Here Is How I’m Assessing ELLs At The Beginning Of The School Year – What Are You Doing?

 

Because of the pandemic, most schools in in California did not complete the annual language assessment for ELLs (called ELPAC).

I’ve generally not found those assessments very helpful.  This year, ELPAC scores are especially useless since they are more than fifteen months old.

Given that, and bearing in mind the criticisms education researcher Dylan Wiliam has about commercially produced tests this year, here are the simple assessments I’m giving students in my ELL classes:

• A writing assessment where student write about their best friend (I heard this idea years ago, but don’t remember from where).  You can download it here.
• A two paragraph (in two levels) that students can record with Vocaroo or Padlet (I’ve removed the Padlet link from this downloadable sheet).  If they use Vocaroo, they just paste the link on the reading passage sheet.

How are you assessing your ELL students?