• Assessment for learning: A key to motivation and achievement - An excellent overview of assessment in the new century.  From the introduction: “The role of schools has changed. Schools previously sorted students from the highest to the lowest achievers.  But now schools have evolved into places where all students are expected to meet increasingly rigorous academic standards.  Assessments now must support the learning of all students so that all can succeed at meeting standards.”   ​

• The Best Value in Formative Assessment - Stephen & Jan Chappuis - The power of classroom formative assessments.
  

• Chapter Four from Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it Right, Using it Well.  This is one of the foundational texts in learning the basics of classroom assessment, both summative and formative, from informal to formal methods.  It also contains one of the clearest descriptions of learning targets, how to create them and why having clear learning targets is one​ of the most important elements of modern teaching.

• Formative Assessment: Examples of Practice - Written by a policy group, this is nonetheless a detailed examination of what formative assessment looks like (and doesn't look like) in the classroom.

• Harvard Project Zero - Visible Thinking - Harvard's Visible Thinking site with excellent resources including articles on a culture of thinking in education and the complete set of Thinking Routines.​

• Teach Like a Champion, Chapter One -  Doug Lemov's book on teaching strategies is if nothing else, a lot of fun to read, since it is an in-depth look at the complex interactions of a classroom.  Moreover, it's packed with ideas and thinking about how to get optimal results in the classroom, and contains practical things that teachers can try out tomorrow.

• The 49 Techniques of Teach Like A Champion - blogged by Jerry Webster.  Webster is a blogger on education for about.com and in 2010 and early 2011 he blogged on every one of the 49 techniques.  Not a substitute for the book, but a valuable guide and convenient way to orient oneself to the content of Doug Lemov's book.

Facilitator Tools