ELL Students Break Out Data
This assessment measured students' ability to identify the narrator’s point of view and explain the difference between a narrator’s perspective and a character’s perspective in a literary text, as outlined in ELA.4.R.1.3. In addition to analyzing whole-class data, I examined the performance of my English Language Learners (ELLs), including one student who is a lower-level English speaker.
The ELL group’s average pre-assessment score was 6%, significantly lower than the whole-class average of 44%, indicating that language barriers affected their ability to access the content. Specific challenges included, difficulty understanding key academic vocabulary (e.g., "narrator," "perspective," "first-person," "third-person"). They also struggles with distinguishing between the narrator’s point of view and a character’s thoughts due to unfamiliarity with sentence structures, and the lower-level English speaker particularly struggled with reading comprehension, making it difficult to answer questions correctly.
Based on pre-assessment data, I implemented accommodations and instructional strategies. I used visual aids, anchor charts, labeled diagrams, and color-coded texts to help illustrate different points of view. I also used sentence stems and frame and provided structured responses such as: "The narrator’s point of view is ______ because they use the words ______." I also used small-Group Instruction and pulled ELL students for targeted instruction, where we practiced identifying point of view using shorter, simpler texts before transitioning to grade-level passages. Finally, I used partner and peer support. I paired ELL students with bilingual peers or higher-level English speakers for guided discussions.
After targeted instruction and accommodations, the ELL group’s average post-assessment score improved to 33%, an increase of 27 percentage points. While this was still lower than the whole-class average of 67%, it showed significant progress. Key improvements included a better ability to identify first-person vs. third-person narration, especially when guided by sentence stems, an increased accuracy in distinguishing the narrator’s perspective from a character’s thoughts using key text clues, and the lower-level English speaker made progress in identifying pronouns and signal words that indicate point of view but still required significant support with explaining the differences.
While the growth in ELL students' understanding was encouraging, I would like to see even greater improvement in their ability to explain their reasoning independently. To continue supporting ELLs, I plan to provide additional practice with visual and interactive activities, such as acting out different points of view, introduce more bilingual resources, including translated versions of key concepts where possible, and continue using sentence stems to help students develop more complete responses. By analyzing ELL-specific data and making targeted instructional adjustments, I was able to address language barriers and improve students’ ability to understand and analyze narrator’s point of view and character perspective.