Introduction
There are many ways of assessing and evaluating ELL students. However, in a multicultural setting, students’ performance based assessment has been successfully achieved through portfolio assessment mode. Portfolio assessment is an authentic student reflection under appropriately a, especially in high schools. A teacher develops portfolio assessment based on his/her interest.
Portfolio assessment has five main characteristics, which makes it the best methods to be used among diverse learners. These include; its comprehensiveness, systematic and predetermined, tailored nature, and its authentic.
Assessment Mode
The comprehensive nature of portfolio assessment makes it useful as it incorporates lot of learning elements. When developing portfolio assessment plan, many people are involve that ensure that all learning element are covered. Portfolio assessment will identify structural language components to be used to assess student. Materials such as charts, boards, sticks, pictures can be applied in assessing student literacy level and skills.
A student language mastery, can also be tested through an arrangement of more complex learning materials. As a result, this assessment tool becomes vital in traditional reading view. A student can also be tested over reading and answering comprehensions skills. On the other hand, a student can be given word puzzles , and word construction assessments to check their language mastery. Self-reflection tests have also been applied as a test on traditional reading view (Peregoy & Boyle, 2008).
Testing ELL student reading cognitive view has successfully been achieved by assessment portfolio. A student ability to construct ideas during their reading can be assessed through exposing them to tests such as graphic organizers.
Students can be made to draw story maps or develop a story plot following the work they have read. Self-reflection essays can be applied to assess how much the students have gained in class. Time records of reading and understanding a material can also be used to measure the competency of a student (Elizabeth & Donald, 2010).
Metacognitive assessment is based on the ability of the student to draw a summary of a reading material through a systematic analysis of their text. Testes such text can be achieved by developing portfolio that assesses ability of the student to relate their learning and the real life situation.
Student metacognitive tests should be administered through exposing a student to a reading material then assessing how they can relate it to problems in the society. Additionally, metacognitive reading reviews should test the ability of the student to integrate ideas and develop solutions in the text (Elizabeth & Donald, 2010).
Developing Portfolio Assessment
When developing portfolio assessment criteria, the following need to be considered.
- Items to be used in the portfolio should meet the needs intended
- The portfolio should be systematic and predetermined in purpose, relevancy and consistent.
- The portfolio should be very informative to the people carrying out the test.
- The portfolio should be tailored to study objectives.
- It should be authentic i.e. assessment need to be taken from natural learning ground, such as class room.
Conclusion
ELL assessment and evaluation should as well consider cultural diversity to come up with successful results. Cases such as students from family backgrounds where the parents do not speak English should as well be considered. Rubric scores can be developed based on such indicators as oral skills, interpretation capacities, ability to write and comprehend, and the student mastery of the topic.
References
Elizabeth, A., & Donald J. (2010). The New Literacies: Multiple Perspectives on Research and Practice. New York: Guilford Press.
Peregoy, S., & Boyle, O. (2008). Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL: A Resource Book for Teaching K-12 English Learners. Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon