Category: Blogs and Musings

Evelyn Ortiz’s infographic on Bilingual Education vs ESL Education EDDN 639 – Trends and Current Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Evelyn Ortiz - Bilingual Education vs ESL infographic (1)TouroEvelyn Ortiz TESOL Candidate Evelyn Ortiz is a certified bilingual teacher (Spanish speaking) working in the Wyandanch school district. She has worked for more than three years as a third-grade bilingual teacher in Wyandanch. Ms. Ortiz states that: “I love working with ENL, CLD students and I pursuing my master’s in TESOL at Touro College so that I can better support my students with new strategies and methods.”

The assignment guidelines: Infographics

CAEP: Standard 1: CONTENT AND PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE 1.5 Providers ensure that completers model and apply technology standards as they design, implement
and assess learning experiences to engage students and improve learning; and enrich professional practice. CAEP

For this assignment, you will create an infographic for a specific group of learners (your audience). I highly recommend that you create your infographic for the learners that you are currently teaching, or typically teach. You will know more about this group than other groups of learners and are likely to have an easier time designing instruction for them.

Here Ms. Ortiz’s assignment submission and infographic:

Infographic Documentation

  1. Identify your audience

The intended audience for this infographic are parents. In the Wyandanch school district we have both Bilingual education and ESL education. I think that it is important for parents to know the differences between the two programs so that there aren’t any misconceptions for the program expectations that their child may be enrolled in.

  1. What is the learning objective(s) of the presentation
  • I can identify the differences between Bilingual and ESL education.
  • I can identify the instructional expectations of a Bilingual one way program versus the two-way program.
  • I can identify the differences between a Push In / Pull out and ESL class period.
  1. What type of infographic did you create? If your infographic falls into more than one category, please list them.

The infographic created falls into the category of educational. It can also be a compare/contrast infographic.

  1. What content did you decide to include in the presentation (point form or outline is fine)?

I decided to include bullet points of sentences so that the information is short and concise.

5. What design decisions did you make in terms of: Text – font, colors, white space, and so on – I chose three different fonts: Oswald, Arvo and Advent Pro Medium. The top of the page there is white margin and then there are two colored columns, the left side is magenta and the right side is purple. The left side has font colors in yellow, white and black. The right side has font colors in light blue, white and black. The left side represents Bilingual Education and the right side represents ESL education.

Text reduction – how did you translate text into a graphic form? I took the most important points and created short and simple sentences and organized it by bullet points.

Color – The main background color is magenta and purple. The fonts are yellow, light blue, black and white.

Pictures/graphics – I chose a picture of child that is surrounded by educational images. The child looks happy and excited. The books below her say “never stop learning” on the bind. I like that there is a clock, a globe and a lightbulb in the background. The clock represents time, the globe represents diversity and the lightbulb represents innovative ideas and learning. There is also a question mark and a music symbol. The students should be curious with their learning and encouraged to ask and answer questions to gain a better understanding of academic content and the world around them. The music symbol represents harmony and music. The students can learn content through rhythm and music.

  1. Reflect on the process of creating your infographic. You should be reflecting on pedagogical benefits and challenges of creating and using infographics. Maximum 250 words on this section.

The pedagogical benefits of creating and using infographics and that it can be used to summarize a topic. The infographic can be used to organize information that makes it more meaningful and comprehensible to understand. The audience is able to get the gist of a topic and learn important facts by reading an infographic. Infographics are also very colorful and can be a visual aid to comprehend a topic. Not only can an infographic be used to education, it also could be used to persuade and used for advertisement. Infographics can also be incorporated into the classroom, especially at the Middle School and High School level. I chose to give the students at the HS level during my practicum hours, an infographic to represent what they have learned about the topic, which was Selena.

Some of the challenges of using infographics is that it is sometimes difficult to compact the information into a one page infographic. In addition, creating an infographic is not difficult however, people who are not tech-savvy may find it a bit challenging to create one at first. When I assigned an infographic as an assignment I had to show the students step by step how to sign in, edit text/images and how to choose a template. The beginning stages takes a lot of patience but then it eventually gets easier to create. The activity may be challenging but the students eventually enjoyed it.

  1. What did you learn relating to teaching and learning with digital content?

I learned that teaching with digital content could be appealing to the intended audience. Looking at an infographic can be more captivating than looking at a worksheet of information. An infographic can be accompanied with visuals and the most important points and or information which would not be overwhelming for ELLs.

  1. When might you use this infographic with your students, parents or audience?

I might use this infographic with parents and colleagues. There are parents who believe that their student is a bilingual program that is an additive or maintenance program when indeed, it a transitional program. The priority of the program is to get the students to “test out of bilingual” program which means to get them to reach commanding. Many students who do not have phonics base in Spanish do not get the opportunity to build those skills in their native language, the goal is to start in English even though there is evidence to support the idea that teaching both may aid L2 acquisition. By the third to fifth grade, it is difficult to start teaching them sight words and phonics in their language when they have entered such a rigorous grade. The parents think that the bilingual program teaches Spanish, however,  we teach content in Spanish it is not intended to build them up from scratch like the dual language and or two-way program does.

References

YourDictionary. (2016, June 2). ESL vs. Bilingual Education. Retrieved from https://esl.yourdictionary.com/about-esl/esl-vs-bilingual-education.html.

Steven Pinker: Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain

Steven Pinker, “Language is one of the fundamental topics in the human sciences. It’s the trait that most conspicuously distinguishes humans from other species, it’s essential to human cooperation; we accomplish amazing things by sharing our knowledge or coordinating our actions by means of words.”

