WIDA

Leveling ELL students seems like it could be a sticky venture. It could slip into a tracking device, which is obviously not an educationally sound principle. I realize that it is important to group students according to their ability level, but I also think that it is too easy to clump students together into a solid group that they cannot move from. Even at LEAP I have seen some of the challenges of the leveling system. There are approximately 27 students in the 1C class that I am in and so a lot of the students are overlooked. Obviously the teacher does the best to assess them continually, but she cannot possibly be everywhere at once. One student can read and write complete sentences while other students cannot even read. I know that a class size of 27 is not normal, but it still demonstrates the weaknesses of leveling students.

I also think the WIDA leveling system is sort of abstract. There are a lot of gray areas on it. For example, in Level 1 Speaking, students should be able to "name objects, people, pictures". I think it is crazy to assess students based on this kind of standard. Should Level 1 students be able to name every object and picture? Native English speakers probably cannot name every object. On the flip side, who determines what they should/ should not be able to identify? Another standard states that students should be able to "discuss stories, issues, and concepts". This standard is so broad. I realize that it cannot be super specific but I think the broadness of it is a huge weakness of this leveling system.

I do not know exactly what would be a better leveling system. Maybe these broad parameters are a good system because they allow the teachers to use their own common sense and experience to inform their decision in moving students between levels. (This could be good and bad depending on the teacher/school). It is good for me to familiarize with the WIDA system so that I can think about how I would use it a little more specifically.