Assessing ELA: Reading & Language Arts

Syntax

rules that govern the construction of words in order to make phrases, clauses, and sentences

Structural / Morphemic Analysis

using meaningful word parts (morphemes) to study a word and determine its meaning

Expressive Language

the ability to express meaning through language

Graphic Organizer

a visual display of the relationships between facts and ideas

Stakeholders

includes administrators, colleagues, community members, school board members, family members, and students who receive information on assessment data and growth

Reading Comprehension

the ability to read a text and understand its meaning

Example:

• Jessie read the book and was able to explain to me why the character lied in chapter 3.

Literature Circles

strategy in which a teacher organizes students into small groups to discuss a common text

Lexicon

the collective vocabulary of a person or language

Audiobook

a recording of a reading of a book

Schema (Reading)

background knowledge a reader brings to a text

Example

• Someone who plays baseball can use his experience to understand a biography of Babe Ruth.

English Language Learners (ELLs)

students who are learning the English language, or for whom English is not a first language

Small Group Instruction

a few members of the class learning together, as opposed to whole-group instruction

Example

• Students rotated through learning stations while the teacher pulled a few students to her table at a time for small-group instruction.

Phoneme

the smallest individual sounds in a word

Example

• The word “bit” has three phonemes – b – i – t.

Phonemic Awareness / Sound Awareness

the ability to hear, identify, and re-create individual sounds in spoken words

Example

• A student can hear that /b/ makes the first sound in the word blue.

Summative Assessments

evaluations at the end of an instructional period

Example

• final exams or projects that assess overall learning

Growth Chart

a tool for assessing a students mastery of oral language skills

Assessment

tools used to evaluate student growth and determine whether educational goals are being met

Homogeneous Group

group comprised of individuals working on the same level

Example

• A small group of students reading a book together on the same reading level.

Overgeneralization

the application of a grammar rule in a place where it doesn’t apply

Example

• A student adds -s to make everything plural, even irregular plural nouns. "I brushed my tooths this morning."

Sentence Stems

common sentence starters provided to students to use when generalizing, summarizing, or transitioning between ideas

Example

• "According to the author..." "We see in Chapter 2 that..." or "While X does this, Y..."

Morphology

the study of forms of words, including affixes, roots, stems, and parts of speech

Example

• The word "bicycles" is made up of three individual morphemes. The prefix bi-, the stem cycle, and the suffix -s.

Think-Pair-Share

learning activity in which the teacher provides a prompt, the students consider it individually (Think), then pair up and brainstorm responses or solutions (Pair), and then share their results with the class (Share)

Semantic Mapping

a form of scaffolding which helps students to develop connections among words

Example

• In one method, students write an example, a non-example, a synonym, and an antonym.

Phonics / Graphophonemic Principle

using the relationship between symbols (letters and words) and sounds of a language to read and write

Receptive Language

the ability to understand meaning from language

Whole Class Instruction

the teacher presents the same information in the same way to the entire class at the same time

Example

A teacher typically uses ______ instruction for short lessons or modeling.

Pragmatics

the study of how we understand the meaning of language based on the situation it's used in

Background Knowledge

(schema or prior knowledge) information or experience that the student has prior to learning

Heterogeneous Group

group comprised of individuals working on various levels

Example

• A small group of students with varying academic abilities working together on a science project.

Reading Fluency

ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody

Diagnostic Assessment / Pre-Assessment

assessment administered before instruction to determine students' strengths and weaknesses

Think-Aloud

a teaching strategy in which a teacher states his/her thoughts aloud to demonstrate how the students should go about solving a problem or understanding a text

Progress Monitoring

periodic assessments to monitor student growth and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction

Oral Language Assessment

listen to, analyze, and record brief episodes of students' oral language to assess needs, strengths, interests, and next steps to support growth