C&T 821: Assessment in TESOL

FINAL ASSESSMENTS
Desirae Jellison
Learner Description:
The student selected is from my 2017-2018 third-grade reading class. My reading class consisted of 21 students
with 8 EL students. Steve is nine years old and was born in the United States, but his parents were not. The
students’ first language is Spanish, which is spoken at home and sometimes during the school day. When the
Steve communicates with his mom or one of his six siblings at school or home, they only speak Spanish. The
table below provides student Steve’s proficiency levels determined by the WIDA ACCESS test.

Proficiency Levels of Focus Students

Student Age Listening Speaking Reading Writing Overall

Steve 9 5.6 2.1 2.5 3.4 3

Developing

Steve’s listening skills are currently on grade-level. He can successfully follow multistep directions and form
opinions on people, topics, and different character perspectives in a story. However, Steve will occasionally
struggle with identifying the literal and nonliteral language in a conversation. He gets confused when the
speaker uses idioms to explain a particular situation.

Based on a Fountas & Pinnell (2012) reading benchmark, Steve is currently reading below grade level. He is
reading at a level M that correlates to end of second grade reading ability. For him to be on grade-level, his
reading level would have to be a level P that corresponds to end of third grade. His current level means he is
one year behind in reading, but with continued ELL and RTI services he will make significant improvements in
the upcoming school year.

Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G. (2012). F&P text level gradient. Retrieved from:
http://blog.fountasandpinnell.com/post/what-is-a-level-and-how-can-i-make-it-work-for-

In speaking, Steve can communicate basic social information with friends. When he is in an academic setting
and is discussing content, he struggles due to lack of vocabulary. When faced with difficult speaking tasks he
will ask clarifying questions to help him understand expectations.
Reading Testing Objectives

 TESOL- ELP.2-3.1: An ELL can construct meaning from oral presentations and literary and
informational text through grade appropriate listening, reading, and viewing.

 Common Core-RI.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring
explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

Reading Assessment: General Directions

 Note that the assessment questions require students to underline answers in the text. Teachers should
model for students how to underline answers in a text, and direct students to underline an answer choice
when necessary.
 Time limit: 60 minutes
 Assessment requires crayons, colored pencils, or markers

Reading: Test Administrator Script

You are now going to take an assessment to test your reading skills. You will record your answers on the
student answer form. Read the directions before beginning.

(passages uploaded with assessment)

Reading: Student Instructions

Directions: Read Fruit From my Garden and answer questions 1-5. Next, read Steps to Make a Garden and
answer questions 6-10.

Reading Assessment: Student Answer Form

Name ________________________________ Date:_____________________

Directions: Read Fruit From my Garden and answer questions 1-4. Next, read Steps to Make a Garden and
answer questions 5-8.

Question 1: What is the boy growing? Underline your answer with a red crayon.

Question 2: How does the boy know the fruit is ready to pick? Underline your answer with a green
crayon.

Question 3: What words describe the boy’s fruit? Underline your answer with a yellow crayon.

Question 4: What is the boy going to do when goes inside? Underline your answer
with a blue crayon.

Question 5: What is the first step to growing a garden? Underline your answer with a purple crayon.

Question 6: Where do you put the seeds? Underline your answer with a yellow crayon.
Question 7: What do you need to do to make your plant grow? Underline your answer with a pink crayon.

Question 8: What do you do after you pick a spot for your garden? Underline your answer with a black crayon.
Reading Evaluation

According to the scoring guide, the student is on grade-level. He was able to find explicit information by
referring back to the text. All the answers to the questions were text-explicit. The student did not have to make
inferences or draw conclusions. The next reading assessment needs to be more challenging and have a variety
of question types.

There were two sequence questions about the second passage. The student was able to identify the first step in
the sequence. On the other hand, the student was unable to identify what happened after a specific step. Even
though the questions are both sequence related, the student was only successful for one. I believe the level of
difficulty was the factor that confused the student.

Question 5: What is the first step to growing a garden?

Question 8: What do you do after you pick a spot for your garden?

Question 5 uses an obvious sequence word, but question 8 doesn’t use a sequence word from the passage. If
question 8 was changed to “What happens after the first step?, the student may have been successful.