Key ideas from the chapter:
- Rely on authentic, performance-based assessment
- Develop multiple-source, "big package" assessment
- Understand the terrors and limitation of formal language testing
- Use observation, chats, and anecdotal notes
- Give new students about two weeks to adjust before subjecting them to standardized placement tests. Let them get accustomed to the classroom and you. Put yourself in the new ELL shoes. Imagine going to a country as an adult and taking a placement test the first day you arrive. Could you do your best, not knowing anyone, not knowing the language?
- Give ELLs time to respond! Wait time is extremely important. Don't rush your students.
- Observe ELLs in a group setting. They are more likely to talk more around their peers!
- Also keep in mind that "authentic assessment is a [ongoing] process, not a one-shot event; it requires multiple measures of a student performance over time" (Cary 16). A student's quantity and quality of English can vary according to the activity, setting, number of participants, participant relationships, academic demands, and language response time.
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