[Celina Mathews]

Hi, Sarah.

We currently use WIDA as our primary assessment tool to gauge support levels. It provides us with data on all 4 language domains. The WIDA Framework also has WIDA Can Do’s which frame students language proficiency in a positive light. We can use these to identify appropriate (at-level) tasks to provide opportunities of growth within their ZPD. We can also look to the next level of the Can Do’s to scaffold a task so that we can build students up into the next level. It does take some serious diving in, and co-planning to bring about the differentiation on this level. WIDA also has the English Language Development standards that can help us integrate language standards in unit plans within various content areas. It helps in creating a unit/lesson goal which brings language learning to the table during co-planning.

We also use MAP Reading, MAP Language Usage, and report card data to identify common trends – this also allows us to triangulate our data. We bring everything to the table during a data review session with the whole EAL team. As we also co-teach, we have anecdotal data from our own classroom experiences. At our data reviews, we review students in our EAL program one by one and make shared decisions on placement within the program, candidates to exit the program, and referral to the Learning Support (LS) team if we have concern that language learning is not the sole challenge for the learner. For example, if a student is starting to plateau, we can discuss reasons why this might be happening. Or, if we have identified concerns with writing, specifically letter order, we can bring our learning support team into the conversation. Based on collaboration with the LS team, parent conferring and/or external assessments might be next steps. This component is dependent on the concern, evidence, recommendations from our learning support team, and collaboration on how we as a team can support the learner.