Amy Crawford

Teacher-Made Language Assessment

EDCI 557 Summer 2018

I. ELL Students and Classroom Context Description

The assessment I have constructed will be used in an elementary English Language
Development (ELD) program with first grade students in Frankfort, Indiana. The classes meet
four times weekly for thirty minutes per session. The classes are taught by an instructor who
has nearly completed her ELL licensure and by a fully licensed ELL instructor.
The students in this pullout program are Hispanic students, most of whom speak Spanish in
their homes. There are occasionally newcomers in the class, most of whom come from Mexico,
Guatemala or Puerto Rico. The majority of students are all US born, with some being second
generation born here, and some being children of immigrants who came as children. According
to WIDA ACCESS 2.0 scores obtained last winter, the students range in language proficiency
from 1.0-2.8. Many of the students have low speaking scores in relation to their other scores
on the assessment. Many had no formal education prior to coming to kindergarten, and had
had no exposure to English. Scores on their WIDA screener in kindergarten were below 15 (on
a scale of 0-30).

II. Instructional Context

One tool we use in our ELD program is the Expanding Expression Tool (EET). Using EET
helps students learn how to appropriately answer basic questions they might be asked about
objects, animals or items related to content-area using appropriate vocabulary for the situation.
Students are taught about a bead tool that resembles a caterpillar (called EETchy). EETchy’s
bead colors and some pictorial representations on them help students recall types of
information they can share when asked about an item. Students learn a chant that helps them
use the tool, they are taught 6-8 week-long units in which we focus on the language used in
answering the questions below. We explore various common school and household items,
animals and other things students might come into contact with and need to talk about.
Instructional activities include sorting activities, pair and share conversations with partners,
guided writing and direct instruction. We use sentence frames to help model and support the
correct sentence structure for asking the questions and stating the answers. The instruction
focuses on helping students develop language structures needed to answer these questions:
Green bead: What group or category does it belong in?
Blue bead: What does it do? Or what do we do with it?
White eye bead: What color is it? What size is it? What shape is it?
Brown wooden bead: What is it made of?
Pink bead: What are its parts?
White plain bead: Where can it be found?
Orange question mark bead: What else do I know about it?
The tool primarily helps students learn to talk about items, but occasionally students are given
writing tasks to do, and asked to use EETchy as a tool to help them think of what they could
write. (Adaptations have also been made for using this tool to talk or write about characters in
stories, but for purposes of this assessment, it will relate to simple describing conversations in
which students are asked basic questions.)

III. Assessment Description

This performance assessment will measure students’ language development in the domains
of listening and speaking, particularly showing progress toward the goal of being able to answer
simple questions when asked. A rubric will be used to rate how well students are able to
complete the task. The assessment will be given one-on-one by the ELD instructor three times
per year and will be audio recorded using an app on an ipad so individual student speaking
samples can be stored in audio portfolio files. It will yield a score used to chart students’
growing ability to answer simple questions orally. Students will be able to listen to their
recording and conference with the instructor to receive feedback about which questions they
still need to learn to answer. Copies of each child’s completed rubric will be given to classroom
teachers and other interventionists that work with students so they will know which types of
questions and vocabulary the child has command of throughout the year.

IV. Formative Language Assessment Instrument

Before any students take the assessment, the rubric will be explained to the class. They will
be told that the assessment will be recorded, and that they will be able to hear themselves
when they finish. The instructor will model for the student using an apple. (e.g. An apple is a
fruit. It is something we eat. An apple is small, round and sometimes red. Apples are made of
flesh. Some parts of apples are skin and seeds. We can find apples in the store. Apples grow
on trees.)
Students will be pulled aside individually and shown a selection of items. They will be
instructed to choose one they know they can tell a lot of information about. An EETchy tool will
be provided as a visual tool to help students remember the type of answers they should give.
The instructor will ask the questions we have learned about in our EETchy lessons. The
person giving the assessment will score each question as he/she goes along.

Score as follows:
Column A—score 1 if information student gives is correct; score 0 if information is incorrect,
or if no answer is given
Column B—score 1-3 based on the type of response given by the student
Column C—total score of A + B for each question
Final scoring—Total column C

The instructor should give immediate feedback to the student regarding the scoring in
columns A and B. Students can look at the chart and see which column had the most boxes
marked. The teacher can explain that areas that have improved each time, and can help the
student set a new goal for improvement.
 EET Speaking and Listening Assessment

A B C
(always score 0 or 1 (mark the score in the column that best indicates how well the (total A +B)
in this column) student used sentence structure to answer)
Question Gave Correct Answered in Answered in Gave a one- Total points
Information complete short phrase word scored on
1 point sentence or fractured response this question
3 points sentence 1 point out of 4
2 points

What group
does your
object belong
in?
What does
your object
do? What do
you do with
your object?
What does *must include at
least two pieces of
your object information (size,
look like? shape, or color)

What is your
object made
of?
What are
some parts
your object
has?
Where can
we usually
find your
object?
What else *Must share at least
one other fact to
can you tell get point
me about
your object?
Total Score
V. Rationale
I designed this formative language assessment because it can be done multiple times
through the year, thereby giving an ongoing picture of the speaking and listening skills students
are developing. It is a tool I fully intend to put into use in my ELD program, and have been
wanting to create for a long time. The scores can be tracked, and the audio recordings can be
shared with parents, other teachers and administrators. Doing this authentic assessment helps
students become more comfortable with the idea that they will be recording their own voices
on the WIDA ACCESS test. Because formative assessment drives instructional decisions, I am
convinced that now that I have tool for assessing the skills, that I will be able to develop better
instructional activities to help students learn the skills. I have taught EET for two years, and
haven’t had a formal way of assessing the learning my students have done. I can now quantify
their progress using this assessment.
Popham, in chapter 8 of his book, Classroom Assessment, states that teachers use
performance assessments to draw inferences as the to the extent to which each student has
mastered the skills. (p. 196) This task-specific assessment seeks to determine how well
students understand, and can answer, simple questions and describe objects as they have
learned to do throughout the EET lessons. The assessment is authentic in that it tests necessary
skills students use every day in classrooms, in homes and later on in life, in their work settings.
The rubric I developed has the important features Popham described on page 203. It has
evaluative criteria described in columns A and B. The descriptors of qualitative differences for
all evaluative criteria are given. Because the scores are totaled, the test is holistically scored,
but assessment can also be used analytically by looking for the types of responses students are
able to give. Popham would describe this as a skill-focused rubric because it is “conceptualized
around the skill that is 1) being measured by the constructed-response assessment and 2) being
pursued instructionally by the teacher.” (p.209). The rubric stacks up against Popham’s give
rules for developing rubrics: the skill assessed is significant, all of the criteria assessed can be
addressed instructionally, it only assesses a small number of evaluative criteria, the labels for
the criteria are succinct, and the length and detail of the rubric are tolerable. (p. 210)
This assessment can be used formatively or summatively. Gottlieb, on page 21 of Assessing
English Language Learners Bridges to Educational Equity, listed features of formative and
summative assessment. This assessment monitors student progress, co-occurs with learning, is
process oriented and informs instruction. According to her list, there are also some elements
which could allow it to be used in a summative capacity, as well. It evaluates student progress,
occurs on a predetermined basis, is outcome oriented and gauges instructional effectiveness.