[Bestplus] Scoring question

[Brown, Teresa]

Hi everyone, 

I have a question about Communication scores for the very low level ESOL students.  When we say "Tell me about this picture," some students look at it and just give some nouns, or maybe a verb, for example, "eggs, woman, store", or "car, truck, drive".  The words are perfectly comprehensible and accurate, but there's nothing in our training that explains how to score it.  There aren't any hesitations, but the answers aren't enough of a phrase to be 'everyday' English (i.e. In response to a question, "with my friends" got a 3 for Communication).

Are you all scoring these kinds of replies a 2?  or a 1?  I think this question will come up more in September than June, so I'd like for all our teachers to be consistent from the start.

Thanks for your help,

Teresa Brown
ESOL Coordinator
Community Learning Center
19 Brookline Street, Cambridge, MA  02139