Initial ESL Assessment

Many of my previous posts address changes to classroom environments that I have been exposed to. In terms of furniture and layout, it would change depending on the needs of that day's lesson: pods of desks for group work, desks at the wall and chairs in a circle for community building, comfortable chairs/beanbags for reading time, desks in pairs for some activities...I would try to subvert the traditional 'teacher-at-front' environment as much as I could.

A safe-space for students includes them in the daily creation of that safe space. To me this means including materials that the students want to be surrounded by - things that they create, photos they find that connect to what we're learning, quotes and posters that remind them of the need to critically think, inquire, and explore their identities and assumptions. It also means, as the OHRC video describes, involving students in creating solutions for the problems they face. Major barriers to accessing education for English Language Learners can be their language abilities, trauma they've experienced, social stigmas, or cognitive/behavioural learning needs that haven't been addressed. Learning about the students in our classrooms, being proactive with paperwork necessary to allocate resources properly, and collaborating with the students' other teachers are all ways teachers can begin to tackle those barriers. However, at every step of the way, the students (and their parents/guardians) should be brought into the discussion. Transparency in this process can do a lot to mitigate the harms associated with schooling for FNMI students, as well as students with limited prior schooling who do not have experience with this system. In this way, teachers are organically modeling the need for social justice among their students: they are demonstrating that it is everyone's responsibility to change procedures and systems that are harmful to others, and to act in an inclusive and respectful manner.

The initial assessment students receive when they enter the school is crucial for giving the student a strong, positive, resource-filled start at the school, rather than feeling thrown into the crowd with no support. From the readings, it is clear that this is an extremely collaborative activity that, while needs to be handled procedurally, can happen at any time and with any number of challenges and unexpected factors. Parents may or may not be involved; the student may come at the beginning, middle, or end of the semester; an interpreter (if necessary) may or may not be available; the student may or may not have received a reception assessment at a designated center; the student may or may not have any paperwork with them... overall, we need to be prepared at all times to engage in this process and in such a way that reflects the student's needs/abilities/background/circumstances. During my time as an ELL teacher in a private academy, my boss often asked me to assess students' English abilities. However, there was no established procedures, no warning that a student was coming in, and no accountability to the student or the school - it was basically a ball-park estimate of what level of English the student was at. I was familiar with the STEP program and stuck to that as much as I could, but still felt stressed because I wanted to give a fair and accurate assessment of the students' strengths and needs and simply felt inadequate to achieve this. Reflecting on that experience, I believe that preparation is key. As Coehlo mentions in Language and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms, there are a number of items that will go into a student's file to be assessed holistically including the assessment interview (with possible versions in a variety of languages), samples of visual and textual material that the student can identify as familiar or not, along with photos and short response paragraphs for assessing their oral and written responses in the L2. 
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When developing these assessments, we need to think about the questions that can best illuminate a holistic understanding of the individual student. Asking a variety of name questions like 'What do you want to be called?' rather than 'What is your name?' is a good way to get clarification but also to begin the assessment process by giving the student a sense of agency. I would also try to have visual aids for the basic school questions: different pages of textbooks, photos of different jobs; a scale-style tool for "how well" questions...things that the student can use to express themselves that do not rely on spoken English. This would allow for a smooth transition into the picture response, as well, hopefully creating an informal and comfortable conversational atmosphere.

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