Assessing ELA Flashcards
Background Knowledge
(schema or prior knowledge) information or experience that the student has prior to learning
Example: When students can connect their background knowledge to the texts they read, it aids their comprehension.
Diagnostic Assessment/ Pre-Assessment
assessment administered before instruction to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses
Structural/ Morphemic Analysis
using meaningful word parts (morphemes) to study a word and determine its meaning
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.
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 is a heterogeneous group
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 is a homogeneous group.
Stakeholders
includes administrators, colleagues, community members, school board members, family members, and students who receive information on assessment data and growth
Growth Chart
a tool for assessing a students mastery of oral language skills
English Language Learners (ELLs)
Students who are learning the English language, or for whom English is not a first language
Lexicon
the collective vocabulary of a person or language
Example: Reading over the summer increased the student’s lexicon for the following school year.
Reading Fluency
ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody
Limited Vocabulary
smaller or more restricted bank of words than is typical
Example: Student says “that one” instead of referring to item by specific name.
Phoneme
the smallest individual sounds in a word
Example: The word “bit” has three phonemes – b – i – t.
Literature Circles
strategy in which a teacher organizes students into small groups to discuss a common text
Expressive language
the ability to express meaning through language
Progress Monitoring
periodic assessments to monitor student growth and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction
Example: The teacher prepared a progress monitoring assessment to see how much each student had improved and learn if his new instructional approach was effective.
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.”
Graphic Organizer
a visual display of the relationships between facts and ideas
Example: Graphic organizers, such as story maps, timelines, venn diagrams and K-W-L charts, help students organize information.
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…”
Assessment
tools used to evaluate student growth and determine whether educational goals are being met
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
Example: Math teachers model thinking by reading a problem aloud and verbalizing figuring out what it is asking what needs to be done. Language arts teachers ask themselves questions about the text as they read aloud.
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 first sound in the word “blue”
Audiobook
a recording of a reading of a book
Schema (when 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.
Think-Pair-Share
Active 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 the students then share their results with the class (SHARE).
Phonics / Graphophonemic Principle
Using the relationship between symbols (letters and words) and sounds of a language to read and write
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.
Receptive language
the ability to understand meaning from language
Summative Assessments
evaluations at the end of an instructional period
Example: final exams or projects that assess overall learning
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.
