There are many variables to consider when assessing multilingual learners and developing readers. As a heterogeneous group, they demonstrate varying levels of language and literacy development. Their development is often not linear across language domains (e.g., they may have higher oral language development in some cases and written language development in others). The “funds of knowledge” (Moll, 2013 ) or multicultural resources they possess play an important role, too. From an instructional perspective, Bridges uses a spiral approach, so students can revisit language and concepts throughout the curriculum. The assessment philosophy follows this approach. This systematic approach views all activities as providing information about achievement. As such, formative assessment plays a vital role; it is an ongoing process related to student progress toward meeting the learning targets, goals, or objectives of a unit. During the instructional cycle, teachers gather information through questions embedded in the text to determine the effectiveness of instruction. Based on that information, they provide timely and relevant feedback (Gottlieb, 2016). Further, teachers use this information to tailor instruction. Students play a vital role in this process. Gottlieb (2016) describes the importance of multilingual learners contributing to and helping to shape the assessment process. They should advocate for themselves, take responsibility for their own learning, work toward becoming independent and selfregulated learners, reflect on their academic and linguistic accomplishments, monitor their personal growth and progress toward their learning goals, engage in peer assessment, and gradually become instructional resources for each other. Together, this allows students to develop metacognitive, metalinguistic, and metacultural awareness even from a young age. Each unit contains checklists (for example in writing activities) that prompt students to pause and evaluate their own work. Also, there are multiple formative assessments embedded throughout the Bridges units, where teachers regularly stop to check student understanding and then demonstrate what they know in ways that relate to the current learning, as well as the knowledge that is developing. Bridges also includes more formal assessments with regular quizzes. Summative assessments are also incorporated. Summative assessments serve as a way to check learners’ “sum” of learning at a particular point in time. It is a cumulative assessment at the end of the unit. The results provide evidence of progress and can be used for accountability purposes. Because Bridges aims to ensure language development in the vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills, the assessments address both language and discipline-specific content (in ELA, math, science, social studies). Current language research reinforces the approach that teachers must attend simultaneously to the students’ needs both in language learning and content skills, as well as developing the English required to express their learning (Alvarez et al, 2014). Beyond the embedded formative assessments, Bridges includes several assessment types that flow sequentially throughout the academic year. Collectively, the assessment types provide a comprehensive picture of student progress and can be used to monitor that progress dynamically over time. Of special note are the rubrics as they offer explicit parameters for expectations. Rubrics are important criterion-referenced tools that enable both teachers and students to interpret work using the same set of descriptors. ASSESSMENT 28
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