The role of Oral Reading Assessments are important in ELL classrooms not only to inform instruction but to also document growth in the  language acquisition domain of reading. ELL teachers can use several different resources to conduct reading assessments in their classrooms. They are as follows:

DRA

Reading A-Z Benchmark Assessments

Rigby Benchmark Assessments

Running Records

DRA is a commonly used assessment in our district. ELL teachers are not required to use this assessment but may find it to be a helpful tool to use to create consistency between general education classrooms and ELL classrooms. If DRA is not an option for your current teaching reality, then you can also choose from the above options. The point is that one of these assessments are used each quarter to influence level movement and help inform daily instruction.

When evaluating the results of any Oral Reading Assessment ELL teachers need to consider not only reading based errors but also language acquisition influences in the way students negotiate a text. Some guiding questions to facilitate this process are as follows:

What errors do I see in this assessment?

Are they skill based errors or language based errors or both?

Are the errors’ students making used in their oral language?

What does this tell me about this child as a reader?

How would this inform my guided reading instruction?

How can that be supported through both oral language and reading?

Teacher can use the following documents to record students progress and interpret results of reading:

Fluency Chart

ELL Reading Assessment Log

DRA Tutorial for ELL Instructors Powerpoint

DRA for Secondary ELL Teachers Powerpoint

ELL teachers in our district provide core reading, writing and language instruction for ELL students to prepare them to transition into the general education classrooms. ELL students’ language acquisition and learning will accelerate WHEN instruction is delivered using ELL research-based strategies.  An ELL teacher’s expertise in language acquisition is an instrumental and vital part of the PLC team’s collaboration as it provides a language learning perspective when analyzing assessment results as well as when selecting high impact strategies for linguistically and culturally diverse students.

In this session, we worked to contextualize the Data Teams process to the ELL teachers’ role. We reviewed the Data Team steps, and we focused on the language acquisition and learning considerations in each step of this process.  Additionally, we developed relevant questions that can help the ELL teacher and PLC team interpret and react to data considering the variables of language acquisition which is key to more critically address the content and language needs of English Language Learners in the PLC process.

Resources:

ELL Teacher Role in Data Teams – (First Draft)

ELL Teacher Role in Data Teams – FACILITATORS QUESTIONS (First Draft)

LPS ELL Strategies

Title I Data Teams Resources

Related Literature:

• Book List

“What do I do?  This student has no English!  They can’t possibly…”

Ah, but they can!  We just have to do a few things differently!  Our Level One students are acquiring language all day long.  We have to make “input” more comprehensible for them and try to create as many “i+1” moments as we can by providing scaffolds and reframing our brain about what “output” can look like.

Language is acquired through “input.”  But “output,” or using that language to share your thinking and understanding, is what makes you smarter!  Level One students can share their thinking in many different ways.  Some helpful ways to support language input and output for Level One ELLs can be found in the resources below.

Level One Scaffolds and Supports

To see one of those scaffolds in action, click here to watch!

The following websites are great for Read Alouds and can easily be paired with a retelling activity, or simply drawing “I liked the part when…”  One suggestion…preview the texts beforehand to make sure they are comprehensible!  Sometimes, it is difficult to understand the story if the pictures don’t flow well with the text.  

Language Notebook Response Ideas for Online Read Alouds

Sundance Literactive Readers: Leveled Readers               Meegenius

You can even find some celebrities reading books aloud here:  

Storyline Online                  Read to Me                    Speakaboos

World Book-Early World of Learning (which has books AND learning games!)

Find great introduction and practice for English language structures, vocabulary and early literacy skills at…

BrainPop for ESL                                                Starfall

To access language support from Lincoln City Libraries, follow the steps found here.

***To make your own Level One Kit, find a list of all the ingredients here!***