2.

4 – From Assessment to Instruction

For this assignment I have decided to focus on a grade 8 Humanities class. For the proficiency
level I am assuming that the student would need a moderate amount of support so around
level 3. The reason why I chose grade 8 is because that is the first high school year and the
course is year long so there is plenty of time for in-class support. I’m also going to focus this
assignment around The Outsiders novel as that is the novel I always do when I teach Humanities
8. With grade 8s there is more of a focus on skill building rather than plowing through content,
therefore I could give more time to support that ELL in their language acquisition.

According to the BC ELL Planning Tool moderate support for oral language states a student can
“with support, communicate main ideas on common topics and course content; use some
variety of vocabulary and sentence structures with increasing accuracy” (3). In my Outsiders
unit I have the students do mini-debates around what family is, what identity is, and how their
identities have changed from their elementary years to now. Since The Outsiders is one of the
last English units I do in Humanities the students have had almost a full year in a high school
setting; they have undoubtedly changed from elementary to then. For ELL students this may be
the first academic class they have been in and have adjusted their identity to “fit in” with the
other students. Having frank discussions about what identity and family are helps conceptualize
the themes within the novel without having to write paragraphs.

My Outsiders unit incorporates listening skills as I read the novel aloud to the class. Students
can either follow along reading the novel or simply listen. I also make sure I have the audio
book available for the students in case they need to go back and listen again. ELL students also
have the ability to slow down the audio so they can take more time understanding what is
happening. When we read in class I pause at unfamiliar words, see if students can guess the
meaning, and check for comprehension at pivotal points in the novel.

The ELL planning tool states for reading that the student should “read grade-level texts with
basic understanding and response. Response is generally accurate but support is needed for
communicating details and making inferences and connections” (4). In addition to my
discussions, I have the students complete questions for sections of the novel. There are five sets
of questions to check for comprehension but also challenge students to incorporate evidence
and explain their thinking. Some of these question sets are leveled 1-3 where level 1 questions
are recall and level 3 are about building connections and making inferences.

Connected with these level 3 questions are the paragraph responses. In these paragraphs I
make sure that the students are conveying their “ideas in clear, detailed and connected
paragraphs on many topics, using a wider range of vocabulary and sentence complexity” (5).
For the paragraph responses I do not assess the first couple. Instead, I give targeted feedback in
areas I think students need to improve on. This could be with their connections, their choice in
evidence, or in their word choice. For ELL students this feedback is invaluable, I am mindful I
cannot “target each and every error” I see and instead focus on aspects my ELL needs to
improve on in order to avoid them becoming “confused and overwhelmed” (Government of
British Columbia 18). Moreover, I focus less on their grammatical errors in order to “focus on
content first” (18). What this does is allows the students to understand what is happening and
once they have that down we can then focus more on their grammatical structures.

As I previously stated, the main themes I focus on with the novel are family and identity. Our
course has elements of this woven in throughout so by the time we get to The Outsiders
students are familiar with the concept and can think back to what else we did in the course.
One of the short stories we do is “On the Sidewalk Bleeding.” It is essentially a mini-version of
The Outsiders and is what I use to help student’s understanding of identity. At the very end of
The Outsiders I have students write a compare and contrast paragraph using “On the Sidewalk
Bleeding” and The Outsiders.

Compare and contrast paragraphs, from my experience, are difficult for ELL students. In the
case of this assumed level 3 student, they would need a number of scaffolds in order to be
successful. One of the most helpful resources I have found is the NYU Steinhardt bilingual
glossary. This glossary has common English terms and transition words that would be useful for
ELLs and translates them into over a dozen languages. Allowing ELLs to access the course using
their first language is helpful in allowing the students to take ownership of their learning. I am
not a polyglot and have to rely on Google Translate; with this resource students now have an
accurate glossary of terms they can reference. Additionally, from the Many Roots Many Voices
book says to “Invite English language learners to develop ideas in their first language (example:
mind mapping)” (17). With a difficult compare and contrast paragraph I would make sure this
student can use their first language to brainstorm and organize their thoughts before working
with them to put it into English. A final resource I can use to make this student successful is
Word. As the student and I are working to transfer their first language brainstorm into English,
Microsoft Word can transcribe what we are saying (it’s far from perfect but it’s functional
enough) so the student is not forced to remember everything that we talked about.

Overall, The Outsiders unit I have developed and used incorporates all aspects of the ELL
planning tool in a functional manner. By accessing my student’s background knowledge, using
their first language to their advantage, and having them practice the skills throughout the
course my level 3 ELL has the ability to be successful in the course.
 Works Cited

"Bilingual Glossaries and Cognates." NYU Steinhardt,

steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/language-rbern/education/bilingual-glossaries-and-

cognates. Accessed 8 July 2021.

"ELL Planning Tool." Province of British Columbia,

www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-

12/english-language-learners/ell_planning_tool.pdf. Accessed 8 July 2021.

Government of British Columbia. English Language Learners: A Guide for Classroom

Teachers. 1999, www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/kindergarten-

to-grade-12/english-language-learners/classroom.pdf. Accessed 7 July 2021.

Ontario Ministry of Education. Many Roots, Many Voices: Supporting English Language

Learners in Every Classroom: A Practical Guide for Ontario Educators. Ontario

Education, 2005, www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/manyroots/manyroots.pdf.

Accessed 7 July 2021.