Robert J. Marzano

Much has been written about the benefits of formative assessment that is, assessment that is used while instruction is occurring rather than at the end of a course or unit but most descriptions of the practice have been general. Dr. Robert Marzano provides the specifics. He explains how to design and interpret three different types of formative assessments, how to track student progress, and how to assign meaningful grades, even if a school or district continues to use a traditional grading show more system. He brings each concept to life with detailed examples of teachers from different subject areas applying it in their classrooms. The second book in the Classroom Strategies That Work library, this clear, highly practical guide follows the series format, first summarizing key research and then translating it into recommendations for classroom practice. In addition to the explanations and examples of assessment and grading strategies, each chapter includes helpful exercises to reinforce the reader s understanding of the content.

Although there is a mountain of research on the impact of feedback on student learning, teacher feedback is impotent unless it is accurate, timely, and designed to improve performance. With compelling evidence and practical exercises, this book builds a necessary bridge from theory to practice.

Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading is likely to join the ranks as one of those comprehensive masterworks that educators return to again and again for meticulously researched, high-impact assessment and grading practices that are fully explained and richly illustrated with relevant examples across multiple grades and content areas. There are so many important sentences, explanations, examples, quotes, supporting research, and practical exercises in this book that readers are likely to use up an entire box of highlighters trying to capture them all! Every educator and leader, new and experienced, who wants to expand his or her own assessment and grading literacy needs to move this book to the top of the must read stack. show less

Just looking at the title of this book, a teacher librarian can’t help getting excited. What has the great Marzano and company have to say about 21st Century Skills? Then, you begin on the Table of Contents. In chapter one, there is a list of major 21st Century documents. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning heads the list. No mention of AASL standards. Then we continue. Chapter 2 covers research and theory and covers the cognitive skills of analyzing and utilizing information, show more addressing complex problems and issues, creating patterns and mental models, understanding and controlling oneself, and understanding an interacting with others. No mention of information literacy or libraries’. Then comes chapter three: cognitive skills that include navigating digital sources, identifying common logical errors, generating conclusions, presenting and supporting claims. No mention of information literacy or librarians. The chapters go on with the same pattern. Teacher librarians or their contribution to information literacy over the decades totally ignored. Even when we are a part of the foundational document done by P21, we are ignored. Out of ignorance? Purposefully? Our contribution to 21st Century Skills insignificant? Over a decade ago, Blanche Woolls and I did an extensive review of the information literacy research collecting and synthesizing some 280 studies. Perhaps that body of literature is too small to be noticed by anyone except a “librarian.” So, I do what I always do: contact at least one of the authors. Two important things emger from the conversation: a probable unawareness of the research in the field of information literacy, and a sense that school librarians are probably gone from most schools anyway. However, a promise to look by the Marzano research team of materials that they could consider in their further efforts. I will follow up. However, one important point of the conversation and about information literacy research: How many studies referenced were from refereed journals? And, was a meta-analysis done? Those are important questions for the researchers of our field if we are to obtain any “status” outside the field. Now I am going to assemble a gift package. Meanwhile, back to the book. There are valuable pieces in this book for us to consider. They are just incomplete. Lacking a comprehensive view of what really constitutes 21st Century Skills. Perhaps we could consider purchase of a more comprehensive second edition. show less

Of the hundreds of speakers every year at the ASCD national convention, few draw bigger crowds than Robert Marzano. Known for his What Works series of books that spotlight research-supported practices for teaching, learning, and schooling in general, Marzano’s extended view of education backed by a long career of experiences with top thinkers, makes him a major attraction. This year, he spotlighted his new book and its full first printing was sold out in a matter of hours. Making Standards show more Useful in the Classroom has some major practical suggestions. As Marzano traces the standards movement in the U.S., he notes the bloated curriculum suggests that it would take at least 22 years to deliver if it were all covered the way that it is laid out in the various standards documents. This is because the mathematicians tend to think that their subject is the most important one in the curriculum and so they want it all covered. This can be said of all curricular areas including the concerns of teacher librarians. His solution? Reduce the number of topics for a school year to a maximum of fifteen so that the current rush to cover would be replaced by more in depth studies. We could not agree more. The knowledge of the world is expanding rapidly and if we continue to try to cover everything, we are all doomed to failure. The second thing Marzano does is to recommend a standardized rubric for measurement across the various content areas – a scale upon which all teachers could agree and learners could expect. His scale goes from zero to four with half-increments such as 2.5 or 3.5. The scale is appealing because at 3.0, a student has mastered the standard and gets the A. If the student scores above 3.5, that student has pushed into the excellence range, or what we would term the expertise to compete globally. Such a notion counters the current mediocrity of NCLB that only concentrates on students achieving the minimum at their particular grade level. These two ideas are exciting indeed, but only as far as they go. Some will argue that the power of letter grades is not covered well in his rubric scoring system because a 2.0 equals a C, a 2.5 is a B, and a 3.0 is an A – meaning that there is a very narrow range between 0-4 where normal grading practices are understood by parents and students. That one can be solved, we think, but there are two major issues missing for teacher librarians and the major ideas being pushed by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning. The first idea is “learning how to learn” (information literacy, media literacy, critical thinking, creative thinking, etc.) and the second is the explosion of information and technology. To be fair to Marzano, he does suggest rubrics for what he terms life skills including participation, work completion, behavior, and working in groups. But there is a world of learning to learn strategies that Marzano has never addressed in his interests or in his research. The same goes for the expansion of the world of information and technology. These two areas seem not to have come into Marzano’s radar screen. This lack of understanding becomes quite amusing when he sets up rubrics for research in the language arts rubrics. By fourth grade, students who can use an encyclopedia article to extract information get an A, and excel with a 4 score if they can do detailed Internet searches. These two blind spots are major deficiencies in our opinion. If we cut the number of topics studied, then students need to build and reflect on their learning skills simultaneously so that they begin to understand that they know and can do a great deal about some topics but also have the power to learn and master anything they wish to learn. They are smart and they know how to learn. It is a powerful two-pronged thrust into global excellence. Thus, to teacher librarians, this book is half the story and thus a challenge to its author to expand his vision into the real world of 21st century information and technology systems. It is a challenge that many educators wish to ignore because they feel pressured to cover just what is in the textbook. So, consider carefully the Marzano proposals in this book. Teachers will surely have opinions about his recommendations. And, perhaps that is the sign of an engaging book. Is there such a thing as a half recommendation for a book? We will rate this one on Marzano’s own rubric as being 1.5: “Partial knowledge of the simpler details and processes but major errors or omissions regarding the more complex issues and processes.” show less

Using research studies probing how and why students become engaged in learning experiences, these prolific authors provide a model of interest to teacher librarians bent on transforming old “bird units” into something that captures learner’s attention and thus increases the amount learned. When designing a learning experience, adult coaches would try to design in kid’s response to a learning challenge: How do I feel? Am I interested? Is this important? Can I do this? And, for adults show more who design for engagement, the questions are: Do I have their attention? Are they engaged? The entire book is built around learning strategies designed to engage. We will give a partial list of the strategies here: using effective pacing, introducing physical movement, demonstrating intensity and enthusiasm and humor, introducing games and competitions, initiating friendly controversy, encouraging application of knowledge, connect to students’ ambitions, etc. There are 15 strategies in all. The authors strive as usual to connect all they recommend to a research base so that there is some evidence that the various strategies produce some results. By understanding each of the fifteen strategies, teacher librarians can use them as they plan and carry out learning experiences collaboratively with teachers. It is all a part of the bag og tricks teacher librarians know so well that teachers want to plan because two heads invariably become better than one. Highly recommended. show less