Accommodations
Accommodations are changes to assessments that allow ELs to "show what they know."
Examples of Accommodations include:
- Giving students extra time to complete an assignment
- Reading aloud directions, test items, or
- Chunking assignments or directions
- Allowing students to show understanding in an alternate way, such as drawing, pointing, or labeling
- Providing a word bank or sentence stems
- Simplifying the language of an assignment
- Using native language support
- Highlighting key words and phrases
Accommodations available on state tests include:
- Read Aloud
- Extended Time
- Small Group
- Word to Word Native Language Dictionaries, including printing the Bilingual Glossaries at this link
Resources:
Modifications
Modifications are changes to instruction that allow ELs to access the content you teach. Assessments can also be modified to support a student's language progress if they are changed to assess something different than the original assessment
Examples of Modifications include:
- Using a lower reading level
- Providing remediation of previously taught skills
- Using sentence frames or word banks
- Including scaffolded opportunities to talk about content using academic language
- Providing alternate assignments based on EL student progress in acquiring English
- Using cognates
- Using visuals
- Modeling
- Using hands-on learning or manipulatives
Resources: