Authentic Assessment Of Ells In Practice

By Author: Jordon
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Perhaps one of the most motivating things English teachers can do for their ELLs is to provide opportunities for them to see the immediate connections between their lives and the curriculum, an important component for success. Authentic activities can include a variety of presentation formats that connect a work of literature, a poem, a quote, a piece of art, or song lyrics to the students' lives, either their lives in the United States or their past experiences in their native countries. These Tag Heuer Carrera Replica presentation formats can include traditional tools such as PowerPoint but can be expanded to include a video posted to YouTube, a website, a blog, the creation of a music video, writing and acting out an episode of a favorite show dealing with the themes of the work under investigation, or Web animation. These real-world tasks can also include traditional and electronic letter writing and project-based tasks that are meaningful to students outside the school and in their communities.

These formats not only allow ...
... teachers to see what their ELLs know in ways that go beyond traditional assessments, they also allow ELLs to develop the necessary and current technological skills needed for success in their new society.

Assessment of ELLs in main-stream English classrooms, like planning for instruction, requires additional time and collaboration on the part of teachers, but the benefits that students and teachers reap from such work are numerous:

Teachers gain accurate and nuanced understandings of their ELLs' understanding, interest, and abilities. ELLs gain valuable information about themselves as learners and their understanding of concepts under investigation becomes deeper and lasting since it is connected to their skills, interests, abilities, and lives outside the classroom. In addition, their confidence and language abilities are greatly enhanced. Mainstream students benefit from a variety of assessment measures as well, and these form a differentiated assessment protocol that enriches all students' experiences and interest in the curriculum. Finally, the community that is formed in the classroom through the completion of collaborative projects, peer feedback, and increased, authentic interaction is valuable for all involved.

In a recent article in The Reading Teacher, researchers discuss ways that mainstream teachers can assess ELLs and include the following suggestions:
1.Involve students in performance assessment tasks.
2.Offer students opportunities to show and practice knowledge in no language-dependent ways through Venn diagrams, charts, drawings, mind maps, or PowerPoint slides.
3.Promote participation in non-threatening situations that encourage experimentation with the target language of study. Assess language learning in the participation activities. (Lenski et al. 29)
When English teachers include performance-based, nontraditional assessments for ELLs as a supplement to the traditional assessments, a clearer picture of the ELLs emerges and allows English teachers to develop Tag Heuer Replica learning experiences that meet their diverse needs. In addition, ELLs are more likely to develop real knowledge surrounding the topics under investigation in the English class-room through the use of authentic assessments. This has a recursive effect: their increased knowledge and confidence will enhance their performance on the necessary traditional assessments. It is a win-win situation for all involved.