Assessing Language Learners & Long-term Language learners/middle school

Hello teachers,

I would love to discuss how you choose to access language learners. Additionally, I would like to discuss the difference in accessing older and long-term language learners in the classroom.

I am a middle school teacher in California and this is my first time ever posting on an online forum. In my classroom, as it is in many of your classrooms, there is a great diversity of needs and many different ideas about how these needs should be met. I am very curious to know what kinds of assessments you use in the classroom that you found to be effective with your students.

Also, if you teach middle school or high school, do you use different modes of assessment for long-term/older learners? Many students in the middle school classroom have been in English speaking schools for many years but are no longer advancing in their language proficiency. How do you promote motivation and continued advancement in and through assessment.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Hi Imd2017,

I teach 9-12 English for ELL students. I only have in my class the below grade level, students that have not been in school for a very long time and students that are too low to be in a regular English class. I use several different kinds of assessments. For example, sometimes a present to my students part of a musical movie I give my students the lyrics of the song. Then I'm ready to assess them I give my students the song written with blanks for them to fill out the have them rhyme the words. We also work with comparing and contrast stories from the United States and I present these stories with videos and at the end have questions to go along with the story.

cruiz10 said:

Hi Imd2017,

I teach 9-12 English for ELL students. I only have in my class the below-grade level, students that have not been in school for a very long time and students that are at too low a level to be in a regular English class. I use several different kinds of assessments. For example, sometimes [STRIKE]a[/STRIKE] I present to my students part of a musical movie. I give my students the lyrics of the song. [STRIKE]Then[/STRIKE] When I'm ready to assess them, I give my students the song written with blanks for them to fill out then have them rhyme the words. We also work with comparing and contrasting stories from the United States. [STRIKE]and[/STRIKE] I present these stories with videos and, at the end, have questions to go along with the story.

Click to expand...

Please note my typo, punctuation and other corrections above.

cruiz10 said:

Hi Imd2017,

I teach 9-12 English for ELL students. I only have in my class the below grade level, students that have not been in school for a very long time and students that are too low to be in a regular English class. I use several different kinds of assessments. For example, sometimes a present to my students part of a musical movie I give my students the lyrics of the song. Then I'm ready to assess them I give my students the song written with blanks for them to fill out the have them rhyme the words. We also work with comparing and contrast stories from the United States and I present these stories with videos and at the end have questions to go along with the story.

Click to expand...

Hi
Thank you for your ideas. Do you find that your students respond well to these types of activities? How do you use these to provide assessment information about your students? Is this formative?
Thanks!