Kara Vandas

Learner Agency: A Field Guide for Taking Flight is a boots-on-the-ground resource for those who wish to foster greater agency for students and adults alike within their classroom, school, or school system. Written by practitioners who have experienced the triumphs and struggles first-hand, the book offers a framework for moving from building knowledge to making meaning and applying the understanding of practices and systems that support agency. As a result, readers can determine a starting point and use the book as a guide to their unique journey through the highlighted enabling conditions and evergreen practices essential to success. This book includes stories from the field, authors' tips and suggestions, and additional online resources provided along the way. Learner Agency is a practical book that reads like a field guide, and educators can immediately implement the strategies and valuable tools in the classroom. It is the hope of the authors that it propels all readers to take flight

Amplify Learner Voice pushes back against traditional assessment and grading practices that continue to be an inequitable endeavor for our nation's learners; traditional classroom practices continue to sort and label students by characterizing them by "what they need to work on" or 'lack.' In this book, eight authors and the Core Collaborative's partner schools reimagine formative assessment through an asset-based, cultural lens to make a greater impact on learning and our shared humanity. Presented in an easy-to-read, practical format, with video examples and practical resources throughout, the 'Amplify Learner Voice Formative Assessment Framework' identifies and integrates seven culturally responsive and sustaining concepts to shift how educators and learners engage in core formative assessment practices that cultivate conditions where all stakeholders thrive. - Cultural Identity: How does the assessment experience support students to understand more about themselves and each other as learners? - Asset-Centered Mindset: How can we create conditions for learners to draw and build upon their cultural funds of knowledge when reflecting, self- and peer assessing, collaborating, and practicing towards goals? - Dispositional Learning: How do we ensure that students are transferring key habits of learning in and out of school when working towards goals or when faced with challenges? - Learning Partnerships: How do positive feedback experiences create conditions to strengthen relational trust, risk-taking, and self-empowerment for all stakeholders? - Learner Clarity: How does the assessment design ensure that learners are challenged at all levels of rigor (surface-deep-transfer) across academic, social, and emotional domains? - Engagement: How does formative assessment engage students, caregivers, and families personally and collaboratively? - Criticality: How do we create conditions for self-empowerment to think critically about equity, power, and inclusion?

Activate an assessment revolution with the Peer Power Feedback Framework Formative assessment produces greater increases in student learning and is cheaper than other efforts to boost achievement. Peer Power gives teachers a practical 6-step framework for empowering students to take ownership of their learning through the self and peer assessment process. The Peer Power Framework: expands feedback to learners amplifies quality classroom discussion expands student goal setting infuses dispositional learning strengthens metacognitive thinking integrates SEL practices into classroom culture Thirteen practitioners offer concrete, practical strategies to support peer assessment in primary, upper elementary, secondary, math, English, social studies, and science. There is content dedicated to supporting English language learners and the use of technology to support goal setting and reflection. Peer Power isn't just for students; there are three chapters written by experts on how to harness the capacity of teams (PLC's and Impact Teams) to strengthen their collaborative expertise to put learners at the center of the assessment process. If you are a fan of formative assessment and feedback, if you believe in student-centered approaches to learning, if you want to increase student achievement by developing self-directed learners -- you will be a big fan of Peer Power. Contributions By: Eric Bjornstad, Lisa Cebelak, Rupa Chandra-Gupta, Lori Cook, Rachel Fairchild, Gary Giordano, Dave Horton, Katie Smith, Sarah Stevens, Isaac Wells