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Source: Ways to Assess English Language Learners Without Resorting to Tests

Citation:  Licain, Sarah. Watch Them Grow: 5 Non-test Alternatives for Assessing English Language Learners. (2016). Retrieved December 08, 2016, from http://www.fluentu.com/english/educator/blog/assessing-english-language-learners

Summary: Teachers do not have to rely solely on tests to assess students. Tests really only measure what students can memorize or recall, not necessarily what work they can produce. Also, many students have test anxiety and cannot accurately present an accurate representation of what they have learned. Oral presentations and performances are a good way to assess students. Students can re-tell a plot or explain a researched topic to the class. Creative writing and content logs are also alternative ways to assess students.

Evaluation: This article provides multiple assessment strategies as alternatives to giving students tests. I agree with what this article says about how traditional tests do not always give an accurate representation of what the students know. There are many other ways for students to show what they have learned in ways that put them under much less pressure than tests. Giving oral presentations, role-playing, writing journals or content logs, completing nonverbal assessments, and edit writing are all strategies that I believe could be very effective in a classroom, especially one with ELL students. These types of assessmensts are easy for the teachers to implement, as well as easy for ELL's, at any level, to use.

Reflection: I really like the strategies that were given in the article I chose. I think a lot of them would be very easy for me to use in my classroom, and use as a great tool for specifically teaching ELL's. I like the idea of oral presentations or role-playing. The students can act out  characters from a book that is being read in class to show understanding of plot and character development. Also, I think having the students teach the teacher as part of a review class could be beneficial to the kids. In conclusion, I enjoyed reading about the strategies in my chosen article and contemplating what it would be like to implement them in my future classroom someday.

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Source: Assessing English Language Learners.

Citation:
Ferlazzo, L. (2014). Assessing English language learners. Retrieved December 9, 2016, from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/larry-ferlazzo/larry-ferlazzo-assessing-english-language-learners

Summary: The author of this article discusses different assessment strategies to use with ELLs. A lot of the assessments are similar to or the same as assessments one would use for English speaking students. Different writing and fill-in-the-blank activities can assess writing capabilities and comprehension. Fluency assessments can also be used in the forms of writing, speaking, and listening. These can assess their own respective categories. The author also discusses the difference between data-informed and data-driven teachers. Data-informed teachers use assessment data to make thoughtful decisions to directly benefit students whereas data-driven teachers focus on things like speed instead of comprehension or other things that don't benefit students in the long run.

Evaluation: This source is good to find ideas of general ideas in which to assess your students. It could help you decide what type of assessment you want to use. However, it doesn't provide specifics. I think that if it specified more and gave ideas on what ideas to use in the classroom, then it'd be a more useful resource. Overall, though, the source is well written and the author seems to know what he's talking about in terms of assessing.

Reflection: I would use this resource to help me generate ideas on assessments. Once I can narrow it down to what type of assessment I want to use, I can expand my ideas onto other sites. This would also be useful to send to other teachers so they can learn about assessments and the difference between being data-driven and data-informed. I think a lot of teachers don't know or understand the difference between the two and I think it's important to understand the difference.

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Source: Research for the Classroom: Lost in Translation: Assessing Writing of English Language Learners

Citation:
J. (n.d.). Research for the Classroom: Lost in Translation: Assessing Writing of English Language Learners. Retrieved December 7, 2016, from http://www.jstor.org.proxy-calu.klnpa.org/stable/pdf/23269536.pdf

Summary:

The authors of this article are three members of the Hudson Valley Writing Project at the University of New York (SUNY) at New Platz worked with the National Writing Project’s Analytic Writing Continuum  (AWC) to explore the answer to the question, “What if the writing rubrics we use don’t make sense to our bilingual students or their teachers?” The team was made up of two bilingual teacher consultants and one writing project site director. The project began with a group of students, most of whose primary language was Spanish. The research directors believed that young writers could develop literary fluency in both English and Spanish, and encouraged students to code-switch and when writing to use the language that matched the moment or memory they were describing. When they sent the students’ writing samples off to be scored, the few students who wrote in English only scored a 1 or a 2 on a 6 point AWC scale, and the writing samples of the students who wrote in Spanish went un-scored. That’s when they decided to translate the rubric into Spanish, and tried to capture main ideas without translating word-for-word as some words got lost in translation. Next, one of the researchers translated the Spanish rubric back into English to test how closely the “back translation” matched the original English version of the rubric. This helped the team analyze what kinds of modifications would need to be made for assessing ELL students.

Evaluation:

I enjoyed reading this article because I think that all educators should take this same approach when assessing ELLs. After they had their rubrics, the research team consulted other bilingual educators and began compiling a list of “good writing qualities” in order to fairly score the writing samples written in Spanish. They got rid of writing qualities they had listed in English such as “formulaic,” because it suggests that students must learn and use formulas to write. After making these revisions to the rubrics and scoring the writing samples, what they found was that students who wrote their writing sample in Spanish scored a 3 or a 4 on the AWC scale. Maybe these students may have felt more comfortable writing in English had the rubric been clearer. Furthermore, maybe the Spanish-speaking students who wrote in English and received a low score would have done better with the revised English rubric or perhaps a copy of the rubric in both languages.

Reflection:

Through translation of their rubric the teachers discovered that their values for writing differ from writing conventions in other cultures. This article is an important piece of literature to read and I would recommend it to anyone teaching, assessing, or working with ELLs. Some of the things I learned from the authors’ findings include the need to modify translations for ELLs as necessary, and the need for explicitness. The authors point out that they had to come up with a way to define good writing. Additionally, they had to define expectations of writing from different contexts representing different writing tasks and different moments of development. The authors believe their translated rubric may be helpful to Spanish-speaking teachers trying to instruct in a US educational setting. Also, the rubric may help Spanish-speaking students learn how teachers want them to write in English. Writing in a foreign language is hard enough as it is. Knowing your teachers expectations will help ELLs understand exactly what the goal of the assignment is, in a context they can understand. The article was very insightful as to how one would create opportunities for teacher reflection on student writing, writing instruction, and writing assessment.

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Source: A? B? C? Assigning Meaningful Grades for ELLs

Citation:Theresa Waldspurger, ESL Teacher, Teacher Educator, Paramedic at Kent County Public Schools Follow. (2012). A? B? C? Assigning Meaningful Grades for ELLs. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/emttessa/a-b-c-assigning-meaningful-grades-for-ells

Summary: This presentation presents different ways to assess students other than the traditional A-F grading scale, especially ELLs.
The presenter states that ELLs struggle with mastery of grade level and content standards, which are crucial to student success in a traditional A-F grading scale, especially with ELLs various English proficiency levels. These ELLs do not have equal footing with native speakers due to their proficiency levels and are considered to be in a "no win" situation. ELLs need to be put in situations with various resources to help them in which they are as likely to succeed as non-ELLs. This is considered fair by the presenter. She also states that ELLs can chose ways in which they want to demonstrate knowledge, whether that is speaking or writing. Various methods to assess these ELLs include a pass/fail and highly pass system, a 1-2-3 grading scale for students above, at, or below grade level. One other grading scale for ELLs is product, process, and product model that assess ELLs performance level, their motivation, and improvement over time.

Evaluation: This resource is an intriguing informational source for teachers who want to assess ELLs student in different ways that break away from the norm. Teachers might want to use other ways of assessment grading to assess students who are not proficient enough to master skills required for them to do well in a A-F grading model. With these various grading models provided, teachers can assess ELLs in meaningful ways that would have not flourish in a traditional model. Students with these models are no longer labeled with a A, B, C, D, F letter grade. Instead they are assessed on scales that include pass/fail, at/above/below, and a progress/product grading scale. Alternative ways to assess ELLs to meet their learning needs is something all teachers to need look into for the success of their students.

