F-03.10 Give/Take Progress Tests Designed for Beginning Levels of Written-English Proficiency

WorkLife English: a Competency-Based Reading / Writing Book 3: An Immigration Story, Chapter 5 / “Education,” pages 58– 71

14 pages  

Who It’s For: (Teachers of) (Low to High) Beginning (Language) Learners Wanting Quick Assessment of (Some) Basic Reading / Writing Abilities   

Why You Need It: As they progress in reading / writing, there may be reasons for assessing learners’ developing skills—requirements, funding, or simply motivating curiosity.  Of course, taking the (two-page) printed / onscreen “tests” from F-03.10 will demonstrate whether or not students have acquired the corresponding material (vocabulary, grammar, spelling, simulated realia) of WorkLife English: a Competency-Based Reading / Writing Book 2: English in Everyday Life, Intro & Chapters 1-10.  

But even if Progress Tests are used on their own, one at a time or in a sequence of two or more, they’ll give some indication of what test-takers have learned to do and/or what they need more work on.  That’s because the compact “quizzes” provide “quick-checks” of ability to perform various written English-skills tasks: copying, extracting info; matching vocabulary; picking out salient data from simplified cards, signs, maps, ads, notes, directories, and the like; filling in letters of words to finish their spellings; “correcting” text with capitalization & punctuation; demonstrating comprehension of sentences and paragraphs; completing forms; doing guided writing, and much more.

What You’ll / They’ll Do:  

[1] If it’s useful, peruse page 16 Instructions for WLE R/W 2 Progress Tests.  Back-to-back), print out and/or display one or more of them.  Notice also that the Instructions test-takers are to follow require progressively more reading / writing ability—and/or more specialized vocabulary or knowledge.  Participants can complete their test(s) on their own, in pairs or groups, or as contributing members of a class—whenever they seem useful as a learning tool

[2] Make use of the page 40 Answer Key for Progress Tests in ways that save time, contribute to (individualized or group) teaching / learning, and/or otherwise enhance educational processes.