"The best educators are the best learners. It's all about teaching, learning, and feedback, and this book brings common sense to common practice." --Raymond J. McNulty, Senior Vice President International Center for Leadership in Education "At last, a diagnostic classroom observation tool that moves beyond generic criteria for examining teaching and learning. This is a must-have resource for teachers, administrators, and professional developers who want to look beyond the veneer of 'best practice' and use evidence-based, content-focused criteria to get to the heart of deep, conceptual teaching and learning." --Page Keeley, Senior Program Director Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance A complete instructional leadership system for improving classroom practice! Providing effective classroom evaluation is a critical function of authentic instructional leadership. Diagnostic classroom observation (DCO) is a research-based system that helps principals and other supervisors carry out classroom observations and evaluations to support effective teaching practices. Developed in collaboration with NWREL and the Vermont Institutes, the DCO model covers the entire supervision process, from preconference analysis to postconference follow-up, and includes protocols for observing math, science, and literacy instruction. Program users can determine classroom quality and student engagement by evaluating four critical aspects of instructional practice: lesson planning, lesson implementation, lesson content, and classroom culture. Additionally, the author supplies readers with: - Classroom observation forms to help identify instructor strengths and weaknesses - Scoring forms to assist with the final evaluation and review process - Real-world vignettes that clearly illustrate key indicators of quality teaching - Methods for matching student learning assessments with appropriate instructional strategies - Guidance for introducing DCO into any school or school district Diagnostic Classroom Observation offers principals and teacher leaders a thoroughly tested and validated classroom observation system that improves instructional performance and enhances student learning.

Diagnostic Teaching of Reading, 7/e, by renowned author Barbara J. Walker, is the ideal resource for pre-service and in-service educators, including teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, school psychologists, special education teachers, and Title I teachers. In it they see how to use a variety of instructional and assessment techniques to help plan lessons designed to improve literacy for all learners in their charge. Included are over 65 instructional techniques that meet the diverse learning needs of all students, including struggling readers and writers, English language learners, and culturally diverse learners. With the information presented here, teachers see how to continually reflect on their instructional practices and tailor their instruction to the strengths and needs of the diverse children they teach.

Offers practical advice on using and improving assessment for learning in the classroom.

Education is a hot topic. From the stage of presidential debates to tonight's dinner table, it is an issue that most Americans are deeply concerned about. While there are many strategies for improving the educational process, we need a way to find out what works and what doesn't work as well. Educational assessment seeks to determine just how well students are learning and is an integral part of our quest for improved education. The nation is pinning greater expectations on educational assessment than ever before. We look to these assessment tools when documenting whether students and institutions are truly meeting education goals. But we must stop and ask a crucial question: What kind of assessment is most effective? At a time when traditional testing is subject to increasing criticism, research suggests that new, exciting approaches to assessment may be on the horizon. Advances in the sciences of how people learn and how to measure such learning offer the hope of developing new kinds of assessments-assessments that help students succeed in school by making as clear as possible the nature of their accomplishments and the progress of their learning. Knowing What Students Know essentially explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can form the foundations of an improved approach to assessment. These advances suggest ways that the targets of assessment-what students know and how well they know it-as well as the methods used to make inferences about student learning can be made more valid and instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented, and examples are used to illustrate the principles. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also explored. With the promise of a productive research-based approach to assessment of student learning, Knowing What Students Know will be important to education administrators, assessment designers, teachers and teacher educators, and education advocates.

This book provides for the systematic observation of young children's responses to classroom reading and writing in the first years of school.