Reflection: This presentation really helped me evaluate different forms of assessment that goes against tradition. In my own opinion, I believe that the A-F grading system does not always measure student performance the right way. There is too much focus on the mastery of skill. This doesn't suit well for many students, especially ELLs who are not proficient enough in our language to do what is required of them to do well. In order for their success, other grading models need to be used considered to help them meet their needs. This content really helped me see other viewpoints and perspectives on helping me assess students in various ways in the future.

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Source: Tips for Assessing ELL students

Citation: tolerance, T. (2012, March 15). Tips for Assessing ELL students. Retrieved from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILTwEJ8V8d4

Summary: When the speaker starts explaining his tips to Assessing ELL students he implies that teachers today have very low expectations for ELL students and that the first tip/ suggestion he provides is to have high expectations from your ELL students. Many students will hide their ability to answer questions because of their lack of ability to communicate. His next suggestion is including activities in your lessons that over time build upon each other so that you can gauge progression that uses a mix of first language and second language tasks. His final tip for ELL student assessment is to use more resources than just pen and paper. To also use human assistance so that they have social interaction and can participate with others. Examples he provided are teachers, students, family at home, and professionals in the classroom.

Evaluation: This is a good source to use when first engaging with a ELL. This was the basics of what is needed to make sure that your ELL student is learning and making progress in your class. Dr. Alfredo Artiles is very fluent and knowledgeable on how an ELL student should be approached and how they learn in the classroom. He focused on making sure that the student feels like they are getting as much help as possible and that they are an equal part of the classroom and are just as smart as the non ELL students in the classroom.

Reflection: The reason i would use this video is because as a starting teacher it is a good reminder that even students who act like they are not getting the concept or the material in class that they may actually know it better than other students in the classroom but unable to communicate it with the other students and teacher. The video also pushes the thought that ELL students should have high expectations put on them. This goes right along with my first point that the students are intelligent even though they cant communicate this knowledge. The video is pretty much just an introduction to Assessment for ELL students so this video would not be good for a seasoned teacher that knows exactly what they are doing or has a lot of exposure with ELL's.

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Tia Sullenbarger Source: Classroom Assessing English Language Learners Opportunity to Learn Mathematics: Issues and Limitations. Citation: Abedi, Jamal, and Joan Herman. "Assessing English Language Learners." (2010): n. pag. Teachers College Record, Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2016. .Summary: English Language Learners must meet the same annually yearly progress as their native speaking peers. This assures that ELL students be provided with the help and accommodations needed for success. This ensures that the ELL students are just as important as their native speaking peers. They can no longer be overlooked in the classrooms and their needs must be met the same as their native speaking peers. However, this places pressure on the teaching because it is known that ELL students are usually not as proficient academically as their native speaking peers. This requires teachers to have the knowledge and resources ready to be able to provide the right amount of support to their ELL students. What strategy: the strategy I believe would work best would be incorporating explicit instruction. Students need to fully understand what is expected of them or thy will be unaware of what to do. It's the teacher’s job to provide the student with the instruction needed to complete the task at hand. By the teacher thoroughly explaining what the student needs to do the teacher is simply setting the student up for success. I believe with my student English Proficiency level being so low that she would highly benefit from this teaching strategy. Why: I believe that students learn best when what is being taught is thoroughly explained to them. It is important that English Language Learners receive additional instruction time from their teacher. It is going to take ELL students longer than their native speaking peers due to the language barrier. I also believe that ELL students can highly benefit from additional opportunities to learn in their classroom. ELL students already struggle, having more opportunities to learn will only strengthen their skill. I found this article very informational. It provided emphasis on why it is necessary for English Language Learners to receive additional support in the classroom as well as additional opportunities to learn. It explained the importance of ELL students receiving these necessities and how they can only play a positive role for the teachers as well as the school as a whole. 

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Tia Sullenbarger Source: Classroom Assessing English Language Learners Opportunity to Learn Mathematics: Issues and Limitations. Citation: Abedi, Jamal, and Joan Herman. "Assessing English Language Learners." (2010): n. pag. Teachers College Record, Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2016. .Summary: English Language Learners must meet the same annually yearly progress as their native speaking peers. This assures that ELL students be provided with the help and accommodations needed for success. This ensures that the ELL students are just as important as their native speaking peers. They can no longer be overlooked in the classrooms and their needs must be met the same as their native speaking peers. However, this places pressure on the teaching because it is known that ELL students are usually not as proficient academically as their native speaking peers. This requires teachers to have the knowledge and resources ready to be able to provide the right amount of support to their ELL students. What strategy: the strategy I believe would work best would be incorporating explicit instruction. Students need to fully understand what is expected of them or thy will be unaware of what to do. It's the teacher’s job to provide the student with the instruction needed to complete the task at hand. By the teacher thoroughly explaining what the student needs to do the teacher is simply setting the student up for success. I believe with my student English Proficiency level being so low that she would highly benefit from this teaching strategy. Why: I believe that students learn best when what is being taught is thoroughly explained to them. It is important that English Language Learners receive additional instruction time from their teacher. It is going to take ELL students longer than their native speaking peers due to the language barrier. I also believe that ELL students can highly benefit from additional opportunities to learn in their classroom. ELL students already struggle, having more opportunities to learn will only strengthen their skill. I found this article very informational. It provided emphasis on why it is necessary for English Language Learners to receive additional support in the classroom as well as additional opportunities to learn. It explained the importance of ELL students receiving these necessities and how they can only play a positive role for the teachers as well as the school as a whole. 

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Source: Speech Room News

Citation:
@. (2014). Evaluating English Language Learners for Speech and Language Services - Speech Room News. Retrieved December 07, 2016, from http://thespeechroomnews.com/2014/08/evaluating-english-language-learners-for-speech-and-language-services.html

The resource I chose is a website titled “Speech Room News.” It is written by a practicing speech language pathologist who is currently working in the schools. This article was titled “Evaluating English Language Learners for Speech and Language Services. The article discusses differences verses disorder, research on bilingual children, assessing the English language learner, choosing a test, and the intervention process. This website walks you through the steps, and list specific assessment and what assessments included normative data from other cultures.

This website provided me with introduction information to assessment and treatment as a future speech language pathologist. The article addressed both the assessment process and specific assessments when assessing English Language Learners. When assessing a student you are assessing both his and her speech and language. For example when assessing speech you need to determine the phonemic influences on English, this can be done by using a contrastive analysis. It is also important to remember similar sounds across two languages may not be used the same. For my ELL Kiskeya I feel this would be important for her since her native language is a creole language. For language characteristics of the student will often overlap in both languages. For example low verbal output, or poor compression. As for specific assessment the REEL-3 was discussed. This assessment assumes that all cultures teach specific skills such as labeling. In return this may not be a true reflection of the students score and can result in a “no win” situation. An assessment that does consider normative data from other cultures is the EOWPVT. The EOWPVT is considered a dynamic assessment. When you do not use a dynamic assessment the standardized score is not typically considered valid for bilingual learners. If you school requires you to submit a standardized score you can also submit a disclaimer, for example: “Note: The following test/s __________were normed on typical English speaking children. Testing materials are not available in standardized form for child’s unique bilingual/bicultural background. In accordance with IDEA 2004(The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) [20 U.S.C...1414(3)], official use of standard scores for this child would be inaccurate and misleading so the results reported are presented in descriptive form. Raw scores are provided here only for comparison with future performance.” This disclaimer will hopefully change what is expected from the student.

I would use this resource because it provided me with the basic beginner information I needed. It is great for a novice clinician and is laid out in an easy format to understand. There was also a discussion section at the bottom where you can post questions and other speech language pathologist can respond. I also particularly liked that is gave a disclaimer statement to use if your school district requires you to submit standardized scores. Though this resource I feel I would be able to effectively evaluate a child.

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Source: Alternate Assessments for English Language Learners

Citation:

Anne (Amy) Cox-Petersen and Joanne K. Olson. (2007). Alternative Assessments for English Language Learners. Retrieved December 8, 2016 from http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=53299

Summary:

Monitoring ELL progress through content areas will help a teacher assess the students area of strengths and weakness’. In addition, assessment is a great way for a teacher to see what the student has learned in a certain area. The article I chose focused on using alternate assessment strategies for ELL students in the content area of science. What I found was that while ELL students struggle to write what they know about science they are highly capable of speaking about what they know. The study described in the article focused on 5th grade ELL students using art to demonstrate their knowledge on marine environments.  Through the use of the drawings, the researchers and teacher were able to assess the students’ progress over time and use the strengths of the students oral communication to explain the drawing.

Evaluation:
This article was extremely beneficial to my education and to the level of English for my student. Art is a wonderful way for children to express themselves and through art children can also show what they know and learned about a topic. I think this article described some great ways to use art for assessment and why it is important to consider alternative assessment tools. One of the things I enjoyed was the analysis of the scoring rubric used to assess the pictures and how it was constructed. I would definitely use that in my classroom for children of all ages across all content area.

Reflection:
I would use this resource in my classroom because it is a creative output for children. In addition, through all the testing and quizzes, sometimes it is beneficial and fun for the student to express themselves and demonstrate what they know in an informal way. Also, depending on the level of English Proficiency of the child, an alternate assessment tool is best. I would also recommend this strategy to other professionals because science is a fun area. Science is meant for children to be creative and research thus by creating an art assessment it is beneficial for the student and teacher.

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Source: Assessment & reflection with ELLs- And All Students by Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski

Citation: Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski. (2016). Assessment & Reflection With ELLs-And All Students. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/05/01/tln_ferlazzo_hullsypnieski.html

Summarize: In this article, they talk about how it is not always effective to measure what a student knows by using an assessment that is not in their same language. That is not an accurate way to measure what that student does, and does not, know. What they suggest instead is to use either simplified test questions, or to allow the student to use a bilingual dictionary. Another thing they talk about is the importance of knowing your students' proficiency level. By knowing this, it allows you to begin to understand what level the student is at so you can begin to assess them. The authors suggest to allow the students to be apart of the assessment process. Ways to do this is to allow students to self reflect and or to assess the class and teacher.

Evaluation: I really enjoyed reading through this article. I believe that Ferlazzo and Sypnieski have a lot of good things to say about how to assess ELLs. The layout of this article was very clear, and set up in a way that it is easy to read. Because they laid out the information the way that they did, it make it easy to understand what they were trying to say. They gave a problem, then addressed a way that they could solve it.

Reflection: I would use this article again if I ever needed to. The authors gave multiple situations you may see as a teacher. They also gave more than one solution that you could use to solve each situation. The authors are actual teachers, so that shows me that they have the experience, and that the information that they are giving can be trusted to be useful. I would recommend this article to others that might be in a situation with an ELL student.

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Source: Assessing English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms

Citation: Lenski, S., Ehlers-Zavala, F., Daniel, M., & Sun-Irminger, X. (2006). Assessing English-Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 60(1), 24-34. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20204430.pdf

Summary: This article explains that mainstream U.S. classroom include ELL's and it is very important for teachers to become more aware on way to assess literacy progress of their ELL students. Determining ELLs literacy backgrounds is essential for further instruction using nontraditional assessments. One method that this article goes into great detail about doing this is using predictability logs. The article explains that it is critical to know that students that may have the same culture may still have differences in cultural practices and might not be able to understand the same texts. Making modifications for your ELL students is essential in order to determine the ELLs true knowledge and skill level. There are many tables that could be beneficial to teachers such as, breaking down categories of ELLs, checklist for reading, and a teachers bookmark on alternative assessment practices.

Evaluation: Overall this article clearly laid out essential practices and methods to use when instructing ELL students. Along with giving a information about working with ELLs in the classroom. The predictability log can be used to determine the type of literacies ELLs bring to the classroom that may include traditional and nontraditional literacies. The article even provides examples of what questions to ask on the predictability logs. The text then moves on to how to assess students after learning their background information. I agree with the idea that multiple forms of evaluation should be used, including variety of different assessment tools (such as anecdotal records, checklists, rating scales and portfolios).

Reflection: I would definitely recommend this source to anyone that is going to be instructing students. It covers methods along with giving teachers ideas on ways to provide opportunities for students to practice their knowledge and further their understanding. This source can be used when teaching any subject, which is another reason why I chose this article. It explains that the key to successful alternative assessment is through planning and organization is a necessary skills for teachers to have. My subject for my lesson plan was science, which could be a hard subject for any students and could be even more challenging for ELLS. This article goes over how to approach ELL students who newly arrived with adequate formal schooling and limited formal schooling, who are exposed to 2 languages simultaneously, and long-term English-language learners.

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Title: Grading of ELL Students. Research Brief

Citation: Walker, K., & Education Partnerships, I. (. (2004). Grading of ELL Students. Research Brief. Retrieved December 08, 2016, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED538744.pdf

Summary: Around the years 2000-2001 a study found that around 10% of the K-12 student population are ELLs.  Since their is such a growing population of ELLs this puts a tremendous amount of pressure on educators to immerse their ELL students in English as quickly as possible.  Grading is the primary tool for an educator to discover how well their students are comprehending the curriculum. Feedback from the grading results allowed the students to understand what they are struggling with and what they are excelling in. In this research study article the researchers found that the recurring grading and feedback concept that was showing successful results for ELLS, was through portfolio assessment.  This is when the students compile their work and discuss their progress on an on-going and regular basis. The article highlights the results of the study and why they came to their conclusion, as well as offering suggested ideas for helping students develop literacy within their read content.

Evaluation: I really think that allowing the student to have a say in their educational progress. This gives the ELL a strong sense of encouragement to keep working hard in their education. The article I chose itself offered so many good guidelines for educators and certain strategies that I would implement in a clinical scenario. The one major finding in the article that I really agreed with was the encouragement for educators to closely monitor their ELLs' academic growth, by providing assignments that were very similar to the curriculum taught in class. This strategy offers students to relate their teachings to other concepts, they are learning but they are not getting frustrated or overwhelmed.

Reflection: This resource was a case research study done by many professionals. If these professionals are recommending these concepts and strategies based on their research I would definitely recommend listening to them and reading their insights. In a clinical setting I plan on allowing my clients to have a say in their therapy so we can discuss what they need to work on and how I can help them. This article offers multiple strategies and insights on how to teach your students. One more strategy that I would implement in my career from this article is definitely applying hands on activities in my therapy sessions to encourage my clients to enjoy their therapy.

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Tia Sullenbarger
Source: Classroom Assessing English Language Learners Opprotunity to Learn Mathematics: Issues and limitations

Citation:

Summarize: English Language Learners must meet the same annually yearly progress as their native speaking peers. This assures that ELL students be provided with the help and accommodations needed for success. This ensures that the ELL students are just as important as their native speaking peers. They can no longer be overlooked in the classrooms and their needs must be met the same as their native speaking peers. However, this places pressure on the teaching because it is known that ELL students are usually not as proficient academically as their native speaking peers. This requires teachers to have the knowledge and resources ready to be able to provide the right amount of support to their ELL students.

