Beyond Teaching to the Test ― Rethinking Accountability and Assessment for English Language Learners

Meant to be a companion to the NCTE Position Paper on the Role of English Teachers in Educating English Language Learners, this book considers accountability issues related to its sections on knowledge of the students, teaching language, teaching literacy, teaching language and content, and selecting materials. It connects the position paper’s teaching recommendations with teachers’ accountability concerns, to help English language learners succeed and represent their learning through a variety of assessments. It describes how the genre-based instruction approach can be extended using the tools of systemic functional linguistics to create a comprehensive instructional program that supports these learners in learning grade-level content and the academic language they need to access that content and demonstrate their learning on formative and summative assessments, as well as how this approach can support multilingual students in learning how to take standardized tests, without “teaching to the test.” It details stories of middle school English teachers who have used these tools to modify their instruction and shows how teachers with little additional training beyond their English language arts credentials were able to identify the core language structures students need to know within standards-based literacy lessons and to design learning experiences that taught language and content and allowed them to assess students’ learning. The final chapter describes how teachers can communicate their approach to accountability to stakeholders outside the classroom. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)