Course Description
Students will learn, apply, and reflect on issues of assessment as well as legal and professional responsibilities of assessment in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Follows TESOL national standards for teacher preparation.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
The graduate students will carry out their own pilot study on designing a language test, piloting it, doing statistical analyses on it, and then writing it up; while the undergraduate students will be doing specific minitasks (e.g., descriptive and inferential statistics on language test items, exercises on the interrelationship between corpus linguistics and language assessment).
Athena Title
ESOL and World Lang Assessment
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in LLED 7502E
Prerequisite
Permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
•Candidates apply knowledge of sociocultural and political variables to inform instruction and improve communication with ESOL students and their families. •Candidates understand and monitor patterns in ESOL student language errors and design instructional activities to meet learners’ needs at appropriate times. •Candidates provide individual, focused feedback appropriate to learners’ needs. •Candidates design and deliver instruction that includes anti- bias materials and develop a classroom climate in which antiracism, anti-bias, and anti-stereotyping are purposefully addressed. •Candidates plan assessment of LFS (Limited Formal Schooling) students’ competence with text. •Candidates plan communication that LFS students will understand. •Candidates provide a variety of activities and settings to assist students in making use of what they know in order to listen effectively. •Candidates are aware that there are various purposes of assessment (e.g., diagnostic, achievement, L1 and L2 proficiency). •Candidates prepare their students appropriately for the type of assessment being used, including technology-based assessment. •Candidates use L1 assessment to provide benchmarks for student learning. •Candidates share their knowledge and experience about the purposes of assessment with colleagues. •Candidates accommodate for linguistic bias (e.g., test translations, specific test formats). •Candidates use L1 assessment results to determine language dominance. •Candidates evaluate formal and informal technology-based and non-technology-based assessment measures for psychological, cultural, and linguistic limitations. •Candidates are aware of technical aspects of assessment (e.g., validity and reliability). •Candidates are aware of the differences between performance- based or authentic measures and traditional assessment. •Candidates can explain why tests are valid and/or reliable, and use this knowledge in making assessment-related decisions. •Candidates use performance-based or traditional measures, as appropriate. •Candidates can create performance-based and traditional measures that are standards based, valid, and reliable, as appropriate. •Candidates are aware of some of the limitations of assessment instruments for ESOL students. •Candidates accommodate for psychological situations (e.g., anxiety over timed tests with high-stakes consequences, limited experience with tests). •Candidates accommodate for cultural bias (e.g., unfamiliar images and references). •Candidates are able to assess and instruct ESOL students who are gifted and talented and/or have special learning needs. •Candidates recognize how cultural bias may misinform results of such assessments. •Candidates understand national and state requirements (e.g., home language surveys, benchmarks, and other criteria) for identifying, reclassifying, and exiting ESOL students from language support programs. •Candidates make informed decisions regarding placement and reclassification of students in ESOL programs based on national and state mandates. •Candidates involve families in program decisions for ESOL students. •Candidates are familiar with norm-referenced assessments but have not used them to make decisions about ESOL students. •Candidates understand the nature of norm referenced assessments and use this information to make decisions about ESOL students (e.g., identification, placement, achievement, reclassification, and possible giftedness and/or learning disabilities). •Candidates evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of norm referenced assessments for use with ESOL students. •Candidates share this knowledge with their colleagues. •Candidates are familiar with criterion-referenced assessments but have not used them to make decisions about ESOL learners. •Candidates use authentic and traditional criterion-referenced measures to assess ESOL students’ language and content area learning. •Candidates use these assessments to help determine possible special needs (e.g., giftedness and/or learning disabilities). •Candidates construct and evaluate a range of criterion- referenced measures and item types to assess ESOL students’ learning. •Candidates understand a variety of purposes for assessment of ESOL learners (e.g., proficiency, diagnosis, placement, and classroom instruction and achievement). •Candidates are aware of the importance of using multiple measures to accurately assess ESOL learners. •Candidates use multiple and appropriate assessment measures for a variety of purposes, including classroom and student self- assessment and technology-based assessment (e.g., audio, video, computer). •Candidates design and adapt classroom tests and alternative assessment measures to make them appropriate for ESOL learners for a variety of purposes. •Candidates use multiple measures and sources of information to assess ESOL learners and to determine if they have special needs (e.g., gifted and talented or learning disabilities not based on language). •Candidates create multiple performance-based measures to assess students’ language skills and communicative competence across the curriculum. •Candidates use a limited set of performance-based tasks to assess ESOL learners’ language and content area learning. •Candidates use a variety of performance-based assessment tools (e.g., portfolios, classroom observation checklists, reading logs, video, spreadsheet software) that measure ESOL students’ progress toward state and national standards. •Candidates design performance-based tasks and tools to measure ESOL learners’ progress. •Candidates are aware of instruments and techniques to assess the content-area knowledge of ESOL learners, who are at varying levels of English language and literacy abilities. •Candidates use a variety of instruments and techniques, including technology-based assessment, to assess ESOL learners’ knowledge in the content areas at varying levels of English language and literacy ability. •Candidates use test adaptation techniques, (e.g., simplifying the language of assessment measures and directions). •Candidates make corresponding adaptations in the scoring and interpretation of the results of such assessments. •Candidates develop and adapt a variety of techniques and instruments when appropriate to assess ESOL students’ content learning at all levels of language proficiency and literacy. •Candidates encourage ESOL learners to monitor their own performance and provide feedback to other learners. •Candidates model self- and peer-assessment techniques and provide opportunities for students to practice these in the classroom. •Candidates embed self- and peer-assessment techniques in their instruction and model them across the curriculum. •Candidates share knowledge of ESOL assessment and related issues with colleagues.
Topical Outline
•sociocultural and political variables of learning English. •the effects of racism, stereotyping, and discrimination to ESL teaching and learning. •assessment-informed instructional practices with ESOL students •needs of students with LFS (limited formal schooling) in their L1. •purposes and varieties of assessment as they relate to ESOL learners. •quality indicators and limitations of assessment instruments •assessment accommodations for ESOL students. •classification of ESOL students (e.g., gifted and talented, and special needs). •national and state requirements for identification, reclassification, and exit of ESOL students from language support programs. •norm-referenced assessments and ESOL learners. •criterion-referenced assessments and ESOL learners. •performance-based assessment tools and ESOL learners. •content-area (e.g., math, science, social studies) assessment and ESOL learners.
Syllabus
Public CV