Inside Bell's Brain

Whew!  This week has flown by, and I missed the opportunity to post and link up this morning!  But I'm here now to share my thoughts with you on considerations for assessment, specifically when working with English learners.  (Please forgive me for my lack of graphics this week!  I'm trying to post and link up as quickly as possible!)  1. Change your lenses!  Before ever giving a formal assessment, you should view that assessment through the eyes of your EL students.  Ask yourself the following questions to gain some insight into your assessments. Are there complex syntactical structures that will confuse language learners?   Think of how much we overthink those true/false questions that have a negative word in them.  "If I say true, am I agreeing that it's true or not true?  But it has the word not, or never, or none!"  Those same questions can be very misleading for ELs because they're hyperfocused on the language and struct...

I am THRILLED that I just jumped in on my VERY FIRST linky party!  Check out this link to grab some awesome FREE resources from some amazingly innovative teachers.  I already snatched mine up!  Yours truly is at #25 with my Accommodati ons Labels.  I hope they help a lot of teachers; I know they have been a great time-saver for me.  I know I've already posted them once on my blog, but hopefully I will have more fun freebies up on my TPT store before my next opportunity to linky !  Don't miss out on this linky party...these freebies may only be available for a limited time!  (Image above provided by The Primary Gal.)

Every child is different; therefore, every child learns in a different way also.  But as teachers, we are responsible for the success of all our students.  That includes making the necessary accommodations that all our students need, both during instruction and during assessment.  I've been reflecting on the idea of accommodations and what they mean in working with English learners and similar diverse populations of students.  I wanted to share some of my ideas about accommodations in hopes that it can help you in planning appropriate accommodations for your ELs and all your students. Accommodations should be made throughout the learning process.   Accommodations are not retroactive efforts made to help a student achieve a barely-passing grade on an assessment.  Accommodations should be something you contemplate as you're planning your instruction.  The best instruction includes accommodations throughout the entire teaching and learning process so ...