[Bestplus] Things that may come up in trainings

Fri Sep 30 11:37:51 EDT 2005

Interesting. For both of these, I think I'd score lower. For the first, I count that as "response inappropriate" in listening comprehension, so 0-0-0. For the second, I think it would be a 1 in language complexity. As they said in the Friday training, to go up the complexity ladder students need to show a combination of all the parts of the description in the rubric. There is no additional detail at all in that response.

Anyone else?

Lee Haller
Jamaica Plain Community Centers
-----Original Message-----
From: iris.broudy at SDH.state.ma.us [mailto:iris.broudy at SDH.state.ma.us]
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 09:41 AM
To: jfischer at necc.mass.edu, JaneS at doe.mass.edu
Cc: Bestplus at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: RE: [Bestplus] Things that may come up in trainings

Thank you, Janet, for those excellent questions. On the second point, I have had some instances where the student appeared to understand the question (repeated the question back clearly, with rising intonation), then shrugged. If he had said, "I don't know," or "I can't say in English," that would be 2-1-3, right? But if he produced no oral language, then it would have to be zero for LC and Communication. (Or does repeating the question count as language production?)

Another question: I was observing a staff member giving a test on Friday, and this came up: The question is "When I have time, I go to the movies. How about you?" The response: "When I have time, I go to the movies, too." Give this a 2 in LC because of the adverbial clause? Or is it a 1 because the student just repeated back what he heard? I'd go for a 2 because lower SPLs probably wouldn't be able to repeat that sentence. They'd just say "Me too." But we weren't sure on this. 

It was great being able to get together with everyone and catch up on our BEST Plus experiences. I only regret that there wasn't enough time to finish discussing some of those pressing issues about training. I look forward to seeing some of the ideas that were written down. 

Iris

Iris L. Broudy
ESOL Instructor/Programs Dept.
Hampden County Sheriff's Department
627 Randall Road
Ludlow, MA 01056
(413) 547-8000 ext. 2468
Fax: (413) 583-3099
iris.broudy at sdh.state.ma.us

-----Original Message-----
From: Fischer, Janet [mailto:jfischer at necc.mass.edu]
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 1:59 PM
To: Schwerdtfeger, Jane
Cc: Bestplus at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: FW: [Bestplus] Things that may come up in trainings

Hi Jane and fellow BP colleagues!! It was good to see so many of you last week at the BEST Plus refresher!

Jane, you may recall that many of us were very surprised about one of the examples Cindy used (an examinee's response was "I buy el comida a el mercado" - please forgive my Spanish - or lack of Spanish here! It was something that the examinee started off in English with "I buy" and then switched to Spanish for the rest of the response.). Many of us scored that a zero but Cindy said she scored it based on the English that the examinee produced, even if s/he had switched to Spanish.

I went back to my emails from last year, and came upon this email exchange, back in June 2004. I think based on this, I (and many others) thought that CAL was saying that anything in another language should get a zero for communication, even if a part of it was understood by the administrator. This raises more questions for me. 

I think we do need to check again with CAL on this point because it really is the difference between zeroing someone out and giving them a partial score for communication. Specifically, I think we need to know:

a.What happens if someone has a partial response in English but then code-switches back to their L1 or native language? Do we score it a zero? Do we score only the portions that we understood in English? If, in the above example, the "I buy" was perfectly clear but the examinee switched to Spanish, does that score a 3 for communication, or a 2, or a 1?
b.I would also like further clarification about the zeroing out - I know that if an administrator scores zero for Listening Comprehension, it zeros out all 3 scores. But what do you do if you give a score of a 1 or 2 in Listening Comp - is there ever a situation you would give a zero in Language Complexity and/or Communication following a 1 or a 2 in Comprehension? Cindy said something like, "I know that they're (the zeros in the complexity and communication) there, but it's wrong to give a score in comprehension and then a zero in one or both of the other two." Is there ever a case that someone could get a score for comprehension but can only respond in their native language??

Perhaps I should send this directly to Breana for clarification. Let me know what you think!

Regards, Janet

-----Original Message-----
From: Schwerdtfeger, Jane [mailto:JaneS at doe.mass.edu] 
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 11:58 AM
To: Fischer, Janet; Bestplus at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: RE: [Bestplus] Things that may come up in trainings

Hi, all--I would think since this is on CAL's website it is fine to mention
in trainings, and I agree with Janet, that it is important to emphasize to
make sure trainees understand it. Thanks for thinking of that, Janet--

Jane

-----Original Message-----
From: Fischer, Janet [mailto:jfischer at necc.mass.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 5:37 PM
To: Bestplus at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [Bestplus] Things that may come up in trainings

Hi everyone! It's so exciting that we are all getting to feel so comfortable
and competent in our trainings!

One thing that I believe has come up - or rather, has not yet come up - is
the question of what to do if an examinee responds to a question in a
language other than English. (We all saw this in our IRR videotapes.).
Unfortunately, Lynda did not address this in our ToT training back in March.

Carey has referred us to the CAL BEST Plus FAQ's (
http://www.cal.org/bestplus/faq.html <http://www.cal.org/bestplus/faq.html>
) . On the last part of the FAQ's, CAL has the following posting:

Scoring Questions

s1If an examinee answers the question correctly in a language other than
English, what score do I give him or her?

A response in any language other than English receives a zero for Listening
Comprehension, Language Complexity, and Communication, even if you
understand the response. 

This seems to be a pretty important point for trainees. I wonder if we
should be sure to mention it in trainings, and if so, do we need to check
with CAL first?

Janet

Janet S. Fischer

Associate Coordinator

Northeast SABES (System for Adult Basic Education Support)

Northern EssexCommunity College

45 Franklin Street, Lawrence, MA01840

Tel: (978) 738-7307, Fax: (978) 738-7115

jfischer at necc.mass.edu <mailto:jfischer at necc.mass.edu> 

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