Proficiency Level Analysis Essay
Proficiency Level Analysis
For this assignment, I will group a seventh grade class into appropriate groups depending on their proficiency levels. There are five English proficiency levels in Ms. Jensen’s class, Pre-Emergent, Emergent, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. By looking at the score results of the Arizona English Language Learners Assessment (AZELLA), I will be able to place the students into appropriate groups by placing higher level students with ELL students during in-class activities to help them understand and succeed in their classroom assignments. When looking at the class roster, I noticed that Ramon is at the Pre-Emergent and Emergent level throughout Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking areas so I would place him in a group with students who are mostly at the Intermediate and Proficient Level so he can pick up the English language faster and easier. “Students can be paired or grouped as either ‘like-ability’ or ‘cross-ability’.
Cross-ability is where students of different proficiency levels work together and the benefit of cross-ability matching is that the higher-level students can help the lower-help students” (Roberts, 2007). There is a total of fifteen students, therefore I would create five small groups of three. The first group would consist of Ramon, Aryanna, and Carlos. The second group would be Gabriel, Hailey, and Jerry. The third group would include Corynn, Desiree, and Michael. The fourth group would include Jakob, Noah, and Suzanne while my last group would consist of Hade, Petie, and Rebecca. My explanation for placing these students in these specific group is because each group would consist of a low level student (Emergent) with a Basic and Proficient level student.
When working during class activities, the higher level (Intermediate/Proficient) students will help out the lower level (Emergent/Basic) students understand the assignment by providing additional support and being a role model to them across Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking areas. In order for this kind of classroom setting to work, I would need the support of the higher-level students to help with providing the additional help to the ELL students.
The teacher still would model the assignment first and provide a guided practice and then walk around each group to see what help is needed. I think creating small groups of three would work better than groups of five because ELL students would gain more knowledge and understanding when they have one or two students helping then instead of three to four persons. This is because students working in smaller groups are better able to focus and help each other. When the group has too many students, they have the tendency of getting sidetracked and potentially cause conflict within the group.
Roberts, Melinda. (2007). “Teaching in the Multilevel Classroom”. Pearson Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/download/adulted/multilevel_ monograph.pdf
University/College: University of Chicago
Type of paper: Thesis/Dissertation Chapter
Date: 23 September 2016
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