ELD 504: Assessment

of English Language

Learners

Learning Team A

December 5, 2011

READING AND WRITING

ASSESSMENT PROJECT

Assessments can provide the teacher with

information regarding student understanding of the

content being taught. Assessments can also determine

student achievement and areas where they may be

falling behind. It is imperative that assessments be

used to gauge student learning in relation to content

standards. Carefully selected assessments can be used

across curricular areas as they provide organized

and specific criteria relating to the learning

objectives.

INTRODUCTION

Incorporating suitable assessments in reading and

writing is important for students as they are essential

components to communication in the English language. The

following reading and writing assessments are research

based and effective ways to accurately and properly assess

student achievement for high school aged students. These

assessments were carefully chosen to meet the guidelines

set forth by the California Department of Education for

English-Language Arts (ELA) Content Standards.

Reading assessments are crit ical for high school students

because information gleaned from informal and formal assessments help

determine the reading abil it ies and levels of al l students in content -r ich

academic sett ings. Reading assessments are used for teachers to

understand how students obtain information and acquire l i teracy.

Selected assessments should also take into account students’

backgrounds and how students structure and retain new l i teracy

knowledge (Wren, 2004). Awareness and uti l ization of various formal and

informal reading strategies inform instructional planning, aiding in the

selection of which ski l ls are best for specific students. Three specific

reading assessments greatly benefit high school students and their

ef forts to improve their reading ski l ls.

READING ASSESSMENT

Reading f l uency i s o f ten

considered a br i dge between word

decoding and comprehension. A

fo rmal assessment used to measure

reading f l uency i s ca l led DIBELS .

Dynamic Ind icators o f Bas ic Ear l y

L i teracy Sk i l ls , o r D IBELS (Good and

Kaminski , 1996, as c i ted by B l om-

Hof fman, Dwyer, C l arke , and Power,

2002) , des igned to assess

phonological and a l phabet ic

awareness and f l uency, measures a

broad range o f i mpor tant ear l y l i te racy

sk i l ls that are pred ictors o f l a ter

reading prof ic iency (Reading Rockets ,

2011a) .

Because DIBELS i s a l so useful fo r

moni tor ing the ef fec t i veness o f read i ng

i nter vent ions (Kaminski and Good, 1996,

as c i ted by B l om-Hof fman, et a l . , 2002) ,

i t can be appl ied to any s tudent

acqui r ing new l anguage sk i l ls . By us i ng

DIBELS, i nst ructors can t rac k i ndiv idual

students ’ p rogress and the i r l evel o f

ac hievement . Once s tudents have the

abi l i ty to decode words accuracy, the i r

reading f l uency rates w i l l i ncrease . S i nce

reading f l uency i s a l so a requ is i te sk i l l i n

social s tud ies , sc ience, and math ,

DIBLELS can be a useful s t rategy to

suppor t Engl ish l anguage l earners (ELLs)

i n content areas other than ELAs .

READING FLUENCY: DIBELS

Decoding is a ski l l needed to grant students access to information

in content area texts as they progress through their academic careers. A

formal assessment to measure students’ abi l ity to decode is the Test of

Word Reading Ef ficiency, or TOWRE ( Torgesen, Wagner, and Tashotte,

1999, as cited in Berninger, Smith, and O’Donnell , 2004). This

assessment is used to help determine students’ abi l ity to decode words

ef ficiently by reading a passage of text as clearly and correctly as

possible. The instructor monitors student per formance by noting

mistakes made by individual students while reading and decoding words.

This instrument can prove especially helpful in monitoring the progress

of ELLs with their Engl ish decoding ski l ls.

TOWRE: TEST OF WORD READING

EFFICIENCY

PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

An individual portfolio is an

informal way to assess students’

abilities, progress, and

achievements through

teacher/classroom observations

and samples of work. Instruction

on how to pick a piece of work to

place in a portfolio is beneficial

for students because it models

reflection of their own work while

encouraging students to take an

active role in learning information

they feel they have not yet

mastered (Reading Rockets.org,

2011b).

This allows the teacher to

compare and check the

progress of students over the

course of an academic year.

This method can be applied in

any subject area and is

especially effective with ELLs

when monitoring beginning of

the year work samples with

end of the year progress

(Pierce, 2002).

