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Reflection: On taking the ELPAC TEST

I felt like some of the test questions were very tricky. I know I re-read a few questions twice, because they could have two possible answers. Moreover, students who are Multilingual would probably struggle when answering these questions. Due to there is a language barrier and they won't be able understand the questions yet alone answer them. Moreover, a lot of students including myself suffer from anxiety, so I can imagine it will be very difficult to focus when taking this test.

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I think the ELPAC uses a deficit-based perspective.  It gave me the impression that it focuses on student learning

deficits instead of focusing on students’ assets.  It doesn’t take into account students’ prior knowledge and cultural background.  The ELPAC requires a level of grade-level knowledge which can be a barrier for students with disabilities and students who are new to the English language.

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After taking the ELPAC reading assessment for 4th grade, it took me a while to read the paragraph and questions carefully to make sure I "answered" correctly. I cannot imagine how 4th graders might have to even read more carefully than I did. There are paragraphs included Master's degree and phd. I never knew any about these specific word terms until I entered middle school. As a future teacher, I'm not going to expect elementary students to know all these word terms but how the ELPAC tests expected them to know???

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I took the 1st grade reading assessment and I felt like the questions were broad. Most of the questions were choose the best answer and a simple picture. I was unsure of what the question was asking but the answers were simple too. I think if students were to have detail of what the question is asking it would be less confusing. In elementary school, I remember rushing through the test because there were other tests I had to take, like math and language arts. I just wanted to get done with testing and the teacher would always time us and if we didn't finish in a certain amount of days we would be placed with other students in the library to finish the test. I did not want to be separated from my classroom.

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After taking the ELPAC, it kind of brought flashbacks to when I had to take the exam. I took the 1st grade reading practice exam and I can see how only having one correct answer can be confusing. I don't see the point of confusing students. I also noticed that there were questions with longer readings. I used to volunteer in a first grade class and many of them struggled with reading and comprehension, so I can also see why these questions could be confusing.

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ELPAC for 2nd Grade Reading

Taking the test gave me a better understanding of some of the challenges students may have. The test is long and children are easily distracted. On top of this, the sentence structures and even the images can be difficult to understand because sometimes pictures have cultural meanings or details that are easy to miss.

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I feel like looking back on the practice test, students need more support in knowing that the teachers have their backs. Some kids may face test anxiety, or even be scared of what their outcome is going to be. I think that for me, the test was fairly easy, although I am not in their shoes. We need to lead with patience and understanding. Help children and do not make them feel like they are less than. Answer their questions, allow them to feel what they are feeling, but also do not enable them and have them give up. We must be their biggest cheerleaders and cheer them on. It can be long, overwhelming, and, honestly, overall discouraging. Everyone comes from a different background, and we must respect and embrace that.

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While taking the practice ELPAC for 2nd grade, I noticed that the questions started easy with visual aids, and towards the end of the test, they had a passage on the Statue of Liberty. For the visual aid questions, it made me think of how the question could be culturally biased.

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I took the 1st Grade Speaking ELPAC, I think some aspects work and some aspects do not. While the images are clear and vivid, they can be interpreted in any way. Some questions have multiple answers, and especially for multilingual students in 1st grade some words, and associations have yet to be made. Some words used in the test were, "solar system, shelves, organizers, etc." I dont think its too fair especial for their age and linguistic level. On the positive note, The images were pretty clear for students to understand whats going on in the image, however to express their thoughts is where I can see the difficulty rising.

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I personally have mixed feelings with the ELPAC. I understand why it is made, but I do not think it is necessarily accurate to measure student's language ability. Yes it goes go over the four domains, however the way it is structured could be quite challenging even for EO students. For those who are in 6th and on, it could seem discouraging having to retake the test every year when they have been English speakers for years and seem to still have a long way to pass the test. However, I do think that as a teacher we could spend time to get to know tests and breakdown the questions so that students are prepared for the rigor of the format.

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I took the ELPAC reading assessment for 3rd grade. I found it tricky as an adult English speaker, so I can see how this would be challenging for a multilingual learner. I do not understand why the images they put along with the passages were drawn. I think using real images that students can relate to would help them be more successful when it comes to understanding what they're looking at. On more than one occasion I found myself confused by what the question was or which answer was correct because it could be answered in more than one way.

