Comments on: What is alternate assessment for ESL students? http://www.englishoverseas.com/blog/what-is-alternate-assessment-for-esl-students/ Sun, 12 Feb 2012 06:46:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Merryberry http://www.englishoverseas.com/blog/what-is-alternate-assessment-for-esl-students/comment-page-1/#comment-750 Merryberry Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:14:32 +0000 http://www.englishoverseas.com/blog/what-is-alternate-assessment-for-esl-students/#comment-750 My basic alternate assessment is pretty much the same test/quiz, but I have it translated into Spanish. I figure that my goal is to test for the ability to apply a certain skill, so allowing them to struggle with the language barrier just builds a wall that they can't get over. I can't accurately assess if they have learned the skill if they can't actually get to that step. I also have allowed my ESL students to create some type of project instead of writing an essay on a certain topic. I may have them make a posterboard that demonstrates his/her knowledge of the capital punishment (for example), rather than them writing a 2 page paper stating their findings. Hope this helped somewhat. Sorry if it did not. My basic alternate assessment is pretty much the same test/quiz, but I have it translated into Spanish. I figure that my goal is to test for the ability to apply a certain skill, so allowing them to struggle with the language barrier just builds a wall that they can’t get over. I can’t accurately assess if they have learned the skill if they can’t actually get to that step.

I also have allowed my ESL students to create some type of project instead of writing an essay on a certain topic. I may have them make a posterboard that demonstrates his/her knowledge of the capital punishment (for example), rather than them writing a 2 page paper stating their findings.

Hope this helped somewhat. Sorry if it did not.

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