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Source: Five Ways to Assess English Language Learners Without Resorting to Tests

Citiation: Licain, Sarah. Watch Them Grow: 5 Non-test Alternatives for Assessing English Language Learners. (2016). Retrieved December 08, 2016, from http://www.fluentu.com/english/educator/blog/assessing-english-language-learners/

Summary: Monitoring the ELL student's progress is a great way to show the student their acheivements and to motivate them! Students can become very encouraged whent they see what great progress that have made, and this is likely to cause them to want to continue to succeed. However, tests are not always the best way to show and monitor progress. Many students have test anxiety, which can cause the students to not fully show their potential and progress. Tests often only show what the student has memorized from class, not what they have learned that they can apply. There are many other ways to assess ELL's such as: Rubrics and Performance Criteria, Oral Presentations or Performances, Non- Verbal Assessments, Writing Excercises, and Class Portfolios. Each of these can allow the student to elaborate on what they know, not just what they have memorized.

Evaluation: I really enjoyed these other types of assessments for the ELL's other than regular standardized testing.  I like that the strategies are allowing the students to show what they know and not what they can memorize. I also like that these informal assessments are not solely based on a timelimit, so this will reduce the anxiety the student may have. I like thet these types of assessmensts are easy for the teachers to implement, as well as easy for ELL's, at any level, to use. I especially like the idea of using rubrics. I like that the students are able to know what is expected of them before starting their assingments.

Reflection: I like these strategies and I think I could implement these in my own classroom someday. I plan to use the rubrics, because this is a great way to show the students what is expected of them. I also like the idea of classroom portfolios. I like that the students can create a large project with multiple assignments from the year. This is a greaet way for the students to see the progress they've made themselves.

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Source: Abedi, J. (2015). Assessment Accommodations for English Language Learners: Implications for Policy-Based Empirical Research. Retrieved December 09, 2016, from http://rer.sagepub.com/content/74/1/1.short

Summary:  The article I chose was pulled from google scholar, entitled, Assessment Accomodations for English Language Learners: Implications for Policy-Based Empirical Research. What drew my attention to this article apart from others was that it had the word accomodation. Accomodations simply implies that in the article suggestions would be made. Rather than a negative light on current ineffective assessment, and instead, a solution based approach. It listed effective qualities of assessments for ELL's, this included large scale assessments, further individualization and research put into students accomodations before application, and the importance of  focus on consequences of test results. It also gives caution about the use of the one size fits all approach, and suggests to rely on scientifically based research. The article concluded with a specific recommendation of customized dictionaries as a general fix if the teacher is unsure of evidence based practices.

"What" Resource: I decided to take advantage of the recommendation given in the article of the customized dictionary. This is generally used however the teacher feels is most effective to the ELL. It can be basic vocabulary use in English, or it can be a dictionary of Academic language for the ELL to study at the side to avoid confusion during lecture or text book, or even a focus of words used in the content area the ELL sruggles with most. Regaurdless of it's specific use, the general purpose of the dictionary is for the student to have a translator of words that are not understood to provide further understanding and application of learned content. It is given in the ELL's language to ensure understanding, and expand grasp of English vocabulary.

Why: I chose this resource because the article suggests it is a general go to that has been scientifically proven to be effective in ELL's. I would apply this concept to my lesson plan as a visual dictionary in order to meet my ELL baby's, Nguyen's,  grade level and level of proficiency in Englsih.

My lesson involved math and probability, using pizza toppings, and spinners into a game like atmosphere. There is a lot of large words and vocabulary involved in the lesson, and even for the non ELL students the topping alone may be unfamiliar words to them, therefore, each topping has a picture and label of the word. An accomodation I would apply to Nguyen would be this dictionary, including pictures of the pizza toppings, and the word written both in English and her home language for thorhough elaboration. This would avoid the incident of Nguyen performing poorly on the assignment, and being misunderstood by the teacher for struggling with math concepts in probability, when in reality the struggle was in language understanding.

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Source:
Using Informal Assessments for English Language Learners
APA: Using Informal Assessments for English Language Learners. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://colorincolorado.org/article/using-informal-assessments-english-language-learners
This article pinpointed different ways to assess ELL students in the classroom, and lists different ways to assess the students other than using formal writing assessments. Some assessments that the website mentioned was performance based assessments.  These assessments focus on things the student is doing in class.  As a teacher, you can assess the student's performance when they are playing a game, or creating an art project, or even through role play of a story.  All of these can assess the student's performance.  One assessment that I thought would benefit the students would be portfolio assessments.  I think this would be perfect for ELL students.  In the portfolios,  the teacher can put all of the student's work that they have completed over time.  To me, I think this would be a better way to see how the student has done over time, and the rate in which they are progressing.  The portfolios can have formal and informal assessments that the students have done over the year.
I think that this source has helped me get a better understanding of different ways in which we can assess ELL students.  I think that when I am a teacher, I will use these assessments for all of my students.

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Source:

Help Your ELL Students in Art Class with These Simple Steps

APA: Balsley, Jessica. (2014.) Help Your ELL Student in Art Class with These Simple Steps. Retrieved December 9, 2016, from https://www.theartofed.com/2014/12/31/help-your-ell-students-in-art-class-with-these-simple-steps/

This was a very interesting article that pertained to my field of study. It gave me a lot of useful information on how to create a "toolbox of resources" to help me assess future ELL students I will have in my class.
The three things that make art a challenge for ELL students are as followed: ELL students have a tendency to copy the teacher or another student, students don’t always understand the verbal directions you give, and students can become frustrated easily. Now, not all of these deal with assessment. The one I focused on the most was "ELL students have a tendency to copy the teacher or another student." This would make assess a student challenging because the point of art class it to create something entirely of your own. With copying others work, the student would not be learning anything and would ultimately fail the class. This article gave strategies on how to help this particular challenge. "One strategy to help ELL students make their own unique pieces is to keep file folders for each student with photos of things that interest them. If a student is strapped for an idea, simply pull out the folder and have him look through it." This allows the student to come up with his/her own ideas and would make assessing the work easier.

Assessment in art is very different from other content areas. In art, there are really no written tests, just product. As previously stated, assessing product of an ELL student that is simply copying others work would be extremely difficult. The strategies that would benefit the student would be to have a folder of things that interest them. For example, say the class is drawing an aerial few of food on a plate. You can take out that students folder and show him/her pictures of favorite foods with labels under the pictures. These labels should have the students native language word and the English word so that the student can connent words with meanings. This would be beneficial because now the student can see different types of food and be able to choose which ones he/she wants to draw on their plate.

Art classroom also have quizzes on materials. For example, say the class is learning how to use ceramics tools. The quize would already have images of the tools on it. An accomadation you can make for an ELL student it to add a word bank. Prior to the quiz, you can also make flash cards for your ELL students with pictures of the tools withthe English words on the back. This would help the student study for the test and also learn the English words.

I would use both of these strategies for my ELL student, Alenka, who is a beginning level ELL student. These strategies would help her connect meanings to word and also help her produce unique and original artwork.

