One of my ah-ha moments occurred at a provincial workshop regarding Understanding by Design.  The best part of professional development is talking with other colleagues about your practice.  Sometimes the topic has nothing to do with the session.

At this workshop, I started chatting with a teacher from the Coquitlam School District.  He was a middle school teacher.  We were talking about our assessment practices and he asked me, “Why does everything count?”  Hmmm… Why does everything count?

For years, I counted everything… assignments, quizzes, tests, participation, lab reports, projects, peer/self-assessment… you name it… it was worth marks.  Everything counted.

After talking to the man from Coquitlam, he sent me a few articles about assessment and AFL (Assessment for Learning).  It seemed like a radical idea, but worth a try.

In the last few years of my practice I stopped counting homework assignments, participation, self/peer assessments, projects, and quizzes.  The only thing that counted for marks was the tests and final exam.  Everything else is a work habit.

The framework is… if it helps them learn… it is formative assessment and does NOT count for marks.  If it is an opportunity to demonstrate understanding… it is summative assessment and does count for marks.  In math, summative assessments are tests.

OK.  That was a bold remark… there are other ways to summatively assess in secondary mathematics, but most times it is in the form of a test or exam.

In the end, with AFL… EVERYTHING DOES COUNT… just not for marks.  Kids get it… and thrive on it.  I call it… “Fear Free Learning”… Learn for the sake of learning…