Formative Assessment for Literacy, Grades K-6: Building Reading and Academic Language Skills Across the Curriculum

Grounded in research and rooted in practice, this book shows teachers of elementary students how to use formative assessment to build literacy and language skills across the curriculum. Based onáthe authors'áworkáwith English Language Learners, but relevant to all learners, Formative Assessment for Literacy, Grades K-6 includes methods for using formative assessment strategies to develop listening skills, oral language, and reading comprehension. The authors assist instructors by: Showing how formative assessment fits within broader frameworks for assessment and instruction Examining the stages in literacy skill development Discussing the teacher knowledge needed to effectively incorporate formative assessment The final chapter offers guidance for planning professional development in literacy assessment.

About The Author:

Alison Bailey is an associate professor in the Psychological Studies in Education Program of the Department of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, in addition to being a faculty associate researcher for the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST). A graduate of Harvard University, Bailey’s research focuses primarily on language and literacy development, English language development in second language learners, and language assessment. At CRESST, her work focuses on researching the empirical basis of academic language for assessment, curriculum, and teacher professional development. Bailey serves on the advisory boards of numerous states and commercial publishers developing language and literacy assessments for English Language Learners. She is coauthor of the new IPT assessment of English language development at the prekindergarten-kindergarten level, editor and contributing author to The Language Demands of School: Putting academic English to the test (Yale Press, 2007), and coeditor and author (with Allyssa McCabe and Gigliana Melzi) of Spanish-Language Narration and Literacy Development(Cambridge University Press, forthcoming, 2008).

Margaret Heritage is Assistant Director for Professional Development at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA, and leads the data use program of the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center.

Prior to joining CRESST, she had many years of teaching and leadership experience in schools in the United Kingdom and the United States, including a period as a County Inspector of Education in the United Kingdom, and as principal at the UCLA laboratory school. She has also taught graduate classes in Education at the Department of Education at the University of Warwick, England, the University of California, Los Angeles, and at Stanford University.

Her current work focuses on data use for school improvement, learning progressions, formative assessment, and teachers’ use of formative assessment evidence.

Margaret Heritage is the co-author (with Alison Bailey) of Formative Assessment for Literacy, Grades K-6: Building Reading and Academic Language Skills Across the Curriculum, published by Corwin Press.