Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D. World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), University of Wisconsin, Madison and Illinois Resource Center, Arlington Heightsmgottlieb@cntrmail.org

Pathways to Bilingualism: Pedagogy, Best Practices and AccountabilitySao Paulo, Brazil

May 1, 2012

Where’s the Evidence? Stepping Up to Language Assessment

What steps can teachers of

language learners take to ensure

that language is a focus of

instructional assessment?

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“To many of today’s teachers, assessment

is synonymous with high-stakes

standardized tests. But there is an entirely

different kind of assessment that can

actually transform teaching and learning.”

…..Margaret Heritage

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InstructionInstruction AssessmentAssessment

Instructional AssessmentInstructional Assessment

Instructional assessment is an information gathering process. In it, teachers plan, collect, analyze, and interpret information about their students to make classroom decisions.

The evidence from assessment helps teachers determine the extent to which their students are learning (and how well teachers are teaching!).

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Instructional assessment = a performance task or project (centered on academic language) + a rubric with set criteria (+ student self-assessment)…..designed by teachers!

Is crafted by teachers

Represents instructional practices (what you do everyday in your classroom)

Consists of tasks and projects that involve higher-order thinking, invite originality in response, are performance-based, and require student interaction

Has a short turn around for reporting results with descriptive feedback for students.

 

What is Instructional Assessment? It….

Instructional Assessment Is NOT

A test An exercise at the end of a chapter A homework assignment A grade based on how many answers are

correct

Instruction Assessment

For students in bilingual immersion programs, monitoring students’ language development in more than one language is essential.

Why?

The whole child!

Students’ language proficiencies in relation to their achievement

The strengths on which to build student learning

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ENGLISH PORTUGESE HEBREW

LISTENING

SPEAKING

READING

WRITING

To have student profiles of language learning

To make sure all four language modalities are being taught!

To see the students’ performance for both receptive and productive language

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The first consideration: instructional assessment needs to reflect the language learners for which it is designed.

Who are your language learners?

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Students’ English language proficiency levels are going to vary.

Students’ native language proficiency levels are going to vary.

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Instructional Assessment: A Multi-step Process

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DESIGNING CURRICULUM FOR LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Documentation of Student Learning

Theme

ProjectsTasksActivities

Language Targets

What is your instructional theme or topic?

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Let’s plan a unit around the theme of weather!

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Which grammatical structures are key to comprehension?

What vocabulary (words and phrases) will the students encounter?

LANGUAGE STRUCTURES VOCABULARY USAGE

A foggy day…. It’s wetter in April than.. It looks like it’s going

to…. There are broken

clouds in the sky.

Rainfall Precipitation A down pour Thunder & lightening Raining ‘cats and dogs’

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Example Language Demands for the Theme

Listening

Writing Speaking

Reading

Language modalities

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Revisit the language demands for the unit on weather.

What are realistic language expectations for your students at their different levels of language proficiency?

Here are some ideas for 1st and 2nd grade language learners...

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Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Use words or phrases related to weather from pictures, photographs, or realia

Make statements about weather from pictures, photographs, or realia

Compare/ contrast weather conditions form pictures, photographs, or graphs

Forecast weather and provide reasons from pictures, photographs, or graphs

Validate weather forecasts against pictures, photographs, or graphs

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What can Beginners, Intermediate,and Advanced Students Do?

Beginners- Use phrases and make statements about weather, e.g., ‘a foggy day, It’s a rainy day.’

Intermediate- Compare/ contrast weather conditions and make predictions, e.g., ‘It’s hotter today then yesterday. It looks like it’s going to rain cats and dogs.’

Advanced- Give reasons for predictions and validate them, e.g. ‘There are dark clouds in the sky. I think we’re going to have a downpour. It has rained a lot every day this week.’

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LANGUAGE CONTENT

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Think about the language targets….

What performance tasks might you design around the weather theme for your students’ levels of (English) language proficiency?

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Listen to meteorologists on TV or the internet and reenact giving weather forecasts for the week…then validate predictions at the end of the week.

In partners, make charts of weather (temperatures, conditions, precipitation) over a week and give oral presentations comparing the weather from day to day.

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1. Down Comes the Rain....Franklyn M. Branley

2. What Will the Weather Be?.....Lynda Dewitt

3. Flash, Crash, Rumble & Roll…Franklyn M. Branley

4. Little Cloud....Eric Carle

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• Foster transparency from instruction into assessment

• Maximize students’ access to content through language

•Provide multiple pathways (sensory, graphic, and interactive) for language learners to process and produce language

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20

40

60

80

100

1st Qtr 2ndQtr

3rdQtr

4thQtr

East

West

North

Types of Support

for Language Development

Sensory Graphic Interactive

Academic language proficiency

Maps, thermometers. Videos, TV broadcasts

Charts of temperatures, rainfall

Paired discussion comparing weather from day to day

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Step 4….Documenting instructional assessment… accountability for learning

What kind of tools do you need?

How might you measure your language targets?

How often do you need to collect data?

What criteria might you use?

How might you provide feedback to students?

What decisions might you make based on the data?

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Questions, Questions, Questions

Checklists Rating Scales Holistic Scales Analytic Scales

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Offer a uniform set of criteria for judging student work

Identify learning targets and steps for achieving them

Establish a uniform process for interpreting student work

Contribute to accountability for teaching and learning

YES NO

1. I can be a meteorologist and talk about weather!

2. I can compare temperatures (precipitation) from day to day .

3. I can predict the weather.

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When listening to English, I understand

OK Quite well

Great!

What the meteorologist says

What my friends say about weather

What the videos say about weather

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How can you report your language targets for your instructional assessment tasks based on your form of documentation?

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STUDENT

Uses weather words & expressions

Uses comparativephrases about weather

Uses comparative sentencesabout weather

Predicts weather

Gives reasons for weather patterns

Zandra

4-21-12

Luiz 4-12-12

A Checklist for Documenting Language Development

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Language Modalities: Listening/ SpeakingThemes: Weather Language Target: Describes weather conditions STUDENT Date Doesn’t yet

demonstrate language target

Inconsistently demonstrates language target

Consistently demonstrates language target

Zandra

Luiz

Mariana

or a Rating Scale

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Information from instructional assessment helps improve teaching and learning.

What are your next steps?

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