Weekly Reflections and Links to Practice

Week 1 January 3rd: An Article Reflection

This week I read a very informative article by Robin Tierney called “Six Strategies for Fair Classroom Assessment”. Although the article did not focus directly on ELL assessment, Tierney offers valuable information on general assessment that could be adjusted for ELL’s in the classroom. Below is my EPSE310 response I gave for this article.

________________________________________________________________________

Let me begin with a question: will classroom assessment be completely fair all the time? I agree with Tierney in regards to classroom assessment being a “dynamic process” in which the judgment of the teacher is crucial. Assessment is a complex and often underestimated task that if done incorrectly, can disrupt a student’s learning path. I think that the opportunity to demonstrate learning is one of the most important components of assessment as it shows students that learning is an ongoing process and that everyone is able to improve. During my practicum, I would like to incorporate essay revisions as an opportunity to demonstrate learning. Students will be able to read revisions and edit their essays as they please, knowing that the effort they put in towards editing/understanding the revisions will increase their grade. This can also be an opportunity to have students edit each other’s work, creating a community environment while demonstrating learning.

Tierney also states that students should have multimodal opportunities to demonstrate learning, because learning is diverse and not a “uniform process”. As a teacher, I feel that it is important to get to know your students and their preferred means of communication. Tierney gives the example of a shy student who prefers written work over oral assessment. For assignment, I think that it is a good idea to include options for the modes of assessment (visual, written, oral). Tierney also stresses the importance of the balance between being consistent and responsive to individual needs (equitable assessment), which can become problematic if the majority of the class responds well to one mode of assessment and a few do not (ex. In-class written tests). That is why I think that offering many opportunities for improvement and demonstrative learning, such as not weighing one assessment greater than the rest, will help improve students understanding as well as confidence in themselves.

Tierney, R.D. (2013). Six strategies for fair classroom assessment. Education Canada, 53(3), 20-23.

Week 2 : January 9th Reflection

During this weeks inquiry meeting our group members discussed where we are in our research at the moment. I shared Tierney’s article (mentioned above) which spoke about the importance of assessing the learning demonstration versus assessing only the outcome. I discussed how assessing personal development can be very beneficial for ELL students as it does not focus solely on a “result” but rather progress. Dawn (our instructor) mentioned portfolio assessment as a way to compare students to their own work. I will be incorporating this assessment into my practicum during a poetry unit and I will make sure to follow up on this post with the results.

Week 3: January 16

This week I focused my inquiry studies on HOW we should assess ELL students. I wanted to find concrete examples of methods that educators found successful with ELL assessment in the classroom. One underlying theme was the need for choice, which interestingly affected both ELL and non ELL students. The opportunity for choice of assessment also promotes social emotional learning through encouraging student choice. For example, having student choose to convey their final project visually, orally, or through written work would be an example of choice. Choice algorithm deuces some anxiety, something that ELL students often experience frequently during assessment. Having a variety of test questions that hit both lower and higher level learning (Blooms) supports ELL students during a standard test because it gives multiple mediums for the student to convey understanding/knowledge.

The importance of CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS was also stressed in multiple articles. ELL students may take up to three times longer on an assignment because they need longer to read and understand instructions as well as convey their opinions. One solution I have heard about included writing separate instructions for the ELL student yet still having them complete the same assignment/test as the rest of the class.

For next week I will be looking into marking and assessment of ELL students in an English classroom setting. I question whether it is appropriate to use the same assessment rubric for ELL and non- ELL.