For ELL's

I was recently asked by my master teacher to administer a math test to some students who were either pulled out of class by specialists and couldn't finish, or absent the day the test was originally given.  I gave the test to two kids who were pulled out by specialists.  These kids speak Spanish at home, so these are ELL specialists that work with many of our students at least twice a day.

I know these kids need the extra help and work with specialists, but at the same time, I feel that they are missing so much that happens during class.  When it comes down to taking these tests, like the one I had to give to them, I don't see how they could realistically succeed because they missed so much time that was spent teaching the lesson because of getting pulled out of class.

In any case, I was instructed to read only the directions for each question.  As I read these questions, I was thinking in my head, "I'm not sure if they understand this in English?"  I wanted to either restate this question a different way so that the language may be more simplified or try to translate it in Spanish.  I don't know if I was wrong to do it, but I eventually said it in Spanish or restated the question with words that these ELL's might be more familiar with.  I just didn't think it was fair that they were being tested and asked to solve math questions when the make-up of the questions and words were too complicated to understand.  The one question that one of the students answered correctly happened when I was able to translate the question in Spanish.

I've always wanted to explore my options to get an ELL endorsement, and this experience has definitely urged me to go after that goal.  I wish I was much more proficient in Spanish, too.  I wish I could have given the entire test to these kids in Spanish.  I guess that's something I'll have to make as one of my goals:  relearn Spanish.