Embedded Files
Currently, ELLs in New York State are tested upon their first entry into the USA and into a school district. Learn about this testing process with the NYSITELL and other assessment tools including the NYSESLAT given every spring. We also provide strategies for assessing Newcomer ELLs in the classroom. As online teaching is emerging, ways of assessing students are changing.
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his language, that goes to his heart."
-Nelson Mandela
RESOURCES:
ELL TOOLKIT IN 5 LANGUAGES This 10 chapter toolkit is designed to help school leaders meet their obligations to their ELLs and families. Chapter 8 discusses performance monitoring.
https://www.middleweb.com/41698/design-your-tests-with-english-learners-in-mind/
A Few Places to Find Great ELL/Assessment Resources
Using FlipGrid as an Online Assessment Tool-Jason Garcia Part of VirtuEL Conference, July 2020
The Best Resources on Differentiated Grading for ELLs: Larry Ferlazzo offers some great resources here in his January 2018 article including Diane Staehr Fenner's recent article about the Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs.
ENL Report Card Templates: Well done downloadable report cards for parents of ELLs by the Long Island RBERN Report Card Committee with Spanish and Haitian Creole translations.
NYSESLAT - The New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) is designed to annually assess the English proficiency of all English language learners enrolled in Grades K–12 in New York State schools. https://sites.google.com/a/oswego.org/my-enl-page/home/about-ells-and-new-york-state-assessments
Grading Newcomers-A Can-Do Approach - The Can-Do Descriptors provide a clear and basic overview of ELs’ ability based on their initial or annual language proficiency test. This powerful document highlights what our ELLs CAN do at various stages of the language development and for each language domain as they interact with core content.
Five Non-Test Alternatives to Assessing ELLs- Don’t rely solely on tests to assess your students! They’re not always an accurate way to measure their skill levels.
Assessment of ELLs - Dr. Lorraine Valdez Pierce leads a discussion of effective classroom strategies for assessing English language learners.
Some Ideas for Differentiating ELL Assessments
Strategies for working with existing tests
Multiple choice: eliminate one or more of the choices
Discussion and essay: have ELLs label terms, draw and label diagrams and pictures
Matching: reduce the number of matches required, give an equal number of possibilities in each column, and eliminate “trick” language matches
Short-answer: accept one-word answers and phrases in place of complete sentences
True/False: eliminate or clarify “tricky” language, reduce the number of questions
Fill in the blank: provide two or three options (make the answer multiple choice)
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse