It is best to incorporate as many of the ELA strands into teaching the lessons, and into the assessing of learning gained from the lessons. This is because students both learn differently, and are better equipped to demonstrate their "success" in learning the material in different ways. Two students could be equally knowledgeable in a subject, but might be more comfortable showing it through one of the strands than another. The Alberta Assessment Consortium website outlines some great assessment materials for the different grade levels and literacy strands.
How might you assess each of this six strands of English Language Arts literacy?
This document outlines some general principles for good assessment, while this document is more specialized towards language proficiency assessment.
The website Learn Alberta has some helpful tips and ideas for assessing:
- Reading - a student could read a passage of text aloud to a teacher so a teacher can assess the student's reading ability. Notably, this practice is flawed because a student may be able to read well silently, but might have difficulty reading out loud. It is best to pair this activity with comprehension questions to better assess the student's reading ability and understanding. Check out this website for more information.
- Writing - reading various samples of the students writing that include various forms of writing. In order to properly gauge a student's writing ability it is important to read different samples of their work because they may excel in one form, for example expository writing, and struggle with narrative writing. If you would like to learn more about assessing writing, click here.
- Listening - one way to assess a student's ability to learn through listening is by having them listen to an audio book, and then asking them comprehension questions.
- Speaking - assessing a student's speaking literacy ability can be as simple as listening to the student speak. If the student is consistently able to eloquently express their ideas then they are proficient at speaking. If the student struggles to express their ideas and comprehension of different literacy facets, then the student is likely not strong at speaking.
- Viewing - after viewing something visual like an image, a teacher could assess the student's understanding by having them identify different themes, contexts, or ideas that the visual emitted.
- Representing - posters can be a great way for students to represent their understanding of different key themes, ideas, and content of literature. A teacher can then assess the student's understanding of the literature piece by the poster product.
This document outlines some general principles for good assessment, while this document is more specialized towards language proficiency assessment.
The website Learn Alberta has some helpful tips and ideas for assessing: