Secondary ELL Assessment & Intervention Builder
Build WIDA-aligned assessments and interventions for secondary ELL students
What You Can Do
You can create valid, accessible assessments that measure English language proficiency without conflating it with content knowledge. The skill generates scaffolded assessment items at multiple proficiency levels, designs differentiated intervention activities matched to specific language gaps (grammar structures, academic vocabulary, discourse patterns), and produces progress-monitoring protocols that track language development trajectories across semesters. Each tool aligns to WIDA Can-Do Descriptors or ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, ensuring your assessments meet standards compliance.
Features
creates test items at Entering, Developing, Expanding, and Bridging proficiency levels with sentence stems and reduced linguistic complexity
designs targeted activities that address specific morphosyntactic gaps (articles, verb tenses, prepositions) matched to student proficiency trajectories
generates performance tasks, oral protocols, and non-written demonstrations of knowledge for students who struggle with written language
maps all assessments and interventions to Can-Do Descriptors or Proficiency Guidelines with explicit standard codes
provides discipline-specific language supports organized by proficiency level for content-area tasks
creates formative check templates with frequency schedules and data collection sheets to track language growth over time
builds parallel versions of content assessments with varying linguistic complexity so all students access the same content standard
generates monitoring tools that flag when students need instructional adjustments or tier 2/3 intervention escalation
Example Output
Example 1: Scaffolded Assessment Item (Science Unit on Photosynthesis)
Entering Level: "Label the parts of the plant. Use words from the box: roots, leaves, stem"
Developing Level: "Explain what each plant part does. Use: The _____ helps the plant by _____"
Expanding Level: "Compare how roots and leaves help plants survive. Use: Roots help plants ____ while leaves help plants ____"
Bridging Level: "Analyze the relationship between photosynthesis and plant growth. Explain how sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide work together."
Example 2: Intervention Sequence for Past Tense Morphology
✓ Activity 1 (Developing): Sentence matching—connect regular past tense verbs (-ed) to pictures with sentence frames: "The student _____ (studied) yesterday."
✓ Activity 2 (Expanding): Irregular past tense cards—memory game pairing present/past forms (go/went, eat/ate) with sentence context
✓ Activity 3 (Bridging): Narrative writing with editing checklist for past tense consistency in controlled 3-sentence paragraphs
Example 3: Progress Monitoring Data Sheet Track: Oral production of complex sentences | Frequency: Biweekly | Target: 60% accuracy by end of term | Data collection method: Audio recording + transcript analysis for T-unit complexity
What's Included
- SKILL.md instruction file with prompting templates for assessments, interventions, and protocols:
- Scaffolded Assessment Item Generator: template for creating 4-level assessment items with linguistic complexity markers
- Proficiency-Level Intervention Sequencer: framework for designing 3-4 activity progressions targeting specific language objectives
- WIDA/ACTFL Alignment Checklist: standards-matching tool with Can-Do Descriptor codes and proficiency level descriptors
- Progress Monitoring Protocol Template: formative data collection sheet with frequency recommendations and decision rules for intervention escalation
Who It's For
- Secondary ESL/ELL teachers designing unit assessments and intervention plans
- Content teachers in multilingual classrooms needing to scaffold language demands
- English teachers supporting newcomer and developing English learners
- ESL specialists conducting proficiency assessments or designing pull-out interventions
- School-based language coaches and instructional coaches supporting ELL program implementation
Best For
- Creating unit assessments that measure both content and language standards simultaneously
- Designing differentiated interventions targeting specific morphosyntactic or discourse gaps
- Building progress-monitoring systems that track language development trajectories
- Generating sentence stems and academic language supports for content tasks
- Developing alternative assessment formats for students who struggle with written demonstrations of knowledge
You might also like
Stop fumbling through interview answers and start delivering structured, memorable responses that hiring managers love. Claude generates complete STAR-method answers tailored to your target role, industry, and experience level, then helps you practice variations to handle any curveball question. You'll interview with confidence, knowing each answer hits the key points that separate candidates who get hired from those who don't.
You can systematically evaluate acute student crises—including suicidal ideation, homicidal threats, self-harm, and trauma—in real-time, determine appropriate intervention levels (counseling support, parental notification, psychiatric referral, or hospitalization), and generate legally defensible documentation that protects both the student and your school. This skill reduces decision fatigue by providing a standardized protocol that ensures no critical safety factors are missed while maintaining therapeutic rapport.
You can conduct evidence-based suicide risk assessments, distinguish between crisis-level and manageable concerns, document clinical observations with precise language that withstands legal scrutiny, and determine when to escalate to parents, emergency services, or law enforcement. The framework guides you through standardized triage protocols that integrate therapeutic rapport with clinical rigor, ensuring you follow mandatory reporting obligations while maintaining ethical care coordination.
You can rapidly create multiple versions of the same lesson at different cognitive complexity levels, with customized scaffolding strategies for struggling readers, English language learners, and advanced students. Claude generates aligned materials including simplified texts, guided notes, vocabulary supports, extension activities, and assessment variations—all tied to your content standard—saving hours of differentiation planning while ensuring equitable access across your classroom.
You can consolidate disparate student data from psychoeducational evaluations, progress monitoring, and classroom observations into IEP-ready formats. Claude generates structured meeting agendas with evidence-based discussion points, drafts plain-language summaries of complex test results for families, and identifies potential parent concerns before they surface—helping you conduct more informed, efficient meetings with stronger family engagement.
You can conduct comprehensive audits of K-12 curriculum units, courses, and grade-level progressions by analyzing them against state standards, district learning objectives, and summative assessment frameworks. Claude identifies specific alignment gaps where standards aren't covered, redundancies where skills are taught multiple times unnecessarily, pacing mismatches between instruction and assessment windows, and standards coverage issues that explain assessment underperformance. You'll receive detailed, data-driven audit reports that prioritize curriculum revision work and document compliance evidence for accreditation.
You can design mixed-ability lessons that simultaneously engage students at different readiness levels, learning modalities, and interests. Claude helps you generate parallel learning pathways—with scaffolded supports for struggling learners, grade-level content for on-level students, and extension challenges for advanced learners—all organized around the same objective. This approach eliminates the need to plan three separate lessons while ensuring all students access grade-level standards and stay cognitively engaged.
You can audit existing or emerging instructional units to identify misalignments between learning objectives, classroom activities, and assessments. This skill ensures that cognitive demand matches the objective's Bloom's level, activities target the intended learning outcome, and assessments measure what was taught at the appropriate rigor. Use it to prevent common design flaws like low-cognitive activities paired with high-rigor objectives or summative assessments that test recall when analysis is required.