Table of Contents
Content Home- Welcome
Module Overview- Pre-Assessment
- Unit 1: Understanding and Teaching the Common Core Writing Standards
- Unit 2: Planning Lessons for Informational and Argument Writing
- 2.1 Planning CCSS-Informed Writing Lessons
- 2.2 Selecting and Using Texts Purposefully
- 2.3 Writing with Digital Tools
- 2.4 Examining Lessons for Informational, Argument, and Analytical Writing
- 2.5 Looking Forward
- Unit 3: Learning From Students’ Work and Teachers’ Lessons
- 3.1 Learning from Student Work
- 3.2 Assessment as Feedback for Students
- 3.2.1 Classroom Examples of Formative Assessment
- Teaching Students to Assess to Revise
- Strategies for Assessing Students’ Understanding and Learning
- Using Technology Tools for Feedback
- 3.2.2 Teacher Recommendations for Formative Assessment Technology Tools
- 3.3 Learning From and Adapting CCSS-Informed Lessons
- 3.4 Summing Up
- Module Summary
- Post Assessment
Certificate of Completion
Resources- Module Evaluation
Unit 3: Learning From Students’ Work and Teachers’ Lessons
Strategies for Assessing Students’ Understanding and Learning
Grades 6–8 Example: Checking in for Understanding
Effective strategies for checking on and assessing students’ understanding can be simple and take very little time.
Watch how this 8th-grade teacher uses "Be Sure To" to assess students' learning while giving the responsibility for using the new knowledge back to the students.
"Be Sure To": A Powerful Reflection Strategy (6–8) 
Download transcript
Take a moment to think about what you could ask your students to “be sure to” take from their learning and apply to their writing. Possibilities include, but are not limited to:
- using a section of a rubric to assess their own writing
- using a point from a discussion of a writing sample that is a model for the genre they are writing
- using a strategy they just practiced for organizing their argument
- using what they learned from analyzing claims and deciding which are more effective than others
English Language Arts: Writing to Inform, Argue, and Analyze. Brought to you by the California Department of Education, the Regents of the University of California, and the California Writing Project.
For questions or feedback, please e-mail commoncoreteam@cde.ca.gov.
