Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners: Practical Approaches for Teachers

This book is definitely a great resource to have as a teacher of ELL students. It covers all the areas necessary to provide better instruction. Lots of self-assessments to help students know where they are and where they need to go.

This book is a fairly easy read. However, so far it has been more about authentic assessment than how to assess English Language Learners. Also, there are some editing mistakes that drive me crazy! This would be a good resource if you wanted to know about using portfolios or other forms of authentic assessment.

I find that the information it contains supports most of what I believe in assessing students in the classroom.

I bought this for an ESL Assessment class at the graduate level. I also teach ESL at a university, and this book comes in very handy, both in theory and in practice. I especially like the rubrics you give to students so they can assess their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, when working together in groups, students fill out a form after their work is done, stating how well they listened, asked for clarification, or offered/asked for opinions. I continue to use this book long after I've taken the class, and I believe this is the best assessment book out there. Don't waste your time (or money) on books like "ESL Assessment: On the Yellow Big Road to the Withered of Oz" (or whatever the title of that book is!)
Buy this book and you won't regret it. A winner!

I have just completed a graduate course in Assessment for teachers of ELLs. Almost all of the students in this class, including me, found this book to be a very valuable resource. Some of the information is redundant, but for a teacher looking for ideas on how to construct an authentic assessment of student work (reading, writing, speaking or listening) it is full of great insights and models that can be copied from the book or revised for individual use.