Assessment for learning: techniques and instruments | Webinar for teachers

Summary

This educational webinar by English with Cambridge focuses on assessment for learning techniques and instruments, designed to guide teachers in implementing effective assessments in the classroom. The session emphasizes the distinction between formative and diagnostic assessments, detailing techniques to enhance student learning and bridge knowledge gaps. Highlighting practical tools, the webinar aims to boost teacher strategies for formative assessments and to prepare students for summative assessments, ultimately supporting teachers in fostering an engaging and productive learning environment for students of all ages.

Highlights

• The webinar emphasized the importance of formative and diagnostic assessments in the learning process 🧠.
• Participants learned how to effectively use success criteria to enhance student learning outcomes 🏆.
• The importance of feedback in making learning visible was stressed throughout the session 🔄.
• Teachers were encouraged to use self and peer assessment strategies like the 'traffic light' system for ongoing learning checks 🚥.
• Various resources, including posters and sample tests, were highlighted as valuable tools for assessment preparation 🛠️.

Key Takeaways

• Assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning, facilitating a better understanding of student progress 🔗.
• Homework can serve as formative assessment by providing feedback on students' learning 📚.
• For different age groups, assessment techniques like the 'traffic light' system can help track student progress effectively 🚦.
• Teachers can utilize resources like sample tests, word lists, and picture dictionaries to aid diagnostic assessments 📊.
• Using rubrics and success criteria can help clarify learning objectives and measure student performance effectively 📏.

Overview

In this enlightening webinar by English with Cambridge, teachers were introduced to crucial assessment techniques in learning. The focus was on leveraging formative and diagnostic assessments to improve educational outcomes in real-time. Participants were taught how to integrate these assessments in daily teaching routines to enhance clarity and effectiveness in student learning.

The session presented an engaging discussion on the differences between formative and diagnostic assessments. By delving into practical strategies, teachers learned the importance of planning assessments that not only evaluate student knowledge but also promote active learning. Tools such as rubrics, sample tests, and resourceful teaching materials were highlighted, underscoring their importance in guiding students toward achieving learning objectives.

To further support teachers, the webinar provided actionable insights into using self-assessment and peer-assessment tools. Techniques like the 'traffic light' system were introduced to facilitate monitoring of student progress. Teachers were equipped with essential skills for building a supportive and transparent learning environment, ensuring students are prepared for both formative and summative assessments.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:00: Introduction The chapter 'Introduction' focuses on welcoming participants to the second session of the five-part series titled 'Assessment for Learning.' It emphasizes the importance of registering for upcoming sessions and introduces the topic of the current session, 'Choosing Your Way,' which will explore transitioning from merely knowing about assessment for learning to effectively implementing it.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Speakers Introduction The chapter introduces the speakers for a session on implementing certain practices in classrooms. Pablo Toledo, who is an Assessment Services Manager for Cambridge Assessment English, along with his colleagues Alberto Corta and Rafael, are introduced as presenters. Alberto Costa is highlighted as a Senior Assessment Services Manager for the Americas. The focus seems to be on making key decisions to implement certain educational practices.
• 06:00 - 09:00: Session Overview The chapter titled 'Session Overview' provides insights into the professional backgrounds of key individuals. One individual has experience as a teacher, teacher trainer, and course tutor, specifically with CELTA and DELTA teaching qualifications. He is associated with Cambridge Assessment English and has interests in assessment and continuing professional development. Another individual, Rafael Carpanis, serves as the Business Development and Marketing Manager for Michigan Language Assessment and has over 20 years of experience in the ELT (English Language Teaching) field.
• 09:00 - 12:00: Philosophical Introduction to Assessment The chapter begins with introductions from the speakers, including mention of their professional backgrounds as teachers, teacher trainers, and academic consultants with a focus on neuroscience applied to education and assessment. The speaker expresses gratitude to the audience for attending and acknowledges their colleague, Rafael, who is also based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A special note is made to wish Brazilian teachers a happy Teachers' Day, emphasizing the presence of teachers from various regions.
• 12:00 - 17:00: Assessment Types Recap The chapter is a webinar segment addressing teachers from various countries in the Americas. The speaker congratulates teachers attending the webinar and extends personal greetings, especially to Brazilian teachers on their Teachers' Day. The hosts, both former teachers, express their pleasure in hosting the event and sharing ideas with the attendees.
• 17:00 - 21:00: Diagnostic and Formative Assessment The session aims to cover key concepts related to assessment in education. Initially, there will be a brief recap of assessment for learning, referencing the previous discussion led by colleagues Pablo and Johnny Frank. The focus will then move to diagnostic assessment, providing a more detailed exploration. Formative assessment will also be touched upon, along with sharing additional related information.
• 21:00 - 30:00: Techniques and Instruments for Assessment The chapter "Techniques and Instruments for Assessment" begins by discussing both diagnostic and formative assessment methods. The introduction sets up the content, mentioning that references will be provided, and that Pablo will later discuss upcoming webinars and lead a Q&A session. Rafael is mentioned as getting the philosophical discussion started.
• 30:00 - 39:00: Formative Assessment Practices The chapter discusses the role of formative assessment in education, emphasizing its significance as highlighted by an influential quote from Dylan William. The speaker, without directly quoting, suggests that assessment acts as a bridge—indicating that it connects various strategies and techniques employed by teachers in the classroom to enhance the learning process.
• 39:00 - 46:00: Success Criteria and Rubrics The chapter titled 'Success Criteria and Rubrics' discusses the importance of assessments in bridging the gap between what teachers convey and the outcomes achieved by students. It underscores the belief that assessments hold a pivotal role in ensuring the best outcomes for learners, aligning teaching objectives with student performance. The chapter references authoritative views on assessment to highlight its value in the educational process.
• 46:00 - 49:00: Assessment Journey Summary The chapter, titled 'Assessment Journey Summary,' explores the concept of assessing students to ensure they are processing and applying the knowledge presented to them. This process involves verifying and checking their understanding through assessment, which is deemed a powerful tool. The chapter invites reflection on the effectiveness and methods of assessment in measuring student performance.
• 49:00 - 60:00: Q&A and Closing Remarks The chapter titled 'Q&A and Closing Remarks' discusses the theme that assessment serves as a crucial bridge between teaching and learning. The narrator emphasizes the importance of this concept. Additionally, there is a reference to this webinar being part of a series, indicating a context where previous discussions have likely occurred, which may be recapped or built upon in this session.

Assessment for learning: techniques and instruments | Webinar for teachers Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello everyone welcome to our event next stop assessment for learning next stop assessment for learning consists of five webinars so this is the second session and please do not forget to register for the next for the upcoming sessions today's session choosing your way will be about how to go from knowing about assessment for learning
• 00:30 - 01:00 to actually making it happen in your classrooms and the decisions that you need to make to make that happen my name is pablo toledo and i work as assessment services manager for cambridge assessment english in the southern conan and this region presenting this session we have my colleagues and good friends alberto corta and rafael alberto costa is a senior assessment services manager americas for cambridge assessment
• 01:00 - 01:30 english he has worked as a teacher teacher trainer and has also worked as a course tutor for the teaching qualifications celta and delta he works for cambridge assessment english and assessment and continuing professional development are some of his key interests rafael carpanis is currently the business development and marketing manager for michigan language assessment he has been in the elt field for over 20
• 01:30 - 02:00 years working as a teacher teacher trainer and academic consultant neuroscience applied to education and assessment are some of his main interests thank you very much pablo hello everyone and thank you very much for being here with us today i am speaking from brazil i'm based in sao paulo so is my colleague rafael and i would like to start by wishing all the brazilian teachers happy teachers day i know we have teachers from many
• 02:00 - 02:30 different countries in the americas so congratulations to all the teachers who are attending the webinar today thank you i just would like to say uh happy teachers day to all the brazilian teachers as well it's a pleasure uh to be here we have somehow i mean i've been a teacher alberto as well so it's a great pleasure for us to host and to share some ideas um during this event
• 02:30 - 03:00 thank you rafael um what we're going to go through this session today is the following we're going to start with a very brief assessment for learning recap because my colleague pablo who was speaking just now talked about assessment for learning last tuesday together with johnny frank we are going to talk about diagnostic assessment in more detail than formative assessment we will also uh describe and share with you some
• 03:00 - 03:30 techniques and instruments for both diagnostic and formative assessment then we'll provide the references and then pablo will come in to talk about the upcoming webinars and also to lead the question and answer moment for this webinar now with you rafael okay so we would like to get started by actually getting a little bit philosophical and
• 03:30 - 04:00 uh we're going to share a quote from dylan william which in in our opinion was essential to this webinar so of course you can read on the screen so i'm not going to actually read word uh for a word but we really believe that uh assessment is actually a bridge i mean uh the teacher does a lot of things tries many techniques in the classroom
• 04:00 - 04:30 and we always want to actually check the best outcome uh towards and and and from our students but sometimes there is a little bit of a difference there is a gap there so we really believe and of course according to an authority on assessment uh that actually assessment itself is the bridge between what the teacher is conveying as a message all the knowledge
• 04:30 - 05:00 that he's trying to show the students learners and so on and the way to actually verify check make sure that this knowledge is being um actually processed and students are able to have some kind of performance based on it uh is actually assessment we it's it's a very powerful tool so i would like to actually invite you to uh reflect on this uh great
• 05:00 - 05:30 uh quote okay so again assessment is the bridge between uh teaching and learning um okay next is light please okay so um one thing that is very important as it has been noted before so this is part of a series of other webinars so we would like to recap a little bit uh so
• 05:30 - 06:00 we are all on the same page and uh just making sure that we are following the same steps so very briefly actually this so this let's get started uh on an activity this is a question that is very specific about summative assessment so as you can see on on your screen uh there is a definition so on some of the summative assessment if you cannot read so ongoing assessment
• 06:00 - 06:30 guides what happens next a kind of purpose so uh please i would like to give you a few uh maybe seconds for you to to type uh in in the q a part of zoom if this is true or false so you can just put number one and then letter a or b okay so once more uh there is a definition
• 06:30 - 07:00 summative assessment refers to ongoing assessment guides what happens next a kind of purpose so you type in the chat one a if you believe this is true and one b if you believe this is false and we will uh have io have uh already typed in the chat here a lot of people are saying b and they're saying that uh this is false so most of the answers are b is
