John 1, 9/10/12 SWLOM Student Written

Language Observation Matrix

This is the Student Written Language Observation Matrix (SWLOM) which is a product
of the California State Department of Education. It can be used as a helpful diagnostic
tool in the general assessment of a group or individual levels of proficiency, especially
for determining broad placement levels for new students. It will clearly identify areas of
weakness, and when used longitudinally, it will indicate student progress and
development.

Traits

Fluency

Organization

Genre

Sentence
Variety

Writes single
word with no
sentence
structure

Writes short
sentences with
limited sentence
structure

Writes complete
sentences with
developmental
sentence structure X

Writes paragraphs with

fully developed
sentence structure

No logical
sequence or
organization

Lacks logical
sequence and
organization

Somewhat sequenced
to substantially
sequenced X

Follows standard
organization for the
genre

No grammatical
relationships

Basic word order

problems, uses only
present tense form

Minor grammatical
errors such as s on
verbs in third person
singular X

Grammar resembles
that of speaker of same
age

Insufficient
vocabulary to
express ideas

Limited vocabulary,
relies on 1st language
for translation

Knows most words,

but lacks vocabulary
for finer shades of
meaning X

Flexible in word
choice, similar to native
speaker

No concept of
form

Does not differentiate

form to suit purpose

Chooses form to suit

purpose but limited in
choice of forms X

Knows different genres

No sentence
pattern

Uses one or two

sentence patterns X

Uses several sentence

patterns

Uses a full variety of

sentence patterns
appropriately

Grammar

Vocabulary

and makes appropriate

choices

Based on your observations, indicate with an X across the block in each category the
one that best describes the ELLs abilities.

SWLOM Phases:
Phase I:
Phase II:
Phase III:
Phase IV:

Score 1-10 = Non-English Proficient

Score 11-15 = Limited English Proficient
Score 16-19 = Limited English Proficient X
Score 20+ Fully English Proficient (based on a perfect score of 24).

To determine the Student Written Language Observation Matrix score as a percentile, use
the formula: (SWLOM SCORE + 1) X 4 72nd percentile
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