts, such as science, history, or literature” (Committee
on Defining Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills 2012,
114), instruction should be carefully planned and implemented
and student progress monitored. Teachers and specialists
need to attend to students’ growing competencies across the
key themes of this ELA/ELD Framework, strands of the CA
CCSS for ELA/Literacy, and parts of the CA ELD Standards as
they plan instruction. Determining how these components of the framework and standards can be
brought together effectively in ELA, ELD, and content instruction can only be accomplished through
collaborative planning and curriculum development.
The process of formative
assessment equally involves
students as it does teachers.
Applied effectively, formative
assessment can help students
understand “learning intentions
and criteria for success,” receive
feedback about their progress
toward learning goals, and use
that feedback to plan next steps.Teachers and specialists
need to attend to students’
growing competencies
across the key themes of
this ELA/ELD Framework,
strands of the CA CCSS for
ELA/Literacy, and parts of
the CA ELD Standards as
they plan instruction.Essential Considerations Chapter 2 | 97