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SIOP Assessments Informal- November
Topic Started: Nov 16 2016, 04:01 PM (67 Views)
Lisa Z.
Administrator
Please take a few minutes to look through the following resources to get some ideas of informal EL assessment strategies to use in your lessons. If you are an elementary teacher, you might want to sign up for a free 14 day trial of Reading A-Z and download the PDFs for your current and future use. Then, select one strategy and write a brief description. You can either try it out in a real-life lesson and report on how it went, or describe how you might use the strategy in lesson with your students. Respond to one person's post by the end of the month.

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/using-informal-assessments-english-language-learners

http://www.d11.org/Instruction/Science/Curriculum/9-12/Pages/SIOP-Strategies.aspx

https://www.readinga-z.com/ell/ell-assessments/
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LeighP

Since I am an English teacher, the Content Area Progress form in the "Assessing Content Knowledge" section on Colorin Colorado was really interesting to me. This particular strategy encourages and allows the content teacher to alter assessments so that the ELL students can be assessed on their content knowledge and not their English proficiency. Content area teachers can focus more on content knowledge in a couple of different ways (whichever is more appropriate to the students in question). Teachers can add scaffolding to assessments for ELLs by altering how students are required to present their knowledge. Students can create alternative projects, use drawings, and complete graphic organizers to show their understanding of content information. Teachers can also differentiate their grading in order to focus on content understanding instead of language (what the student says not how he or she says it). I liked the Content Area Progress Form because it allows and encourages the content area teacher to focus on the student's knowledge of the content separately from the student's understanding of the language in which he or she is being instructed. I think that separating those two concepts could be really helpful and could force the teacher to separate content knowledge from language proficiency more effectively.

As a content area teacher, I think that this form would be really helpful for working for ELLs. I think sometimes you get so caught up in teaching the content and hitting your standards that you don't have a chance to think about how a student's English proficiency could be influencing his or her ability to succeed in a content area class. This form would force me to separate the two concepts and think about how to alter what I am doing to allow my students to show me what they actually understand about the course's content. This form would make me think about different ways to assess students in order to learn more effectively what students really know.
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davidpoe1

In my ESL Algebra class, I use informal assessments continually in each lesson. Particularly, retelling stories, giving descriptions or instructions using visual or written prompts, oral reporting to the whole class, and debating, either one-on-one or taking turns in small groups.

Retelling stories:
I simply get my students to add on to or reword something than another student says in class.


Giving descriptions or instructions using visual or written prompts:
In most lessons, I ask the students to explain how they worked a problem that is in their book or on the promethean board.

Oral reporting to the whole class:
Again, the students continually explain their thinking to the class or to their partners.


Debating, either one-on-one or taking turns in small groups:
Daily, I ask my students to compare answers with a partner and discuss why the answers are correct if they both have the same answer, or discuss and decide which answer is correct if they have a different answer than their partner.

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TrinityOwens

I liked the monthly language and academic progress survey. The teacher scores the student, on a 1-5 scale, on the different areas of language acquisition. Not only does it have a place to write what the student needs to work on, but it has a place to write down how you plan to work on it. It would be a good tool to reflect and focus on a student's individual needs. I probably would not start another new thing this year, but I would definitely look at doing it next year. I would set aside a time every month to complete these surveys for each student.
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TrinityOwens

In response to Leigh, I agree that it is so easy to get caught up teaching content and forget about language. I stumble into that sometimes teaching ESOL. These surveys that help you stop and reflect and plan ahead for language are really helpful.
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CorinHarpe

I thought that the Portfolio assessments were interesting. I use this method in my own classroom. My students keep all of their classwork in either their writing folder or their reading folder. At the beginning of the year we used notebooks, but I prefer folders because it is easier to keep track of their work. The most complicated aspect of this method is sustaining organization. I am never sure if I should let the students take home their assignments after a while, or if I should keep them to show student progress over time. I think the best solution would be to keep particular assignments and then allow them to take other assignments home. I also need to work on setting goals for students based on their completed assignments, and having students actively involved in setting goals. I like the idea of students creating their own rubrics and checklists.
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CorinHarpe

In response to Trinity, I think that monthly language and academic progress survey is a great idea. Students get so invested in their progress, and if this method was started at the beginning of the year, they could be really motivated to improve and master new standards and skills.
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LeighP

In response to David, I really like your idea about a debate or discussion with two people (elbow partner talks, kind of, I guess). I like how that would allow students to practice speaking without the pressure of the whole class watching them. I've also had some good luck with partner talks, and extending it to more debate could be really beneficial in class.
In response to Corin, I have always liked the idea of using portfolios, but the organization issue does always give me pause when I think about starting it. I like your idea about including some assignments and letting students take some assignments home. It also makes a lot of sense to involve the students in their own goal setting.
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Karilena

On the Colorin Colorado page, under Assessing Content Knowledge, it mentions differentiating scores for language proficiency and content proficiency, which I try to do for every writing assignment (or oral assignment) for every student. In this way, they feel comfortable telling me what they know without being concerned with sentence structure/syntax/word choice/punctuation. At the same time, I can give them a Language Arts grade that assesses how they're doing in that area and holds them accountable for the skills we have learned (because both are important!). Also, this is great because it gives students an opportunity to revise their work while reinforcing content that they already know.

Also, to piggyback off of Corin's thoughts on portfolios, I keep a folder of my students' work so organization is less of an issue, and I keep it paperclipped together by quarter so it's easy to go back and reflect on progress.
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Lisa Z.
Administrator
I understand the hesitation about developing portfolios due to the organizational challenges. If you are interested in trying it, I wonder if doing a writing sample once a month or once a quarter to add to a portfolio might be a manageable.
You could even have students set goals for themselves for the next assessment and track progress towards it.
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