Ideas and resources helpful in evaluating students with diverse backgrounds

Question

Context

In the case of recently arrived refugee classes (e.g. Ukrainian classes during current times), a first challenge is to establish the individual level of the students in order to tune the program according to their actual level. My main fear is approaching the class in a traditional manner and thus give a general course (adhering to a program for their age within the school) and in the process numb the enthusiasm of the stronger ones.

To that end, it's possible to just compile a long list of exercises that cover various chapters (numbers, operations, geometry, etc) and formulated such that the language barrier is felt minimally, but I'm afraid any such approach may come across as too dry and it won't necessarily motivate the students to carefully answer them.

So I was wondering, if there are known resources where one can find exercise worksheets on various of the aforementioned topics (aimed for 11-13 year olds) which are covered in a more playful manner with an emphasis on questions that probe understanding as opposed to solving lots by rote.

Questions

1. Are there online resources of math exercises/tests that would be particularly suited for evaluating the knowledge of students that come from different educational backgrounds? Anything that acts as a reference for good methods of evaluation will bear merit for me.

2. I am trying to compile exercise sheets myself, and I was wondering, should I also translate each question into the mother tongue of the students? Or rather, opt for a very simplified English when framing the questions?

3. Any advice or recommendations for other ways to go about gauging my students' level in maths are quite welcome.

Answer 1

You might like some of the puzzles and review sheets that Beast Academy puts out. Start with level 5 I think, but there might be goodies in levels 4 and 3 also. Here's one on LCM and GCF your students might like.

Wishing you the best in your work.