Steven Pinker Discusses Linguistics

Fidel chart

Marissa Leis, graduate TESOL student at Touro College on Cross-linguistic Influences

Many experts on student-centered online learning agree that the discussion board is the place where some of the most important learning can happen. Robust Discussion Board contributions not only show an engagement with the material read but also analysis and reflection. This requires thoughtfully crafted questions by facilitators for candidates to respond to.

Many experts on student-centered online learning agree that the discussion board is the place where some of the most important learning can happen. Robust Discussion Board contributions not only show an engagement with the material read but also analysis and reflection. This requires thoughtfully crafted questions by facilitators for candidates to respond to.

Marissa Leis is a graduate student at the TESOL program at Touro College. “My goal is to continue my education to get new strategies to better assist my students in a forever changing world.”

Understanding Second Language Acquisition by Lourdes Ortega – Class Discussion for Chapter 3: Cross-linguistic Influences

From reading Ortega and thinking about your own experience/observations as a teacher and a learner, how can an L1 negatively influence an L2 (e.g., L1 Mandarin Chinese and L2 English)? What about the other way around (e.g., L1 English and L2 Mandarin Chinese)? Are there any interesting asymmetries? (The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis would predict reciprocal influences.) In your written response, please choose two languages to exemplify your discussion.

A way in which Mandarin Chinese can negatively influence English would be in writing.  In Chinese, there are different characters used that can sometimes represent more than one letter which is different from how we write in English.

From reading Ortega and thinking about your own experience/observations as a teacher and a learner, how does L1 positively influence L2 (e.g., L1 Arabic and L2 English)? What about the other way around (e.g., L1 English and L2 Arabic)? Are there any interesting asymmetries? (Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis would predict reciprocal influences.) In your written response, please choose two languages to exemplify your discussion.

From my experience, L1 has positively influenced L2 in the sense that both languages require a noun and a verb.  This basic knowledge of sentence structure is beneficial when learning a new language because it gives you a simple template to create sentences.  This, depends on the language.  I can only speak for learning Italian.  I know that other languages have different sentence structures.

The text explains the differences between learning pronoun placements in French and English.  Someone learning English rarely shows difficulty learning this placement however it is the opposite when learning French if you are a native English speaker.  “By contrast, for L1 English learners of French, the learning of what is essentially the same difference but in the opposite direction poses much more difficulty, and the error Je vois les is indeed attested.” (Ortega 32)  The reason for this is in fact similarities of the two languages that causes the confusion.  Since the languages are similar, this leads to misconceptions.

What other issues, such as language universals, complicate crosslinguistic influence? And how is it that sometimes, even if negative transfer occurs, it does not result in ungrammaticality? Please give examples to support your claims.

When a language is similar in the way the words are arranged, this can cause confusion and misconceptions which leads to a hindrance in learning the language.  Language universals can also complicate language acquisition.  They can also lead to new learnings about L1.  “There are also attested occasions where the benefits accrue from rather abstract similarities, as when a grammatical category in the L1 sheds light on a different grammatical category in the L2, thus facilitating the discovery and learning of the new category.” (Ortega 43)  If a student is learning about grammatical likeness in L1 and L2, this can result in the student learning more about their native language and the rules.

Even if a negative transfer occurs, this does not always result in ungrammaticality because students sometimes remember the sentence structures.  If they are pronouncing a word incorrectly, it does not affect the grammar of the sentence.

How can understanding these phenomena better inform our understanding of cross-linguistic influence? Please give examples to support your claims.

Understanding these phenomenons can help me in my teaching methods.  Before reading this chapter I thought that having a language that is similar in its grammatical form will cause the language to be more easily understood and acquired.  After reading this chapter, I realized that this can actually have the opposite effect.  When instructing students, I will first become acquainted with their native language and focus on the similarities and differences.  For similar characteristics, I will point out how English is similar and the small ways in which it may be different.  I will focus my Sheltered Instruction curriculum around these issues and common misconceptions. If I know that in French the pronoun comes before the verb, then I will work on questions techniques in my lesson.  I will gear my lessons so that they revolve around these techniques.

What do you think of Michael Long’s Interaction Hypothesis? What type(s) of corrective feedback do you use the most, do you think that is the best to use? How does this affect your students?

According to Michael Long’s Interaction Hypothesis, language learners learn from comprehensible input which requires them to determine and draw meaning from interactions.  I believe that this is beneficial for language learners.  When learning something new, it is important to understand the meaning of what you are doing or saying.  This promotes a deeper understanding and will allow the learner to remember what they are learning.  A comparison of this would be when one is learning math.  If the math problem is on paper, a student may be able to do it. When the time comes for the student to generalize the information and execute it to a real-life situation, it may be more difficult.  When the student is allowed to perform the math problem a few times during a real-life situation such as measuring the perimeter of a yard to buy fencing, this will create a true and deeper understanding that the student will remember long term.  The same goes for learning language. If a student is studying vocabulary words on flash cards, they may remember the words temporarily.  If students are spoken to and are required to find out the meaning of a sentence, they will most likely have a long-lasting understanding of the information.

A way to use this with the students is to repeat a sentence in L2 and allow the student to interpret the meaning of the sentence along with the vocabulary that is used.  A method that is effective is TPR. (Total Physical Response)  This method allows students to use their whole body to act out words and phrases that create a lasting impression.  As a teacher, I can recite actions and phrases in L2 and have the students act out the action after I model it.

Work Cited:

Ortega, L. (2009). Chapter 1-3: Introduction. In Second Language Acquisition (pp. 1–50). New York, NY: Hodder Education.

