The standard that I will be addressing is standard number 3.

This standard discusses the

practice of instruction in the classroom and includes many components. Within this standard, it is
stated how it is important to allow students to assess their growth and to be able to evaluate their
own progress. These two things allow for teachers to use student assessment as a guide to their
learning. As a teacher, it is also important to know how to teach and support students in ways to
meet the standards required to teach them. The standard also emphasizes the importance of using
different types of instruction and strategies to teach. It’s important to teach students the skills
necessary to apply their knowledge to content in meaningful ways.

The standards also list the importance of supporting English Language Learners and
creating environments where ELLs can learn most effectively. One of the key words used in this
sub section of the standard is the word evidence and how it is important to use evidence-based
learning. Another important key word is interactive. This standard emphasizes the importance of
interacting with learners and have the ELLs interact with each other. The standard also mentions
including different types of varied assessments such as standardized and classroom-based
assessments as well as the proficiency of language assessments. “Assessment has an important
role in education and it has a critical role in the teaching process” and therefore “through
appropriate assessment, teachers can give feedback [to their] students and structure their teaching
accordingly” (Tosuncuoglu, 2018). One of the last important components to the standard that
lists what a candidate must understand is how to interpret assessment data and make decisions to
stimulate content learning and the English language. Last, but not least, the last component to the
standard discusses the significance of sharing results from assessments to the families of the ELL
learners, to the ELLs themselves, as well as with other educators.

An artifact that I would like to use in order to exemplify student success and process
through assessment is data from a reading program called Read Live Naturally. This program
allows students to read at levels adjusted specifically for them. An initial level is assigned to a
student and then adjusted as needed. Some levels are a little high for students and some are a
little low. The program allows teachers to survey student progress reading stories. Reading a
story in the program is multifaceted. Students must read a story a number of times and are able to
interact with it by clicking on words they do not know and receiving a definition of the word and
an example sentence used with it. The program allows for “teacher modelling, repeated reading,
and progress monitoring” (Ghorbanpour, 2014). Teachers work closely with students and
become heavily involved with a student’s reading process. The teacher modelling in the program
“helps the student learn the pronunciation of new words and encourages proper expression and
phrasing” (Ghorbanpour, 2014). When working with this program, I was a part of a team of two
other teachers that facilitated this program in the classroom. This type of facilitation of learning
in the classroom closely falls in line with Maria Dove’s and Andrea Honigsfeld’s first model of
co-teaching. This model emphasizes the strategy of using one teacher as a lead teacher and
another teacher as one that supports the students. As the main teacher would complete group
instruction, I would give students immediate feedback on the side. In all, it’s a scaffolded
approach to teaching reading skills to students yet also provides students with the ability to
independently progress. One student, who found it very difficult to read stories, understand them,
and reiterate them, is now able to use new skills to understand a story. Students use notebooks to
write down what they do and do not know and use dictionaries to translate words if needed and
create their own mini dictionaries alongside the program. The following is an example picture of
a graph that I would use as an artifact.

Since “the fastest-growing population in U.S. schools today is children of immigrants,

half of whom do not speak English fluently”, a heavier focus on English Language Instruction
has been made (Calderon, Slavin, & Sanchez, 2011). However, “although the federal
government requires school districts to provide services to English learners, it offers states on
policies to follow in identifying, assessing, placing or instructing” ELL students (Calderon,
Slavin, & Sanchez, 2011). “Though English learners have strikingly diverse levels of skills, in
high school they are typically lumped together, with one teacher to address their widely varying
needs” (Calderon, Slavin, & Sanchez, 2011). As a student teacher in an ESOL program, I know
the importance of having ESOL classes for students to help them success in school. However,
such students are not only taking my classes and must take others as well with other high
schoolers. First, it’s important to assess and closely follow students in order to survey their
appropriate level of classes. Can the student take general education classes without the support of
ESOL support classes? Or will they need a few? How can we assess students during their
learning in general education classes to measure their success? How do we do this in a fair way?

Student success is multifaceted. Yet one thing of all is essential: “ELLs require particular
instructional strategies to help them thrive” (Ferlazzo & Sypnieski, 2018). It’s important to
remember that “ELLs are thinking and producing in two or more language” at a time and that we
as teachers must realize the right approaches to use when working with our ELLs.
 References

Calderon, M., Slavin, R., & Sanchez, M. (2011). Effective Instruction for English Learners.
Future of Children, 21(1), 103–127.

Dove, M. G., & Honigsfeld, A. (2017). Co-Teaching for English Learners: A Guide to
Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment and Reflection. ISBN-13: 978-
1483390918 ISBN-10: 1483390918

Ferlazzo, L., & Sypnieski, K. H. (2018). Teaching English languagelLearners: Tips from the
classroom. American Educator, 42(3), 12–16.

Ghorbanpour, A. amirgh1984@yahoo. co. (2014). Read Naturally Live. TESL-EJ, 17(4), 1–9.

Tosuncuoglu, I. (2018). Importance of assessment in ELT. Journal of Education and Training

Studies, 6(9), 163–167.