1. Embedded Formative Assessment Book Study Dylan Wiliam

2. Why Educational Achievement Matters- Goals for Today • Be able to identify the reasons raising student achievement is so hard • Develop an understanding of how and why teacher quality must be increased

3. Snowball Pre-assessment Activity • Take a sheet of paper and answer the following 2 questions: • Where would you rate yourself in your skills and knowledge of effective formative assessment practice? • Where would you rate your staff in their skills and knowledge of effective formative assessment practice?

4. Snowball Pre-Assessment Activity Process • Take a piece of paper from the center of the table and number it #1 and #2, do not put your name on the paper • Rate yourself and then your staff on questions 1 & 2 • 1 = beginning, 2= developing, 3=proficient, 4=expert • Form a circle, taking your paper with you • Wad up your paper and on the count of 3 throw it in the circle • Each person will take another persons paper • Unwrap the paper, go to the number the person rated themselves on the first question • First person in the line counts how many are in their line and reports to recorder who charts # on graph • Repeat process for the second question

5. What is the most interesting, surprising, or challenging thing you have seen in this video?

6. Papert, 1998, Page 9 • So the model that says learn while you’re at school, while you’re young, the skills that you will apply during your lifetime is no longer tenable. The skills that you can learn when you’re at school will not be applicable. They will be obsolete by the time you get into the workplace and need them, except for one skill. The one really competitive skill is the skill of being able to learn. It is the skill of being able not to give the right answers to questions about what you were taught in school, but to make the right response to situations that are outside the scope of what you were taught in school. We need to produce people who know how to act when they’re faced with situations for which they were not specifically prepared.

7. Do you agree or disagree with Dylan’s thinking about how to address the achievement gap? Why? • All students reaching proficiency • Many student excellent • All student subgroups proportionally represented in the excellence

8. Reflection: • How might you use this information to move your staff forward in their understanding and use of effective formative assessment practice?