LING 612-Dr. Coles-Ritchie

O'Malley, M.J. & Pierce, L.V. (1996). Authentic assessment for english language learners: Practical approaches for teacher.(pp. 1-8). Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.:ISB4: 0-201-59151-0.

Testing, testing, and more testing! That is my impression. In creating the effective tests and tests that test exactly what you are searching for, some get lost in the process of person to person interactions. BUT tests are here to stay and there are tests to assess validity of tests! So the world goes round! This chapter was easy reading and I skimmed at the contents of this book and many of the material looks practical enough for teachers. I like how this book is outlined and does not forget to include assessment ideas for other subject such as Math, Science, and Social Studies.
I have heard the term Authentic Assessment and whole language programs and schools. So the idea is not so new, but the book makes it seem effective and presents multiple forms of assessment instead of the generic multiple choice, true/false assessments that are limited and show no creativeness in each students. My own definition of Authentic assessment would be triangulation. A great teacher would be multimodal in her approach to teaching and assessing.
As far as assessing ELL students I like how this chapter identifies the following reasons for this; screening and identification, placement, reclassification or exit, monitoring student progress, program evaluation, and accountability. This presents a sense of focus for me now as I think about writing assessments and creating a better student repertoire when show casing their progress to their parents.
Under the umbrella of Authentic assessment are performance assessment and portfolio assessments. Performance assessments are written and created by the learners. Some strengths of Performance assessments are constructed response, higher order thinking, authenticity, integrative, process and product, and depth versus breadth. The other form of assessment is portfolio assessment in which students collect and display their progression from the beginning. They are free to add to or take out material as they see fit. This process speaks to the students evaluating their own efforts and they begin to show ownership in their education.
As far as assessment and ELL, my personal connections and thoughts about this is that I would like to be a more well rounded teacher where I teach multimodally and assess multimodally. Students should be able to express themselves in many methods and showcase themselves in authentic forms. Some of the things I would like to try is to engages students by having them create meaningful products so that we (teacher, students, and parents) are able to see what they are capable of.
One thing I am struggling is I am responsible for 8 subject areas and standards for each subject and each level that the students are at, these numbers add up and like I stated before I am striving to be Superwoman. I would like to find a win win method for all so that I am not recreating the wheel. This year is the first year I am alone without a teacher aide, so I am forced to rethink my schedule and my methodology and therefore my assessment techniques.