According the Brown University's article,
some important information to know is
the last time the student attended a
school, the number of years of schooling
the student received, what prevented the
student from attending school, what grade
level. the student was in (some countries
number their grade levels differently), how
old the student is (some countries
calculate age differently), type of school
they attended, type of curriculum, parents
educational background, and students'
health information,
When newcomers first begin at
a school, it is important to
understand the student's
educational background. Many
countries do not function the
same as U.S. schools therefore it
is important to find out as much
information about the student
as possible.
APPLICATION WITH MY EB STUDENTS IN
THE CLASSROOM: During my short time
working at my school, I have learned a lot
from working with my students and their
parents. I help their parents when they fill
out paper work, when they call the school
asking a question, when I need to
communicate behavior, academics, or
reminders. While doing these tasks, i've
learned which parents can not read or
write, therefore i make sure to call these
parents when a letter is going home, or to
assist them with paper work even if it is
translated. Not only does this help me
assist parents but it also gives me insight
into what students need extra support.
MY EXPERIENCE: My native language is
Spanish, so growing up I received EL
services and struggled academically.
However, my parents knew how to read
and write in Spanish. My mom would
read me bed time stories in Spanish, she
would sing to me songs like "La Vaca
Lola", "Pinpon era un muneco". My dad
would also make me practice my writing
skills. He would tell me draw circles and
lines on paper. My dad would also read
me children's bible stories. Although I had
these experiences that contributed to my
academics positively, I know some of my
students do not have these benefits.
Initial Assessment
APPLICATION WITH MY EB STUDENTS IN
THE CLASSROOM: When my first grade
students were in kindergarten, they
completed the kindergarten screener
that assessed their English Language
proficiency, but since then they have
taken a follow up English Proficiency
assessment. They took an English
Proficiency assessment called ACCESS
during the Spring of their Kindergarten
year. that assessed their progress after
having a year of EB Pull-out services and
support from their Kindergarten
teachers.
Therefore, before creating
any lessons and authentic
assessments, I need to
evaluate their CANDO
descriptors to accommodate
the lessons to their needs
and abilities
After evaluating the results, teachers should
implement the appropriate accommodations
for these students. A great assessment
should include level proficiency descriptors
that help identify what the child can do. For
example, after teachers administer the WIDA
Kindergarten Screener to a student, the WIDA
Scoring calculator than scores the assessment
a provides a proficiency level to the student.
Teachers can then find the WIDA CANDO
Descriptors on the WIDA website that gives
an overview of what students are able to do.
The WIDA CANDO descriptors are also broken
into 4 domains: Listening, speaking, reading,
and writing. The teachers should then use this
information to plan and accommodate lessons
for their EB students.
Home Language Survey: When a
student first enrolls in a school,
the parent or guardian completes
paper work. One of the surveys the
parent or guardian completes is
the Home Language Survey. This
HLS is used to see which students
may need EB services. The main
questions a HLS asks are: What
languages other than English are
spoken in the home? What
language did the child first learn to
speak? What language is spoken
most frequently in the home?
The EB teacher or other trained
staff in the school then evaluates
the HLS's. If the Home Language
Survey mentions a minority
language (such as Spanish,
Chinese, Pohnpeian etc.), the
student then gets referred to be
given a language proficiency
assessment by trained school
staff. These staff members are
trained to give the appropriate
assessment, and complete the
assessment every year.
After the trained staff has evaluated
the HLS surveys and referred the
students to take the Proficiency
Language Assessment, the students'
English language is assessed. The
language proficiency assessment should
evaluate listening, speaking, reading, and
writing skills. One great language
proficiency assessment that is given to
evaluate the English language is called
the WIDA Screener for Kindergarten.
The results from these assessments
are then use to build a pathway for
English Language fluency which is
important for student success.
Formal Assessment
The Authentic Assessment Toolbox Article
does a great job showing how a mix or
informal and formal assessments are
needed. In the article it mentions an
example of which chauffeur he prefers. His
two options are a driver who passed the
driving portion of the drivers test but
failed the written test and a driver who
failed the driving test but passed the
written test. His answer was, "I would
prefer a driver who passed both portions. I
love this analogy because it shows the
importance of both assessments.
Formal Assessments are
assessments that are measured with
paper an pencil. For example, multiple
choice questions, true/false questions,
fill-in the blank, or matching. A lot of
our state tests are administered this
way, for example the ACT, SAT.
APPLICATION WITH EB
STUDENTS IN THE
CLASSROOM: A formal
assessment EB students
take is the ACCESS test
during the spring of their
kindergarten year and
every year that they are in
the program. This ACCESS
test is a formal
assessment that assess
their growth in their
English Language. This
assessment provides the
teach with information like
what they can. do.
BOTH: Regardless of what assessments
teachers use, the assessments should be
use to drive instruction. After viewing
the assessment results, teachers should
determine what concepts the students
mastered and what skills need to be
retaught to each student. Teachers can
group students into small groups to
reteach the skills to each small group, or
if all students failed to master the same
skill the teacher can then reteach the
lesson in whole group.
On Going Assessment
This portfolio can be used in many
ways. The classroom teacher and EB
teacher can both help the student
build his/her portfolio with materials
created in their classrooms. The
classroom and EB teacher also work
collaboratively throughout the year
and therefore can use this portfolio to
communicate celebrations, concerns,
accommodations needed, etc. Teachers
can also use this portfolio during
parent conferences, or school retention
meetings.
APPLICATION WITH MY EB STUDENTS IN THE
CLASSROOM: Although the student portfolio is
described as a portfolio the child builds in the
classroom, I chose to modify this portfolio to be
doable in my classroom. I am an EB teacher
that teaches pull-out ESL instruction. Therefore,
I only see my students 30 minutes each day. I
created separate files for each of my students
(due to lack of binders for all 50 students). I
then let my students add this authentic
assessment into their files. I plan on helping my
students add to these files throughout the year
and maybe creating binders when supplies
become available.
Benefits of portfolios: As part of the School
Retention and PST Committee, this documentation
will be very helpful when talking about students'
needs throughout the year. As an EB teacher who
only teaches in small group, I believe I see a
different side to my students. A lot of times these
students are very shy in the classroom and
underperform. Once they come into my classroom,
they open up.
One ongoing assessment that
caught my attention is a
portfolio. The students can create
a portfolio, where they organize
their best work. This portfolio
showcases their work they
create in class. This work that is
displayed in the portfolio shows
what the student is able to do.
This portfolio assessment is
ongoing because the student is
constantly adding to his/her
portfolio throughout the year.
For example, a student can add
a writing sample every month.
At the end of the year, the
student can then reflect on how
much his/her writing improved
throughout the year.
According to the Brown
University "Teaching Diverse
Learners" article an ongoing
assessment, "provides
continuous feedback on the
effectiveness of instruction and
indicates areas where a change
in instructional strategy may be
advised."
Informal Assessment
APPLICATION WITH MY EB STUDENTS IN
THE CLASSROOM: For my authentic
assessment I applied informal
assessments. The first informal
assessment that I included in my lesson is
the turn and talks. I let my students turn
and talk with each other to brainstorm
answers to my thinking questions. This
assessment provided me with insight into
their background knowledge of compare
and contrast.
My students also completed a picture
sort or drew pictures of how the two
characters were similar and different. i
informally assessed this when they
presented their creations to the small
group. While the students were
explaining the similarities and
differences of the characters to our
small group, I used a rubric to assess
their learning. All students were able to
meet the goal of the lesson. Evaluating
the results from these informal
assessments, let me know that these
students are able to dive deeper into
comparing and contrasting. The next
steps for this lesson are to compare
and contrast two separate characters
from two different books.
APPLICATION WITH MY EB STUDENTS IN
THE CLASSROOM: After reading the book
(Big pig Little Pig) I added another informal
assessment which was a classroom
discussion. During this discussion I asked
questions like "how were the characters the
same, how were they different?" During
this classroom discussion I was informally
assessing my students to see which
students were able to identify how the
characters were the same and different
and which students were unable to. If my
students were unsuccessful I was planning
on rereading the story. During my small
group lesson., all students were able to
contribute to the small group discussion.
Informal assessments are also
called Authentic or Alternative
assessments. Some examples
of informal assessments are:
oral reports, presentations,
demonstrations, written
assignments and portfolios.
Many teachers have the
opportunity to use these
informal assessments in their
classrooms to track their
students' learning.
BOTH: Regardless of what assessments
teachers use, the assessments should be use to
drive instruction. After viewing the assessment
results, teachers should determine what
concepts the students mastered and what
skills need to be retaught to each student.
Teachers can group students into small groups
are reteach the skills to each small group, or if
all students failed to master the same skill the
teacher can then reteach the lesson in whole
group.
Receptive vs Expressive Language Skills
RECEPTIVE: The receptive skills refer
to the skills required to comprehend
what has been said. Quoted from
Brown University's article "Teaching
Diverse Learners".
When assessing expressive language
skills teachers should use rubrics to
help them with analyzing students'
language skills. Brown University's
article "Teaching Diverse Learners"
states that rubrics focus on:
Comprehension, fluency, pronunciation,
grammar, and vocabulary.
APPLICATION WITH
STUDENTS IN THE
CLASSROOM: Teachers can
assess the students'
receptive oral langugae skills
by giving the students
simple comands such as
"turn and talk with your
neighbor" "NAME sit in the
blue chair" "NAME you can go
back to your classroom now"
Teachers can also assess their expressive
language skills by listening to
their turn and talks, small group
discussions and oral
presentations.
Ideas on how to assess receptive oral
language skills: Observe how your EB
students follow simple commands such
as "sit in the blue chair", "line up"or
"Bring me your folder". Teachers can also
use picture cards to assess receptive
oral language skills. For example, "show
me the what you use to color with". An
effective initial assessment should also
have ways to assess this receptive skill.
EXPRESSIVE: The expressive or
productive skills refer to one's ability
to speak and convey one's thoughts
and ideas to others. Quoted from
Brown University's article "Teaching
Diverse Learners"