HOW TO INFORMALLY

ASSESS EL'S IN A MATH

CLASS
 PROVIDE/ASSESS
SPEAKING
To assess students proficiency at speaking, they need
opportunities to speak. Using various sentence stems can identify
where students are at in their proficiency. Observing students
during varying levels of speaking activities provides insight into
their proficiency and what their development needs are.

Beginning: An acute triangle has ____ congruent sides.

Intermediate: An _____ triangle has ______ ______ sides.

Advanced: An ________ triangle has...

 OTHER FORMS OF
SPEAKING ASSESSMENT

I have my students respond in chorus, and I can vary

the responses and observe my EL's.

Beginning: "Congruent arches means

congruent____"

Intermediate: "Congruent Arches...

Advanced: "Repeat the whole theorem to me"

WRITING ASSESSMENTS

Writing is another way to assess a students level of

language proficiency. Exit slips, summaries and other
writing activities can be used to assess content
knowledge and writing proficiency. Varying the
assignment can provide information on students
unique writing abilities.
 WRITING ASSESSMENT
Summaries and exit slips are what I use most often. I typically
provide a sentence frame but I usually like to get creative. Below
are some examples activities I use.

Today I learned about the _____ Theorem and its relationship

between________ and _______ Equal ______.

Summarize what you learned today using the words:Area,

sector, radius and circle.

Summarize what you learned in 10 words and use the word Circle
and area.
 OTHER WRITING
ACTIVITES

Other activities include assignments where students

write out theorems, an example and a way to
remember the theorem. This demonstrates their
understanding of the theorem and their writing
explaining their reason for their mnemonic.
 VOCABULARY
ASSESSMENTS

Vocabulary is assessed on my quizzes to identify how

well my EL's understand or know what the
vocabulary is. Sometimes it is matching, sometimes it
is writing the missing word or writing the entire
sentence.
 PLAY VOCABULARY
GAMES

One Vocabulary Math game that I enjoy playing

comes from desmos.com and students NEED to
know their vocabulary in order to succeed. We start
the game and usually, most of my students, especially
my EL's are not very good. We then review the
vocabulary and their concepts and they play again at
the end of the period. Observing their game provides
understanding of their language abilities.