This session describes the process of moving from a summative towards a more formative way of assessing adult students at Casa thomas Jefferson, in Brasili, Brazil.

1. FROM SUMMATIVE TO
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN A
TRADITIONAL ELT INSTITUTE
Isabela Villas-Boas
Claudio Fleury Sasse
Katia Falcomer

2. • our context
• alignment
• the new assessment system
• examples
• survey with students and teachers
Overview

3. Casa Thomas Jefferson at a glance
• founded in 1963
• 17,000+ students
• six branches + school contracts + in-company
• 260+ teachers
• children - adults
• basic - post advanced
• course supervision - standardization

4. The "Flex" Courses
• around 3,000 students
• started in 2004
• only adults
• four ten-week modules a year
• a written and an oral test at the end
• typical adult students
Thomas Flex
Top Flex
Thomas Prime

5. Traditional assessment
system
Written test + oral test at the
end of ten-week module
Ten weeks of insruction
generates a lot of content
Focus on grammar and
written exercises
Student anxiety
More selected-
response items on
the test
Lack of alignment
Negative washback
effect

6. Stephen Stoynoff, ELT Joutnal - The Janus Papers (2012, pp.527-528)
With the emerging dominance of a sociocultural paradigm in which
learning is seen as a developmental, socially-constructed, interactive,
and effective process, classroom-based assessment will (among others):
• integrate the teacher fully into the assessment process;
• yeld muliple samples of learner performance that are collected over
time and by means of multiple assessment procedures and activities;
• integrate learners into the assessment process and utilize self- and
peer-assessment in addition to teacher-assessment of learning;
• offer learners immediate and constructive feedback;
• monitor, evaluate, and modify procedures to optimize teaching and
learning.

7. The National Capital Learning Resource Center (2004)
Alternative assessment:
1. is built around topics or issues of interest to the students;
2. replicates real-world communication contexts and situations;
3. involves multi-stage tasks and real problems that require creative use of
language rather than simple repetition;
4. requires learners to produce a quality product or performance;
5. includes evaluation criteria and standards which are known to the student;
6. involves interaction between assessor (instructor, peers, self) and person
assessed;
7. allows for self-evaluation and self-correction as they proceed.

8. ALIGNMENT
INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
ASSESSMENTS
Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, CarnegieMellon University

9. Aims of the new assessment system
Summative Assessment
Traditional
Assessment
Very little
feedback
Formative Assessment
Alternative
Assessment
Feedback on
performance
Better alignmentPoor alignment

10. New assessment system
• short assessments - 10 to 20 minutes
• # of points ranges from 12 to 20
• 2 oral assessments, necessarily
• at least 1 reading, 1 listening, and 1 writing
• mostly performance assessment of grammar
last day of class: final assessment day
Ss take the assessments they missed during the module or
those they would like to retake to improve grade
1 2 3 4 5 6 100
points

11. Steps in implementing the
project
Monitoring
Phasing in
Pilot
groups
Adjustments
Feedback

12. The two pilot groups
• Immediate buy-in by two supervisors
• 2 pilot groups: a beginner group and an
advanced one
• New assessment system + `old tests` to compare
results and validate the new system
• Positive student reaction
• Similar results

13. Comparing results
81
86
75
62
98
48
82

14. Example of assessent: Speaking
Students will be
able to talk about past
experiences related to
music and expand the
conversation by providing
details on the
experience.
image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Archery_target.jpg

15. Instructions
Ask your partner some questions about musical
experience. Begin with a "have you ever" question
and then ask some follow-up questions. Below are
some ideas but you can create your own questions
about experiences related to music.
• Have you ever been to a rock/jazz/pop concert?
• Have you ever played in a band?
• Have you ever traveled just to go to a concert?

16. Students practice as much as they need until
they feel ready.
Teacher can
• walk around the classroom and assess pairs
• ask pairs to present to the class when they
are ready
• have pairs record their dialogue; they can
listen to the recording and decide whether
they want to redo it or not; different pairs
can give feedback on each other's
recording and redo the assignment.
Teacher assesses students by way of "real-
time, almost surreptitious recording of
student verbal and nonverbal
behavior" (Brown, 2004. p.267)

17. Rubrics

18. Example of assessent: Writing
image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Archery_target.jpg
Having learned how to provide
personal information such as
name, nickname, nationality,
marital status, address, and
phone number, and having
analyzed a model paragraph in
which this information is
provided, students will write a
paragraph about themselves.