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I grew up multi-lingual, but I never underwent any sort of testing, so this was a first for me. I took the Kinder ELPAC practice test and although it seemed simple, I can easily see in which ways a learned with less knowledge may struggle with not enough guidance.

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After taking the ELPAC reading practice test for 1st grade. I realized it may be difficult for 1st grade multilingual learners because they might not be proficient in certain terms mentioned in the test. They might not be proficient in reading as well so that may take a while for them to comprehend the text.

-Arisbet Ramirez

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I took the 3rd grade reading ELPAC test and thought that it would be very difficult for students are just learning English because some of the words are new and challenging. I think it would be difficult to read and answer the questions especially when they need to do so in such a short amount of time.

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Nadiah Mohammed - I did not like taking the test at all. I found it difficult, and the questions felt as though they were purposely using difficult wording. I believe that some of the answers were misleading as well and could confuse a student. I also do not like online testing, students that I have worked with also do not like staring at a screen trying to read questions. They prefer to have something they can hold to take a test.

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Some of the questions on the ELPAC are not even really relevant to what the student may be learning in the classroom setting. I think that in order to assess a student's language proficiency, you should look at the whole student and how they are able to converse with you in person and elaborate on their thoughts and ideas. Oftentimes tests can be scary to take because of the stigma around scores and tests, etc. For ML students, taking the ELPAC can make them feel disappointed because they may not understand what the question is asking.

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I felt that the test was challenging even for an adult. I thought of my mom and dad trying to take this test (they both only speak english but only went up to middle school education). I imagined that they would struggle a lot with the trickiness of the questions’ wording. They are both native English speakers so I can only imagine what it would be like if a student who was a native Spanish speaker took this test. They need to reshape this exam to have more CLEAR and CONCISE answers! Give the kids a better chance at success This way

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I took the 4th grade reading ELPAC assessment, and some of the questions tripped me up to the point where I had to reread it a couple of times. I did not like that there could be multiple "correct answers" but students have to choose the "most correct". I felt like I was taking this exam back in 5th grade because that was when I tested out of ELD, so this practice exam brought back some emotions I didn't know I had.

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Taking the exam took me back to elementary school, when I was made to complete the actual test. I feel that the assessment does not take into account the experience of Multi-Lingual learners. Additionally, there were answers that could easily trick the student taking the exam that doesn't really test skill in my opinion.

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It felt like I was back in 2nd grade. The little ringing noise to test the sound. I think that it is very much catered towards certain students. Like one of the questions asked for 3rd grade why did the author mention PHD and Masters, and if a student has a family who never had higher education there is no way they’d know what that is at that age. I also think that the exam doesn't take into consideration culturally correct responses. Meaning that, if a student answers what they consider to be correct based on their upbringing, but it isn't what the test preconceived as correct then it is like they are being told their culture is wrong.

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Karla Gutierrez-Guzman

I would like the ELPAC to give the students an opportunity to explain what they see instead of just “pick the best” or “pick the one that represents it the best”… I would also like for it to be able to make the student a “study” or like “learn” log to help them learn.

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After taking the ELPAC, I have a better understanding of what the exam looks like and the stresses it brings as well. When taking this exam, it was more challenging than I had anticipated. For a Multilingual Learner to take this exam, it might be very challenging and can even be very discouraging for them. This raised my curiosity about how I can help my students when the time comes for them to take this exam.

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I took the ELPAC reading assessment 5th grade. It took me a while to read the paragraphs. I could only imagine when a student has to take the test and how it is being administered, because the environment could affect the student's ability to take the test. Also a lot of the questions were repetitive so, for me personally, it doesn't test and measure the student's reading comprehension skills. Students could also guess on the questions as well. The way the questions were formatted reminded me of the tests I took throughout my primary education. Honestly, there should be a better way to support multilingual students without having to take the tests.

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Reflecting on the ELPAC I felt like it was very biased towards students who are not multilingual learners and targets heavily on those students who are. I really do not like the environment that comes with standardized testing. Just because Ive seen and experienced as a student and teacher and always wonder if there is a better alternative on how we can get this testing and data.

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Upon reflection, the test would be fairly easy for native English speakers. However, for students who are not fluent in English the wording could be confusing and indirect. The structure of the paragraphs with the numbering can make it difficult to look for information since they do not follow together causing confusion.

