{"id":46856,"date":"2016-02-23T00:57:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T05:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/?p=46856"},"modified":"2025-06-02T04:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T08:07:16","slug":"assessing-english-language-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/educator-english\/assessing-english-language-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways of Assessing English Language Learners Without Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeing growth and improvement can be a huge motivator for ELL students, but you can’t see growth if you don’t measure it. That’s why no great class is complete without some way of assessing students so you can also plan future lessons.<\/p>\n

However, tests aren’t always accurate ways to measure their skill levels. Instead, let’s look at five alternative ways to assess your ELL students, and examples of what each might look like.<\/p>\n

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1. Rubrics and Performance Criteria<\/h2>\n

Using rubrics and performance criteria is a great way to assess a variety of student work. It’s usually based on language proficiency and academic progression through work such as presentations, written assignments and reading activities<\/a>. You\u00a0can not only use these to grade your\u00a0students, but to chart their growth over a set period of time.<\/p>\n

Both tools feature a list of criteria or standards that students know you’re assessing. Rubrics show what is considered below level, at level and above level<\/strong>. A performance criteria can simply be a checklist of\u00a0what to assess<\/strong> for each student. With either of these assessment tools, it’s important to develop your own, as assessments are based on the teacher\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n

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A tool like RubiStar<\/a> is helpful, as it can show you sample rubrics other teachers have developed, and anyone can modify them for their own use.<\/p>\n

When creating rubrics or performance criteria, make sure that what you’re assessing is clear and fair from the beginning<\/strong>. As well, don\u2019t assess too much at once, as it\u2019ll not only overwhelm you but your students as well. If it helps, ask other teachers how they created their rubrics, or simply have someone look over yours to see if it looks okay.<\/p>\n

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You can even take it a step further by bringing FluentU<\/strong><\/a> into the classroom.

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

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You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

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