Assessing and Tracking the Progress of EAL Learners

12th February 2013

Bunty Dames

Speaking Two Languages Also Benefits Low-Income Children

• Living in poverty is often accompanied by conditions that can negatively influence cognitive development. Is it possible that being bilingual might counteract these effects? Although previous research has shown that being bilingual enhances executive functioning in middle-class children, less is known about how it affects lower income populations.

• Existing research, conducted with older bilingual children and bilingual adults from middle class backgrounds, suggests that knowing two languages may have different effects on different aspects of executive functioning: while being bilingual seems to have a positive influence on the ability to direct and focus attention (control), researchers have found no such benefit for how people encode and structure knowledge in memory (representation).

• Although the bilingual children knew fewer words than their monolingual peers, and did not show an advantage for representation tasks, they performed better on the control tasks than did the monolingual children, just as the researchers hypothesized

• “This is the first study to show that, although they may face linguistic challenges, minority bilingual children from low-income families demonstrate important strengths in other cognitive domains,” says Engel de Abreu.

• “Our study suggests that intervention programs that are based on second language teaching are a fruitful avenue for future research,” “Teaching a foreign language does not involve costly equipment, it widens children’s linguistic and cultural horizons, and it fosters the healthy development of executive control.”

Engel de Abreu. 10.27. 2012

Association for Psychological SciencePascale Engel de Abreu at Pascale.Engel@uni.lu

Removing barriers to literacy

Key findings :• . The successful providers visited understood the often multiple barriers facing children and learners

from disadvantaged groups which prevented them from acquiring literacy skills. However, only very few had consistent success in overcoming these barriers for all groups of children and learners.

• The most successful schools, colleges and other providers of adult education and training visited made outstanding use of national test and assessment data to raise the expectations of staff and to set sufficiently challenging targets.

• The most effective providers visited reflected on and adapted their curriculum, including any intervention programmes, to meet changing needs. They taught literacy in contexts that were relevant and meaningful to their learners. The staff identified learners’ different starting points and needs accurately.

• Inspectors saw a wide variety of effective approaches to the teaching and learning of literacy that built on the consistent use of phonics. Many of the approaches were in common use, but they were particularly effective in the providers visited because those teaching had consistently high expectations and the tasks set matched the needs of learners well.

• The successful schools visited often nominated learning mentors or staff to support looked after children and other pupils who were potentially at risk of underachieving. This ensured that they received continuity in terms of support and guidance, including prompt access to external agencies that were best equipped to tackle social and emotional problems that could affect learning.

• Headteachers sometimes limited their ambition for pupils because they measured success against the average for the pupil group rather than against the national average for all pupils. If the targets set for pupils from low-income families are below that of their peers, schools are less likely to succeed in narrowing the attainment gap.

Recommendations• Schools should:

• teach phonics systematically as part of the teaching of reading and ensure that pupils’ progress in developing their phonic knowledge and skills is regularly assessed

• ensure that governors regularly receive reports which include the progress and attainment in English of particular groups, such as White British boys and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals

• consider nominating a member of staff to take responsibility for maximising the achievement of learners who are potentially at risk of failing to reach average levels of skills in literacy

• ensure that all teaching and support staff receive regular training in developments in teaching literacy

• ensure that assessment information is available and shared for all looked after children, and where it is missing request the information promptly from the relevant local authorities.

• Learning and skills providers should:• ensure that learners without a grasp of phonics receive the necessary teaching

• ensure that all teaching and support staff receive regular training in developments in teaching literacy

• ensure that learners work towards literacy qualifications which are at a higher level than those they have previously passed.

Dfe policy

• Dfe policy summary statement byAngela Overington endorses:

• mainstreaming; • local flexibility led by schools;• meaningful assessment;• promoting community cohesion; • and English as the medium of instruction. • The aim of the policy is 'to promote rapid language

acquisition and include them (children learning EAL) in mainstream education as quickly as possible'.

