EAL Department · Week 5 of 6
Week 5: Assess learning and language
Use varied classroom evidence to decide what the learner understands, what English they can use and what to teach next.
Your guiding question
What does this response tell me, under these task and support conditions?
Use varied classroom evidence to decide what the learner understands, what English they can use and what to teach next.
Weekly outcome: A small evidence review with a separate content judgement and language next step.
Understand the idea
Keep content and language visible.
A short response may conceal strong understanding; fluent wording may conceal a misconception. Use a diagram, explanation, discussion or practical demonstration to explore the content, then examine the language used to express it. Both matter, but they are different questions.
Record the conditions of success.
Note whether the learner used a model, translation, partner rehearsal, a word bank or teacher prompting. Compare supported and more independent responses over time. Avoid treating one piece of work as a complete account of proficiency across listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Use a framework as a guide to enquiry.
Your school may use a language-assessment framework. Read its descriptors carefully and gather evidence across relevant contexts. This induction’s examples do not assign CEFR, WIDA or Bell levels, and those systems should not be treated as automatically interchangeable. Use agreed school processes for placement and specialist referral.
Try it in a real lesson
- Choose two or three brief responses from the learner, including one more independent attempt.
- Record the task, date, skill and exact support available for each response.
- Make one content observation and one language observation, quoting a short anonymised example where useful.
- Choose a specific teaching next step and a comparable opportunity to review it. Discuss uncertainty with your mentor.
Fictional worked example
See the decisions in practice
Evidence
On a new force diagram, Mai writes “balanced because equal opposite”. She correctly identifies the relationship but omits some language needed for a complete explanation. In discussion, she points to the arrows to justify the conclusion.
Interpretation
Content: evidence supports an understanding of equal forces in opposite directions in this task. Language: the reason relationship is present, but the full clause needs further development. This is a limited judgement about the observed task, not a global proficiency level.
Next step
Model how to expand the explanation, then gather another response without the full sentence model. If the learner predicts motion incorrectly, address the Science misconception as well as the English wording. Do not explain every difficulty as language alone.
Make your weekly record
Review a small evidence set using five headings: task and conditions; demonstrated subject understanding; demonstrated language; uncertainty or alternative explanation; next teaching step and review opportunity.
Reflect on what happened
- Have I separated evidence from interpretation?
- What does the learner do with reduced support?
- What further information would change my judgement?
Discuss with a colleague
Moderate one response together. Compare the evidence behind your judgements, agree what remains uncertain and plan the next observation.
For the EAL colleague: Help colleagues interpret skill-specific evidence and identify when more information is needed. Keep placement decisions within your school’s agreed assessment process.
For the subject teacher: Bring examples of what counts as sound subject reasoning. Work with the EAL colleague to identify whether wording, conceptual understanding or both need attention.
Pause and think
A learner scores poorly on a language-heavy Science question but demonstrates the practical process accurately. What can you conclude?
Compare your thinking
You have evidence of practical understanding, but still need to examine the question, the learner’s reasoning and the English response demands. Gather another way of explaining the concept. Do not infer either full mastery or a general learning difficulty from the score alone.
Use these resources
Further reading: The Bell Foundation: assessment across language skills ↗. This week’s sequence and examples are original EAL in Practice materials.
Your week 5 record
Plan, trial and reflect
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