Determining a student’s English language proficiency takes time and careful consideration of many different factors to ensure that students are given appropriate accommodations and support needed for students to be successful in the classroom. Through the student home survey and finding out their educational background, schools can get a good insight into their preliminary understanding of the English language (not at all, a little, some, a lot, etc). Many states then require students to take a specific examination to accurately assess and determine the student’s English language proficiency in reading, speaking, listening, and writing. In New York State, students entering a district will take the NYSITELL, or the The New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners. This assessment gives great insight to a student’s English language proficiency and allows districts to place the student in the proper proficiency level and grant students access to the appropriate accommodations and support needed for that level. As students progress through their education, they will continue to be annually assessed through the NYSESLAT, or the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test. This test continues to assess students’ English language Proficiency as they progress through each school year. This again allows schools to track a students progress and adjust accommodations and supports as needed as they progress through each level of proficiency. Although these are the formal ways in which student English language proficiency is determined, teachers and other school staff should constantly be taking notes during the school year and tracking their students' performance to ensure that the students is progressing through each stage as well as assuring the support and accommodations in place for the student are effective.
Students writing Sample 1: 7th Grade
Prompt: You can tell a lot about the person by the way they look. Agree or Disagree?
I disagree because is not fair to just see a person and say he is Chinese even tho he is japanese. Imagine that your best friend seems pretty nice. but he is actually the mafia boss son. So you should not judge a book by it’s cover.
Student was assessed to be at the Transitioning/emerging border of English language proficiency.
Going through this opinion based writing sample of this seventh grade student, I noticed that the student displays multiple areas of transition English language proficiency while also expressing emerging language proficiency in other areas. For example, this student used mainly simple language, like “disagree” and “fair” but did not increase the vocabulary complexity through the writing. The student also only uses 2 examples as a means of support for the claim that you should not judge a person by the way they look. The student was also marked in the emerging proficiency when it came to ECR Informational. Although the task may not have allowed for the student to make multiple claims, because the claim is to agree or disagree, the student could have used more examples for their claim and the student could have also agreed with the claim, which the teacher asked the students to do when they completed their first claim. However, the student does show multiple areas where their writing falls under the transitioning proficiency. For example, the student uses a combination of simple sentences and complex sentences when writing their claim as well as giving supporting examples to prove his claim. Although the writing does lack transitions, the sentences have orientation to the claim and question, are well organized, are all connected to the main idea and their writing has closure, although not as smooth as we would hope. When it comes to the ideas and descriptions to support their claim, the student is able to write clear explanations and descriptions to support their claim. Although they are quite simple and do not go far in depth, the student is able to write multiple examples to support the claim of not judging a book by its cover. The overall writing of the student contained a few errors in grammar and spelling, none of these mistakes deterred me from understanding what the student was trying to say and therefore was rated in the expanding proficiency level when it came to the mechanics section of the rubric. Throughout the entire writing piece, you can easily follow what the student is claiming as well as understand their examples and why they support his claim with a clear conclusion to their claim.
Writing Sample 2: 7th Grade
Prompt: Why does Johnny admire Dally? Who is someone you admire and why?
Johnny admire Dally because he is criminal so they can go to he help them. “He didn’t bat an eye.” I’m admire for dad because work with camera and make his job.
Student 2 was assessed to be at the Emerging level with small portions of transitioning proficiency.
Going through the small writing sample of this seventh grade student, I noticed that for the most part their writing fell into many of the emerging categories. For example, the language in the writing is quite simple and does not contain a lot of higher level English vocabulary used during this unit. When it came to the content of the writing, the details, descriptions, and character references were all very short with very little description used. The student starts with a claim to answer the initial question, but does not does not follow up with substantial evidence or explanations. The student also does not introduce the quote, which has been taught before, and then proceeds into the second part of the question, which she answers well with minor grammatical errors. The writing itself is clear to understand for anybody who reads it. Although there are a few grammatical errors that make the sentences technically incorrect, such as the wrong tense of “admire” and “they can go to he help them”, the errors do not take away from what the student is trying to state as a claim. Although one may be confused with the quote, it is the lack of detail and not the lack of writing clarity that may create the lack of understanding. Again, their errors in grammar and syntax does not take away from understanding that they admire their father because he works with a camera for his job.
Students writing Sample 1: 7th Grade
Prompt: You can tell a lot about the person by the way they look. Agree or Disagree?
I disagree because is not fair to just see a person and say he is Chinese even tho he is japanese. Imagine that your best friend seems pretty nice. but he is actually the mafia boss son. So you should not judge a book by it’s cover.
Student was assessed to be at the Transitioning/emerging border of English language proficiency.
Going through this opinion based writing sample of this seventh grade student, I noticed that the student displays multiple areas of transition English language proficiency while also expressing emerging language proficiency in other areas. For example, this student used mainly simple language, like “disagree” and “fair” but did not increase the vocabulary complexity through the writing. The student also only uses 2 examples as a means of support for the claim that you should not judge a person by the way they look. The student was also marked in the emerging proficiency when it came to ECR Informational. Although the task may not have allowed for the student to make multiple claims, because the claim is to agree or disagree, the student could have used more examples for their claim and the student could have also agreed with the claim, which the teacher asked the students to do when they completed their first claim. However, the student does show multiple areas where their writing falls under the transitioning proficiency. For example, the student uses a combination of simple sentences and complex sentences when writing their claim as well as giving supporting examples to prove his claim. Although the writing does lack transitions, the sentences have orientation to the claim and question, are well organized, are all connected to the main idea and their writing has closure, although not as smooth as we would hope. When it comes to the ideas and descriptions to support their claim, the student is able to write clear explanations and descriptions to support their claim. Although they are quite simple and do not go far in depth, the student is able to write multiple examples to support the claim of not judging a book by its cover. The overall writing of the student contained a few errors in grammar and spelling, none of these mistakes deterred me from understanding what the student was trying to say and therefore was rated in the expanding proficiency level when it came to the mechanics section of the rubric. Throughout the entire writing piece, you can easily follow what the student is claiming as well as understand their examples and why they support his claim with a clear conclusion to their claim.
Writing Sample 2: 7th Grade
Prompt: Why does Johnny admire Dally? Who is someone you admire and why?
Johnny admire Dally because he is criminal so they can go to he help them. “He didn’t bat an eye.” I’m admire for dad because work with camera and make his job.
Student 2 was assessed to be at the Emerging level with small portions of transitioning proficiency.
Going through the small writing sample of this seventh grade student, I noticed that for the most part their writing fell into many of the emerging categories. For example, the language in the writing is quite simple and does not contain a lot of higher level English vocabulary used during this unit. When it came to the content of the writing, the details, descriptions, and character references were all very short with very little description used. The student starts with a claim to answer the initial question, but does not does not follow up with substantial evidence or explanations. The student also does not introduce the quote, which has been taught before, and then proceeds into the second part of the question, which she answers well with minor grammatical errors. The writing itself is clear to understand for anybody who reads it. Although there are a few grammatical errors that make the sentences technically incorrect, such as the wrong tense of “admire” and “they can go to he help them”, the errors do not take away from what the student is trying to state as a claim. Although one may be confused with the quote, it is the lack of detail and not the lack of writing clarity that may create the lack of understanding. Again, their errors in grammar and syntax does not take away from understanding that they admire their father because he works with a camera for his job.