77.029 - Formative Assessment and Learning Progression Approaches to Assessing Science and Language Learning of English Learners

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Formative assessment approaches to understanding student progress focus on assessment for learning beyond assessment of learning (e.g., Black & Wiliam, 2010; Black, Wilson & Yao, 2011). Formative assessment occurs during instruction as teachers converse with and witness students in the process of learning. Formative assessment serves as an important complement to summative assessment because it provides teachers and students with information about the science students’ understand as well as the language they use to express their science learning. Three papers and an extended commentary present recent conceptualizations and applications of research-based formative assessment approaches in science, including innovative ways to implement learning progressions of science and language learning that are especially pertinent for the science assessment of English learners.

Sub Unit

• Division H - Research, Evaluation and Assessment in Schools / Division H - Section 3: Assessment in Schools

Chair

• Alison L. Bailey, University of California - Los Angeles

Papers

• Assessments of Science and Literacy Integrated Curricula - Yukie Toyama, University of California - Berkeley; Mark R. Wilson, University of California - Berkeley

• Formative Assessment: Science and Language With English Learners - Amelia Wenk Gotwals, Michigan State University; Dawnmarie Rose Ezzo, Michigan State University

• Assessing Scientific Genres of Explanation, Argument, and Prediction - Wendy Renae Johnson, Kentwood Public Schools; Beth A. Covitt, University of Montana; Charles W. Anderson, Michigan State University

• Commentary: The Promise of Learning Progressions for the Integration of Science and Language Assessment - Alison L. Bailey, University of California - Los Angeles; Margaret Heritage, WestEd

Discussant

• Louise C. Wilkinson, Syracuse University