As my classmates and I move through Unit 3 of our graduate course, we are discussing more challenges related to teaching ESL students. One of the challenges before is is accurate assessment. A group of us worked together to compare our results when evaluating the same clip of student speech. We all gave different scores with the same student and same assessment. This experience definitely created an awareness that the training of the assessor (me!) is key, and also that no assessment (or assessor) is perfect. We all agreed that the subjectivity of certain rubrics and evaluations can be very helpful because the teacher can consider the student's typical, overall performance and not just a snapshot of a one-time performance.
Beyond assessment, ESL teachers and any teacher working with ESL students has the added responsibility of modifying texts and literature and finding those texts that are most appropriate for ELLs. Working with ESL students can be a big challenge in all areas from instruction to assessment, but it is a challenge worth facing every day!
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