By Robin Butler and Camille Richie What accommodations best assist ENL students with assessments?

Things to consider: Assessments are an ongoing process. Regular feedback is needed in order to clarify/ correct misunderstanding and misconceptions. Students should be assessed in a variety of ways or multiple times. (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short 2010) “Every model of the teaching learning process requires that teachers base their decisions instructional, grading, and reporting on some knowledge of student attainment of and progress towards desired learning outcomes” (Cheng, 2004)

Assessments vs Evaluation Assessments are defined as “gathering and synthesizing of information concerning students’ learning.” Evaluation is defined as “making judgements about students’ learning.” The process of assessment and evaluation can be viewed as progressive: first, assessment, then evaluation. (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short 2010)

Informal Assessment vs Authentic Assessment Informal Assessment-on the the spot, ongoing opportunities for determining the extent to which students are learning content. Examples: teacher observation, anecdotal reports, conferencing with the student, quick writes and brainstorming Authentic Assessments-is characterized by its application to real life, where students are engaged in meaningful task that take place in real-life contexts. Examples: written pieces, audiotapes, student and parent interviews, videotapes, observations, creative work and art, discussion, performance, oral group response, (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short 2010)

Possible Accommodations Range: number of items expected to be completed Example: even or odd problems, less multiple choice answers (Lee, 2006) Time: Adapt the amount of time for completing a task Example: more processing time, breaking task into manageable chunks, longer wait time to answer questions Participation: adapt the degree of active involvement in assessment Examples: individual self-assessment, assisting in creating rubrics, and cooperative group self-assessment, peer-to-peer assessment,

Possible Accommodations Level of Support: adapt the amount of scaffolding provided to an English language learner during assessment Example: Asking an aide, peer assistant, or parent volunteer to read and/or explain the task, or read aloud the items for assessment *There is a difference between assessing an EL’s ability to read and follow written directions, and a student’s ability to complete a task or answer questions about a content topic.

Possible Accommodations Difficulty- Adapt the skill level or type of problem or task Examples: allowing calculators, dictionary or simplified instructions Product- adapt the type of response allowed Example: permit drawings, a hands-on demonstration, a verbal or translante response. (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short 2010)

Classroom Teacher Point of View Assessment Accommodations: Test/Quizzes: “I want to provide my ENL students with the accommodations that they need. If that means getting rid of some multiple choice answers, adding a vocab bank, or letting them draw things out instead of writing it out, I will do it” Projects: “For my ENL students, I will try my best to pair them with particularly helpful students in the classroom. If they are participating in the group discussion (even if that means just drawing pictures on the presentation board), it means that I’ve done my job” Quotes from Mr. Leonard of Pike High School, Biology

ENL Teacher Point Of View Voice Recording From Kim Northrup of Westlane Middle School

Case Study Question You have an ENL student in your class that has a group presentation. You require each student in the group to provide and participate in the presentation aspect of the project so that they can get a feel for public speaking. Your ENL student said that they refuse to talk in front of the class because they are scared they will say something wrong. It is required for each student to talk in front of the class to get full points on this presentation for you. What are some accommodations that you would make so that your ENL student will not be left out of the presentation, but not get a “free pass” on the presentation?

ENL Teacher Response Re-evaluate the project and decide what is essential for that the student to answer or gain from the project. If the assessment is not for public speaking, come up with a different way for the student to prove that they are proficient. Communicate with the ENL teacher to gauge if the student is capable of completing the project. Kim Northup- ENL Teacher at Westlane Middle School

Classroom Teacher Response “Participation is key in my class. I don’t want my ENL students to think that they can get a “free pass” every time they have to do something. If I had a student that refused to participate in front of the class, I would not allow it. I want my ENL students to have the same experience as their English speaking peers. So, if my ENL student has a problem with talking in front of the class, I have them practice their part of the presentation with just me before they need to present in front of the class. I would try to make them feel more comfortable in speaking, but I will make them do the presentation.” Quote from Mr. Leonard of Pike High School, Biology

Article Evidence - What to Do Performance Based Assessment: “When conducting interviews in English with students in the early stages of language development to determine English proficiency and content knowledge, teachers are advised to use visual cues as much as possible and allow for a minimal amount of English in the response” (Tannenbaum, 1996) Test/Quiz Based Assessment: “testing students in pairs (or groups), that is, with their peers, means that they have the opportunity to demonstrate their interactive skills in ways not generally available in more traditional testing formats, such as the one-on-one oral proficiency interview format, which typically involves a single test-taker with an examiner, who may combine their role as interlocutor-facilitator with that of assessor or rater” (Taylor, 2009)

Literature Review Cheng, L., Rogers, T., Hu, H. (2004). ESL?EFL instructors’ classroom assessment practices: purposes, methods, and procedures. Language Testing, 21:3, Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D., (2010). Making content comprehensible for elementary English learners: The SIOP model (pp ). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Lee, Y. (2006). Dependability of scores for a new ESL speaking assessment consisting of integrated and independent tasks. Language Testing, 23:2, Taylor, L., Wigglesworth, G. (2009). Are two heads better than one? Pair work in L2 assessment contexts. Language Testing, 26:3, Tannenbaum, J. (1996). Practical ideas on alternative assessment for ESL students. ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, 1-8.