It is designed to help teachers share their assessment ideas and experiences in small group discussions as they improve, design, or experiment with assessment techniques. The program stresses the idea that teachers need to select or modify assessment techniques to meet their individual needs. As an example, it shows how one teacher, Mona Muniz, has modified her strategies to meet the needs of her middle school science and math classes. The CD-ROM contains six case study workshops that have classroom video clips of Muniz using peer reviews, notebooks, walk arounds, and tests to assess the students in her classroom. In the program, teachers learn about different questioning strategies and consider decisions that they need to make when they are designing their own assessments.
Printable transcripts accompany the video clips, as well as student work and assessment forms.
The program presents students' and other teachers' perspectives on the strengths and challenges of the methods modeled in Muniz's classroom. Also included is text that introduces and wraps up the workshop topics and questions that ask the teachers to reflect on their present assessment practices, analyze the practices modeled in the video, and experiment with ways to make modifications in their own classrooms. Seven shorter discussion starters are included to stimulate conversations about subjects such as self assessment, and issues related to students with limited English skills. Teachers and students in the video clips offer their varied opinions about these topics. Text files are included on the disc that contain additional information about assessment system design principles, peer review, and methods of grading and showing progress.