Make a toolkit with at least 20 go-to tools and strategies for formative assessments that will help you and your students frequently checking for understanding throughout a unit. You probably have a handful of strategies that are already working for you. Challenge yourself to add more than 5 new ideas to your toolkit. These could include new-to-you digital tools that will give you quick and easy access to students and their learning. After you've created your toolkit share it with a colleague. See if they have any additional strategies for you to add to the list.

A ‘No surprises’ test is co-designed by an educator and students as they learn new content. The singular design principle? No items on the test can demand the recall of information. Design one with your students, then consider these questions: What happens to the nature of assessment when students know the questions to a test in advance? How do higher-order questions stimulate a deeper form of learning? What reflections do you as the teacher have on facilitating a ‘no surprises’ test?

So you’ve got an assessment or learning challenge that bullseyes the intersect of purpose, relevance and engagement? Well, don’t keep it to yourself. Spread the word! There is one catch. We are most interested in the data that your assessment produces that doesn’t look like data, if you get our drift. Use Twitter to share snapshots of innovative formative data that documents purposeful learning in visual, unorthodox ways. Tell us why this data impacts learning. Tag #ALPlearn