A great reading conference only takes five minutes, but its impact can last a lifetime. That is because conferences are the critical, one-to-one teaching that forms the backbone of reading instruction. This book shows teachers how to confer well and demonstrates why a few moments with students every week can put them on the path to becoming…

Four brief articles look at aspects of curriculum based measurement (CBM) for academically handicapped students including procedures of CBM with examples, different approaches to graphing student performance, and solutions to the problem of making time to measure student progress frequently. (DB)

A variety of techniques for incorporating writing--the writing of letters, the keeping of logs, the devising of word problems--into the mathematics curriculum are discussed. The benefits from using an integrated approach are indicated. (DG)

Four informal assessment techniques to detect student mistakes in math, increase motivation, and improve achievement include the following: building models and generating word problems, thinking aloud, building mathematical sentences, and making mathematical sentences to answer questions in word problems. (DB)

Describes one teacher's implementation of subjective grading to assess student's achievement on mathematics tests. Reports student and parent reactions to the method. Shares five practices that developed with the experiences, and provides an example of the grading policy utilized. (MDH)

The crisis confronting calculus and mathematics education generally results from a number of failed assumptions implicit in the dominant lecture-homework-exam methodology used in teaching mathematics. Positive resolution of this crisis can be found in adopting a noncompetitive, collaborative approach to mathematics education. (Author)

Divided into four sections, this monograph focuses on effective evaluation in the whole language classroom. The first section discusses the whole language philosophy and classroom, and lists the beliefs that proponents of this approach hold about whole language teaching and teachers, language, and language learners. The second section addresses…

Several elementary teachers present school-tested ideas for student assessment and activities for teaching writing. The article describes how one school conducted student assessment using a new checklist system and portfolios. Information is presented on schools that integrated literature, art, life skills, math, and role playing to teach writing.…

This digest is intended to help and inform those teachers who are contemplating using children's literature to teach reading, and provides a brief review of material in the ERIC database on literature-based reading instruction. The digest includes sections on recent research, basic resources, assessing literature based reading, diverse methods…

Presents an activity for representing a given number in as many ways as possible using short periods of time to develop students' number sense and provide the teacher the opportunity to make informal student assessment and diagnosis. Provides specific dialogue of the activity being used in a third grade class. (MDH)

This play continues a dramatization used in the NCTM videotape Mathematics Assessment: Alternative Approaches. Issues and methods of assessment are discussed from the points of view of the teacher, students, principal, and parents. Methods include portfolios, informal interviews, group projects, and open-ended questioning. (MKR)

Presents suggestions for using math performance assessments in elementary classrooms to help students develop mathematical thinking skills. The article lists National Council of Teachers of Mathematics evaluation standards for mathematics assessment and describes a number of problem-solving activities for students. (SM)

Reveals creative and unique ways to assess children's learning in the social studies classroom using tools rather than tests. Provides examples of acrostic poems (each line begins with a letter from a famous person's name) and bio-poems (each line answers a biographical question). (MJP)

Presents the elementary-level formative evaluation method of functional diagnosis that gives students immediate feedback on completed assignments. Gives three examples of the method as observed in the classrooms of master teachers: putting red dots next to problems needing attention; paired learning, and student answer keys. (MDH)

A framework is presented for applying error analysis of oral reading to decisions about placement and instruction. The focus is on assessment practices that rely on the stimulus material of daily instruction and that facilitate decision making on both what and how to teach reading. A case study illustrates application of the procedure. (JDD)