Appendix A: Balanced Assessment Workshop Outline

Part 1:
What is
formative and
summative
assessment?

Part 2:
How balanced
is my
assessment?

Part 3:
Professional
Learning
Communities
for continuous
improvement.

Teachers sit in small groups at round tables.

Teachers are asked to write down their thoughts on what they understand by the
terms formative and summative assessment. They transfer their ideas to sticky
notes and place them on the relevant sheets of paper posted around the room.
Teachers share their thoughts and reflections in small groups.
Teachers are asked to self-assess their assessment practices in a confidential
manner using the rubric designed to determine where individual teachers are with
respect to assessment (see Appendix 2).
Teachers will use the following guiding questions to reflect on their current
practices:
How balanced is my assessment?
Which assessment areas/topics would I like further professional development
on?
What thoughts or questions have been inspired or provoked from this selfevaluation?
Teachers note their answers and after the self-assessment is completed, they share
in their small groups.
Based on the outcome of their self-assessments, teachers are given the freedom to
decide on an area of improvement they wish to pursue with regard to assessment.
Small groups return to the whole group forum and share their needs for learning
around assessment.
Facilitators note the needs shared by the staff and together the group identifies
different areas for professional growth.
Teachers select the major area of growth they wish to pursue and from this,
facilitators formalise PLCs during the refreshment break.
In newly formed PLC groups, teachers reflect on the following questions pertaining
to their current assessment practices and share their thoughts with their group
members:
What is working?
What is challenging? Where are the gaps?
What is needed to move forward?
To prepare the groundwork for continuous improvement and learning within the
PLCs, teacher will read Carol Ann Tomlinsons article Learning to Love
Assessment. Teachers choose a quotation from the article that resonates with him
or her and taking turns shares it with their new PLC group, stating why they
connected with it.
Each teacher receives a copy of Jan Chappuis document Assessment for
Learning: Classroom Practices That Maximize Student Success as a foundational
guide for continuous improvement on assessment practices.
Teachers dialogue to create an action plan for their professional learning in their
PLCs.