• 07:00 - 07:30 this right or wrong do you think okay let's roll the drums and let's see what comes next okay so um well again thank thank thank all of you for participating make sure that you are with us and and contributing through the chat um of course here we are going to tap into some definitions check a few things don't worry if you
• 07:30 - 08:00 didn't actually you know get this wrong we will actually see from the next slides that some things are interconnected some things complement each other so but uh ultimately i mean this uh sentence would actually be considered uh false okay um so again yeah thanks for participating yes
• 08:00 - 08:30 okay so now we are moving on to question number two which is about formative assessment and in this case the definition is ongoing assessment so one definition guides what happens next and a kind of purpose okay so same thing this time you will type 2 so we see which activity you are referring to and you will choose either a or b if the sentence is true or if the
• 08:30 - 09:00 sentence is false and maybe alberto has some comments we made it really easy for them you know if we gave the answer to number one we made it really easy for everyone let's look at the chat and see uh what people are typing most people are of course saying this is true and a lot of people are saying hey yeah so you saw the answer so
• 09:00 - 09:30 roll the drums and the answer is true yes okay so exactly as the definition says um it is what we are going to to discuss and actually since we we moved to the next slide i would like to play a little bit with the words okay so as you can see here on the screen uh we do have the difference between formative assessment and summative assessment
• 09:30 - 10:00 there is um of course the reference where we we took this from but i would like to call your attention um to to the fact that we have two uh different words there so we have formative assessment we can think of it as assessment for learning so it will always collaborate it will always give more tools for actually learning
• 10:00 - 10:30 to happen in in a specific context okay and in terms of summative assessment in we can think of assessment of learning okay so probably the teacher has specific objectives uh some guidelines on where he or she wants to go and wants to make sure that the students learners know that specific content so here again we would like to stress
• 10:30 - 11:00 this kind of play with words about again formative assessment assessment for learning and summative assessment assessment of learning okay and as you can see on the image to the right it is very very important and i'm sure we all do that uh in a way or another but it's very good to see in an image um where is our starting point
• 11:00 - 11:30 as teachers and uh as students as well as learners so we can actually better help them okay so here is uh one-on-one the first definitions there are actually images is where the learner is going okay assessment as as a whole is uh very important we if we know exactly where we want to get uh managing assessment and where the students should get by the end
• 11:30 - 12:00 of a specific cycle journey or program okay and then right after that um we need to know for instance where this student this learner is uh starting from okay is he in the very beginning has he already reached some of the outcomes or some of the goals that you as a teacher uh has um designed for him or for that specific
• 12:00 - 12:30 course and then as you can see uh the question and again i'm going to play a little bit with the words a little bit more uh talking about dylan william how can the learner get there i mean what is the bridge what can we use as instruments as tools what is the bridge that we can offer students and the teachers can see clearly that will enable them to support students in this
• 12:30 - 13:00 specific journey so very briefly the reference is there and in the end of the webinar we will provide all the references so you can download the files check all these great ideas and this was taken from cambridge assessment international education as you can see on the screen great rafael well continuing now i have another another quiz here the last
• 13:00 - 13:30 question that we're going to use for the quiz is this true or false after rafael's uh presentation here assessment for learning helps in making understanding and knowledge more visible is that true or false can you please use the chat to type around so you can put 3a or 3b i need to have a quick look at the chat and see how the answers are coming up a lot of
• 13:30 - 14:00 you a lot of people typing 3a 3a hello okay yes yes excellent well thank you very much everyone for your participation the answer is actually true assessment for learning helps in making understanding and knowledge more visible and this understanding knowledge becoming more visible has a lot to do with collecting information about learners and giving them feedback on their learning right okay so uh today we are going to talk about the
• 14:00 - 14:30 functions of assessment so in very broad terms we can say that assessment has three main functions formative assessment as uh we discussed at the very beginning it has to do with assessment on a day-to-day basis diagnostic assessment to make sure that we uh check learners understanding of something or how much they already know about something that we wish to present and we have summative assessment which
• 14:30 - 15:00 means uh the formal assessment that we can do after a period of instruction and this is usually a moment where we need to check how much learners have learned so uh we want to check their achievement in the in terms of learning uh of the program right but for the purposes of this webinar because next week we have some more webinars talking about summative assessment we
• 15:00 - 15:30 are going to focus more exclusively on formative and diagnostic assessment right okay looking at formative and diagnostic assessment we can see that they are very similar but there there are also differences so the main difference between the two assessment types uh lies in how the gained understanding is used by the teacher so it's what makes it diagnostic or
• 15:30 - 16:00 formative is how the teacher gains understanding and how the teacher is going to use this understanding is it for example to provide support uh for a specific uh difficulty or is it because the teacher needs to re-plan uh the program etc so this is the these are the main differences so we look at uh formative assessment diagnostic assessment in very general terms we can define them like this
• 16:00 - 16:30 formative usually carried out within a topic you want to understand current learning and you want to address areas of difficulties which are specific or you want to address any gaps in knowledge or understanding of something something that you are presenting now what learners are working on now and so you are using strategies ways or practices to check their understanding for this specific point right