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Source: Practical Ideas on Alternative Assessment for ESL Students

Citation: Tannenbaum, J. (n.d.). Practical Ideas on Alternative Assessment for ESL Students. Retrieved December 08, 2016, from http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/ practical.assessment.4.html

This article provides readers with ideas to alternative assessments that enable students to show what they can do rather than what they can recall. According to the article, alternative assessments generally meet three criteria; focus on documenting the student’s growth over time, emphasis on the student’s strengths, and consideration to the student’s learning styles, language proficiencies, cultural/educational backgrounds, etc. There are several examples of strategies that the article provides as being well suited for assessing ESL students. Some of the strategies presented by the article are Non-Verbal strategies, KWL Charts, and Oral Performances. When it comes to assessing the true understanding of an ESL student, alternative assessments are showing to have great promise and all the strategies that the article presents are intended to be as practical and adaptable for teachers as possible.

This article provides many strategies that teachers can use in their classroom to assess not only their ESL students but all of their students. All the strategies that were provided in the article were given an easy explanation of what the strategy was about and the article provided simple examples to help farther the reader’s understanding. The KWL Charts that we talked about in class were also one of the strategies that the article went over. References were also at the end of the article, so that the reader’s can either confirm the information provided is accurate or to continue researching more on the topic of alternative assessments for ESL students. One thing that I would caution about this article is that it seems that the website has not been updated since April 2000.

I would use this resource because it gives me plenty of ideas on alternative assessments that I can use in my classroom with all my students and in particular my ESL students. The article easily explains what the alternative assessment strategies are and it even provides a guideline on how to find alternative assessments that may have not been addressed in the article. I would definitely recommend it to others because the article is easily understood and provides practical ideas on alternative assessments along with examples of how they could be used. However, I would be cautious as well as caution others that this is an older article, so their might be other alternative assessments out there that would work better than the ones that were provided in this article, even though the ones in the article do make a lot of sense. Overall, this article helped to provide me with a better understanding of alternative assessments that will enable me to assess ESL students on what they can do and not on what they recall.

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Source: Assessing ESL Students in the Subject Classroom

Citation: Shoebottom, P. (n.d.) Assessing ESL students in the subject classroom. Retrieved December 9, 2016, from http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/eslAssess.htm

This resource explains how an ELL student should be assessed and graded.  If the student has reached a certain level of English proficiency, the student should be graded and assessed according to the same criteria as the native speakers in the class.  The student may not be as proficient as the other students, therefore, the teacher should give credit to the student for their understanding of the material even if their English is not completely accurate.  They should not be graded down for grammar or spelling mistakes.  If a student is behind on their proficiency, they should be able to give an oral explanation of the answers and be allowed to redo homework or tests in certain circumstances.  Students that have a low English proficiency should have modifications to assist them in completing assignments.  For example, they should be provided with sentence starters, graphic organizers, a dictionary, and labeled diagrams.

I think this resource is beneficial and informative. It gives plenty of examples of what alternative tasks, modifications, and accommodations can be used when assessing and grading ELL students with different English proficiency levels.  This source also has commonly asked questions from teachers with reliable and detailed answers.  It is a valuable resource for both teachers and speech pathologists.

I would use this resource for my ELL.  Since my ELL is beginning, I would use several of the modifications and accommodations with her.  Using these would help my student in performing better in the classroom and gaining confidence in her abilities.  I would recommend this resource to teachers, speech pathologists, and other school personnel working with ELL students.

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My Source: Science Assessments and English Language Learners: Validity Evidence Based on Response Process

Citation: O'Connor, M. C. (2014). Science Assessments and English Language Learners: Validity Evidence Based on Response Processes. Applied Measurement in Education, 27(4), 248-260. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-calu.klnpa.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=15&sid=9546d252-90af-442c-8400-41538422ca82%40sessionmgr4008&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=98307873

Information: The lesson I have been using throughout the semester is a Science lesson that caters to children from Kindergarten to second grade. Because of this, I felt the best thing to research would be assessment of ELL’s with Science. I feel as a future educator it’s important to know how to assess students in every subject area, but this was a very familiar area for me since I have been working with my ELL baby Jose and his Science lesson for the last month or more of class! “The science and mathematics tests administered in the United States to fulﬁll the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) have high-stakes consequences for students, teachers, and schools. The consequences of low test scores can include the denial of high school diplomas to students (Center on Education Policy [CEP], 2011a), the ﬁring of teachers and administrators, and the restructuring of entire schools”(O’Connor, 2014). This is a scary thought, especially since I have more background knowledge on ELL’s and the struggles they may go through on a daily basis while trying to improve their English language skills. I feel this is an unfair way of assessing them and these test could automatically make an ELL feel like a failure, when they are simply trying to grow and learn a new language which is not easy for anyone. “The most obvious contributor to test score gaps between ELL and non-ELL students is English proﬁciency. Given the requirements of NCLB that ELLs be tested using science and mathematics tests written in English after only three years in U.S. schools, many ELLs are being tested while they are still developing aspects of their English proﬁciency. Jose is an entering student when it comes to his proficiency level. Taking tests like this scares me a bit because he may not be ready for the level of vocabulary, directions, etc. “The interpretation of a test score as a measure of a student’s science content knowledge is valid if the test measures science content knowledge and no other constructs, such as English language proﬁciency or cultural knowledge unrelated to science (Haladyna & Downing, 2004) Thus, it is essential that the field of educational assessment continue to investigate the validity of interpreting ELL student scores on such tests as measures of their science or mathematics knowledge and skills”(O’connor, 2014). A way of testing validity would be through cognitive labs where students are questioned on how they answered questions and can orally explain. Another way to test validity would be using test items and participants at random to complete interviews as they could be study more in depth and made into case studies. These will help come to the realization that the way ELL’s are being tested may need to be fixed in order to promise them a superior future.

I took the time to read this resource thoroughly, evaluating it like I was looking for information for my own student. It’s important for ELL’s to be tested on what they are learning, not what they should know. Every ELL is different, so handing them a test is not going to help them if they do not fully understand the information or have not yet learned certain vocabulary terms or cite words. Math and science are two extremely important subjects, besides English which involves reading and writing. Most people would think reading and writing are most important for ELL’s to know, but what people do not think about is how every single subject interacts with the other. In math there are still vocabulary terms, as well as in Science. It’s important that English Language Learners are getting the help they need in each subject to effectively work through the class as a whole. The results from a test done on ELL and non-ELL’s stated, “for non-ELLs, the majority of the inconsistencies were due to students answering correctly but not demonstrating the target knowledge, while for ELL students, the majority of inconsistencies were due to answering incorrectly, but demonstrating the target knowledge. Due to the small size of our sample of students and test items, and the fact that students ‘answer choices and interview question responses for different test items are likely not to be independent, we do not attempt to generalize from these result” (O’Connor, 2014). I did not find it shocking that ELL’s had a difficult time answering the question on the paper correctly, but had the correct knowledge to back up the correct answer. Because of these results, I feel another way of testing needs to be done in order to show what ELL’s are truly capable of doing. If this means giving tests orally, why can this not be put in place to ensure success?

When becoming a future educator, it’s important to look at all the different types of students that may be in your classroom and most likely there will be at least one ELL. Because of this, it’s important to do the research and find out more about how to assess and work with these students to ensure their success, just like the rest of the students. Not only would I use this resource, but I would recommend it to others who are in the same situation as me or are trying to gain insight into the assessment of an ELL. It’s important to know where students may be struggling at the most when it comes to subject areas, as well as the test results that show this on paper. This article is fantastic because it explains the hard facts about ELL’s and proceeds to explain how they are being tested and the results of these tests.

