Each writing assessment task has a unique criteria sheet showing four levels of accomplishment across the domains of the Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL. The Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL Reporting Resource enables teachers to to identify students’ current level of English language proficiency. It outlines the skills and knowledge students learn as they progress towards the achievement standards of the EAL curriculum. The strands of the curriculum are organised around three key aspects of language acquisition:
- Communication
- Cultural and plurilingual awareness
- Linguistic structures and features: Text structure and organisation, grammatical patterns, word knowledge, phonology
The writing task criteria sheets are organised using the same four aspects, thus enabling teachers to clearly focus on different features of writing performance and to more precisely identify the level of development against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Using the criteria sheet:
- The four levels of the criteria sheet relate to the stages that the task is suitable for, such as A1, A2, BL, B1, B2.
- Once the writing task has been completed, analyse the written performance using the criteria sheet to assess in detail if students have produced the type of written language the task was intended to elicit, and to what level of proficiency they have done this.
- In each column, identify and highlight descriptions that best match what you observe in your students’ written work. This will enable you to match a general level, from 1 to 4, of performance of the task. It is not unusual that students spread at different levels across different domains.
- Notice other things your student is able to do that may not be identified in the criteria sheet, and which may be noteworthy in the written performance. These can be added to the criteria sheet, as they help enrich the description of your student’s performance, and to describe a point of English language development.