Ofsted Chief Inspector calls for rapid

improvement in literacy Mar 2012 • Sir Michael will say that one in five children do not achieve the

expected literacy levels by the end of primary school – 100,000 pupils last year alone – rising to one in three pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. One in seven adults, as many as five million people, lack basic literacy skills.

• He noted that even achieving the current benchmark at the end of primary school is no guarantee of success. Last year 45% of pupils who achieved the lower end of level 4 at age 11 did not achieve a Grade C in their GCSE English.

• Schools should report to parents on their child’s reading age alongside information on national curriculum levels. From September, Ofsted will prioritise for inspection schools with the lowest achievement levels in literacy.

• Ofsted will publish a detailed survey of what works best in secondary schools to improve literacy across the curriculum

QCA, A language in Common

• National Curriculum

Additional assessment materials:

• Assessing Pupils Progress

• Fluency levels

• NASSEA steps

Wandsworth EMA assessmentsWandsworth EMA assessments

Steps and fluency levelsSteps Listening and

speakingReading Writing

Step1 Fluency level 1 Fluency level 1 Fluency level 1

Step 2 Fluency level1 /low 2 Fluency level1 /low 2 Fluency level1 /low 2

Step 3 Fluency level 2 Fluency level 2 Fluency level 2

Step 4 Fluency level 2 secure

Fluency level 2 Fluency level 2/low 3

Step 5 Fluency level 3 Fluency level 2/ low 3 Fluency level 3

Step 6 Fluency level 3/4 Fluency level 3 Fluency level 3/ low 4

Step 7 Fluency level 4 Fluency level 4 Fluency level 4

NASSEA Steps

The EAL common scale

The EAL common scale:• links with the National Curriculum and the

inclusion statements• provides early assessment criteria for listening,

speaking, reading and writing, two ‘steps’ before level 1 and 2 descriptors for level 1

• acknowledges the possibility of uneven profiles and different paths of development

• supports ‘best fit’ assessment process • is relevant for all key stages.

Record keeping

Manageable, effective records should:• identify pupils’ achievement in terms understandable by

the broadest possible audience, ie National Curriculum levels

• enable pupils’ progress to be tracked over time• support teachers’ decisions about learning targets• contain some relevant background information about

pupils, eg first-language proficiency, attendance, prior attainment in English

• link with curriculum and schemes of work• fulfil statutory requirements.

Marking ProgressOverall objectives

These two units will enable participants to:• understand the extended EAL assessment scales for

English• use the scales effectively• consider what evidence needs to be collected and

recorded• review bilingual pupils’ achievements in different

contexts• apply knowledge about assessment of EAL to own pupils • make decisions about future action as a result of

training.

Activity 1

• What do we need to know about an EAL pupil’s achievement in order to plan appropriately?

Key points

Teachers’ assessments of achievement:• need to record evidence of progress in ways that

are manageable• need a rounded picture drawn from many

contexts• use the principle of ‘best fit’ to make sense of

disparate information• should explicitly support teaching and learning • must influence decisions about future teaching.

Unit 2: Working with the case studies

Aims• Use the assessment scales for English in relation to one

or two relevant case studies • Practise standardising judgements and establishing

shared understanding of ‘best fit’ procedure• Understand how the assessment scales can be used in

different contexts to yield diagnostic information• Note how judgements about achievement including

diagnostic assessment are an integral part of the teaching and learning process.

Assessing pupils’ learning

Planning

Teaching

Ongoing work of pupils

OHT 19

Examining the evidence

For each piece of pupil’s work, note down three strengths in relation to listening, speaking, reading or writing.

Record what needs to happen next in order for the pupil’s language to develop further.

On the basis of the evidence available, suggest a ‘best fit’ level on the National Curriculum English scale.

Activity 4: Action planning

Discuss what you need to do to collect and assess evidence in school.

What are the implications for classroom practice and for whole-school policy and procedures?

Record key actions on the outline action plan provided.