WRITING ASSESSMENT

W r i t i n g a s s e s s m e n t c a n b e u s e d f o r a v a r i e t y o f

p u r p o s e s , s u c h a s d e l i v e r i n g f e e d b a c k t o s t u d e n t s , s t u d e n t

p l a c e m e n t , r e a l i z i n g p r o f i c i e n c y i n a g i v e n s u b j e c t a r e a , a n d

e a r n i n g a g r a d e . B e c a u s e s t u d e n t s a n d e d u c a t o r s , m o r e o f t e n

t h a n n o t , a r e c o n f r o n t e d w i t h h i g h s t a k e s a c a d e m i c

a c c o u n t a b i l i t y , i t i s p a r a m o u n t a s s e s s m e n t p r o t o c o l s a r e g u i d e d

b y s o u n d p e d a g o g i c a l p r i n c i p l e s t o i n s u r e t h a t t h e y a r e v a l i d ,

f a i r , a n d a p p r o p r i a t e t o t h e c o n t e x t a n d p u r p o s e f o r w h i c h t h e y

a r e d e s i g n e d ( C o n f e r e n c e o n C o l l e g e C o m p o s i t i o n a n d

C o m m u n i c a t i o n , 2 0 0 9 ) . F o r m a l a n d i n f o r m a l w r i t i n g

a s s e s s m e n t s a r e u s e d r e g u l a r l y f o r a v a r i e t y o f r e a s o n s t o m e e t

e s s e n t i a l c r i t e r i a f o r h i g h s c h o o l s t u d e n t s t h r o u g h o u t C a l i f o r n i a .

Despite the importance of writing, many high school

students do not learn to write well enough to meet the

demands of school or the workplace. The National Assessment

of Educational Progress revealed that many students do not

develop the competence in writing needed at their respective

grade levels (Persky, Daane& Jin, 2003, as cited in Graham

and Perin, 2007). These findings support why it is critical

for classroom teachers to instruct and perform regular

informal writing assessment to meet the needs of students.

Authentic assessment measures are performance-based, and

should be used to guide instruction (Evaluation

Springboard.org, 2006).

Authentic assessments benefit students best when they

are utilized across the curriculum. Summaries, journaling, quick-

writes, rewriting a story, and letter-writing are some examples of

well-designed activities that provide teachers with fast authentic

assessments of student performance. A variety of writing rubrics

are available from reliable sources that can assist teachers and

students before, during, and after writing activities. It is also

suggested that peer editing be utilized to provide interaction among

students. Students often benefit from reading, editing, and

r rewriting one another’s work.

Directions: Label each part of the essay using a

different colored pen.

FRAMED PARAGRAPHS AND ESSAYS

Framed writing models are

graphic organizers that offer

students a solid framework in which

to write paragraphs and essays. The

instructor-provided frame guides

students through a formal writing

structure while making available

scaffolding for writing skills like

transitional sentences and

compound-complex syntax (Reading

Rockets, 2011).

Frames can be used at the

beginning, middle, and end of

instruction to make content-area

learning more motivating and

meaningful. Frames can also be

utilized across disciplines to develop

literacy and thinking skills (Ellis,

1998).

Revising one’s writing is a way to learn about the craft of

writing. Learning to revise teaches students about the characteristics

of good writing, which wil l help to improve the quality of their future

writing. Revision skil ls complement reading skil ls and require that

writers distance themselves from their writing in order to crit ically

evaluate their own work (Reading Rockets, 2011c). It is important to

instil l good revision practices in young writers because it gives them

an opportunity for reflection about their process. Peer editing has

proven to be a successful way to help students develop revision skil ls

(Graham & Harris, 2007, as cited by Reading Rockets, 2011c). This is

particularly true when peer groups have explicit goals for revision

(MacArthur, 2007, as cited by Reading Rockets, 2011c).

REVISION

Research on the wri t ing

process advocates that wri ters learn

most ef f ic ient ly about wri t ing when

they share and reflect on thei r

wri t ing. In c lassrooms, th is is most

commonly done through wri t ing

conferences as par t of the rev is ion

stage. Whether they occur wi th pai rs ,

wi th small groups, or wi th the

teacher, the social benefi ts of sharing

wri t ing improves wri t ing (Reading

Rockets, 2011d) .

Donald Graves (1982) ident i f ied s ix

characterist ics of successful wri t ing

conferences. Conferences should: (a )

have a predictable structure ; (b)

focus on a few points ; (c )

demonstrate solut ions to students '

problems; (d) permit ro le reversals;

(e ) encourage use of a vocabulary

appropriate for wri t ing; and ( f )

s t imulate pleasure in wri t ing. Most

teachers use some var iat ion of these

characterist ics in thei r c lassrooms

across the curr iculum.

