Data-driven Instruction: How do Assess
Students’ Sign Language Skills?
Jennifer Beal-Alvarez, Ph.D.
Rebecca Bean, BS
Kenyah Wolfe, BS
Support received from
The College of Education and Human
Services at Valdosta State University
Data-driven Instruction
+
Evidence-based Practices
Guiding Questions
How do we measure students’ sign language
skills?
How do we use these data to direct our
instruction?
Purpose
Overview of
Assessments
Practice with
Assessments
How to use the
data
Purpose
Overview of
Assessments
Practice with
Assessments
How to use the
data
You are the Accountable Expert
• You are responsible for increasing students’ academic
achievement
• You need data to show that students are improving or
that they are not
• You need evidence to support why you are doing what
you are doing
• TKES (pay for performance)
• School staff are unfamiliar with
ASL assessments
Sign Language Assessments
• Why do we assess?
• How do we assess?
Sign language assessments
• Very few available for teachers
• Frequently checklists
• Not specific to areas of ASL
Sign Language
Assessments
Receptive Skills
ASL Receptive
Skills Test
Expressive Skills
Picture/story
book and SRFR
American Sign Language Receptive
Test (ASLRST)
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•
•
•
•
•
What does this mean?
42 signed clips on computer
Student points to one of 4 pictures
Assessor circles one of 4 numbers
About 10 minutes for administration
Simultaneous data coding
Charlotte Enns
(University of Manitoba)
ASL Receptive Skills Test
Example
9 Grammatical Categories
Numberdistribution
SASS
classifiers
Handle
classifiers
Negation
Spatial verbsaction
Role-shift
Noun-verb
Spatial verbslocation
Conditionals
Scoring Sheet
Scoring 9 Categories
Assessment of Expressive Language
Narrative
Natural and authentic discourse
form
Justice, Bowles, Pence, & Gosse, 2010
Telling of a true or fictional story
with temporal sequence
Engel, 1995; Justice et al., 2010
Used with signing deaf children
Beal-Alvarez & Easterbrooks, 2013; Kaderavek &
Pakulski, 2007; Morgan, 2006; Padden & Ramsey,
1998; Strong & Prinz, 1997
Used with signing deaf adults
Aarons & Morgan, 2003; Beal-Alvarez &
Easterbrooks, 2013; Lucas, Bayley, & Valli, 2003;
Morgan, 2006
Elicited with a series of pictures
that depict a story and wordless
picture storybooks
Aarons & Morgan, 2003; Hoffmeister, 1999; BealAlvarez & Easterbrooks, 2013; Justice et al., 2010;
Morgan, 2006; Strong & Prinz, 1997; Taub &
Galvan, 2001
Signed Reading Fluency Rubric
(SRFR)
• Susan Easterbrooks
(Georgia State University)
• Sandy Huston (Atlanta Area School for the
Deaf; Georgia State University)
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education (2008)
Signed Reading Fluency Rubric
Designed for rendering text fluently in sign language (ASL or
English-like)
13 indicators
5 levels of proficiency (not observed, emerging, beginning,
developing, mature/fluent)
8 indicators generated as characteristics of fluent signing by deaf
adults who were fluent signers themselves (Lupton, 1998)
Indicator
Speed
Facial Expression
Fluency Envelope
Accurate speed of signing in the story
Facial expression matches the disposition of the characters and the mood
of the story
Body Movement
Body movements represent those of characters and locations in the story
Sign Space
Sign space is appropriate; not too small or large
Sign Movement
Signs are produced in steady, relaxed manner that promotes story
visualization
Fingerspelling
Fingerspelling is intelligible, accurate, and appropriately used
Visual Grammar
Use of Space
Space is logically set up and accurately referred to during the story
Role Taking
Interactions and relationships among characters are accurately set up in
space and demonstrated
Eye Gaze
Eye gaze accurately represents characters, places, and objects in story
Negation
Headshake and/or body language are used to indicate negation in story
Directionality
Sign movement accurately represents direction of action in story
Use of Classifiers Classifiers are used appropriately for motion events and visual
characteristics
Pronominalization Does the student establish (i.e., name and indicate a spatial location) and
refer to (i.e., point to) pronouns in space to show the characters and
actions in the story?
Why use the SRFR?
No standard/available measure of narrative ASL skills
Less skilled signers can recognize and evaluate the use of common
signed reading fluency aspects
13 indicators frequently exhibited within narratives
Completed the iterative process of assessment development
Published and readily available
Has high internal consistency
Quick turn-around to direct instruction for individual students
Signed Reading Fluency Rubric
High internal
consistency
• Cronbach’s
Alpha = 0.86
Spearman’s
rho
correlations
• 0.975 for
fluency
envelope
• 0.745 for visual
grammar
Focus of assessment: Language or literacy?
Picture
book
Story book
No text
Printed text
Only L1 ASL
L2 (printed
English) to L1
(ASL)
Assessment
of L1
Assessment
of L2 to L1
Purpose
Overview of
Assessments
Practice with
Assessments
How to use the
data
Process
START
Take ASL-RST
whole group
Transfer
answers
Score and
discuss
Discuss
Evaluate with
SRFR
Render book in
ASL (videorecord)
FINISH
ASL-RST To-do
Watch ASL-RST as group
Write 1-4 on paper for each item
Transfer items to score sheet
Score overall
Score by grammatical categories
SRFR To-do
Get a partner
Partner A renders
story in ASL/sign
language
Partner B renders
story in ASL/sign
language
Partner B videos
Partner A videos
Discuss and
evaluate
Discuss and
evaluate
Purpose
Overview of
Assessments
Practice with
Assessments
How to use the
data
Discussion
How can you use the
ASL-RST to guide your
instruction?
How can you use the
SRFR to guide your
instruction?
Thank you 
• Questions?
• Comments?
• [email protected]