The Collaborative for Inclusive Education Workshop by Dr. Jasmin Cowin: Transcending Boundaries through Family Literacy: An Exploration of ENL Learning and Teaching with Technology

The Collaborative for Inclusive Education envisions a time when all public schools welcome and successfully educate all students, regardless of their abilities or background. To achieve this goal, they empower NYC charter schools to develop high quality inclusive educational environments by providing professional development opportunities, resources, school-based guidance and access to local and national best practices and renowned special populations’ experts. Here my workshop presentation as a share to anyone interested in Family Literacy: An Exploration of ENL Learning and Teaching with Technology.

The Collaborative for Inclusive Education envisions a time when all public schools welcome and successfully educate all students, regardless of their abilities or background. To achieve this goal, they empower NYC charter schools to develop high quality inclusive educational environments by providing professional development opportunities, resources, school-based guidance and access to local and national best practices and renowned special populations’ experts. Here my workshop presentation as a share to anyone interested in Family Literacy: An Exploration of ENL Learning and Teaching with Technology.

Workshop Collaborative for Inclusive Education Public

Touro TESOL Teacher Candidate Christine Agnello’s website review for EDDN 639 – Trends and Current Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Christine Agnello is currently a TESOL candidate at the Touro College TESOL graduate program. She has worked with children for over fifteen years and looks forward “to becoming a classroom teacher who can help my English language learners succeed in their academic career.”

Ms. Angelo’s submission is exemplary as it focuses on 6 websites or applications featuring:

  1. The Common Core Standards as they relate to ELLs
  2. The New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT)
  3. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), the Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English Protocol (SDAIE), and the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach Protocol (SIOP)
  4. NCLB & AYP requirements and RTTT
  5. Bilingual Education

Website 1: Common Core

 http://www.nysed.gov/bilingual-ed/parents-guide-common-core-state-standards-ccss 

This website is about the New York State common core standards and how they apply to English language learners. This website offers a wide variety of information to help guide parents and guardians in understanding the common core standards and how they apply to ELLs. When you first click on this link, you are brought to a page that showcases a video of a bilingual classroom; from there, you will find information regarding the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). It is explained that the CCSS are meant to make sure that all children succeed once they graduate from high school. This website explains that the CCSS are essential because they help all children, regardless of their age, race, gender, or background. The website offers a description of the CCSS, which states clear expectations for what each student should know in key critical areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. This website is meant to provide parents and guardians with the standards as a way to help them work along with their child’s teachers in guiding their children to be successful. 

A positive aspect of this website is that it provides a ‘Parent Workshop Backpack Guide’ in multiple languages. This will allow all families to become familiar with the CCSS, regardless of their home language. The backpack guide is a two-page information sheet, which details the CCSS and what they should expect to find in their child’s backpack in regards to learning. This information is vital to helping parents keep up to date on what is going on in their child’s academic learning. This website also offers a wide variety of information about ELLs regarding their education. Parents and guardians can navigate the website and view extra details by clicking on the links located on the left side of the screen. While it is significant that the website offers so much information, I do believe a negative is that there might be too much information which will cause parents and guardians to become overwhelmed. 

In the future, I would use this website to help guide the parents and guardians of my English language learners. I may reference this website during parent/teacher conferences, and use it as a guide to show parents and guardians where their children are in terms of their academics and what steps we could take together to get them on the level they need to be in regards to the common core standards. 

Website 2: NYSESLAT

https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-english-a-second-language-achievement-test-nyseslat-resources 

This website is designed to detail The New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT). This website offers a wide variety of information in regards to the NYSESLAT, such as a description of the exam, how the exam is measured, and a checklist for review. This website provides a lot of information regarding the exam, and on the left side of the screen, you can view resources and materials that will be used to assess the exam. 

While this website is full of a lot of information, I do believe that it could be overwhelming for English language learner parents and guardians. The website is only in English, which will make it difficult for others to read and understand. At the bottom of the screen, this is another link which brings you to a ‘Parent Brochure.’ Once you click on this link, you are brought to another website which provides a brochure detailing the exam in a variety of languages. 

Although this website may be more geared towards teachers, I believe it is helpful for parents and guardians to view the information provided here. This information can help parents and guardians understand what the NYSESLAT is and what it entails for their children. In the future, I would love for my school’s main office to provide the information regarding this website to newly registered parents, as they can view the data before their child takes the exam. 

 

Website 3: The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)  

http://shelteredenglish.weebly.com/ 

This website is designed to offer you information regarding The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). As stated on the homepage of the website, it is understood that The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol approach is for teaching content to English language learners in a strategic way which will make the subject matter and its concepts comprehensible while promoting student’s English language development. This website provides information on the eight components of SIOP, as well as resources that can be used to implement. 

This website is very clean; there aren’t many areas to explore, which makes it easy to navigate. When you view the eight components link, you are brought to a well thought out PDF that details the eight components that you can use. This information can be useful for future teaching and is easily accessible. A negative to the website is that unfortunately, some of the links do not work, and you are brought to a website that is not helpful. 

In the future, I would use this website to help reference how I could use the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) in my classroom. With its clean interface, I feel like I would access it more often, as all the information easily laid out for me. 

Website 4: No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act

https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/no-child-left-behind-and-english-language-learners 

This website provides an article detailing the information regarding the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, and how it especially applies to English language learners. The article explains that the NCLB act requires all English language learners to receive quality instruction for learning English and grade-level academic content. This act allows flexibility for choosing programs of instruction, especially for ELLs. The article explains that states are required to develop standards for English language proficiency, and to link those stands to the state’s academic content standards. The article goes on to list the requirements of the NCLB act in correlation to English language learners. 

This website provides short but very insightful information regarding the No Child Left Behind act and its relation to English language learners. It gives details that I believe would be beneficial to parents and guardians of English language learners. The website provides alternative links to some terms which are not easily understood by parents or guardians unfamiliar to the act. While I find the site useful, I do find it disconcerting that the information is only provided in English.  

