ELL Assessment Case Study
The issues of ELL assessment that I am most interested in relate to understanding the right mix of formal testing and other assessment methods to best understand both initial placement and progress toward language proficiency. It seems like the mix will be different depending on the specific context and certainly should allow for some creative assessment alternatives.
I am most interested in teaching adults and I believe that assessments for adults might be significantly different than those with children. Typically adults engaged in a language program have either a high motivation for learning or a high need for learning, creating an opportunity for teaching students that want to learn. I know this is not always the case as many young …show more content…
I witnessed various types of assessments during my practicum experience at the UNF English Language Program. I taught and observed in various levels and found the most challenging part of assessments to be the formal written tests. It seems like these adult students would get quite stressed over the tests in some classes and at the end of the day, the grade in the class was not of concern to most students. They truly wanted to learn the material but maybe did not have enough time to study due to very robust lives outside the classroom. This stress seemed unnecessary to me. Certain teachers provided the students with the opportunity to complete the test on their own and then to work in a group to review answers. This approach brought the stress level down significantly. The most positive experiences with assessment and ELL were the informal assessments that took place during classroom time. One teacher had a plan to focus on a select number of students each class period to make sure to monitor their progress. It is hard to evaluate every student at the same time and this approach allowed for a systematic way to give each student equal time. The stress level for informal assessments is much lower than formal tests and I think the students responded better. I witnessed one student, who clearly had a good command of the material, completely freeze during written
I am most interested in teaching adults and I believe that assessments for adults might be significantly different than those with children. Typically adults engaged in a language program have either a high motivation for learning or a high need for learning, creating an opportunity for teaching students that want to learn. I know this is not always the case as many young …show more content…
I witnessed various types of assessments during my practicum experience at the UNF English Language Program. I taught and observed in various levels and found the most challenging part of assessments to be the formal written tests. It seems like these adult students would get quite stressed over the tests in some classes and at the end of the day, the grade in the class was not of concern to most students. They truly wanted to learn the material but maybe did not have enough time to study due to very robust lives outside the classroom. This stress seemed unnecessary to me. Certain teachers provided the students with the opportunity to complete the test on their own and then to work in a group to review answers. This approach brought the stress level down significantly. The most positive experiences with assessment and ELL were the informal assessments that took place during classroom time. One teacher had a plan to focus on a select number of students each class period to make sure to monitor their progress. It is hard to evaluate every student at the same time and this approach allowed for a systematic way to give each student equal time. The stress level for informal assessments is much lower than formal tests and I think the students responded better. I witnessed one student, who clearly had a good command of the material, completely freeze during written