WRITING CONFERENCES

Assessing the reading and writing abilities of students is

an essential part of the learning process. Assessments are

done at every level of the learning process. The reasons for

assessments are to identify skills that need review, monitor

student progress, guide teacher instruction,

demonstrate the effectiveness of instruction,

and provide teachers with information on how

instruction can be improved.

CONCLUSION

Both instructor and student

benefit from the results of initial and

ongoing assessment. Educators are

able to design instruction to meet the

individual needs of their students.

Ongoing informal assessments are

particularly important for English

Language Learners. Informal

assessments (partner reading, class

discussion, role-playing,

brainstorming, etc.)

can provide a more

well-rounded picture

of their skills, abilities,

and ongoing progress.

Educators can design immediate

instruction based on the results of

informal assessment. Mastering

reading and writing skills are extremely

important because they are used in

every subject area. Achieving these

skills at every level of learning helps

students to be successful life-long

learners.

Berninger, V., Smith, D.R., & O’Donnell, L. (2004). Research-

supported assessment-intervention links for reading and

writing . National Association of School Psychologists.

Retrieved from www.ldonline.org/article574/.

Blom-Hoffman, J., Dwyer, J.F., Clarke, A.T., & Power, T.J.

(2002). Strategies for conducting outcome evaluations of

early intervention literacy programs. National Association of

School Psychologists. Retrieved from

www.readingrockets.org/articles/577/.

Conference on College Composition and Communication

(2009). Writing Assessment: A position statement . Retrieved

fromwww.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/writingassessm

ent.

REFERENCES

Ellis, E.S.(1998). Framing main ideas and essential details to promote comprehension . Tuscaloosa, AL: Masterminds.

Evaluation Springboard (2006). Selected methods: Assessments.Rockman et al & EdVenture Group. Retrieved from http://www.evaluationspringboard.org/assessments.html?&lang= en_us&output=json&session-id=5fcabef1be960952 ace1b3a302aae4e3.

Good, R. H., & Kaminski, R. A. (1996). Assessment for instructional decisions: Toward a proactive/prevention model of decision-making for early l iteracy skil ls. School Psychology Quarterly, 11 , 326−336.

Graham, S. & Harris K. (2007). Best practices in teaching planning. In S. Graham, C. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.) Best practices in writing instruction . New York: Guilford

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). A meta -analysis for writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal of Educational Psychololgy,99 (3) pp. 445-476.

Graves, D. (1982). Six guideposts to a successful writing conference. Learning , 11(4), 76-77

REFERENCES (CONT.)

Kaminski, R. A., & Good, R. H. (1996). Toward a technology for assessing basic early literacy skills. School Psychology Review, 25, 215-227.

MacArthur, C. (2007). Best practices in teaching evaluation and revision. In S. Graham, C. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.) Best practices in writing instruction . New York: Guilford.

Persky, H. R., Daane, M. C., & Jin, Y. (2003). The nation’s report card: Writing 2002. (NCES 2003–529). U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Pierce, L. V. (2002). Performance-based assessment: Promoting achievement for English language learners. ERIC/CLL News Bulletin, 24 ,(1), pp. 1-3.

REFERENCES (CONT.)

Reading Rockets (2011a). Classroom strategies . Washington,

D.C.: WETA. Retrieved from www.readingrockets.org/

strategies/.

Reading Rockets (2011b). Types of informal classroom-based

assessment: Portfolios . Washington D.C.: WETA. Retrieved

from www.readingrocket.org/article/3412/.

Reading Rockets (2011c). Classroom strategies: Revision .

Washington, D.C.: WETA. Retrieved from

www.readingrockets.org/strategies/revision .

Reading Rockets (2011d).Classroom strategies: Writing

conferences. Washington, D.C.: WETA. Retrieved from

www.readingrockets.org/strategies/writing_conferences .

REFERENCES (CONT.)

Torgesen, J.K., Wagner, R. K., & Rashotte, C.A. (1999). Test of

Word Reading Efficiency . Austin, TX: PRO-ED Publishing, Inc.

Weaver, B. (2011 ). Formal versus informal assessment.

Scholastic Teachers. Retrieved from http://

www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal -versus-informal-

assessments?&lang=en_us&output= json&session-

id=5fcabef1be960952ace1b3a302aae4e3.

Wren, S. (2004, November). Descriptions of early reading

assessments. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Retrieved from

www.balancedreading.com/assessment/assessment.pdf.

REFERENCES (CONT.)

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