• 16:30 - 17:00 diagnostic on the other hand is usually carried out at the start of a new topic for example as i said this is a broad definition we are going to go deeper into those uh terms and what they actually mean and diagnostic assessment is used to identify what learners already know and can do can do is a very important term today and this will enable the teacher to plan the teaching content more
• 17:00 - 17:30 specifically in order to address those gaps identified in the diagnostic assessment okay right what makes them uh also similar is that in either cases or in both of the cases what we want is we want to collect information and we want to provide feedback there's no way that you can do assessment for learning if you don't put feedback uh in a very
• 17:30 - 18:00 very specific position you need to provide feedback on a regular basis uh it's either for a formative purpose something that is happening now or diagnostic purpose because you spotted areas and then you need to provide the right support for learners right now rafael will start talking about diagnostic assessment and formative assessment in more depth
• 18:00 - 18:30 thank you alberto can we uh please move on to the next slide okay all right so we do have uh the definitions there and again uh by the end of the webinar we will provide them to you so you can check the sources and and download the files one thing that is extremely important uh here in in the first definition is
• 18:30 - 19:00 actually in my opinion is the insight okay so again alberto referred to feedback uh and it's very important for the teacher to to see the picture of what's going on with the students based on diagnostic assessment in this case and to have ideas i mean what is my strategy what is the tool that i can use how can i better support this learner to make sure that he
• 19:00 - 19:30 or she overcomes uh their difficulties okay so again i'm going just to highlight a few words that are here the definition is in your screen and you will be able to see uh more details as we we go through the presentation um for the second definition my favorite uh group of words uh are actually targeted intervention so again uh if the teacher is able
• 19:30 - 20:00 to identify where this the learner is um what is happening or the gap between what the teacher has proposed and where the student is he can actually focus on a specific intervention and he will be able sorry they will be able to choose the right tools and they will make sure that again these tools are the best uh possible tools for those specific learners
• 20:00 - 20:30 and also regarding uh always referring back to the word feedback that uh alberto has already mentioned and the word insight that is in the first definition i mean the teacher uh needs to actually share the information with learners okay it's very important and again feedback is is something crucial here the more the the teacher shares with
• 20:30 - 21:00 the learners where they are how they are going to get there using the tools and the objectives that are proposed for that specific cycle program uh even semester or anything like that it will be clear again for the teacher and for the student and they will see a very specific path okay it's like they will have a gps both teacher and learners will have a gps
• 21:00 - 21:30 to know how they can [Applause] go over this bridge for instance okay and in terms of formative assessment we we also um have prepared a few things we have some definitions um and again as you can see the the reference is there so um
• 21:30 - 22:00 the the idea here uh is actually uh on a daily basis on on day-to-day uh basis uh the students uh learners and teachers actually assess and know exactly where they have reached uh in in a specific program again or based on specific uh objectives okay and one one of the highlights that we have for the second definition here is
• 22:00 - 22:30 actually that formative assessment for instance uh begins this is extremely important begins with diagnostic assessment okay again as we have referred to a few times before it's very important for the teacher and for the learner to know where the student is the learner is in that specific scenario and what the objectives are and how
• 22:30 - 23:00 again the teacher will be able to provide tools and will take the students learners to that specific outcome um okay uh alberto would you like to add anything okay no i think i i i think it's great i like the idea that uh you know teachers and learners need to understand what gaps they need to to address and then plan the next steps
• 23:00 - 23:30 uh based on this um i would like to uh share something here uh we talked uh at the beginning that we are going to focus on formative and diagnostic assessment for the purposes of this specific webinar but um when we look at formative and diagnostic assessment we need to consider that those strategies and practices for assessment they are very important to
• 23:30 - 24:00 build learners confidence when they get to summative assessment it's very important to remember that summative assessment is part of our lives i mean uh many uh students who are young now will in the future uh you know uh be uh participate in a in a recruitment process and that is that will be a moment for summative assessment of some kind they will be taking exams to complete their degree or to start a post graduation course
• 24:00 - 24:30 there is another moment of summative assessment so it's very important that we build this confidence for summative assessment and formative and diagnostic assessment is good because it helps build confidence when the learner has it some sort of summative assessment be it uh devised by the school or be it external like a proficiency a language proficiency summative assessment an international
• 24:30 - 25:00 certificate for example right like we have in michigan and cambridge assessment english well we are going to talk about some techniques and instruments we have been quite theoretical right raphael and rafael is going to start with ideas for diagnostic assessment okay so yes one of the most i'm very excited about this because again by the end of this webinar uh we want to be able to offer uh ideas
• 25:00 - 25:30 tools uh instruments so you can uh leave this webinar with lots of uh things that you can put into practice okay so um some some definitions of the things that we are going to offer um and they are very important of course most teachers use course books so uh most recent course books they actually bring the end uh at the end of a unit which
• 25:30 - 26:00 actually has specific goals and some of them are also aligned and they do have the can do statements so the teacher and the learner know exactly what is expected by the end of again that a specific unit that is specific cycle or program okay also a sample tests are extremely important because they do have
• 26:00 - 26:30 uh a wealth of activities uh focusing on the four skills and sometimes activities that are not um extremely clear even maybe uh for the learner and for uh the teacher and it it it links completely again to the course book or to the program that they are following okay also here i'm really going through a list we we do also have award lists
• 26:30 - 27:00 and we will show examples of these word lists and and other resources so for instance uh based on the cambridge exams we do have uh specific word lists for starters movers and flyers and for the michigan young learners english uh the the definition is a little different uh it's the we have the first one which is bronze silver and gold we also have uh these checklists or
• 27:00 - 27:30 actually word lists that the teacher can check against what the students learners have actually learned by the end of that specific um cycle or exam if they are preparing for the exam as well as a key and preliminary from cambridge assessment you can also see that these resources are available and we'll make them available to you and again as i as i mentioned um i love and i have
• 27:30 - 28:00 taken a look at several course books lately and i love when when in the beginning of the the unit or or chapter uh there is actually the goals of that specific unit and then by the end of that unit you you actually have the can do statements that are aligned so it shows again both uh where the students are starting from and where they are supposed to reach by
• 28:00 - 28:30 the end of the unit and also the teacher has tools and interventions that they can make in order to uh foster learning okay so uh the handbooks for teachers uh if uh for instance you cannot find that in a specific course book you will be able to find that in handbooks for teachers uh based on specific exams okay and now we are going to be a little bit more visual and uh we are going to actually
• 28:30 - 29:00 show examples of um posters both for myle um in this case the the exam that is called identified as silver and starters for the cambridge exams so posters are in my opinion uh very very fun if you're teaching this age group of course you can also adapt them if you are then teaching teenagers you will
• 29:00 - 29:30 obviously have a different kind of images a little bit more like uh like a comic book for instance here they are really they look like a cartoon maybe for teenagers uh comic book like or style images and of course if you are for instance teaching adults you can actually have a picture of maybe a supermarket or you can again uh i love how course books have evolved in that
• 29:30 - 30:00 sense and nowadays they are extremely visual so you you will find those posters in several course books but again uh you you have images on on the internet just by searching uh some engines to make sure that you you collect them again for uh kids for teenagers and for adults another one that i love is um picture dictionaries okay so if you have access to picture
• 30:00 - 30:30 dictionaries most of them actually have this visual aid that looks very much like a word lists and posters where you can check what has been done in the past so you can cover what has been taught and you can check against that specific program to see if the students are there and it also gives you uh a glimpse of the future i mean if students have learned this or have
• 30:30 - 31:00 not learned this what should i do what kind of intervention should i uh make use of and i'm sure alberto has something to add yes i would i would just like to say that with posters now that many teachers are teaching remotely they are also a good result to show on the screen because they are big they are colored and they they they come out wealthful for the
• 31:00 - 31:30 student at the other end of the screen until we return to face-to-face teaching so uh you know if the posters are ready to use i think it saves teachers time it makes the lesson more interesting and um i would just like to say that along with the posters we have booklets with classroom activities for teachers to use the poses with learners and they come with adaptations for remote teaching as well which i think is really good the other thing i would like to add in
• 31:30 - 32:00 terms of diagnosing knowledge and finding out what you need to plan or re-plan for learners is making sure that you use can do statements nowadays anything related to language learning not only in the english language but many other languages you have the descriptors from the common european framework and they have been like the the basis for curriculum in course books in teaching
• 32:00 - 32:30 programs in schools so it's very important that we familiarize ourselves with the expected descriptors or expected competencies for a certain level in the common european framework so that we can best help learners to develop skills from where they are up to where they need to reach in order to become for example a level a2 learner right even if they are not at this point
• 32:30 - 33:00 taking an exam it's important that they develop those skills so uh can do uh descriptors are good because they focus as the name says they focus on what learners can actually do right and you can make use of those things to check and observe their learners and see that at this point whether or not they can follow very short stories as we can see here in the illustration and if they cannot follow uh short
• 33:00 - 33:30 stories what is it that they need do they need more practice with specific set of lexis or do they need more practice uh with listening and becoming familiarized with pronunciation and sounds etc so it's very important to use this uh in order for you to have a reference and to diagnose areas of development with learners so can do statements are really good and so are sample tests right as i said the learners might be
• 33:30 - 34:00 sitting the exam just now they might be sitting the exam uh in the next couple of months it's very important to help them become familiarized with a specific exam but even if they're not sitting the exam just now this is a great resource for you to practice with certain skills diagnose areas where learners are doing really well and where learners might need support and also one thing about sample tests is that they are usually
• 34:00 - 34:30 accompanied by comments from examiners there is an answer key so you can use those uh resources to compare expected performance with the performance of your learners and i think it adds to your planning and again i the best thing to do is save time when teachers have been ever so busy with remote teaching and adopting many things right
• 34:30 - 35:00 speaking of uh functions of formative assessment we have talked about diagnostic assessment we can think about formative assessment strategies or practices like this you can use questions you can ask specific questions for learners you can make a decision whether you want to ask open or close questions for specific moments of the lesson or the content that you are delivering you can have conversations with learners
• 35:00 - 35:30 in order to find out how they are feeling whether the content has been appropriate for them you can set them a number of tasks they could be very short simple easy to implement tasks so they can be more elaborate like a mini project with the learners and then you assess how they are developing the the project how they are interacting with each other you can set quizzes or you can set more formal assessments like a
• 35:30 - 36:00 a short test in order to check specific knowledge of something they have just learned and i mean we started off uh with a quiz today right a very very challenging quiz to get people going to check how much they remembered from public session and i'm sure that you're all very knowledgeable that wasn't challenging for you at all uh also when you're talking about formative assessment we need to consider ways for learners to assess themselves
• 36:00 - 36:30 and also for learners to assess each other and some teachers might ask just now okay but my learners don't know how to assess themselves or they don't have enough knowledge to assess appear well this is something that needs um constructing bit by bit this is this is a series of strategies that you need to implement bit by bit so the learners become familiarized with such practices and
• 36:30 - 37:00 they understand the purposes of doing spear and self assessment right and most of all uh we cannot forget that we use all of those strategies informative assessment to provide feedback which is something we cannot go without when we talk about assessment for learning well talking about uh formative assessment practices rafael you have something to share with us
• 37:00 - 37:30 so uh following up on alberto's uh description and examples that he has provided again we do believe that self-assessment and peer assessment are extremely extremely important even though some students in the beginning might or learners might uh find it difficult to actually uh check what they have learned we we do have one idea here which is very simple uh
• 37:30 - 38:00 which is like a traffic light okay so uh it is extremely um easy and by the way you saw that i am interested in neuroscience that are some articles that actually show uh some benefits to this by using something like a traffic light saying okay i think i can do this maybe this is green um i'm not sure about this one i think i'm getting there maybe this is
• 38:00 - 38:30 yellow or i need help i know nothing about this subject or maybe i even missed that specific day i i didn't pay attention very well it's very important again for the teacher uh to uh show and give these tools to students to make sure that they um are able to check what they have accomplished okay and again i'm going to uh if you're i'm
• 38:30 - 39:00 going to talk a little bit about course books uh some course books they have that if they don't make sure that you implement that uh yourself by the end of a unit by the end of uh a cycle by the end of the program okay and another tool that we believe that is extremely important and it actually is a way for learners to share uh what they have learned and to check what friends or colleagues have done is
• 39:00 - 39:30 the two stars and a wish okay so students can actually praise their colleagues and say look uh your speaking is very good uh your presentation skills are very good uh and maybe like i wish that they have again this is for for them maybe they you can start by doing that uh with the students individually in the beginning and then
• 39:30 - 40:00 from that point on you will start creating a scenario where students is able to self assess and assess assess uh peers okay which which is extremely important okay so thank you thank you yes well there are many variations to those strategies like for example if you're talking about writing you can highlight um points in the student's text
• 40:00 - 40:30 you can also do like checks at the end of the class how students are feeling so far so they they can give you feedback on that or you can substitute by physical movements with young learners like thumbs up thumbs down so there are many uh variations to those strategies well um you you will notice that from the traffic light up to two stars in a wish uh the uh two stars in a wish is a more
• 40:30 - 41:00 elaborate strategy and it requires learners to produce more in terms of feedback either for themselves or for their peers right the other thing we can consider for formative assessment is a portfolio or a compilation of academic work that teachers can organize with learners and then i encourage learners to keep a portfolio of the things they have been doing of the feedback they have been getting of the improvements they have made
• 41:00 - 41:30 to certain tasks right and students can look at samples of portfolios and justify why the portfolios are useful one thing that happens with portfolios is that teachers might not see concretely how learners are progressing if the portfolio doesn't come together with criteria so here we have an example of uh criteria for a portfolio
• 41:30 - 42:00 the criteria here is for a portfolio for higher education so we have a specific point in the criteria like what is the main topic being discussed so this is something that the teacher needs to consider and plan together with the portfolio when the the process starts and then you have a number of points in the criteria that are uh relevant to a share with learners so that both teachers and learners can understand
• 42:00 - 42:30 what good progression is so again going back to making learning visible to learners so making sure that the points and the criteria are clear for teachers for learners they are shared and that you go to those points and discuss them uh with learners so the learners can you can see progress the good thing about the the example here is that this this can be adapted to any level this can be adapted to any age
• 42:30 - 43:00 range this is of course not appropriate i mean the language for young learners but you can make adaptations and we are going to show some examples here like success criteria and rubrics right well when we're talking about success criteria it has to do with building criteria so that you can keep learners aware of what it is that they are being that they are learning and what kind of assessment
• 43:00 - 43:30 uh they are going through so success criteria focus much more positively on students ability to succeed so basically talking about what students can do and not focusing on what they cannot do right so they are based on what the students should know be able to do and understand and it helps the teacher to decide whether the students have achieved the learning intention or the goals which can be related to the expected performance
• 43:30 - 44:00 or they can do right and it helps to answer the same question from the point of view of the student for example how will i know whether i've achieved the learning intention so here we have a very simple example of success criteria that you can devise for your learners for a specific activity it could be just a list of bullet points like in this case the task is describe a picture and students will be successful if they
• 44:00 - 44:30 describe where people are using specific number of prepositions describe clothes etc use five to ten verbs etc so this is one way uh also if the task is more elaborate if it is lengthier you can for example turn the success criteria into rubrics so rubrics are good because they include the success criteria and descriptions of a number of different levels of performance
