Develop your students' critical thinking skills and prepare them to perform competitively in the classroom, on state tests, and beyond. In this book, Moore and Stanley show you how to effectively instruct your students to think on higher levels, and how to assess their progress. As states implement the Common Core State Standards, teachers have been called upon to provide higher levels of rigor in their classrooms. Moore and Stanley demonstrate critical thinking as a key approach to accomplishing this goal. They explore the benefits of critical thinking and provide the tools you need to develop and monitor critical thinking skills in the classroom. Topics include: The Difference Between Higher-Level and Lower-Level Thinking Writing Higher-Level Thinking Questions Assessing Critical Thinking Strategies to Develop Higher-Level Thinking Skills

This practical, very effective resource helps middle and high school teachers and curriculum leaders develop the skills to design instructional tasks and assessments that engage students in higher-level critical thinking, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards. Real examples of formative and summative assessments from a variety of content areas are included and demonstrate how to successfully increase the level of critical thinking in every classroom! This book is also an excellent resource for higher education faculty to use in undergraduate and graduate courses on assessment and lesson planning.

This practical, very effective resource helps elementary school teachers and curriculum leaders develop the skills to design instructional tasks and assessments that engage students in higher-level critical thinking, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards. Real examples of formative and summative assessments from a variety of content areas are included and demonstrate how to successfully increase the level of critical thinking in every elementary classroom! This book is also an excellent resource for higher education faculty to use in undergraduate and graduate courses on assessment and lesson planning.

Covers how to develop and use test questions and other assessments that reveal how well students can analyze, reason, solve problems, and think creatively.

As teaching strategies continue to change and evolve, and technology use in classrooms continues to increase, it is imperative that their impact on student learning is monitored and assessed. New practices are being developed to enhance students’ participation, especially in their own assessment, be it through peer-review, reflective assessment, the introduction of new technologies, or other novel solutions. Educators must remain up-to-date on the latest methods of evaluation and performance measurement techniques to ensure that their students excel. Learning and Performance Assessment: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a vital reference source that examines emerging perspectives on the theoretical and practical aspects of learning and performance-based assessment techniques and applications within educational settings. Highlighting a range of topics such as learning outcomes, assessment design, and peer assessment, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for educators, administrative officials, principals, deans, instructional designers, school boards, academicians, researchers, and education students seeking coverage on an educator’s role in evaluation design and analyses of evaluation methods and outcomes.

Improving Writing and Thinking through Assessment is designed to help individual faculty and administrators select assessment approaches and measures to maximize their students’ writing and thinking. The book offers useful guidance, through presentation of recommended assessment guidelines and measurement principles in Part 1 and applications from a variety of contributors in Part 2. It addresses a wide range of audiences, including instructors who want to assess and thus foster writing and thinking in their courses, administrators and instructors planning to assess writing and thinking at the program or institutional level, and graduate students interested in improving students’ writing and critical thinking. This book is more guide than a “cookbook.” By providing comprehensive standards and criteria that help individuals or teams develop plans and measures to improve writing and thinking, the book should be helpful for academic and Student Affairs administrators and faculty - as the principles apply equally to all engaged in assessment. Contributors, representing a wide range of educators, illustrate many of the approaches and methods described in the theoretical section of the book using a variety of assessment strategies at both classroom and program levels. Readers will see how different types of institutions, both private and public as well as undergraduate and graduate, have designed assessment strategies and plans to gauge and enhance writing and thinking growth in the classroom and across programs. They candidly describe challenges encountered and solutions they adopted or suggest. These chapters reflect approaches and perspectives from various discourse communities – including writing program administrators, composition faculty, assessment professionals, and individual faculty representing several disciplines. The author argues the urgent need to develop strong writers and thinkers. She discusses challenges and obstacles, but underscores the necessity for more faculty involvement and institutional commitment. This book will help institutions and individual faculty design and implement sound, meaningful assessment strategies to foster effective writing and thinking that will both advance the goals of the institutional mission and meet faculty’s disciplinary objectives and scholarly concerns.

Go beyond traditional paper-and-pencil tests! How can you measure student mastery of 21st century skills like creativity, problem solving, and use of technology? Laura Greenstein provides a framework and practical ideas for using authentic learning experiences and rigorous assessment strategies to engage today’s students. With numerous rubrics and checklists, a step-by-step model for developing your own classroom assessments, a lesson planning template, and sample completed lesson plans, this book discusses how to teach and assess: Thinking skills: critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and metacognition Actions: communication, collaboration, digital and technological literacy Living skills: citizenship, global understanding, leadership, college and career readiness

This book provides specific guidelines to help educators design targeted questions and tasks that align with new academic standards and assess students' ability to think at higher levels.

This teaching guide provides an integrated framework for teaching thinking skills which involves both teaching thinking in a separate program or course and infusing the teaching of thinking into standard subject area instruction across the curriculum. Individual chapters deal with the following topics: (1) the nature of thinking skills and evidence that people can learn to think better; (2) the improvement of thinking; (3) kinds of thinking (broad categories, specialized kinds of thinking, metacognition, and some thinking frameworks); (4) the infusion of teaching thinking into regular subject-area instruction; (5) choosing and using separate instructional programs designed to teach thinking; (6) program development and selection of thinking skill goals; (7) lesson design and instructional strategies (structured thinking, teaching for transfer, and metacognition); (8) support systems for teachers and schools in the teaching of thinking; (9) approaches to evaluation; and (10) types of tests (objective and interpretive). (Individual chapters contain references.) (DB)

Boost your students′ 21st century skills How do we measure students′ inquiry, problem-solving, and critical thinking abilities so that we know they are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century? John Barell explains how inquiry leads to problem-solving and provides specific steps for pre, formative and summative assessment that informs instruction of 21st century skills. Included are examples that show how to use today′s technology in the classroom and how to use inquiry to develop and assess students′ ability to: Think critically and creatively Collaborate with others Become self-directed learners Adapt and become resourceful Develop a sense of leadership, responsibility, and global awareness The authors challenge teachers to reflect on their own learning, thinking, and problem-solving processes as well as those of their students. The text provides frameworks for monitoring students′ progress and guidelines for communicating with parents. Teachers will find examples from all grade levels that show how to observe and assess students′ growth in their development of 21st century capacities, making this a timely and valuable resource.