Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e9OLYP921078; Tue, 24 Oct 2000 17:34:25 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 17:34:25 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <39F5FA5C.FB7E6F7E@sri.com> Errors-To: rgspacone@aol.com Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Regie Stites <regie.stites@sri.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:1230] EFF and ESOL X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) Status: O Content-Length: 2853 Lines: 54 Hi again, This is the last of the three general responses that I promised. This one will be shorter (a good thing, no?) than the previous posts and I am hoping that it leads into a more open discussion. The topic is (as Debbie Tuler put it) "the meaningfulness and use of [an EFF Standard] for planning instruction and assessment for ESOL. Debbie was particularly interested in the "speak so others can understand" standard. Andy Nash asked a similar question about using EFF to guide assessment and instruction for beginning English learners. I think that an assessment expert and policy wonk (like me) is less likely to provide useful guidance in this area than teachers who have worked through this problem in practice. But, of course, I do have some advice to offer. First, there is the issue of how much guidance the EFF Standards can provide to teachers in planning instruction and assessment in any case. The EFF Standards (like any Content Standards) should be "visionary and not at all prescriptive" (to borrow a phrase from Andy Porter. In other words, the role of the standards should be to help organize and frame instruction and assessment, but never to set limits on what should be taught and assessed. The EFF Standards cannot be the sum total of any program or classroom curriculum, but they can help learners, teachers, and program managers to see the "big picture" of learning goals and perhaps point to gaps where new curriculum development is needed. Second, let me repeat the mantra of the assessment specialists -- "multiple measures." The guidance that EFF can provide for developing assessments and for aligning instruction and assessment is also limited. If we want to assess an ESL learner on the "speak so others can understand" or "reflect and evaluate" standards, the best and most direct approach would be some form of performance assessment that provides an opportunity to evaluate the learner's ability to "perform" in a authentic situation. However, constructing such a performance task that is appropriate for use with beginning English learners will be a challenge. It will probably require a degree of scaffolding by the instructor that makes the situation somewhat less than authentic (for example, simulating a conversation with a librarian rather than sending students out to library to find something). In this case and many others, developing performance tasks to measure progress on the EFF standards should not be seen as replacing other forms of assessment used to guide instruction. Thanks for the great questions (and I realize that I have not responded to all of them yet). I am looking forward to the discussion, Regie Regie Stites, Ph.D. Education Researcher Center for Education and Human Services SRI International Menlo Park, CA e-mail: regie.stites@sri.com voice: (650) 859-3768
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Oct 29 2001 - 15:04:17 EST