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Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners

APA: Davis, K. (2015, April 01). Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners. Retrieved December 8, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehq0Yt9Atew

My resource covered how to make an assessment that was authentic for ELLs. The speaker mentioned how she had the ELLs help design the rubric so that it was not above their level. She mentioned that his allowed differentiated instruction even between different ELLs. This method was good for involving the whole class in the process.

The resource was really good as a quick overview for someone who just needed to know the bare basics. I wish it would have gone into deeper detail and have been a bit more organized. However, the speaker seemed to be knowledgeable and respectable. She brought up many of her experiences and this helped support her claims.

I would use this in class with all my students. Having rubrics that ensure that what is being asked of the students is challenging, but yet reasonable, is extremely important. It is hard to gauge students without their involvement as they do not come with a tag to tell how far along he or she is. To really adapt instruction, one must work with the student to ensure their success.

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My Source: Assessing ELLs in ESL or Mainstream Classrooms: Quick Fixes for Busy Teachers

Fregeau, Laureen A., & Leier, Robert D. (Feb. 2, 2008). Assessing ELLs in ESL or Mainstream Classrooms: Quick Fixes for Busy Teachers. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIV (No. 2). Retrieved from

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Fregeau-AssessingELLs.html

This article is helpful for any instructor dealing with ELL students in the classroom because it gives some information on ways to handle assessing these students with minimal extra work for the teacher. Assessments are stressful for both teacher and student which can lead to unsuccessful assessment procedures. There are assessment accommodation ideas that help both ESL and mainstream teachers. The strategies listed require minimal resources and are easy enough for the teacher to incorporate while using little extra time. Suggestions in the article include grading only work the student completed on an exam and include group projects in the assessment.

I feel this article provides useful information that is simple yet effective in assessing English Language Learners. The strategies used do not require anything but a little thinking on the instructor’s end and slight modifications to existing materials. The article states that teachers are required to incorporate ELLs into lesson plans and assessments, which can be overwhelming.  I believe the less stress on all involved, the better the results will be. This article suggests some great ways to do just that.

I would use this resource or recommend it because of the abundance of useful strategies. The information is broad enough to include students of all proficiency levels, subjects, and grade levels. Teachers typically have many tasks to accomplish in a short period and this article is a resource to assist them with making assessments less time consuming. I also feel this article suggests strategies that allow the students to feel more comfortable during the assessment process by offering numerous opportunities for assessment. This article comes an excellent website that has a collection of resources for teaching and assessing ELLs, The Internet TSEL Journal, which is a useful tool for all educators. They are listed in a chart and under different categories all relating to ELL students.

I could benefit from this resource when assessing my ELL student Jose. He is a beginning proficiency level student in my 8th grade Art class. I could allow him to draw an example of the art technique instead of writing the word on a vocabulary quiz or I could include step by step instructions on the exams with illustrations and highlighted key information. Jose’s attempts of using proper techniques to create a self -portrait as well as the finished painting can be an effective way to assess him in my class.

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Source: Assessment of English Language Learners

APA: C. (2014, March 14). Assessment of English Language Learners. Retrieved December 07, 2016, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysDDfG-enCc

- My video was about ELL and how assessment can be so hard for teachers, and also some strategies that can be used. A women on this video is giving information about common question people have about English Language Learners and how to accommodate these students. So assessment is gathering information or data on students learning, knowledge, or skills they present. It can be informal or formal but in a classroom it is mostly informal. There is good news and bad news regarding requirements now in the states according to Dr. Pierce. The good news is that their are requirements to go off of when assessing students now but the bad news is many teachers think this is a one size fits all approach and use those same requirements for the ELL. Many issues come into play with ELL students, one is a cultural issue which can be hard for some students and families because a child might normally take a passive rule in the family and go to school with the same thoughts.  He or she might just listen in class and not participate and they teacher thinks they are not learning. For assessing ELLs we need to use language of instruction that the students are familiar with or use different kinds of instruction. Inappropriate assessments have heavy language load, test item is out of context, or test item has cultural bias. Heavy language load would be the wording of the test directions presents an obstacle in and of itself. The students need to be able to get past the directions. Test item is out of context is when something is separate from reading a passage or personal experience.  Finally Cultural assumptions on background knowledge of learner may be incorrect.  Many assessments also have cultural bias which needs to be avoided.

- Some strategies for teachers to use when assessing ELLs would be any kind of reading skills assessment needs to be tied to classroom discussions. Their is a gap between standardized tests ELLs take and classroom tests.  English Language Learners need to use strategies like decoding words and reading strategies.  Teachers can connect standardized tests by reflecting on experiences in the classroom and activities.  Classroom activities can be used as assessment.  Teachers can observe a student and have a checklist or take notes about his/her performance in the classroom. This article talks about what I learned in class throughout the year. Dr. Pierce referenced in the video that romance languages are easier for an ELL to learn English as a second language.  Also that if a child has high literacy in their native language than they will most likely have high literacy in English as a second language, and family involvement is a very important step for the child's education.

- I think this is a great resource for teachers and speech pathologists to use because it explains many problems and questions people have about English Language Learners. It also shows the whole process of what families need to do to get there child into a school. My ELL is just beginning with English so I would make accommodations for her with starting by using pictures to help her with her language.  Then I would assess her by observing her and making a checklist of what she does and how she does it.  This can help because she may not be able to take in all the information on a test.

- I believe my ELL would also benefit from context cues on a test by making a simple passage and answering some questions on it or just telling me about a personal experience in English.  Many things can be done to assess my ELL on her English and with some modifications I believe she would succeed in her English abilities

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Colorincolorado. (2015, June 5). Assessment for ELLs. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6fG4FmibEQ.

My video depicts how Claremont Immersion School in Arlington, Virginia assesses their English Language Learner students. The staff at this school are very mindful of the language that the students already have, and then expand on what they need to know about the language components. The teacher in the video was showing her informally assessing if her students knew that “drawing a conclusion” was different than “drawing a picture”. It goes on to say that this teacher had noticed in the formal quarterly assessments, she noticed a trend of them misunderstanding. They use this tight assessment loop to determine whether the students are learning the content that they need with a pre assessment, lesson, post assessment, and analysis. Then she worked in a smaller group with those who still struggled with the vocabulary they didn’t know, and had to fill out an exit ticket to see if they got the information.

I would agree with what this video showed, especially considering it backs up what has been said in this particular class and other classes. It touches on the fact that the English language is very complex in that many words have a multitude of meanings. This can prove challenging for any student, regardless of their language proficiency. Also, the use of the Model-Lead-Test-Retest model is talked about often in my classes here at Cal, and I can definitely see how the constant repetition can help foster understanding. Also, it should the teacher working with a reading specialist to figure out why her class missed a question, and then develop a plan to combat that.

The fact that this video was baked by the National Education Association, gives its informations massive credibility. Also, the information given throughout the video is used not only on English language learners, but every student that Ms. Kirch had in her classroom. This means in implementable for every student not just those struggling with English. Lastly, the fact that the video packed so much information in such a short read will help me encourage people to watch it and learn from it, as opposed to an hour long documentary that they would never get around to fully watching.

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Source: Fairness in Assessment of English Learners

APA: Abedi, J., & Levine, H. G. (2013). Fairness in Assessment of English Learners. Leadership, 42(3), 26-28,. from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-calu.klnpa.org/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=9d64b729-4893-417b-bc65-eeb840e50bdd%40sessionmgr4010&hid=4105&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=EJ1004517&db=eric

-This article stresses the importance of fair assessment between all students in the classroom and provides ways of achieving fair assessments. Providing equal opportunities for all, ELL students must be provided with linguistic support in areas where language is not the target of the assessment. These are often called accommodations, which tend to be misused, misdirected, and misinterpreted. Increase the linguistic accessibility of assessment. Test items that are more complex in linguistic structure are modified in order to remove or reduce the linguistic structure that are unrelated. Creating assessments that are less impacted with irrelevant sources can lead to a promising assessment systems for ELL student's.

