Language Support Program

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Module 3.1 Resources for identifying and profiling students

Using the curriculum to identify students with language difficulties

A developmental continuum such as the EDC P–10 is most effective when used to identify and plan for personalised student learning. It can support purposeful teaching for individuals and small groups of students with similar learning needs. It is linked to teaching strategies that are designed to be used by teachers in their classroom. The strategies are designed to be modified to suit the learning experience.

Professional learning activities

  • Use reflective learning techniques

If you completed Module 1.1, you may have completed ‘Resource 1.1 Student Observation template’. Re-read what you wrote about the student. Would your observations allow you to be specific about the student’s oral language difficulties?

 

Observation and checklists

At this point in the Professional Learning Guide, you should be ready to read, discuss and use more sophisticated tools for identifying students with language difficulties. The remainder of Module 3.1 introduces you to three of these tools.

Students with language difficulties will often have difficulty with a number of regular classroom learning activities. For some students, it will be obvious that their difficulties are language-based, while for others, the teacher may merely have some inkling about the underlying reasons for the student not performing at the expected level.

Decisions will need to be made to identify: firstly, those students who have oral language difficulties; secondly, the areas of oral language difficulties that are displayed in the classroom; and thirdly, goals and strategies to support the student’s progress.

To assist in making these decisions certain procedures can be adopted. Teachers’ knowledge of curriculum and of the ICPAL language framework will facilitate informed observation and identification of students with language difficulties in daily classroom activities.

When using assessment tools to identify students with language difficulties, teachers need to bring to the observation and judgment of the student’s oral language capability the following factors:

  • the chronological age of the student, and the student’s general level of ability
  • the expected level of language competency as expressed in the formal curriculum standard
  • relevant indicators of progress related to the standard
  • previous teaching and learning leading up to the observation/s
  • the number of observations that would be required to determine whether the student could meet the standard
  • the area and extent of the language difficulty.

 

Professional learning activities

  • Participate in collegiate professional development

If you are participating in a collegiate professional learning activity, use a think-pair share activity to discuss each of these factors and how they might affect the use of Resources 3.1 and 3.3 for profiling students with language difficulties.

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The Early Years

During the Early Years, students with language difficulties can often be readily identified because of their difficulty with Ideas, Conventions and Purposes in everyday conversational language with peers and teachers. A profile of these students’ language difficulties can be gathered using ‘Resource 3.1.3 Oral language observation profile’.

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Professional learning activities

  • Use reflective learning techniques

If you are a teacher of an Early Years class, compare ‘Resource 3.3 Classroom observation profile’ and ‘Resource 3.1 Oral language observation profile’. How do they differ from ‘Resource 1.1’? Which template do you find easier to use? Which would you find more useful?

 

The Middle Years

As students progress into the Middle Years, many students with language difficulties will have learned informal, conversational language skills, and therefore may not be as easy to identify. Middle Years students with language difficulties will come to the teacher’s attention because of literacy, learning or behavioural issues. Although they have learned informal, conversational language, these students often have significant difficulty in a number of more academic language areas (e.g. making inferences, organising language, processing abstract language).

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Assessment

When you make judgments about a student’s demonstration of, or especially their inability to demonstrate an oral language skill, you are making an assessment.

Assessment for improved student learning and deep understanding requires a range of assessment practices to be used, with three overarching purposes:

  • Assessment FOR learning occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching.
  • Assessment AS learning occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals.
  • Assessment OF learning occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgments on student achievement against goals and standards.

Substantial research exists on the characteristics of good practice for assessing student learning. This research is summarised in the following set of principles:

  1. The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student performance.
  2. Assessment should be based on an understanding of how students learn.
  3. Assessment should be an integral component of course design and not something to add afterwards.
  4. Good assessment provides useful information to report credibly to parents on student achievement.
  5. Good assessment requires clarity of purpose, goals, standards and criteria.
  6. Good assessment requires a variety of measures.
  7. Assessment methods used should be valid, reliable and consistent.
  8. Assessment requires attention to outcomes and processes.
  9. Assessment works best when it is ongoing rather than episodic
  10. Assessment for improved performance involves feedback and reflection.

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Professional learning activities

  • Use reflective learning techniques

Are you familiar with assessment principles such as these? They seem easy to understand yet they sometimes require unpacking. Test your understanding of each by thinking about the implications of each principle. You might like to download the ‘ten assessment principles’, at the VELS website to assist you.

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