What Are They Thinking? Promoting Elementary Learning Through Formative Assessment

by Keeley, Page

• ISBN13: 9781938946257
• ISBN10: 1938946251
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-04-01
• Publisher: INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS GROUP

Summary

REVERE Award Winner, PreK-12 Learning Group, Association of American Publishers!
“ Children are continually developing ideas and explanations about their natural world. … Some of these ideas are consistent with the science children are taught; others differ significantly from scientific explanations. Many of these ideas will follow students into adulthood if they remain hidden from the teacher and unresolved. The challenge for teachers is to find ways to elicit these ideas and then use appropriate strategies to move students’ learning forward.”
— Page Keeley, author of the bestselling NSTA Press series
Uncovering Student Ideas in Science
You don’ t have to become a mind reader to understand the ideas young students bring to science class. This collection will help you draw out and then recognize what students know— or think they know— about the natural world. What Are They Thinking? is a compendium of 30 “ Formative Assessment Probes” columns from NSTA’ s elementary journal Science and Children. Each chapter provides:
• A sample formative assessment probe: a set of interesting questions that root out commonly held, often-mistaken ideas. Geared to elementary students, probe topics range from why you can see the Moon in the daytime to where water goes when it evaporates to what is or isn’ t a rock. Your students’ answers to each probe will help you take a step back and figure out how to guide them from where they are conceptually to where they need to be.
• Accompanying teacher notes: easy-to-grasp explanations and advice that tell you how to encourage evidence-based discussion and then monitor students’ understanding.
• A bonus feature: a set of study group questions written especially for this compendium by award-winning author Page Keeley.
So forget about acquiring psychic powers. Instead, turn to What Are They Thinking? to transform both your teaching and your students’ learning about science.

Author Biography

PAGE KEELEY is an internationally known leader in science education. She is the developer and primary author of the award-winning Uncovering Student Ideas in Science series and the Formative Assessment- Practical Strategies Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning series (the "FACTs books"). Her interest in teaching for conceptual understanding and understanding students’ thinking began in 1992 after reading the seminal article, Teaching for Conceptual Change- Confronting Children's Experience by Bruce Watson and Dick Konicek. Her very first assessment probe, The Mitten Problem, was based on that article. Her assessment probes and FACTs (formative assessment classroom techniques) are widely used by K-12 teachers, university professors, professional developers, and science specialists throughout the U.S. and internationally.