Review & Assessment- Features: 27-30

Although assessment is the last SIOP feature, assessment should be ongoing in your classroom. Assessment is used to determine students' strengths and weaknesses and  to review students progress toward meeting content and language objectives. I have always enjoyed planning engaging lessons, yet assessing them oftentimes is a challenge. What makes assessing lessons difficult is determining what to do when students do not understand. However, after becoming familiar with the SIOP method of teaching I now use assessment to check comprehension and adjust my instruction accordingly.

Feature 27: Comprehensive Review of Key Vocabulary

Comprehensive review of key vocabulary helps teacher address the four language domains. When reviewing key vocabulary, students should be actively engaged in developing their understanding of words and developing strategies  to learn new words. Analogy Vocabulary Review pg. 165 is a great activity that provides students with the opportunity to grapple with the meaning of new words. In this activity, students are given a new vocabulary word and are shown a picture. The student is then provided with an analogy to help increase their comprehension of the word. Using analogies is a great way to differentiate the assignment for students who need more support. Depending on students' background knowledge, teachers can explain how to look for relationships between two words in an analogy. As student get better with analogies, you can provide new analogies or have students try to make up their own using the key vocabulary. Analogies allow ELs to listen and speak while making critical connections.

Feature 28: Comprehensive Review of Key Concepts

In my classroom, I review key concepts at the beginning of the lesson. This gives students an opportunity to focus on the learning destination and allows them to make critical connections (background knowledge) to the objective. Although reviewing key concept at the beginning of the lesson is beneficial to students, review of key concepts should also be done during the lesson. All- American Baseball! pg. 171 is a fun and interactive activity to use when reviewing key concepts. All- American Baseball allows students to review key concepts by providing them with a variety of questions at different levels to assess student understanding. It can be differentiated by dividing students into heterogeneous groups so that every group has a mix of student abilities and language proficiencies.

Feature 29: Regular Feedback Provided to Students on Their Output (e.g., Language, Content, Work)

Rubrics for Self-Assessment of Group Discussions pg. 184 is a great way provide regular feedback to students. When providing students with a rubric,teachers are able to assess students and students are able to assess themselves. The rubric should contain categories that  include academic conversations and opportunities to use all four language domains. Rubrics can be easily differentiated by allowing less proficient student to use categories that are worth fewer points. As their comprehension increases, students can use categories with higher point value.

Feature 30: Assessment of Student Comprehension and Learning of All Lesson Objectives (e.g., Spot Checking, Group Response) Throughout the Lesson.

Exit Tickets pg. 188 is a fun and simple way to assess student learning. Students sum up what they have learned throughout the lesson. Language domains can be included by having students include key vocabulary into their exit tickets. Exit tickets can be easily differentiated by providing sentences frames for less proficient students. Comments from the Exit Tickets can be used to begin the lesson the next day, providing a link to past learning.