-I found this resource to be helpful and useful for all teachers. I think the aspects of an assessment that are effective for ELL students was very helpful. This article also discusses the impact of ELL assessment outcomes. It is not just a letter grade, and I think that gave me a different perspective on assessing ELLs. I like this article because it does not only talk about the different types of assessments to use but how to take current assessments and modify them.

- I would use this article when it comes to my own classroom. I would use the tips it provided when creating or assessing my own assessments. I would recommend this article to other teachers to use when making there own lesson plans or activities. I think not only teachers could benefit from this but also speech pathologists. I think teachers having a guide to modify lesson plans is a great tool to use when needing different assessments for different students.

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Source: Fair and Square Assessments for ELLs

APA: Fenner, D. (February, 2016). Fair and Square Assessments for ELLs. Educational Leadership. Volume 73. Page 5. Retrieved December 6, 2016, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb16/vol73/num05/Fair-And-Square-Assessments-for-ELLs.aspx

The resource I chose pertaining to assessing ELL’s is an article that includes some strategies for teachers to learn how to advocate for fair assessments and accurately grade their English Language Learners. The author starts out by discussing how she gave some teachers from a school district in New York the same geometry lesson in German that we received in class at the beginning of this semester to show them how flawed assessments can be for ELL’s when they are not fluent in the language yet. She then briefly describes the research and statistics about how unreliable, unfair, and invalid many assessments are for ELL’s. She goes on to discuss how crucial it is to understand a student’s strengths and needs when advocating for a child to be successful. She lists three strategies: choose appropriate accommodations for state assessments, prepare students for computer-based assessments, and use English language proficiency scores to plan instruction. She also gives examples of case studies and provides what accommodations would be best for that English Language Learner and their situation.

I found this resource to be helpful and informative. I noticed many similarities between the research and what I have learned in this class all semester long. The author suggested oral supports such as reading-aloud the directions of the test. She also suggested to provide a home-language translation or a state-approved bilingual dictionary of the directions and the whole test in certain situations with proper guidance on learning how to use the dictionary because this accommodation might be unfamiliar to students using it for the first time taking a test. One thing we can further do that I never thought of is forming a committee between teachers, other school personnel, and parents to decide on which accommodations would be appropriate for the student before school even begins, that way the student can get used to things like the bilingual dictionary example and make adjustments throughout the school year. The author also mentions ELL’s needing to learn how to use technology by helping them develop their keyboarding skills, terms they need to know to navigate on the computer, and talk about computer-based testing with parents.

I would use this resource as well as recommend it to others because it stresses the importance of making sure assessments show validity and reliability. The more accurate an assessment is for an ELL, the more accurate the data will be for teachers and parents to see the child’s areas of linguistic strengths and needs. For my specific English Language Learner, Nguyen, I would provide the oral supports mentioned in this article when assessing her for my given lesson and other lessons. I would read aloud the directions for the written portion of the assessment, and provide a home-language translation. Since her proficiency level is Entering, she needs a lot of supports. I would also meet with her parents and other school personnel at the beginning of the year and discuss supports and accommodations that are appropriate for Nguyen so that she would be used to a home-language translation by the time it was time for the assessment for my specific lesson for her.

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APA:  Jung, L. A., & Guskey, T. R. (2010, February). Grading Exceptional Learners. Retrieved December 06, 2016, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Grading-Exceptional-Learners.aspx

Grading Exceptional Learners is an article that stresses the importance of fairly grading students with exceptionalities such as a disability or language difficulties.  Most grading is completed with the use of standards based on grade and content of the lesson being taught. For students with exceptionalities, the article recommends to change grading from the assessment of overall learning to the assessment of a specific set of skills.  By making this change, parents and students are able to receive more meaningful information on the accomplishments the students are making.  This article also provides a five step model to determine if a standard is appropriate for the student being graded.

Knowing the appropriate way to grade every student in your classroom, is very important.  While every student must be held to a high standard, we must determine the standard is fair. It describes how teachers can adapt their standards to provide these students with an appropriate and reachable goal.  The five step model allows teachers to look at the grade and content standards and modify them to focus on specific skill goals for the student to reach instead of the grade level they should be meeting.  This resource provides examples for each step of the model and provides teachers with ways to share with parents more efficiently on how their children are progressing.

I would recommend this resource to other teachers and use it myself in my own classroom.  This resource recognizes that students with exceptionalities must be graded the same as their peers but with a different approach.  It gives you step by step on how you can examine a standard and determine if it will be appropriate for the student being graded or if it needs any adaptations or modifications to better benefit the student.  This resource states that it may take more work on the teacher’s part, but encourages better parent and student understanding.  It allows them to look at the specific skills that the student is progressing in and which skills still need some improvement.  This step model also gives educators better information for effective interventions or placement for these exceptional learner.

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Source: How to Accommodate Grades for ELLs. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from https://cesp.rutgers.edu/how-accommodate-grades-ells

-Formative assessment is a great way to track students progress, however for ELL’s it is not as simple. The teacher must choose a unique approach to formatively assessing an ELL because it is based on their understanding of the academic content and not their linguistic ability. One example was given of having the ELL write 3 summaries of different lengths. The different lengths requires them to used different attentions to details. Dr. Flores gave many different examples of different ways that as a teacher you can formatively assess your ELLs.

-This website is from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The professor in the videos seems to know exactly what she is talking about and shares a lot of great strategies for assessing ELLs. The site to me seems to be reliable. It comes from their center for effective school practices.The site is also easy to navigate around.

-I think that this article was a great choice to pick because of all the different examples that it provides. I feel as though I can take a lot from this article on how to formatively assess my ELL without them falling behind because of their linguistic abilities. This article gives strategies to use for spelling, reading and vocabulary that I think are informative for teacher that are having difficulty assessing their ELL. I recommend that everyone takes a look at this sight so get some ideas from it. It also has videos with examples on how and why to use these assessments. The videos explain what the assessment is good for.

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Source: Modifying the Instruction and Grading ELL Students

APA: Barnés, S. Modifying the Instruction and Grading ELL Students. Retrieved December 6, 2016, from Orange County Public Schools, https://www.ocps.net/cs/multilingual/Documents/Grading%20ELL%20Students%20and%20Modifying%20the%20Instruction-%20SBR.pdf

~The article stresses that teacher’s need to take into consideration the student’s level of English proficiency when planning out assessments and assignments, and when assigning grades to students. This is due to the fact that a student may not be able to communicate content knowledge the way other students can. ELL students have the right to receive an accurate evaluation of achievement. The article emphasizes that watering down the curriculum is not an option and the student will receive grades based on the accommodations and alternative assignments appropriate to the student’s language proficiency level. It is important that the child is not penalized for not being fluent in English, but the grading should reflect the daily instruction he/she is given.

~What is great about the article is that it stresses the important aspects of grading ELL students. It highlights the fact that the curriculum cannot be watered down or easier. What is good is that the article states that modified assessments and assignments are important for an ELL student. The article provides a well thought out guideline of step by step instructions for grading ELL students. A teacher or speech pathologist would benefit from this article in the basics grading ELL students.

