English Language Learning Progression (ELLP)
The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) provide a nationally consistent set of progressions for teachers to use to - identify stages and patterns of progress in the language development of English language learners from years 1–13, analyse the complexity of oral and written texts, monitor and report on English language learners’ progress. The progressions are in multiple booklets - introduction, for years 1-4, years 5-8, and years 9-13). They describe typical patterns of progress for English language learners as they acquire English as an additional language. Teachers need to know these about English language learners in order to maximise their learning of English. It will help them when choosing content, vocabulary, and tasks that are appropriate to each learner’s age, stage, and language-learning needs.
I had to use this tool because it is a national key guideline for assessment, planning, and teaching of English language learners (ELLs) in New Zealand. It is a school requirement to use ELLP to assess ELLs twice a year for ESOL-funding application. More importantly, ELLP provides both summative and formative information on the individual ELLs across the four English language skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing) which inform both the teaching and learning. It provides stages (achievement levels) that each learner is at and descriptors of progress at each language skill. The analysis of oral and written texts at each stage provides useful information on text selection for teaching and learning. ELLP provides guidance on what and where to start teaching these new ELLs as they arrive in New Zealand.
Progressive Achievement Test (PAT)
PAT is an online standardized reading comprehension test which assesses student ability to make meaning from texts they read in years 4 - 10. It helps classroom teachers determine achievement levels of learners in reading comprehension and indicate possible gaps in their reading too. PAT provides standards in terms of national mean scores as well as year levels mean scores which individual learners can be measured against. The test also provides descriptions of the reading comprehension skills that are typically present at different locations on the scales, allowing for formative and summative reporting. The 'What next' strategies are provided through the analysis of items in the test and links to the assessment resource banks. These are very helpful information for designing appropriate reading programmes and text types to use.
I chose to use this tool because it is the school-wide reading comprehension test used by the college and Manaiakalani cluster schools to assess the reading ability of our students. Because PAT multiple tests reflect expected progress through the curriculum, this is relevant for my inquiry cohort because it gives an immediate picture of how my learners are achieving and progressing against the curriculum. Further, because all students’ results end up on one scale no matter which test they sit, it allows for an accurate indication on where my inquiry learners are at in relation to their peers at school and nationally. I also find this tool very useful because it does not only measure the achievement levels and progress of our students, but it also provides the strengths and gaps in students’ reading which are useful formative information to guide and focus the teaching of reading. The ‘What next’ strategies are particularly useful in offering useful teaching strategies and appropriate text types and levels for teaching reading.
STAR Reading
Star Reading is an online customised reading test for students to take and it presents a snapshot of achievement at a specific point in time. The test is designed for students in years 2 through 13, also for students in year 1 who have basic reading skills.Teachers can use reports from Star Reading to determine the reading level of each student and to measure growth. Among many information provided, these are important indicators. Scaled Scores (SS) - ranges from 0 to 1400 and spans years 1–13, are useful for comparing student performance over time and across years and against a national norm. Reading Age (RA) - provides an estimate of the chronological age at which students typically obtain that score. Lexile® Measure - represents a student’s reading ability. Domain Scores estimate a student’s mastery of each domain for the student’s year level. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) suggests the readability-level range from which a student should be selecting books for optimal growth in reading without frustration. The ZPD is especially useful for students using Accelerated Reader.
I had to use this tool because the school runs a guided independent reading programme called Accelerated Reader for all our year 9 and 10 students and information from STAR reading are needed for its running. ZPDs from STAR are required to guide the selection of books with appropriate levels of difficulty for each student to read so they do not read too challenging or too easy books. When students read at the right levels of book, there's a better possibility for them to make shifts. Students can progress above or below these ZPDs depending on average percent correct they achieve on comprehension quizzes after reading each book. Scaled scores and reading age are helpful in indicating student progress over time as a result of this independent reading. I find STAR domain scores very useful in indicating gaps in specific reading domains assessed by STAR which help in planning and teaching of the learners.
Vocabulary Tests
For ELLs to make progress in both oral and written language, each learner needs to learn new words. Vocabulary needs to be taught explicitly, and an English language learner should ideally learn the most useful words first. But to decide which words most useful to teach, there is a need to consider how common they are and their relationship to the learner’s prior knowledge. To do that ELLP aligns word frequency word lists with stages of language learning. It is identified that at - Foundation stage - First 500–1000 words and other vocabulary relevant to class topics; Stage 1 - First 1000 words and a developing knowledge of the 2000 word list and other vocabulary relevant to class topics; Stage 2 - First 2000 words and a developing knowledge of the 3000 word list and other vocabulary relevant to class topics, and progressively higher, and so to other stages...
I chose to administer tests of the first 535 words, first 1000 words, and the first 2000 words to my inquiry group. The intention was to identify the percentages of words each learner knows and whether they are aligned with the ELLP stages they are in. These information will help identify the word lists these learners should focus on and the design of an appropriate vocabulary programme for them.
Interviews
A qualitative research technique which involves individual interviews with respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea or situation. Interviews can also aim to simply seek personal information from certain individuals for a particular purpose. There could be ‘structured’ interviews where pre-determined questions are prepared and interviewees answer in the same order. With ‘unstructured’ interviews, no questions are prepared prior to the interview and data collection is conducted in an informal manner. The ‘semi-structured’ interviews has components of both structured and unstructured interviews. This interview type has a set of same questions to be answered by all interviewees, at the same time, additional questions might be asked during interviews to clarify and/or further expand certain issues.
ELLs are not a homogeneous group - they come from different countries and culture, different home environment, different educational backgrounds, and even different literacy practices in different situations. All these together with variety prior knowledge contribute and affect English language learning in different ways. This is why it is very important that I do this interview with all ELLs in my inquiry group because the diverse language backgrounds, language proficiency, prior knowledge, and experiential backgrounds they brought with them mean a range of diversified needs to address in the reading programme offered. The NZ Ministry of Education recommends building learners’ profiles and knowing the learner is an important ESOL principle. At our school we aim to build a profile of every new ELL as soon as they arrive at school. I'll use a ‘semi-structured’ interview approach where pre-pared questions and other questions during interviews are given to students. I find these information very helpful in knowing about the learners’ learning needs.
Questionnaire
A questionnaire is basically another research technique which designs a set questions in a survey instrument and aims to collect information from a respondent. Questionnaire is very useful in collecting personal opinions, facts, beliefs, or attitudes from respondents. One biggest benefit of a questionnaire is that it is uniformed. That means every respondent sees the same questions so it is easy for data collection and to do a statistical analysis on the data. There can be different types of questions used, but very common are ‘open-ended questions, close-ended questions (just yes or no), multiple questions, scaling questions, or pictorial questions. Having a specific target group for the questionnaire, flexible time for answering questions, and easy to administer are other benefits of questionnaires.
I chose to use a questionnaire because I was interested in collecting information from my inquiry group on their attitudes and beliefs toward reading, books, and even attending school. I wanted to have some ideas on how they rate their own reading proficiency or viewing themselves as individual readers. I wanted to know their feelings and opinions on some strategies used in teaching reading in the classroom, so decisions can be made on whether to continue using them or not. I thought it was useful to know whether they read at home or not after school or what they do after school which also reflect their attitude and interest in reading. This kind of information would be important in designing ways to work with parents and caregivers so learners can be helped at home too. I feel these kind of information reflect more on them as learners and are helpful in designing programmes for teaching and learning of reading in the classroom as well as their reading after school.
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