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Emilee Rodriguez

Jenny Ahn

Tch_Lrn 401

16 November 2023

Reflection #3: Competency 4.C

When you step into a classroom, you quickly learn that each and every student needs

different things from you in order to learn and grow. This is even more true when we look at

MLLs. It’s very important to be able to create lesson plans and assessments with these

differences in mind, as there is no one-size-fits-all lesson that will effectively reach all students.

It can also be very easy to create assessments that serve more as barriers for MLLs when they

assess English proficiency instead of content knowledge. This competency looks at this skill and

makes sure that teacher candidates are able to take what they have learned and use it to help

each student meet the learning objectives in a way that is accessible and reduces barriers for

each individual.

Throughout the program, I have tried to consider MLLs in almost every one of my lesson

plans. The first unit that I created for MLLs was actually in my educational psychology class. For

this class, I created an assessment portfolio which included a wide variety of formal and

informal assessments for my kindergarten geometry unit. This unit included two ELP standards

and used UDL principles to ensure that the assessments were accessible to MLLs and ensuring

that the assessment or geometry standards weren’t clouded by assessments of student English

proficiency. In this portfolio, I made accessible assessments by providing students multiple

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opportunities to show what they knew through different methods. Some examples include

giving oral prompts that are supported by gestures and visuals, oral presentations, working with

manipulatives such as Play-Doh and tanagrams, creating visuals and presenting them, and a

conversational portfolio interview. The purpose of these assessments are to give all students

(but especially those with limited English proficiency) as many opportunities to succeed as

possible. I included both selected and constructed response assessments which offer MLLs

opportunities to show me their learning regardless of their ability to produce language. When

creating these assessments, I wanted to make sure that I was assessing the content and

language standards at the same time but did everything I could to prevent a student’s English

proficiency from affecting my assessment of their content mastery.

I think that the biggest thing from this class that will help me continue to develop this

competency is the idea of background knowledge from MLLs. Sometimes, it can be easy to

forget that MLLs are just like any other student, except they communicate differently. They

have the same knowledge as any other student in the classroom but they can’t always show

that knowledge in the same way. They also may acquire knowledge in a different way due to

cultural or language proficiency reasons. UDL principles really help with creating accessible

assessments for all students, including MLLs. I relied on these heavily when creating my

assessment portfolio, and while I was creating it, I could tell that it would also benefit students

with testing anxiety, varying literacy levels, and shyness among others.

This competency affects student learning because not every student learns in the same

way. MLLs are especially varied, as their cultural backgrounds, background knowledge, prior
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experiences, and language proficiency levels all affect how they learn. If teachers aren’t able to

differentiate their lessons or assessments for these students, they will be at a disadvantage

because the teaching methods will just be incongruent with how the student learns. If a student

can’t successfully learn through lectures, teachers need to be able to provide other ways for

students to access the content. Not only will this help students learn the content, but it will

help them build confidence and a love for learning that is arguably more important than just

the content. When teachers understand how their students learn, their students can tell that

the teacher cares about them and understands them as a person. It creates a feeling of

acceptance and belonging that goes deeper than the surface.

After I did my assessment portfolio, I became obsessed with making my assignments

and assessments accessible to MLLs. I truly love creating a variety of ways for students to show

me their learning, because I can’t imagine how a student would feel if they know the content

but are consistently failing simply because they are actually being tested on their language

proficiency. I also think that this skill helps scaffold language proficiency lessons for students, as

you can see where they are struggling and give them opportunities to challenge themselves

while still being able to succeed academically. If I know a student struggles with speaking but

can write very well, I can give them an option to write for their assessment. Then, once they

have a good understanding of the content and the language they need to use to show their

understanding, they can create an oral presentation based on what they wrote – or I can simply

have a conversation with them about their writing assignment to get them to talk about the
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content! Overall, this competency is very important and I’m confident I will use it effectively in

my classroom.