~I would use this source because it is simple and to the point. If I was having a hard time thinking about how I can create modifications when assessing or assigning homework for my ELL student, I would use this article. My ELL student would greatly benefit from an assessment that has pictures with short directional commands. He has a hard time understanding classroom instruction and the SLP could take him aside and give him the assessments one on one. He would greatly benefit from modified instruction because it would help him only focus on the person giving him the assessment.

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Source: Using Informal Assessments for English Language Learners

APA: Using Informal Assessments for English Language Learners. (n.d.). Retrieved December 06, 2016, from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/using-informal-assessments-english-language-learners

This article talks about informal assessments, standardized tests, and ongoing assessments. Standardized tests in English usually do not reflect ELL's true content abilities. Informal assessments 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. The article includes links to different assessments examples and rubrics.

I feel that this article would be helpful for classroom and teachers and SLP's. The common core standards focus on teaching students to pass standardized

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Source: Assessing ELLs' Reading Comprehension and Science Understandings

APA Annotated: Faggella-Luby, M., Griffith, R. R., Silva, C., & Weinburgh, M. H. (2016). Assessing ELLs' Reading Comprehension and Science Understandings Using Retellings. Electronic Journal Of Science Education, 20(3), 150-166.

The article that I chose that addresses ELLs assessment focuses mainly on reading comprehension and science understandings.  There were findings that being able to retell a text shows that you not only understand what you have read, but that you have background knowledge to back up your understanding.  To prove the research, the writer took a group of 5th graders and had them retell texts for 14 days.  After the research, it is concluded that retelling is an important way to assess your students' understanding of a text.  They also concluded that it is most helpful in a science classroom.  This not only works for ELLs, but for all students.

The article is an important source for not only science teachers to read and understand, but all classroom teachers.  The author shows that retelling a text is an important way for teachers to make sure that students are comprehending what they are reading as they are reading it.  Although they specified in the article about retelling in science texts, I feel that I would use it in almost every subject.  I feel that this article truly shows teachers how important retelling a text can be for ELL students.  It teaches them how to pull important information from a text a rephrase it in a way that shows listeners that you understand what you are reading.  This article showed me the importance of retelling and allowed me to think of ways to use it in my future classroom.

I would use this article for my ELL Volker.  My student is in first grade and is at the developing stage of English.  Because of this, he can begin reading simple texts and can retell what he has read.  This way of assessing would show me that he is understanding what he is reading and isn't just focusing on saying the words correctly.  I would highly recommend this resource for anyone with an ELL student because it shows the importance of a student understanding what he or she is reading.

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Source
Fox, J., & Fairbairn, S. (2011). Test Review: ACCESS for ELLs[R]. Language Testing, 28(3), 425-431

Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State (ACCESS) is a large scale, standard base, and criterion referenced English language proficiency test. ACCESS is administered for English language learners (ELLs) kindergarten through twelfth grade. The test covers social and academic English in reading, speaking, listening, and writing.
The resource provided is to inform teachers but also encourage them to teach the standards and not the test to promote use of the standards to guide students' language learning. The focus of this article was to better educate teachers so they will better prepare their ELLs for linguistic proficiency and better provide access to academic success. The article covers 3 important aspects of ACCESS. The first section discovers the purpose of the test. The second explains background on development. The third section evaluates the test design, format, administration, and use.

The article is a strong source for supporting ACCESS and informs the readers on the most important topics. The author explains how the standards have been aligned to the academic content standards of WIDA. The article goes beyond the background and development of ACCESS and supports evidence of reliability and the types of scores the test produces. Providing reporting scores informs the reader how test users can compare student's progress across grades K-12 with WIDA proficiency scores. What I found most important was the author's opinion on why it is beneficial for educators to ensure ELLs have experience with test booklets, time limits, rubrics, and task to demonstrate what they know on the actual assessment. The author states "Failing to provide  this experience to a test taker is tantamount to asking a tennis player to prepare all of the required skills for tennis without playing a practice match before the tournament game. " (Fox, 2011). This is important to indicate that test takers need practice in order to give their best performance on the test.

I would use this resource for my ELL because ACCESS is linked directly to the WIDA proficiency standards. I would use the scores of ACCESS to reflect the range of proficiency within my student's level of entering. Using this assessment would help me generate information to determine if my ELL attains what she learns. This assessment provides graphic representations that would help my student express what she knows. ACCESS would benefit any teacher because it provides them with information they can use to enhance instruction and learning.

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APA Annotated: "English Language Learning and Assessment Worldwide." ETS research: English language learning and assessment worldwide. Educational Testing Service, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. <http://www.ets.org/research/topics/ella/worldwide/>.

~ This website provides information for English language learning and assessment worldwide. This website states that research shows that the assessments TOEFL Primary and TOEFL Junior Standard and Comprehensive tests are quality, valid and fair. This is a helpful source for teachers worldwide who have English language learners in their classroom.

~ This resource states that their website has been supporting research on worldwide assessments for adults and older adolescent ELLs who need to have proficient English for school or career use.  Their research on assessments for younger ELLs has provided a strong research foundation for newly introduced assessments that target elementary and middle school kids in worldwide contexts.  These contexts include TOEFL Primary tests and TOEFL Junior Standard and Comprehensive tests.  The website describes what each of these tests are.  The website also has links to the tests that give information on how to use them, information for parents, the test content, preparing for the tests, scoring and reporting, and frequently asked questions.

~ This resource is a great resource for teachers, SLPs, and other school personnel to use.  This website gives solid information and resources that supports the assessment of ELLs worldwide.  The tests that assess ELLs are valid and fair.  The tests are always designed to be up-to-date, which helps the progression of ELLs.  The website has tests for adults, older adolescents and younger students which is awesome because it can help assess everyone.

~ I would use this resource for my ELL.  Since my ELL is level three developing and in second grade, I would use the TOEFL Primary test throughout the year so I could monitor her progress.  This test would measure her English communication skills that provide a foundation for her future success. I would also recommend it to teachers, SLPs and other school personnel.  I would recommend this website because these assessments can help monitor ELLs progress.

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Source: Guidelines for the Assessment of English Language Learners

APA: Guidelines for the Assessment of English  Language Learners. (2009). Retrieved December 4, 2016, from https://www.ets.org/s/about/pdf/ell_guidelines.pdf

The resource that I chose for this assignment is from the Educational Testing Service, also known as ETS. The resource is entitled "Guidelines for the Assessment of English Language Learners". The purpose of this article is to provide information for educators in making proper decisions regarding the assessment of English Language Learners in all academic areas. This article offers information and recommendations that educators can use regarding factors influencing the assessment of English Language Learners, the development of assessment items, reviewing/revising testing items, scoring of responses, administration of tests, accommodations for tests, and the evaluations of the assessment. The article also mentions recommendations on test reliability and validity as well.
Overall, this resource was very informative on various guidelines that educators need to follow and abide by when assessing English Language Learners. These guidelines include language, background, and culture factors that may influence the assessment of English Language Learners that educators may not be aware of. The article also brings to light the various steps that need to be taken in order to plan, develop, review, evaluate, and score assessments for English Language Learners. The article also offers suggestions and recommendations for educators to use on the process of constructing, implementing, and evaluating assessments for English Language Learners as well. This resources is a good source of information to use and apply in the classroom.
In retrospect, I believe that this resource should be implemented by all educators. It focuses and provides information on assessments and grading for English Language Learners that all instructors need to be aware of. I recommend this resource for all educators due to it providing accurate and specific evidence that will help better the educational learning experience for both the English Language Learner and teacher. This resource can make a big impact on those who are not aware of the information that could be available to them. By using this resource, it can change the way assessments are constructed and truly assess the English Language Learners knowledge and ability in the correct way.