CTEL CTEL Assessment and Instruction 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is an example of formative assessment?
- A teacher circulates during partner talk to note language patterns for reteaching (Correct answer)
- Annual state standardized English proficiency test
- End-of-year district benchmark exam
- Kindergarten readiness screening
Correct answer: A teacher circulates during partner talk to note language patterns for reteaching
Formative assessment is ongoing, embedded in instruction, and used to adjust teaching in real time.
Question 2: A long-term English learner (LTEL) in 8th grade reads at grade level in Spanish but struggles with academic English writing. The MOST appropriate first instructional step is to:
- Build on the student's Spanish literacy as a bridge to academic English writing structures (Correct answer)
- Place the student in an intensive English phonics program
- Focus solely on oral English before introducing writing
- Reclassify the student as a special education student
Correct answer: Build on the student's Spanish literacy as a bridge to academic English writing structures
Cross-linguistic transfer allows students to leverage strong L1 literacy skills to accelerate academic writing development in English.
Question 3: Which questioning strategy is MOST effective for promoting higher-order thinking in EL students at the Expanding proficiency level?
- Open-ended analytical questions with sentence frames to scaffold responses (Correct answer)
- Yes/no questions only
- Fill-in-the-blank questions with word banks
- One-word answer questions to reduce language anxiety
Correct answer: Open-ended analytical questions with sentence frames to scaffold responses
Sentence frames reduce linguistic anxiety while still requiring students to construct analytical responses at higher cognitive levels.
Question 4: The difference between BICS and CALP is MOST relevant when:
- Deciding whether a reclassified student is truly ready for academic work without ELD support (Correct answer)
- Choosing which recess activities to offer EL students
- Determining which home language to use during lunch
- Scheduling bus routes for EL families
Correct answer: Deciding whether a reclassified student is truly ready for academic work without ELD support
BICS (social fluency) develops faster than CALP (academic language), so a reclassified student may seem proficient socially but still need academic language support.
Question 5: A teacher uses sentence starters such as 'I agree with ___ because ___' during a discussion. This strategy primarily supports:
- Structured oral academic discourse for ELs at multiple proficiency levels (Correct answer)
- Decoding and phonics skills only
- Silent reading comprehension
- Home-school communication
Correct answer: Structured oral academic discourse for ELs at multiple proficiency levels
Sentence starters scaffold academic discussion by providing the syntactic frame ELs need to participate in content-area discourse.
Question 6: A teacher reviews writing samples from EL students and finds consistent errors in verb tense consistency. The BEST instructional response is to:
- Conduct a mini-lesson on verb tense using examples drawn from students' own writing (Correct answer)
- Mark every error with red pen and return papers without explanation
- Delay writing tasks until students master grammar in isolation
- Refer all students with tense errors to speech-language services
Correct answer: Conduct a mini-lesson on verb tense using examples drawn from students' own writing
Using authentic student writing as a teaching text contextualizes grammar instruction and directly addresses the identified pattern.
Question 7: Which document in California defines the academic language and content standards that EL instruction must address in content classes?
- California Common Core State Standards and ELD Standards (CA ELD Standards) (Correct answer)
- No Child Left Behind Act only
- Title III grant guidelines
- The original Bilingual Education Act of 1968
Correct answer: California Common Core State Standards and ELD Standards (CA ELD Standards)
The CA ELD Standards work in tandem with CCSS to define both content and language development expectations for EL students.
CTEL CTEL Assessment and Instruction 3
Which of the following is an example of formative assessment?