19. Peer revision

20. Rubrics

21. Example of assessent: Writing
image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Archery_target.jpg
After having worked on the
vocabulary related to the five
senses (p. 6-7) as well as on will/
won't for predictions (p. 8-9),
students will be able to choose a
product and wrie a short ad for it.

22. Preparation

23. Preparation

24. Rubrics

25. Survey with intermediate-level students after
first semester of experience (n=170)
A LOT
MORE IN
NS
A LITTLE
MORE IN
NS
THE SAME
A LITTLE
MORE IN
OS
A LOT
MORE IN
OS
ANXIETY 4% 15% 36% 12% 19%
NEED TO
DEDICATE
MORE TIME
20% 15% 34% 11% 13%
MORE ORAL
COMMUNI-
CATION
44% 19% 15% 4% 3%

26. Which is your preferredmethod of assessment?
(n=152)
7%
93%

27. • more communication in class
• content is not accumulated
• no need to memorize rules
• need to study more frequently = more effective learning
• less stressful
• more accurate assessment of the studnet because it is ongoing
• oral assessments are less stressful
• no last-minute studying only
• lighter
• `forces` students to come to class
• makes me feel more comfortable in class
POSITIVE ASPECTS

28. • fewer assessments
• a final test is more effective in measuring
knowledge
• have the six assessments + final test
NEGATIVE ASPECTS

29. Survey with intermediate-level teachers after
first semester of experience (n=18)
A LOT
MORE IN
NS
A LITTLE
MORE IN
NS
THE SAME
A LITTLE
MORE IN
OS
A LOT
MORE IN
OS
EFFECTIVE
FOR
LEARNING
78% 11% 6% 0% 0%
PRACTICAL
FOR
TEACHER
50% 17% 0% 11% 6%

30. Survey with intermediate-level teachers after
first semester of experience (n=18)
FULLY SATISFACTORILY PARTIALLY NO
UNDERSTAND
REASONS FOR
CHANGE
80% 6% 0% 0%
SUPPORT
CHANGE
61% 17% 6% 0%

31. • no accumulation of content to assess
• allows for remedial work and teacher self-assessment
• student progress is more visible
• immediate and personalized feedback to students
• encourages more teacher reflection
• students are assessed at their best
• less stressful for students
• possibility to re-teach and re-assess
POSITIVE ASPECTS

32. • too many assessments
• students keep asking if there will be an
assessment the next class
• a little more time-consuming for teachers
• difficulty with the oral assessments
NEGATIVE ASPECTS

33. A TEACHER'S COMMENT
I think the assessments fit
adult classes a lot more, because
you have clear objectives and so do
the students. The main caveat is that, in
my opinion, if the teacher doesn't
believe in the system, and cannot
convey it to the students, it won't
ever reflect the student's
progress.

34. • Brown, H.D. (2004). Language Assessment - Principles and Classroom Practices.
White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
• Coombe, C., Folse, K., and Hubley, N. (2007). A Practical Guide to Assessing
English Language Learners. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan
Press.
• National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC). (2004) Assessing
Learning: Alternative Assessment in The essentials of language teaching.
Retrieved from http://www.cnlrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm
• Stoynoff, S. (2012). Looking Backward and Forward at Classroom-Based
Language Assessment in ELT Journal, V.66/4 - Special Issue: The Janus Papers,
pp.523-532.
• Wren, D (200-8, November 6). Using Formative Assessment to Increase
Learning. Research Brief: Report from the Department of Research, Evaluation
and Assessment. Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Retrieved Octover 15, 2012
from http://www.vbschools.com/results.asp?
x=009156061886103500874%3Amfayemiraqy&cof=FORID
%3A11&ie=UTF-8query=%22using+formative+assessment%22&sa.x=0&sa.y=0
Reference

35. Questions and comments?

36. FROM SUMMATIVE TO
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN A
TRADITIONAL ELT INSTITUTE
eflpresentations.pbworks.com
Claudio Fleury Sasse - claudios@thomas.org.br