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On the reading test for 3rd grade, I found many of the questions confusing and some not relevant to the text. The wording of the answer choices lowered my confidence throughout the test. I could imagine as a multilingual student motivation throughout the test would decrease.

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ElPAC thoughts.

After taking the 6th grade practice test I realized how difficult and anxiety inducing this test can be. one thing that I noticed is some of the audios would use phrases such as " you are what you eat". These type of phrases are difficult to understand without knowing the context of the english language.

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I feel that being able to use this practice exam is a great tool for educators, as it provides insight into what is expected of students test-wise and how we can offer additional support in the classroom, especially for our multilingual learners. I can see the challenge for students with the way the questions are worded and how it may be misleading, and I can also see how this may cause stress for multilingual students who struggle with responding meanwhile their peers may fly through the exam.

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After a student takes this exam are they told what did well in and what needs improvement? I can only imagine the confusion that a student can feel not knowing what they are doing well in. What if they assume that they need extra assistance in a certain topic but in reality they are at grade level.

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Taking the ELPAC test, I could see how Multi-Lingual learners could face many different challenges. Referring to the 9th grade writing test, the questions were lengthy and had layers to them. There were minimum sentence requirements, specific language that needed to be used, and minimum sentence length. Students would need to possess the ability to break down question requirements effectively. Keeping numerous requirements in mind during their writing could lead to writers block and flustering. Also, the language used was very textbook and standardized.

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ELPAC for 2nd Grade Reading Reflection

The average multilingual learner would face several challenges in taking this assessment. The test is long, from a young student's perspective, so they might become distracted or discouraged. There are passages that are on the lengthy side with big words that even a monolingual would not be able to read. Also, I believe some questions are especially focused on critical thinking skills due to their tricky or complicated wording. I think some multilingual students would inevitably rush through the assessment or mindlessly answer the questions due to a lack of knowledge or understanding.

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The ELPAC was a lot harder than I anticipated. I took the 6th-8th grade reading one and was surprised at the types of questions being asked. There were a few that were confusing to me as a native english speaker. The passages are all quite long and connected, and use language elements that would be confusing for ALL scholars, but especially so for multilingual learners.

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The ELPAC test brought me back to when I had first started school in the U.S. I had always struggled with syntax and grammar in these tests, and much of the content is still very similar to what I had seen in the past. Some of these questions have complex and confusing wording that can be intimidating for Multilingual Learners and the amount of reading students have to do is also quite challenging. Standardized testing in general is often not the greatest tool for measuring an individuals' proficiency/mastery of the content. Test anxiety is also a very real struggle students may face and I hope that one day these tests won't be the only way to determine proficiency.

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i think the whole formal assessment is really long and overwhelming. i honestly think that teachers should break up the assessment into parts and make it more comfortable. for a lot of it, i feel like having a conversation with the students would tell us their level

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Reflecting on taking the practice ELPAC, the questions for me (as a monolingual student) were challenging and confusing. I was upset that we give multilingual learners because these tests seem to purposefully trick them into believing they do not know English.

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I took the ELPAC assessment designed for middle school students, and I found it challenging due to the length of the reading passage. I can only imagine how overwhelming it might be for a ML student to get through the entire text and complete the task.

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While taking my practice ELPAC, my biggest concern is the length of certain passages for my multilingual learners. Other than administering practice tests and holding regular interventions, what can I do to support these students? How often can I administer a practice / interim for the students and am I able to view their scores?

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one of the ways that I feel that multilingual learners can be supported by teachers when they face challenges of the ELPAC is by coming up with ways for other students who have finished their work not to make so much distraction or make the other students still working on their tests feel pressured to rush through the test. I feel that even though I was not a multilingual learner, I have experienced that pressure to skim through the questions just because I felt all my peers did and they're talking and noise stopped my concentration .

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After taking the test, I now have a better understanding of what the ELPAC is like. One thing that bothered me when taking the test were the pictures. The pictures and answers were meant to trick the test taker. In my question, there was an image of a child writing on paper, and it asked what is described in the image. The answer I picked was pen, but they also added other words like paper, dot, and another word that I forgot.

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When reflecting on the ELPAC my biggest takeaway if that it is a lot of pressure to put on such a young child. How can we measure a child's language fluency without having them take a long and at times confusing assessment?