Question

When assessing ELLs, teachers must use a variety of assessments in order to get the most accurate snapshot of academic and language progress. What are some ways teachers can assess students in the classroom to include all four domains of language (reading, writing, listening, and speaking)?

Answer 1

• Informal assessments (also called authentic or alternative) allow teachers to track the ongoing progress of their students regularly and often. While standardized tests measure students at a particular point in the year, ongoing assessments provide continual snapshots of where students are throughout the school year. By using informal assessments, teachers can target students' specific problem areas, adapt instruction, and intervene earlier rather than later.
• Standardized tests in English do not usually reflect ELLs' true content knowledge or abilities. Yet informal assessments can provide a more well-rounded picture of their skills, abilities, and ongoing progress.
• There are two commonly used informal methods: performance-based assessment and portfolio assessment. Both methods utilize typical classroom activities to measure progress toward curricular goals and objectives. These activities can be monitored and recorded by teacher observation and student self-assessment.
• Performance-based assessments are based on classroom instruction and everyday tasks. Teachers can use performance-based assessments to assess ELLs' language proficiency and academic achievement through oral reports, presentations, demonstrations, written assignments, and portfolios.
• These assessments can include both processes (e.g., several drafts of a writing sample) and products (e.g., team projects). Teachers can use scoring rubrics and observation checklists to evaluate and grade your students. These assessment tools can help document students ELLs' growth over a period of time.
• Teachers can also develop assessment (and instructional) activities that are geared to students ELLs' current level of English proficiency. Performance-based assessment activities can concentrate on oral communication and/or reading. Here are examples of commonly-used activity types designed for assessing speaking or reading:
• Reading with partners
• Retelling stories
• Role playing
• Giving descriptions or instructions using visual or written prompts
• Oral reporting to the whole class
• Portfolios are practical ways of assessing student work throughout the entire year. With this method, teachers can systematically collect descriptive records of a variety of student work over time that reflects growth toward the achievement of specific curricular objectives. Portfolios include information, sample work, and evaluations that serve as indicators for student performance. By documenting student performance over time, portfolios are a better way to crosscheck student progress than just one measure alone. Portfolios can include:
• Samples of written student work, such as stories, completed forms, exercise sheets, and descriptions
• Drawings representing student content knowledge and proficiencies
• Tapes of oral work, such as role-playing, presentations, or an oral account of a trip
• Teacher descriptions of student accomplishments, such as performance on oral tasks
• Formal test data, checklists, and rating sheets
• ELLs need teachers help to exercise their critical thinking skills – such as knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation – in order to succeed in school during all stages of English language development.
• Scaffolding assessments allow ELLs to demonstrate their content knowledge through exhibits or projects, drawings, and graphic organizers. Teachers can consider giving ELLs extra time to complete these tasks, or to give short responses.
• Differentiated scoring scores content knowledge separately from language proficiency. To score content knowledge, look at how well ELLs understand key concepts, how accurate their responses are, and how well they demonstrate the processes they use to come up with responses.