Eye on Education

Formative assessment is assessment that is meant to guide both teachers and students toward the next steps in the learning process. Benjamin, president of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, explains foundations of formative assessment, discusses the relationship between English Language Arts standards and assessment, and provides rubrics for English Language Arts performance tasks. She details applications of formative assessment for reading comprehension, writing, note taking, and vocabulary growth. In a final chapter, she outlines formative assessment for two performance tasks: writing a thematic paper, and keeping a reader-response journal. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)