ABSTRACT
The approaches to tracking children’s progress through assessment procedures in schools fall into two categories: summative assessment and formative assessment. This chapter explores some of the many ways formative assessment procedures can serve as a guide to plan and implement curricula that address both content and process standards at the grassroots level—in the classroom. The context for formative assessment depends on the person with whom we are sharing, where we are sharing it, and what happens after it is shared. The chapter examines how some formative assessment processes can be designed to bring children “on board” as collaborators in collecting and effectively using formative assessment information. Whether incidentally or by design, teachers are always collecting formative assessment information about children’s learning. The categories of activities for collecting assessment information follow a progression. The chapter considers how collection of assessment information can be converted into cumulative written records as well as used to support ongoing curriculum decisions.
