Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D. World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), University of Wisconsin, Madison and Illinois Resource Center, Arlington Heights Pathways to Bilingualism: Pedagogy, Best Practices and Accountability Sao 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? 2

“ 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 3

Instruction Assessment Instructional 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!). 5

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 10

11 ENGLISHPORTUGESEHEBREW 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 12

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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? 14

 Students’ English language proficiency levels are going to vary.  Students’ native language proficiency levels are going to vary. 15

Instructional Assessment: A Multi-step Process 16

17 DESIGNING CURRICULUM FOR LANGUAGE LEARNERS Documentation of Student Learning Theme Projects TasksActivities Language Targets

 What is your instructional theme or topic? 18 Let’s plan a unit around the theme of weather!

19 Which grammatical structures are key to comprehension? What vocabulary (words and phrases) will the students encounter?

LANGUAGE STRUCTURESVOCABULARY 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’ 20 Example Language Demands for the Theme

Listening Writing Speaking Reading Language modalities 21

 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 1 st and 2 nd grade language learners... 22

23 Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4Level 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

24 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.’ 25

LANGUAGE CONTENT 26

Think about the language targets…. What performance tasks might you design around the weather theme for your students’ levels of (English) language proficiency? 27

 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. 28

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 29

30 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

Types of Support for Language Development SensoryGraphicInteractive Academic language proficiency Maps, thermometers. Videos, TV broadcasts Charts of temperatures, rainfall Paired discussion comparing weather from day to day

32 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? 33 Questions, Questions, Questions

Checklists Rating Scales Holistic Scales Analytic Scales 34

35  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. 36

When listening to English, I understand OKQuite well Great! What the meteorologist says What my friends say about weather What the videos say about weather

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

39 STUDENT Uses weather words & expressions Uses comparative phrases about weather Uses comparative sentences about weather Predicts weather Gives reasons for weather patterns Zandra Luiz A Checklist for Documenting Language Development 39

Language Modalities: Listening/ Speaking Themes: 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 40

Information from instructional assessment helps improve teaching and learning. What are your next steps? 41