Educational Writing, Editing, & Test Development
ELL/ESL Assessment Writing
I write and edit assessment materials intended to determine an English-language learner's academic or workplace readiness. I have traveled extensively, have had an interesting range of work experiences outside the field of education, and I often draw from these experiences to produce unique items set in international contexts. I have written for a variety of English assessment tests, and am experienced in writing for a range of age groups and proficiency levels.
A large part of my ESL item writing experience has been through my work with Educational Testing Service (ETS). I have been writing stimuli and items for the Listening and Reading sections of the TOEIC test (a workplace English assessment test) consistently since 2008. I also write English assessment tests for younger or lower-level English speakers. Work includes writing for the TOEIC Bridge test as well as developing computer-based speaking activities for 8-11 year-olds. In 2012, I spent two months working as a full-time item writing intern as part of the English Language Learning Summer Institute at the ETS headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey. During the internship I received extensive item writing training, worked directly with mentors, participated in content review sessions, and had the opportunity to get an inside look at all stages of the test development process. I had a great experience and returned to the ELL Summer Institute as a mentoring intern in 2013, where in addition to producing test materials for TOEIC Listening and Reading, I lead peer review sessions and acted as a liaison between the interns and the Summer Institute coordinators.
I continue to write items for ETS, as well as other clients (such as Rosetta Stone, Lidget Green, Ballard & Tighe, and Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments) on a freelance basis. My ELL assessment work includes writing and editing passages and items for college entrance exams, academic placement tests, computer-based vocabulary building tools, and online programs that support listening, reading, and speaking skills. Much this work involves task-based language assessment. It also requires using the Common European Framework of References (CEFR) to define a learner’s English proficiency at various levels.
K-12 Assessment Writing
I write and edit literary and informational materials for K-12 English language assessments. This work includes writing items that hit specific Common Core State Standards (CCSS), difficulty levels, Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels, Lexile scores, and Flesch-Kincaid grade levels. I have written and edited a variety of item types (selected response, constructed response, essay response, performance tasks, technology-enhanced items, and stand-alone language and grammar items). I have experience working with rubrics, rationales, and exemplars. Clients I've worked for include Educational Testing Service (ETS), Tighe, Brainworx Studio, and Words & Numbers, and Core Learning Exchange (Core-LX).
A large part of my ESL item writing experience has been through my work with Educational Testing Service (ETS). I have been writing stimuli and items for the Listening and Reading sections of the TOEIC test (a workplace English assessment test) consistently since 2008. I also write English assessment tests for younger or lower-level English speakers. Work includes writing for the TOEIC Bridge test as well as developing computer-based speaking activities for 8-11 year-olds. In 2012, I spent two months working as a full-time item writing intern as part of the English Language Learning Summer Institute at the ETS headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey. During the internship I received extensive item writing training, worked directly with mentors, participated in content review sessions, and had the opportunity to get an inside look at all stages of the test development process. I had a great experience and returned to the ELL Summer Institute as a mentoring intern in 2013, where in addition to producing test materials for TOEIC Listening and Reading, I lead peer review sessions and acted as a liaison between the interns and the Summer Institute coordinators.
I continue to write items for ETS, as well as other clients (such as Rosetta Stone, Lidget Green, Ballard & Tighe, and Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments) on a freelance basis. My ELL assessment work includes writing and editing passages and items for college entrance exams, academic placement tests, computer-based vocabulary building tools, and online programs that support listening, reading, and speaking skills. Much this work involves task-based language assessment. It also requires using the Common European Framework of References (CEFR) to define a learner’s English proficiency at various levels.
K-12 Assessment Writing
I write and edit literary and informational materials for K-12 English language assessments. This work includes writing items that hit specific Common Core State Standards (CCSS), difficulty levels, Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels, Lexile scores, and Flesch-Kincaid grade levels. I have written and edited a variety of item types (selected response, constructed response, essay response, performance tasks, technology-enhanced items, and stand-alone language and grammar items). I have experience working with rubrics, rationales, and exemplars. Clients I've worked for include Educational Testing Service (ETS), Tighe, Brainworx Studio, and Words & Numbers, and Core Learning Exchange (Core-LX).
