As an ESL and CLD instructor, it is important to understand that authentic assessments are geared towards allowing the students the platform to demonstrate what they have learned or acquired in class in a meaningful manner. As an experienced and competent instructor, I realize that assessment is not just about testing the students through assigning them multiple choice questions, tests, or exams. Instead, my evaluation of the students will be inclusive of real-world topics as well as skills that the students are likely to be exposed to outside the classroom. I will adopt this assessment technique because I believe that traditional assessment methods most often than not test for language proficiency which could be obstructed by the language barrier, especially the limited in English students rather than examining their actual knowledge of the language.
Accommodating such students who are limited in English will require me to modify the assessments techniques by allowing and requiring the students to perform or dramatize a short story after reading it rather than answering multiple-choice questions regarding the story. Alternatively, I will allow them to advance their vocabulary and creativity by designing instructional tasks such as writing poems or poetry performance to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of figurative language pertinent to English. I will also include students in planning the informal instructional activities through emphasizing the critical areas in each instructional topic and encouraging them to see the whole picture for better comprehension of the subject. An example of the informal assessment I will use is the oral interview through which I will inquire about the students’ background or past experiences, their thoughts about the instructional activities, as well as their areas of interest and difficulties regarding the readings. I will carry out the interviews regularly, and then record in an interview guide.
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Before giving an instructional task, I will inform the students whether I am assessing content learned regarding the topic or spelling and grammar. In the same accord, I will make the challenging standards for student performance available so that everyone understands what is at stake. For instance, after reading an article, through the content logs, I will require them to note down the fundamental concepts regarding the characters in the article without much emphasis on spelling or grammar. Moreover, I will use portfolios in gathering an array of students’ work or completed tasks, which are crucial in tracing the students’ development and growth over a stretch of time. As an experienced instructor, I believe following or tracking the students’ performance and development through the portfolio is not enough or complete without giving feedback. As such, I will organize one on one meetings with the students through which I will provide direct and clear feedback pertinent to how their performance compares with the challenging standards.
As an instructor, it is fundamental to realize that the students need to be supported and assisted in learning and accomplishing complex understanding and content. To this end, assessment methods such as scaffolding and differentiated scoring will be used through which students will demonstrate their knowledge independent of their fluency in English. As an experienced CLD high school instructor, I understand that cultural sensitivity is vital in determining whether the students comprehend what is being taught. As such, the content taught and assessed, for instance, in social studies will incorporate multicultural backgrounds of the students rather than a single culture. This will be achieved first through informal activities such as inviting parents to participate in classroom activities by preparing different craft projects pertinent to their cultures then assessing students through observation and recording via anecdotal notes and rating scales. Moreover, I could formally ask the students to provide written assignments summarizing the activities then orally presenting their summaries in class. Alternatively, I could break the students into groups to further discuss their cultures and ultimately present written assignments on the same.
My formative assessments will be peer-based in the sense that the students complete written tasks and are thus assessed by fellow students duly split into pairs. As such, the peers are mandated with correcting mistakes whether content-wise or grammatical. Through observation and the learning log, I will be able to comprehend each level of the students’ comprehension and knowledge. In addition, through this assessment method, students will be able to take charge of their learning and thus understand that it is not about getting the final marks, but it is about bolstering learning. Summative assessments will as well be incorporated into formative assessments to jointly evaluate the students’ proficiency knowledge at the end of an instructional period. This will be coupled with the use of a rubric or performance criteria aimed at assessing comprehension and providing students the platform to demonstrate their synthesized skills as opposed to challenging standards. Ultimately, as a competent instructor, I will uniquely apply formative and summative assessments consistent with the constant teacher and peer dialogue where positive feedback will be the desired outcome.
