English Language Learners Summary

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Guidelines for the Assessment of English Language Learners is a practical and educational article that focuses specifically on English Language Learners and making sure they are given the same opportunities for success as English speaking natives. Statistics have shown that EL students are a large and evolving subpopulation of students within school districts. For example, in California, it is already the case that more than 25% of the students in grades PK-12 are ELLs. (pg.1) Most of which are Spanish speaking, but overall, English Language Learners speak nearly 400 various languages. The author wrote these guidelines in hopes that testing creators and other educators would consider ELLs when creating assessment for students. Within these …show more content…

This is essential because if the test questions require a high level of English proficiency, this will likely reduce the scores of ELLs and in some cases the general English speaking population. To avoid these happenings, the author mentions several precautions that should be taken when designing testing items such as matching the task to the purpose, defining expectations, writing appropriate directions, using accessible language, presentation and fairness and sensitivity. Within this excerpt, the author pinpoints specific strengths and weaknesses of ELLs that testing creators should take into account when designing testing items. An example of a strength of an EL student would be using a school based content when fictional context is necessary because it is considered a simple context that will be familiar to as wide a range students as possible. An example of a weakness of an EL student would be using a home-based context when a fictional context is necessary. This would be considered a weakness because ELLs come from a variety of cultural backgrounds so what may be traditional or considered “normal” in an American household may be completely absurd in another person’s native …show more content…

We are always taught in school that we might have ELLs in our classrooms and that accommodations will have to be made, but there is not a class that solely teaches one how to teach an EL student or make those accommodations like there is one that teaches one solely how to teach phonics, reading, math or any other subject area. This article could be used in a practical way because it teaches educators and test creators not only how to properly assess ELLs, but also how to teach them and learn from them. These guidelines could be used as a rubric to ensure that all students are given the same opportunities for

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