• 44:30 - 45:00 in relation to those criteria so here i have an example of um rubrics that comes from uh the handbooks that we have available for for teachers based on the exams this is the rubrics for assessing writing actually we have new writing guides assessing writing guides for teachers so those rubrics they bring those descriptions as you can see in the boxes they bring sub scales we can see here three sub
• 45:00 - 45:30 scales like content organization and language and we also have the bands for grades that you are going to give learners according to their performance another example of success criteria is available here this is for speaking so we have subscales such as use of grammar and vocabulary at level a2 pronunciation interactive communication we have the descriptors for each of those sub-scales
• 45:30 - 46:00 and then we have the bands and then you might say well the material i am using does not bring the rubrics where you can access the rubrics from our resources which are easily available from the website or teachers can also create their success criteria and rubrics by following a simple pattern so you have here on the left you have the bands so you can decide on the grades that you are going to give your learners
• 46:00 - 46:30 zero to five zero to ten it's up to you you can consider the sub scales and then you need to after you have the bands and the sub scales you need to devise the descriptors then you might ask us but how can i divide the descriptors use the can do statements from your course books usually you have at the beginning of the unit or you have it in the teacher's book as well or you can use the descriptors that we have from the handbooks for teachers which are
• 46:30 - 47:00 um organized according to specific cfr levels and then you can use them as an inspiration for the descriptors here right but we have more ideas have failed don't we yes we do so we checked uh previously um a kind of traffic light for self-assessment which is something very simple that we can use in the classroom and here
• 47:00 - 47:30 from a more uh managerial perspective we can take a look at indicators and we also bring back the idea of traffic light okay so again we can actually cluster this with alberto's suggestion we can create our own rubrics here very simply we identify the skills so we have speaking listening reading and writing but you can also create your own rubrics to check uh students against their performance
• 47:30 - 48:00 but just one idea is that this activity has to be systematic so if you you you can have you can either use it every month or every semester every year if you're able to uh keep on following the same students or have the same group okay so again this is just a perspective because sometimes we are not able to see uh the whole journey of the student so again make sure that you implement the traffic light and possibly create
• 48:00 - 48:30 your own rubrics or your own criteria uh for that specific activity great rafael i would like to summarize the assessment for learning journey because we talked about traffic light as one idea for formative assessment self-assessment peer assessment we talked about two stars in the wish we talked about a portfolio which is a more elaborate kind of
• 48:30 - 49:00 assessment and it's longitudinal it takes a longer period of time and the idea is that all those stages will better prepare students for the summative assessment either in the school or external summative assessment right so by following those uh principles and uh using those strategies the idea is to help learners and teachers to reflect on goals process and progress
• 49:00 - 49:30 uh foster self and peer assessment and understand that this is a journey this is not something that learners will be able to do when you try it first time it's something that you're going to do step by step it fosters also critical thinking because they understand criteria and they can comment and assess by using criteria and most of all i think we need to consider formative assessment as a longitudinal process right it's something that starts and it is
• 49:30 - 50:00 something that will help learners to become used to it and uh the idea as the learners develop those skills for assessing self appear we have list teacher input and most student student production we keep a record of what students have done during the term and continue the portfolio uh until the end of the course and so that we have you and your learners will have a visible track of the
• 50:00 - 50:30 learning path uh you have been through right so finishing off analyze your objectives make sure that whether the objectives are feasible are attainable or adapt your objective you might need to prioritize and choose right then you build checklists we talked about success criteria we talked about rubrics here design the tasks and the criteria for
• 50:30 - 51:00 learners and then deliver feedback feedback is a crucial word here make feedback actionable frequent and rich and respond to the results and rethink the next steps because when you do diagnostic assessment informative assessment you might need to change direction uh now and again right and then you start all over again and that's what teaching is all about isn't it rafael i think now we are ready for questions we still have a couple of
• 51:00 - 51:30 minutes absolutely thank you very much rafael thank you very much alberto uh there are lots of thank yous and congratulations on the chat box so a warm round of applause from everybody and we also have a number of questions so let's try and answer at least some of them there are a question that has popped up a couple of times is about homework and formative assessment in your view is homework formative
• 51:30 - 52:00 assessment how can we help that it becomes that it to make it become that or is it something different altogether um can i start have i o please i already yeah please okay well homework is by all means formative assessment and homework is a great way of checking uh how much learners have uh uh grasped something or have developed certain skills of something you have taught very recently so
• 52:00 - 52:30 yes it's one way of checking progress formatively yes just one second just to add uh what i think i agree totally with alberto one thing that i just would like to to change maybe just a single thought is uh not not many times the students and teachers actually reflect on the activity that was proposed okay
• 52:30 - 53:00 homework is just you know sent to students they just do it and they never actually reflect so more self-assessment more reflection more meta language within the homework so they can know they can you know get different ideas and perspectives absolutely coming back to this idea that it is the feedback that makes the formative yes another question that has popped up
