Assessment of Language Learners

On Monday afternoons, I collaborate with our District ELL Director and Bilingual Coordinator to teach a course for our new dual language/ELL staff members to the district. Each week we focus on different topics related to best practice methods and strategies for language learners as well as how to develop bilingual/biliterate students.

This week, we focused on the hot topic of assessment. We hosted a gallery walk for our "students" to find out what they knew. I have shared examples of gallery walks before, but for those who may not remember this strategy involves questions/topics being posed to students, each on a different sheet of paper. Students are put into groups and asked to respond to the paper header. After a pre-determined amount of time, students will move with their group to work on adding information to the next poster. This continues until all posters have been visited. Then students will share out the information on the posters with the group. It is a great way to pre-assess students' prior knowledge and/or gauge their learning.

I must say, our professional students totally rocked out a ton of great ideas today related to assessment of language learners (and for that matter all students) that I thought you all may enjoy and find helpful as well. 

Their points to ponder were...

1) Factors to consider regarding assessment of language learners

2) How the CCSS fit in...

3) Purpose/Examples of Formative Assessments

4) Purpose/Examples of Summative Assessments

Here is a nice, neat typed up copy of all of the ideas shared. You can grab it by clicking on the image!

Graphics: Creative Clips, My Cute Graphics

Have any ideas that you think are key points that were not added to our lists? Feel free to comment and share! I'd love to add more!