"Traditional assessments often reveal very little about students' thinking. Nancy describes how activities that engage students in complex, multifaceted demonstrations of learning can transfer the responsibility to students to reveal the quality of their thinking while seamlessly helping them learn the content more deeply and lastingly." --Ellin Oliver Keene
"There's an old saying that school is a place where young people go to watch old people work. Live assessments offer us a way to turn this backwards arrangement around. Live assessments reinforce vital subject matter while expanding kids' preparation and performance skills. They honor the learning goals you've set for your students while also reflecting the standards your state has mandated. They are rigorous yet offer students the opportunity for flexibility, creativity, and innovation. By now you should have one question left: How do I get started?" --Nancy Steineke
Listen to a podcast of Nancy discussing Assessment Live! with Harvey "Smokey" Daniels.
Acclaimed author and educator Nancy Steineke offers the definitive how-to handbook for implementing highly structured and productive assessment activities. Building on her 32 years of classroom experience, Nancy shows teachers how to balance their approach to assessment and easily incorporate performance projects into their curriculum. After chronicling the research and rationale behind live assessments, Nancy describes strategies that teachers can use to foster a supportive classroom culture where assessment activities and presentation skills flourish. The chapters that follow outline ten specific live assessments that can be used to personalize learning and help your students show what they know. Each chapter presents:
- the rationale for the activity
- lists of the reading, writing, and speaking/listening standards skills students will apply
- step-by-step support including samples of student work, tips for troubleshooting predictable problems, and strategies for adapting and modifying activities
- rubrics, scoring sheets, and other reproducibles for students
Use Assessment Alive! and find out what your students really know.
Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, non-profit director and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years. Ellin works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad. Her emphasis is long-term, school-based professional development and strategic planning for literacy learning.
Ellin recently published The Literacy Studio: Redesigning the Workshop for Readers and Writers which is focused on an up-to-date conceptualization of Readers/Writers' workshop. She is the author of Engaging Children: Igniting the Drive for Deeper Learning (2018), is co-editor and co-author of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching (Heinemann, 2015); co-editor of the Not This, but That series (Heinemann, 2013 - 2018); author of Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Understanding (Heinemann, 2012), To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2008), co-author of Comprehension Going Forward (Heinemann, 2011), co-author of Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, 2nd edition (Heinemann, 2007, 1st edition, 1997) and author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) as well as numerous chapters for professional books and journals on the teaching of reading as well as education policy journals.
Nancy Steineke consults nationally as a keynote speaker, workshop presenter, and literacy coach for K-12 teachers. She specializes in content-area literacy, nonfiction writing, purposeful close reading, literature circles, and student engagement. Nancy keeps the focus on manageable teaching strategies that best benefit students.
A published author and accomplished teacher, Nancy has been featured in classroom videos for Best Practice and Comprehension and Collaboration. Her groundbreaking work with book clubs and student led discussion groups is captured in her books Assessment Live! and Reading and Writing Together. A frequent collaborator with Harvey "Smokey" Daniels, they have co-authored Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles; Texts and Lessons for Content Area Reading; and Texts and Lessons for Literature.
Nancy presents annually at the National Council of Teachers of English, International Reading Association, and various state conferences. She is also an Illinois Writing Project leader. Along with Harvey Daniels, Nancy has organized and led over 50 multi-day residential institutes for teachers in locations around the United States.
