Ashley Kunkle

Assessment of English Learners- Week 1

Portfolio Assessment Assignment
Student Goals for the Portfolio Assessment:
Prior to development of my portfolio, I wanted to think of the educational goals I wanted
my students to achieve over the course of the unit. As stated in A Portfolio Assessment
Model for ESL, by Moya and OMalley, portfolio assessments should focus on
educational goals - rather than the objectives, which are more specific. They continue by
stating that this approach is recommended due to the holistic nature of language and the
variety of data to be interpreted in order to account for learning (Moya & OMalley, 6).
With this in mind, I modeled my educational goals from the examples given by Moya and
OMalley. These goals will later be broken down in to the lessons and objectives that will
guide the development of the portfolio.
Portfolio Assessment Goals:
1. Mechanics of English language- written and oral; specifically transitional phrases
and attributive tags
2. Writing and Oral Strategy- Persuasive strategies: ethos, pathos, logos
a. Identification, application, analysis
Lessons Aligned with Portfolio Assessment Goals:
1. Types of Persuasive Strategies
a. Through direct instruction, students will be able to identify the types of
persuasive strategies (ethos, pathos, logos). Students will take notes on a
guided notes sheet. Then, students will use this information to identify the
persuasive strategies in a variety of sources i.e. advertisements, articles,
debates.
2. Mechanics of English Language
a. Through direct instruction, students will be presented with mini lessons on
the mechanics of English language, with an emphasis on grammar.
3. Writing Strategy; transitional phrases and attributive tags
a. Through direct instruction, students will take notes on attributive tags and
persuasive strategies. Students will then work with partners to create
ongoing lists of attributive tags and transitional phrases through
brainstorming and evaluation of multiple sources, including annotations of
texts and analysis of various media sources.
4. Analysis of Persuasive Strategies
a. Students will do multiple analyses of persuasive strategies through short
writing activities. Students will watch advertisement, read through
research, watch televised debates, and watch their own debate over the
course of the unit; for each exposure students will analyze which
persuasive strategies were used and how they helped persuade the
audience.

Type of Portfolio:
This portfolio will be a Feedback Portfolio (Richard-Amato & Snow, 332). The portfolio
will include mainly student work with some feedback and notes from the teacher. The
feedback will come in the form of formal and informal evaluations during group
discussions, rubrics from presentations and comments on essays. There will also be notes
from any teacher-student conferences. The purpose of the portfolio will be to assess a
students development of the English language and development of skills needed to
enhance an argument/debate, with an emphasis on attributive tags and persuasive
strategies. The portfolio will also give the teacher a perspective of weaknesses and
strengths of individual students or the class as a whole. This insight can help develop
instruction for following debates or essays. Students will continue to add to the portfolio
throughout the year as they engage in new debates in order for the portfolio committee to
continue analysis. This portfolio can also be shown to parents and administrators to
display student growth and areas for improvement. Lastly, the portfolio will serve its
main purpose: to guide instruction (Moya & OMalley, 11).
List of Assignments:
1. Guided class notes on persuasive strategies
2. Lists, made by student, of attributive tags and transitional phrases
3. Annotations of argumentative articles on various topics
4. Advertisement poster created with a partner using all persuasive strategies
5. Identification list of persuasive strategies used in a commercial
6. Identification list of persuasive strategies used in a debate video
7. Analysis of persuasive strategies used in video debate- how it strengthened the
argument
8. Research and annotations on argument/debate topic
9. Informal teacher notes from observation of preparation for the debate
10. Argumentative paper with intro, body, counterclaim, conclusion, citations from
research, and persuasive strategies (rough and final draft)
11. Teacher-student conference notes
12. Oral debate- video recording
13. Rubric from teacher evaluation of the debate
14. Grading of argumentative paper
15. Analysis and reflection from student on their own debate
Assessment of the Portfolio:
Assessment of the portfolio will be done through analysis of the student work along- side
the teacher comments and summative assessments. This portfolio addresses many facets
of the English language by using formal and informal assessments; formative and
summative assessments; a variety of resources for analyzing student development in the
English language not only verbally, but also through writing; and by looking at the
processes during learning as well as the products. This variety of materials for assessment
is influenced by examples from both, A Portfolio Assessment Model for ESL and
Academic Success for English Language Learners. For the assessment of the portfolio, I
will be using an adapted version of the analysis form in A Portfolio Assessment Model
for ESL, by Moya and Malley (10). See the grading rubric below:

Rubric for Analysis of the Portfolio Assessment:

Student Name:
Classroom:
Teacher:
Date Analyzed:
Educational Goal:
Type of Language
Assessment: Verbal
or Written

Objective of Lesson
or Assignment

Evidence of student
work or teacher
observations
fulfilling objective

Reference

Strengths, as displayed by student work, in association with educational goal:

Areas needing improvement, as displayed by student work, in association with
educational goal:
Work to be shared with parents:
Plan for Instruction to further Educational Goal:

I chose to enhance the rubric given in A Portfolio Assessment Model for ESL to fit the
specific purpose of my portfolio. I wanted the analysis of the portfolio to be directly
aligned with not only language development, but also the development of instructional
goals and parental involvement needed to further the students success.
Validity of the Portfolio:
The validity of the portfolio is the most difficult to establish, but I feel this portfolio
would easily be able to show a students growth because of the differentiation of

assignments, assessments, and the ongoing additions to the portfolio. First, students will
include work that displays different components of the English language: written and
verbal. For written, there are formative and summative assessments included. If in a state
with a standardized writing test, this information could also be included and compared
along-side the other assessments. For verbal, there are teachers notes monitoring the
communication between peers as they work on projects, rubrics for speaking skills, and
mechanics from formal presentations, as well as, recordings of the student. Having the
recordings of the student in the portfolio takes away any bias the teacher may have given
during the presentation, therefore increasing the validity.
With the variety of assignments and assessments included in the portfolio, it will also be
easy for the portfolio assessment committee to validate any instructional decisions or
placements made for the student. There are many points of focus for each educational
goal, and even objective. By having many different examples focused around the same
goal, it gives the committee a multi-faceted analysis of the students. Through this
analysis, the committee will be able to look at every side of the students ability (informal
communication with peers/brainstorming to finished essays and debates). With all the
evidence at hand in the portfolio, any decision made about the students language
development will be fully supported and validated.

Works Cited:
Richard-Amato, Patricia and Marguerite Snow. Academic Success for English Language
Learners: Strategies for K-12 Mainstream Teachers. New York: Pearson Education,
2005. Print.
Moya, Sharon, and Michael OMalley. A Portfolio Assessment Model for ESL. The
Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students. Vol. 13. 1994. Print.