[Bestplus] Scoring question

[Betty Stone]

Hi Teresa,
 
Great question, and even greater to have a chance to chat about it BEFORE the big September push.
My gut inclination is to score a 1 for Communication based on the need to "fill in" the entire thought the student might be trying to express. Without a little more meat (I know we score the main course in this area in Complexity) the communication is quite ambiguous: Does the woman want to buy eggs, is she holding eggs, and so on. On the other hand, a rudimentary phrase "buying eggs" or even "buy eggs" intoned as a phrase vs. a list of words: "woman, eggs, buy," would push me to a 2 in Communication.
 
Can't wait to hear what the rest of you think!  We are sooooo lucky to have a sharing group to process these questions. In my trainings I tried to encourage people to create chat groups at their agencies so they could brainstorm scoring issues.  
 
Betty

"Brown, Teresa" <teresa at CambridgeMA.GOV> wrote:
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


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Betty J. Stone
ESOL Program Administrator
SCALE - Somerville Center for Adult Learning Experiences
167 Holland Street, Somerville, MA 02144
Phone: 617-625-6600, Ext. 6933
FAX: 617-623-8528
bjstone13 at yahoo.com

		
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