In this two-day interactive workshop, participants will learn to develop classroom assessments for language classrooms. This workshop will prepare participants to do the following:

• Distinguish between formative and summative assessment

• Establish and communicate clear learning goals for your class

• Select and implement assessment methods that match learning goals

• Provide useful feedback to students

• Use assessment results to improve instruction

Tentative schedule:

Day 1, session 1:  Introductions, workshop overview, fundamentals of assessment; reliability & validity

Day 1, session 2:  Translating content standards into learning goals for the classroom; assessment of reading and listening    

Day 2, session 1:  Classroom assessment of speaking and writing; rubrics; providing constructive feedback 

Day 2, session 2:  Involving students in assessment: peer and self-assessment techniques; using assessment results to improve instruction 

Workshop Trainer

Sara Cushing

Professor of Applied Linguistics - Georgia State University

 Senior Faculty Associate - Office of Institutional Effectiveness

Sara Cushing Weigle is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Georgia State University and Senior Faculty Associate for the Assessment of Student Learning in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from UCLA.  She has published research in the areas of assessment, second language writing, and teacher education, and is the author of Assessing Writing (2002, Cambridge University Press).  She has been invited to speak and conduct workshops on second language writing assessment throughout the world, most recently in Vietnam, Colombia, Thailand, and Norway.  Her current research focuses on assessing integrated skills and the use of automated scoring for second language writing.