• 53:00 - 53:30 a couple of times was about the rubrics and the assessment criteria that you shared and two questions that came from that number one is where teachers can find these and number two if this is something that works for online offline assessment or both well uh teachers uh the ones we showed here they are available from our website um every uh we we are going to send you a handout where you have the link to
• 53:30 - 54:00 access the preparation materials for both michigan and cambridge assessment english exams and they are available from the handbooks for teachers so feel free to go and download them it's all free and the other question pablo was uh whether this is online online teaching offline teaching or both it's for both i mean um success criteria can be used for both online and face to face but i would say
• 54:00 - 54:30 publish specifically for remote teaching i think it's very important that in remote teaching because learners are working more autonomously if you provide success criteria beforehand share that with learners i think it guides their work when they're not with the teachers you know in a synchronous class so learners are working more autonomously so give them the success criteria because they will have goals to achieve
• 54:30 - 55:00 can i say something really quickly uh because i did this activity actually if you if you actually type writing and rubrics and speaking rubrics you will find different sources and we we believe that is actually very healthy so make sure that you we have given a few of the rubrics here but make sure that you explore different possibilities sometimes you will probably possibly see the same document but
• 55:00 - 55:30 given given two different perspectives so it's i think it's actually uh interesting to to check that because by the end of the day possibly you will create or you will pick and choose the best that serves your purposes or your learners okay pablo before the last question can i just say something quickly for the audience we have the references of the books we have used the websites etc
• 55:30 - 56:00 you can download the handout for this session by using this qr code or by typing this link on your browser and then you'll be able to find uh the websites the books and the references and resources that we use so don't forget to scan the code before we finish so sorry pablo now let's go on to questions sure and there are two questions that i saved for the end so i'm going to squeeze one more because
• 56:00 - 56:30 you said last but i am the advocate of our audience so uh one is a question that already popped up on tuesday's webinar so it will be interesting to have your take on this which is what about self-assessment and learners of different ages would you say that how would you do self-assessment with young learners is it a concept that fits or is it too early raphael do you want to talk about traffic light yes thank you
• 56:30 - 57:00 yes um i think as uh the ages progress so actually uh do the the activities and the the tools that we use we can possibly start very simply with young learners maybe using again the posters or the word lists so it could be based on quantity uh maybe you just select in the beginning five words and see out of these five words are they able to produce remember two
• 57:00 - 57:30 three or four very simple and then maybe you move on to the traffic light uh by showing a picture and identifying maybe even given given the the power of the the learner to say oh okay teacher i know i am agreeing based on the our cd poster or teacher i am a yellow here because i i still have some doubts so again i think uh things should start very
• 57:30 - 58:00 simply in the beginning maybe something very visual and as we move on and and progress towards teenagers they can become a little bit more challenging and then adults possibly like a checklist or something like a an excel file where you actually tick some boxes but it can be fun for adults as well so this is my my opinion yeah yeah for very young learners i think making self-assessment physical like
• 58:00 - 58:30 saying from one to five how do you feel and then they have to show the hands and say five if they're really good or three if they're not so good so i mean by showing the fingers and there are many ways you can do self-assessment making it visual as well for young learners yes absolutely and one last question then uh and i promise this is the last one um is uh there were a number of
• 58:30 - 59:00 questions around uh formative assessment oriented to summative assessment people who are preparing for a michigan exam for a cambridge exam how can formative assessment help lead to that on what kind of things the teachers need to bear in mind well uh formative assessment would be good because um one advantage of uh external exams is that they have
• 59:00 - 59:30 expected levels of performance and formative assessment will help the teacher to give feedback on the learner on how close they are to that expected performance so for example if they're taking a test and in the oral test they have to describe images for one minute and they have to kind of uh use language that will um identify where things are in the
• 59:30 - 60:00 image how well can learners do that and how close they are to the expected performance so formative assessment by giving them practice in this kind of task each time asking the learner to improve one specific point and then they will be more um confident for the summative assessment yes i would just like to add that it's like like a scaffold so you you know
• 60:00 - 60:30 which steps students need to uh achieve and then you make sure that the teacher and also the the learner is aware of the steps and the teacher supports them with the specific skills instruments and strategies to make sure that they get to the next level right thank you very much alberto thank you very much once again dear all unfortunately our
• 60:30 - 61:00 time for today and we we have managed to answer some of your key questions before we say goodbye i would like to thank rafaela roberto once again and to remind you of our upcoming session on the 20th of october that is next tuesday and it will be about finding your way the main differences between multi-level and level based exams and we will be talking more about the criteria to consider for selection so extremely topical and critical issues
• 61:00 - 61:30 for schools nowadays um thank you all for being with us today if you wish to contact us please access our website the you'll see you're looking at the address right now uh a big thank you also to all of our colleagues who are working in the backstage it takes a village to make a successful webinar and we have the best village in the cambridge michigan uh continent uh country and uh see you all in our next session
• 61:30 - 62:00 on tuesday goodbye everybody thank you so much pablo thank you rafael for joining me in this webinar and happy teachers day brazilian teachers and congratulations to all the teachers around the world thank you alberto thank you pablo thank you all the team that is behind this uh teachers you are superheroes so thanks and happy teachers day thank
• 62:00 - 62:30 you