Assessing ELA

Question 1

Background Knowledge

Answer 1

(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.

Question 2

Diagnostic Assessment/ Pre-Assessment

Answer 2

assessment administered before instruction to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses

Question 3

Structural/ Morphemic Analysis

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Oral Language Assessment

Answer 4

Listen to, analyze, and record brief episodes of students’ oral language to assess needs, strengths, interests, and next steps to support growth.

Question 5

Heterogeneous Group

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Homogeneous Group

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Stakeholders

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Growth Chart

Answer 8

a tool for assessing a students mastery of oral language skills

Question 9

English Language Learners (ELLs)

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Lexicon

Answer 10

the collective vocabulary of a person or language

Example: Reading over the summer increased the student’s lexicon for the following school year.

Question 11

Reading Fluency

Answer 11

ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody

Question 12

Limited Vocabulary

Answer 12

smaller or more restricted bank of words than is typical

Example: Student says “that one” instead of referring to item by specific name.

Question 13

Phoneme

Answer 13

the smallest individual sounds in a word

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

Question 14

Literature Circles

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Expressive language

Answer 15

the ability to express meaning through language

Question 16

Progress Monitoring

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Overgeneralization

Answer 17

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.”

Question 18

Graphic Organizer

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Sentence Stems

Answer 19

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…”

Question 20

Assessment

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Think-Aloud

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Phonemic Awareness / Sound Awareness

Answer 22

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”

Question 23

Audiobook

Answer 23

a recording of a reading of a book

Question 24

Schema (when reading)

Answer 24

Background knowledge a reader brings to a text.

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

Question 25

Think-Pair-Share

Answer 25

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).

Question 26

Phonics / Graphophonemic Principle

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Morphology

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

Receptive language

Answer 28

the ability to understand meaning from language

Question 29

Summative Assessments

Answer 29

evaluations at the end of an instructional period

Example: final exams or projects that assess overall learning

Question 30

Reading comprehension

Answer 30

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.