Assessment of English Learners 1

Running head: FINAL ESSAY

Final Exam Questions

Jessica M. Harrington

UCLA: EDUC-X 426.2

27 February 2020

Question 1
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Question:

Do you currently have ELLs in the classes you teach? If so, what problems do they appear

to have comprehending and learning the content? What strategies do you use to make both

language and content more accessible to them? How do you encourage other students in your

classes who are more proficient in English to play a role?

Response:

I currently teach two sections of ELD (ELD 6th grade and ELD 7th grade), so these classes

are comprised entirely of English Language Learners. In terms of comprehending and learning the

content, students seem to struggle the most with understanding a text beyond its surface. For

example, if we read a story in class, most of my EL students are able to recount basic reading

comprehension questions, such as where the story takes place, who the main characters are, and

what the conflict is that they are facing. Beyond this, they struggle to make assumptions about a

text based on what is implied by the author but not explicitly stated and they have a hard time

drawing connections between what we are currently reading and other texts we have read in class.

In order to make both the language and the content more accessible to my EL students, I have

started to create units that are centered around a certain theme or idea. The unit we are currently

in is titled “Facing Challenges,” and throughout this unit we have explored the ways in which

human beings (specifically children and adolescents) overcome adversity. By having all the texts

centered around this theme, students are able to more easily make connections (text-to-text, text-

to-self, and text-to-world) and to think critically about what all the stories have in common. This

has led to more fruitful conversations and deeper levels of understanding about each of the

stories. Similarly, I have started to incorporate strategies to help engage students as they are

reading a text. I frequently use Dialogue Journals to help students keep track of quotes and

information that they find important, and to engage with the material in a more beneficial way. I
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also encourage the students in my ELA class (which my ELD students are also enrolled in) to play

a role by having mixed groups in which all students can engage in meaningful dialogue about what

we are learning in class.

Question 2

Question:

For what purposes do you think English Language Learners should be tested in your

classes? For each purpose you mention, what sorts of information would you want to collect?

Response:

English Language Learners are only tested in my class as a means of formal assessment for

the purposes of documentation and data gathering. At the beginning of the year, I provide all my

EL students with a diagnostic test in order to determine where their strengths and weaknesses are

with regard to reading, writing, and language development. This diagnostic lets me know what

areas I need to focus on the most and for which child. Additionally, my students are tested

through the CAASPP platform three times a year so our school can determine whether or not they

are making progress and which areas of need we can work towards improving. Finally, they are

given the ELPAC at the end of the year so teachers can decide whether or not they have made

sufficient gains to reclassify from ELD services.

Over my years as a teacher, I have found that while formal testing can provide specific

data points for tracking student growth, often times a better assessment of progress is through

informal, day-to-day assessments in a classroom setting. For this reason, I tend to place more

emphasis on gathering data on my own through various writing assignments, exit slips, and

observations of their work both independently and in groups.

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Question 3

Question:

In your experiences with assessment as a student yourself, reflect upon the extent to which

you felt the assessment was worthwhile and fair. Be as specific as you can about the type of

evaluation, its intended purposes, and the strategies that were used to implement it.

Response:

In my experiences with assessment as a student, I rarely felt that the assessments I was

given were worthwhile or fair. All throughout middle and high school (and even some instances in

college), most of the assessments I received were based on rote memorization to determine how

much was learned across a period of time rather than placing an emphasis on critical thinking or

analysis. The process was always the same: the teacher would lecture us on the information he or

she wanted us to learn, then at the end of the unit we would be given a lengthy, often times

multiple choice exam. I have an extremely hard time memorizing information no matter how many

flashcards I make or how long I study, so I always tended to do poorly on these kinds of

assessments. Because so much of my grade relied on high marks on these tests, I always thought

they were unfair and favored students who could memorize information quickly and accurately.

Instead, I performed much higher on assessments that were based on creating something, whether

that be a project, essay, or research assignment.

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References

Echevarría, Jana, (2000). Making content comprehensible for English language learners : the

SIOP model. Boston, MA :Allyn and Bacon