In my future, as an educator, I would use this website to inform parents/guardians about the No Child Left Behind act. I think this website would be excellent if it were used during a parent/guardian workshop, which could be set up for the beginning of the school year. This workshop could be conducted during the parent/guardian outreach time, which is mandated by the Department of Education for all teachers on Mondays and Tuesdays. I think it would be beneficial for there to be translators available, as each translator could assist in helping parents and guardians of a variety of languages understand what is being discussed. 

Website 5: https://www.nysut.org/resources/all-listing/research/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-nys-requirements-bilingual-education-and-english-new-language-programs 

This website provides information regarding the requirements for bilingual education and English as a new language program. This website offers a fact sheet, which gives you an outline and guide on these requirements. The website starts off by providing a background in bilingual education and English as a new language program and explains the amendments that are required of school districts in order to provide English language learners with opportunities to achieve the same educational goals and standards established for all students. The website also contains resources for English language learners, as well as definitions of key terms regarding English language learners. 

This website provides a lot of information and has it broken down into easy to follow sections. I believe that this information is vital for any teacher of English language learners, and it is essential to be knowledgeable of this information to reach your students. The definitions of the key terms are a positive aspect of this website, as they can be referenced frequently for clarification. Along the top of the site you can find resources that lead you to another page that has more information regarding educational news. The website itself is self-explanatory and easily accessible. There is also a PDF fact sheet, which is beneficial for understanding the information. 

In my future endeavors as an educator, I will use this website to reference the NYS requirements for bilingual education and English as new language programs. I think it is essential to keep yourself abreast of any new information regarding these programs, as that knowledge will help me better understand the opportunities available for my English language learners, and how I can apply them to my teachings. 

Application 6: NY State Learning Standards, developed by MasteryConnect, for ios. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.masteryconnect.ny&hl=en_US

This application provides you with an overview of the New York State Common Core Standards. Upon opening the application, you are brought to a straightforward screen which states the standards and information regarding the developer of the application. Once you click on standards, you are brought to a screen that allows for a personal search, or you may click between standards for mathematics, language arts, social studies or science. Each standard provided you with a list of kindergarten through high school, and as you further explore the application you will be brought to the common core standards for each grade in each subject area. You can change the font, and you can make notes that can be referenced at a later time. 

I believe that this application is extremely beneficial to teachers. This application provides you with all the information you need regarding the New York State Common Core Standards, at the tips of your fingers. They are easily accessible, and the design of the application is clean and clear. There isn’t much to get confused by, even there are a lot of standards to reference. I believe that the ability to add notes and providing the user to do their own search is especially helpful. The only negative that I found was the lack of a bookmark of some sort just so it is easier to find the next time. 

I know that I will be able to implement this application in my future teaching practice, as it will provide a guide for myself to ensure that my lessons are aligned with the New York State Common Core Standards. I will be able to reference this application when designing my lessons and use the information provided to me to confirm that I am indeed teaching the information I need to help my students become successful. 

 

 

Touro TESOL Teacher Candidate Lissette Lara’s website review for EDDN 639 – Trends and Current Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Assignment Purpose TESOL STANDARD 3: PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTION 3.e. Candidates use and adapt relevant materials and resources, including digital resources, to plan lessons for ELLs, support communication with other educators, school personnel, and ELLs and to foster student learning of language and literacies in the content areas. Analysis and implementation into teacher practice of websites specific to TESOL Field.

Lissette Lara earned her Bachelor Degree from City College of New York in Bilingual Childhood Education. Currently, she pursues her Masters in TESOL at Touro College. This is her third year teaching 5th grade in a bilingual class.

Assignment Purpose TESOL STANDARD 3: PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTION 3.e. Candidates use and adapt relevant materials and resources, including digital resources, to plan lessons for ELLs, support communication with other educators, school personnel, and ELLs and to foster student learning of language and literacies in the content areas. Analysis and implementation into teacher practice of websites specific to TESOL Field.

Lissette Lara’s website collection and description for classroom activities:

Website  – Go Noodle – https://app.gonoodle.com/

This website provides SEL and Mindfulness, Sensory and Motor Skills, Curricular, School Life videos that usually last about two to four minutes.  These videos require exercising or dance and sing along with the songs. Or help the students with skip counting are reading strategies.  The students can take a yoga or breathing break.  Gonoodle offers kids an opportunity to act silly or learn the coping skills they need in life. The bottom line is that it helps the students relax and focus on classroom lessons.   “The benefits of physical fitness and relaxation on learning are well documented, and GoNoodle provides teachers with a fun, interactive way to get students moving” (Common Sense Education). One of the weaknesses of Gonoodle that if you don’t have steady internet connection it won’t work.

I use these videos early in the morning when students arrive from lunch or any time the schools need a mental break.  When I play the videos, I turn on the closed caption so that my ELL are able to read along with the song.  I have also noticed that this helps them understand what is being said.  After several times of listening to the song, they can sing along with the song.  I believe this activity helps students because they practicing different parts of language such as speaking, reading and listening.  It is stated that  “watching short videos on art, music, dance, science or other relevant themes reciting rhymes, jokes, and poetry using music, rhythm, songs, tongue twisters, or a mnemonic device that reinforces the meanings of challenging words” help develop language skills for Entering and Emerging students (Best Practices for Teaching ESL: Speaking, Reading, and Writing).  These practices are beneficial for all students who would need to take The New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) because there are listening and speaking components on the test.

Flocabulary – https://www.flocabulary.com/

Flocabulary is one of the websites I use the most in my classroom. Flocabulary videos are “hip-hop videos and creativity tools give teachers new ways to captivate students while engaging them in academically rigorous content” (Flocabulary.com).  The website includes learning videos in different areas of content.  Teachers can find lessons on math, reading, writing, science, social students and vocabulary content.  These videos are a great tool to connect with prior knowledge or to reinforce topics covered in class.   Along with the video lesson, the website a list of vocabulary, a reading passage related to the video lesson and lyrics to the songs, which could be printed for students.

I utilize these videos during my lesson to build understanding or connect with students’ prior learning.  For example, in 5th grade, our first unit in math is place value.  The student have prior experience with place value (one, tens, hundreds, thousands…) but not right of the decimal (tenths, hundredths thousandths). Before my lessons, I would hand out the vocabulary words to my ELL and struggling students, review with them to ensure they understand.  Then I would play the video reinforcing what I just taught my small group students.  By using these strategies of pre-teaching vocabulary, I’m setting up my students for success. “SIOP teachers increase attention to vocabulary instruction across the curriculum so students become effective readers, writers, speakers, and listeners.   My students who are learning the language will have an entry point because they will able to use the vocabulary words in their writing and speaking with peers.   In addition, prior visual support for students who may different learning styles and need another point of view of the content being taught.

Reading A-Z – https://www.readinga-z.com

Reading A –Z that offers leveled text for students. This program offers on-line text with comprehension questions.  Students are able to read along with the text using the audio feature the program provides. Teacher enter their students’ name and assign them with a user name and password.  Students can log on at school or at home.  Teachers can track students’ progress, review the comprehension question scores.  Once have read and pass test, the program automatically levels the student to the next level. One of the benefits of this program is that they can use a range of device to use it, for example, it can be downloaded to PC and Apple computers, tablets and phone.  One disadvantage of the program is that the student needs internet at home to access the program.

As an educator of ELL and different levels, using this program during reading ensures that every student is reading. Most of my students are reading between M-U reading levels, however I have two students that are entering student and are reading at D and K levels.  In my school, we dedicate one hour for independent reading.  During this time, I designate a place in my room where they can go with a computer (each) log on and read. Students are encouraged to read English text, but they can also read text in Spanish.  I believe that listening to the text more than once and reading the text to each helps with comprehension, pronunciation and development of language. I also use this program because it prepares to for future assignments and test they will need to take in the future.   “Audiobooks also help students engage in text and gain exposure to more words, ultimately improving vocabulary, comprehension and critical thinking skills.” (Moran). In addition to practice their reading, this students begin to develop independency and ownership over their learning.

CommonCore Lit – https://www.commonlit.org

I accidentally found this website late last year when looking for text for my small groups.  I believe its’s a new website.  This website offers different types of text such as essays, poems, short reads at grade level. One of the features of the website is that you can select text based on grade, genre, and common core standards.  Teachers decide whether to assign text to the whole class or to individual students.  The time I’ve used it, I search for text that address standards my students are struggling.  The website also offers text in Spanish for ELL students.  A weakness of the website the need to add more text for 5th and 6th level.

Like I mentioned earlier, texts are accompanied by common core aligned questions.  The main reason I use it is that my students will be taking the ELA State Exam.  The structure of the questions are similar to the ones on the state exam.  I believe that if the students have opportunities to practice these questions and become familiar they will know how to answer the question on the test.

I try to incorporate text during science, social studies, read loud and small groups.  I model for the class how I close read the article, keeping in mind what the question is asking me to answer.  I give the students the opportunity to discuss and explain their thinking with their partners.  I believe that giving children a chance to discuss because answer allows them to explore answers.

Brain Pop – https://www.brainpop.com 

Brainpop is a website that offers animated video on a range of topics which include quizzes, games and additional activities.  The topics are geared for grades 3-12 in areas of ELA, math, science, social studies, health, art and technology. The main characters of the videos are Moby and Tim. Teachers or students search a topic and an animated video (three –five minute) explains describes or analyzes the topic. Some of the activities Brainpop offers are sorting tasks, vocabulary review and interactive games.  Just like many of the websites mentioned earlier, teachers can search video using state common core standards.  Brainpop has several subgroups that are more specific to students’ needs. For example, Brainpop Jr, Brainpop Espanol, BrainPop ESL.

In my class I usually utilize Brainpop to provide additional information for my students on a topic we are learning in class. I usually play the video three times to ensure we understand the topic.  The first time, I tell the class we are just watching to get an overview on the topic.  I put prompts that promote discussion (What was this really about, what makes you think this, What in the video makes you think this?)  The second time, I have the students take notes on certain parts of the video, during this time the students are practicing their listening and writing skills.  Once they have finished the video, I ask the students to turn and talk again.  However, this time around they need to share what new information have they learned. Again, displaying prompt to encourage discussion (Before I thought,______ now I know _______,  I realized that __________).  The last time we watch we try to make connection throughout the video, or practice summarizing skills.  I would send the students back to their seats have them writing about the topic.  I believe the more opportunities ELL practice reading, writing, listening and speaking language the higher chances they will have to develop L2.

Kahoot –  https://kahoot.com/

Wow, finally my favorite website to use with my students.  Kahoot is highly engaging and interactive. This program offers quizzes or teacher-specific made quizzes in which students compete one on one or in teams. Teachers create a free account and search through quizzes on related topic or standards.  Once teacher selects the quiz, teacher displays quiz pin. Students need a laptop or tablet to join the online quiz.  Next, students create a username and enter the game.  Teacher begins the game when all students have logged on.  The question is displayed on the smartboard for all students to read with four possible answers.  Students use their computers to enter their response.  Once all students have answered, the score board displays who is in the leading, and shows the correct answer.  If I were to say the only negative thing about Kahoot is that teacher needs to have enough laptops or tablets for all students or enough for students to share.

I use Kahoots during all content area, but mostly in math.  Using Kahoot is a quick assessment that I can use to identify who are my students who need extra help.  For my entering and emerging ELL I have them work with partners at the beginning, but usually by the end of the year they are playing independent.  I choose quizzes which address heavily tested standards in math and ELA.

Citation 

Gonoodle Review For Teachers, Ericka D https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/gonoodle

Best Practices For Teaching Esl: Speaking, Reading, and Writing, https://www.mastersinesl.org/teaching-esl/best-practices-for-teaching-esl-speaking-reading-and-writing/

Components Of the Siop Model, https://www.janaechevarria.com/?page_id=55

7 Ways Audiobooks Benefit Students Who Struggle with Reading, Kimberley Moran – https://www.weareteachers.com/audiobooks-benefit-students

Touro TESOL Teacher Candidate Elcidana Camacho website review for EDDN 639 – Trends and Current Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Elcidana Camacho is a graduate student at Touro College majoring in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). As an immigrant student herself, she recognizes the value in providing high-quality education to English Language Learners. Currently, Elcidana teaches second-grade bilingual education at a New York Public School.

As a TESOL Professor, I thought about the Blueprint for English Language Learner/ Multilingual Learner Success when designing this assignment. On page 3 in the Blueprint it states that: Districts and schools engage all English Language Learners/Multilingual Learners in instruction that is grade-appropriate, academically rigorous, and aligned with the New York State Prekindergarten Foundation for the Common Core and P-12 Common Core Learning Standards by anchoring instruction by strategically using research-based practices (e.g., multimedia, visuals, graphic organizers, etc.).  The question was: How can technology and its applications be folded into a course sequence with practical application to TESOL teacher practice?

Assignment description: Course participants will find at least 6 websites or applications. The submitted assignment should include 1) links to the websites, 2) a brief description of each site and its weaknesses and strengths,  and 3) how you will implement or apply them in your own professional teaching practice including parent outreach, and ELL advocacy. The writing must be graduate-level and authentic.  12 fonts, double space, minimum 6 pages – 1 page per website.

Website Review

Starfall: https://www.starfall.com/h/

Starfall is a free website appropriate for children from preschool through second grade. It is an outstanding resource for special education students and ELLs to improve their language.  Some benefits of this website are the ample variety of interactive games, activities, songs, and stories for readers in the beginning stage as well as a variety of downloadable materials, educational products, and a kindergarten curriculum for parents and educators. The website is centered around activities that address phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary.

Another benefit of this website is that it is easy for students to navigate at their own pace, permit learners to involve in varied activities, games, and materials independently, in pairs, or with the whole class. Teachers can also project the site on an interactive whiteboard to introduce new concepts (letters, letter sounds, phonemes, blending sounds, and more) to the whole class. For teachers who are ready to go all in, the Parent-Teacher Center is a must. It offers an impressive amount of additional ideas, printable worksheets, and pre-K and kindergarten curricula. Beware, however, that a lot of these extras are behind a paywall.

One weakness found it’s that the website only encompasses from Pre-k to third grade. I think older learners will benefit from this amazing website as well.  I am already planning to use this with a newcomer student that I have.  She is now learning the letters the alphabet and I have been introducing some of the sound.  As I was exploring the website I found a game that focuses on each letter using it different words.

 Colorín Colorado: https://www.colorincolorado.org

Colorín Colorado is a website that serves educators and families of ELLs from Grades PreK-12. It is a bilingual website basically in English and Spanish, but it offers basic parent content in thirteen languages, comprising Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and Hmong. The website provides free research-based information, classroom videos, toolkits, multilingual tip sheets, newsletters, featured book, activities, as well as advice to parents, schools, and communities in supporting ELLs in the process of the language acquisition.

The Colorín Colorado website is easy to navigate, the homepage has a bar of choices that includes ELLs Basics, school support, includes teaching ELLs, for families, books and authors, videos, audience, and resource library. The resources are included by grade, state, special education.  It also offers resources and guidance for new ENL teachers, how to create a welcome environment, strategies for teaching ELLs, vocabulary instructions, how to support ELLs successfully meet the common core standards, as well as information about topics such as reading together at home.

As we see, this is not a website for the students, however, it is a great resource for parents and educators getting informed on how they can best support English Language learners.  The only disadvantage that I find is that not all parents are skillful readers, I think the section for parents should include more visuals for them such as videos that includes the information in the articles. This is a website I have used before many times.  I have applied information learned on this website in my classroom such as strategies for differentiated instructions and making content comprehensible for ELLs.

Fun Brain https://www.funbrain.com    

Fun Brain is a very colorful, energetic, and interactive website.  There are over 100 interactive activities to support students from preschool to grade eighth developing skills in English literacy. The website offers the following choices: games, reading, videos, playgrounds, and math zones. The website provides an extensive variety of books children can read directly on the website. As I was navigating, I was excited to find books we read in class such as those from Kate DiCamilo.  Having them available online, seems to be a great visual aid for ELLs. Fun Brain’s games allow children an opportunity to practice their reading skills in order to play games effectively. All the games are safe for kids, and they encourage children to manipulate the keyboard and mouse so they can learn to be independent on the computer. However, these educational games allow students to practice but never show them why they get an answer wrong or how to improve it.

One disadvantage I found is that when clicking to read books from first to fourth grade, it shows a book that we read at the end of second grade which I think will be very difficult for a first-grade student. Another disadvantage is the section called playground. This is not an educational activity, it is more like entertainment for kids.

I will use this website in both reading and math.  I will use the math zone during independent math where students can practice skills related with the concept being taught. Similarly, during independent reading, my students can read books online.

English 4 Kids: http://www.english-4kids.com/lessons.html

The English 4 kids is an ESL website mainly for families and teachers that are trying to help children and students learn English. In the section of the parents and teachers, there is a guide to the materials needed.  According to the website, the resources provided have been created by ESL professionals with at least 5 years of teaching experience. The website provides lesson plans, worksheets, fun game, powerpoints for the lessons, flashcards, and more.

Some strengths of this website are that it offers complete English Curriculum for ELLs who are at different stages in English proficiency with fully developed thematic units Each lesson features animated ESL videos to learn new vocabulary words and grammar. Furthermore, there are engaging English learning games for children and learner-driven interactive tests for every lesson. When reading the lessons, I noticed they follow the template of the SIOP Model.  Each lesson includes learning objectives, language objectives, vocabulary, sentence structure, visual aids, interactive activities, and more. I personally like that the content is connected with daily life activities.  For instance, there is a whole unit about greetings, another about colors, and so on. This units will help ELLs build and expand their vocabulary because they are exposed to read, listen, speak and write using the vocabulary. Moreover, there apps that parents can download for ELLs to practice phonics. One disadvantage I found it’s that the website doesn’t have an option for languages.  Since the website is designed for teachers and parents to help their children improve their English, I think the instructions for the options in the website should include parent’s native language because not all of them understand English.

I will definitely use this website with my students, not just with the newcomers, but with the whole class as well. There are interactive videos we can do together specially when teaching phonics, vocabulary, even grammar.  I have to say that this is my favorite website so far. I can’t wait to use.

Literacy Center Educational Network: http://www.literacycenter.net

The Literacy Center Education Network is a website created for parents, teachers and younger students. It provides great resources for students, educators and families of English Language Learners. The website includes beneficial pages such as Play and Learn, Print and Practice, Parents and Teachers, and Resources. The Play and Learn page contains activities that help ELLs practice their writing, spelling, uppercase, lowercase, word matching, spelling and more. Lessons are colorful and very interactive which makes teaching and learning more engaging. Furthermore, the different activities promote the development of the four language skills, Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking.

The website is very accessible for parents because it provides an ample variety of language such as Spanish, French, and German. I think this is an advantage.  Moreover, when young learners are navigating, it is easy for them to go from one page to the other because the page does not heavy with too many visuals.  On the top it shows numbers that indicate a different page. Students just have to click and the page will pop out. One disadvantage I found is that there are not many activities.  I wish it had more variety.  Since this is a website for young learners, I will use this with students who do not have a strong foundation in their native language as well as newcomers.

BrainPop ELL: https://ell.brainpop.com

BrainPOP ELL is a web-based English language learning program that encompasses animated videos as well as interactive games and activities.  In the activities, the website includes the four language skills; reading, writing, listening, and speaking. BrainPOP website was mainly created to support  English Language learners acquiring English in all their English proficiency levels (Entering, merging, Transitional, and Expanding.

I believe this website is very beneficial for ELLs since it provides an important visual aid which is movies.  Children love the two main characters in the videos Moby and Ben. All these short movies are directly aligned with the common core standards which support students learning the content, practicing their language skills, and developing not just their English language, but also the academic language. Some of the topics students study present progressive, present simple, pronouns & be and so more.

I always use BrainPOP with my class especially in Science and Social Studies; however, I did not know there was one BrainPOP designed for ELLs. One disadvantage I found is that since the website is not free, students will not have access at home to this resource.  I will use this website for whole and small class discussions.  After showing the video, I will encourage students to have an accountable talk with their partner related to the topic in the vide. As the video is playing, I will stop for students to take notes highlighting the main topic and key details.  They will have to support their answers with details from the video.

 

The UN SDG Corporate Guidebook Series Meta Project

UN SDGs Meta-Project Call for Contributors: 100+ Case Studies for 17 Corporate Guidebooks

I am honored to be selected to become a CISR Scholar, contributing to the UN SDG Corporate Guidebook Series Meta Project.

SHERPA Sustainability Institute CEO, Rob Wilson explains their commitment to publish the remaining 16 SDG Guidebooks throughout 2020. “We’re coming up on ten years left for the 2030 Agenda, and we can’t expect government agencies and NGOs alone to carry the ball. The time has come for the private sector to step up. Some corporate leaders understand the benefits of focusing on specific SDGs – it makes sense for their business. More companies are taking action, but too many are sitting on the sidelines. The Corporate Guidebook Series aims to break through that inertia.”

Endorsed in 2015 by all 193 United Nations Member States, the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals focus global efforts and attention on 17 pressing issues. The 17 UN SDGs have been lauded as a galvanizing force for a more socially responsible global community. However, with 169 underlying Targets, the UN SDGs have been characterized by many thought-leaders as overwhelming.

Co-Authors for two separate textbooks published by CRC Press, Agustiady and Hoffmeier had been seeking an opportunity to collaborate on a book for some time. Agustiady gives a lighthearted take on the expanded scope of the project. “We had talked about co-authoring just one, single book. Amazingly, our aspirations grew exponentially into an entire UN SDG series!” The duo will co-author one textbook in the series, while taking responsibility for recruiting co-authors and editing the remaining 16 titles. Agustiady adds, “We’ve taken the approach to ‘begin with the end in mind’, with SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.”

Hoffmeier describes the first Guidebook to be released Q4 of 2019. “Starting with SDG 17, Tina and I provide a primer for the rest of the series, as well as guidance on how to prioritize the goals and integrate the SDGs into corporate strategy. Companies need to understand what’s in it for them, when it comes to the SDGs – we’ll answer that question, then provide the roadmap to get started.”

About SHERPA Sustainability Institute
We are a non-profit institution, devoted to global collaboration, education and research, advancing continual improvement for social responsibility to build sustainable organizations and communities.
http://www.sherpasustainabilityinstitute.org

About CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group
With over 100 years publishing textbooks, references, encyclopedias, handbooks, monographs, and professional books, CRC Press aims to broaden thinking and advance understanding in the sciences, providing researchers, academics, professionals, and students with the tools they need to share ideas and realize their potential.

Teaching as an Act of Love by Prof. Jasmin Bey Cowin, Ed.D.

Touro College, Graduate School of Education featured my philosophy on teaching via a video clip with the following observation: Touro’s Graduate School of Education Professor Jasmin Cowin’s Lessons Go Beyond the Classroom:

Jasmin Cowin, Ed.D., wants the students in her Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) program to know that language isn’t only grammar and vocabulary.

“My focus is not just on the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary, but also the understanding that language is a culture,” explained Dr. Cowin, an assistant professor at Touro’s Graduate School of Education (GSE). “You have to meet people where they are and help guide them so that they can fulfill their potential.”

“I’ve always thought of teaching as an act of love,” continued Dr. Cowin. “The students are coming here for something that is important to them, not only professionally, but also personally.”

Watch the video:

Teaching as an Act of Love

 

 

Touro TESOL candidate Christine Romonoyske reflecting on a Lesson Plan and Analysis for EDDN 673

What does a clinically rich teaching program mean?  For an assignment in EDPN 673 Methods and Materials for Teaching English as a Second Language, Touro Teacher Candidates will work independently to create a lesson plan for English Language Learners, reflecting their learning of the course (e.g., task-based language teaching) using a SIOP or other pre-approved lesson plan. The lesson must be taught in class.

Yet another question: How does faculty encourage life-long learning and the desire to do research for teacher candidates?  I believe by publishing excellent work by teacher candidates!

The paper includes the following elements:

Assignment Description
Submit a differentiated lesson plan combining elements of the SIOP lesson-planning model with elements requiring the candidate to differentiate and modify plans, activities, and assessments to meet the needs of all students. The candidate will utilize concepts in learning theory, curriculum development and instructional effectiveness to produce lesson plans that are aligned with the NYS Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) standards.

The TESOL education lesson plan format includes the following elements:

  • Readiness (goals/objectives, standards, anticipatory set)
  • Instruction (input, modeling, checking for understanding), accommodation (addressing the needs of students with exceptional circumstances and conditions), and assessment.
  • Final evaluation section for the candidate to self-assess the degree to which the lesson was taught successfully. These post-lesson self-analysis questions are designed to help the candidate think about the instructional process and how it might be improved in future lessons.

The Touro TESOL education lesson plan design structure is as follows:

673 pic christineLesson Plan and Analysis

Introduction: This classroom is a first-grade mainstream ENL classroom consisting of 12 general education students and 11 ELL students. This classroom has a general education teacher and an ENL teacher that pushes in at select times during the day. The ENL teacher pushed in for this Readers Workshop lesson to support the ELL students.

Here Touro TESOL teacher candidate Christine Romonoyske’s final submission. She graduated from St. Joseph’s College with her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood and Childhood Education. She is a New York State Certified Teacher working towards her Master’s Degree in TESOL. Christine share that she is,”I am excited to use the new strategies and methods I learned in my future teaching!” Please note the substantial reference section for her submission.

 

 

Part 1: Lesson Plan

I. Goals, Objectives, Standards

Teacher Name: Christine Romonoyske

Grade: First

Subject: Readers Workshop

ESL Levels: Transitioning and Expanding

Theme: Nonfiction

Lesson Topic: Text Features in Nonfiction books

Objectives:

·       Language: The students will be able to scan a story and discuss the nonfiction text features they find with their group and list them on a post-it.

·       Content: The students will be able to identify nonfiction text features in their book club stories.

Standards:

NYSED Learning Standards for English as a Second Language

·       Standard 1: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for information and understanding.

1.1  Identify and use basic reading and listening strategies to make text comprehensible and meaningful. Such strategies include predicting; previewing; reviewing; recognizing sight words; listening selectively; listening for a specific purpose; listening for main ideas and details; using context clues, cognates, and an understanding of letter-sound relationships. (L, R)

1.3 Select information appropriate to the purpose of the investigation. (L, R)

1.6 Formulate and share opinions about information and ideas with reference to features in oral and written text such as details and facts. (L, S, R, W)

1.10 Demonstrate a basic understanding of facts. (S, W)

1.13 Engage in collaborative activities through a variety of student groupings to gather, share, discuss, and present information. (L, S, R, W)
II. Anticipatory Set

Prior Knowledge: The students have been reading fiction books. The students have read stories independently, with a partner, with a small group, or as a whole class. The students have learned the features and purpose of a fiction story. As the students read their fiction books, they have been reading to find evidence that supports the main idea of the text. The students also read to identify the author’s purpose of the story, which is to entertain. The students previously learned that fiction books are stories that are not real, have a beginning, middle, and an end, have characters and animals that can talk, and that they are read for enjoyment. The students have had discussions in their book clubs about the fiction stories their club is reading, as well as sharing their thoughts and ideas aloud to the whole class. The students have been answering question prompts using the textual evidence with their book club groups and whole class.

Motivation: The students will answer the question, “What do you know about nonfiction books?” I will provide a visual by showing the students the covers of a fiction book and a nonfiction book. The books will be kept on display while the students turn and talk to discuss their thoughts and ideas.

Key Vocabulary: fiction, nonfiction, purpose, inform, photographs, headings, table of content, fact
III. Purpose

The purpose of this lesson from a language perspective is to utilize all four modalities of literacy by working cooperatively in their book club groups. The purpose of this lesson from a content perspective is for the students to connect the features and gained knowledge of a nonfiction text to their learning in school and the real world.

 
IV. Plan for Instruction

Adaptations: This is an ENL classroom. There are 12 general education students and 11 students that are ELL, 6 at the transitioning level and 5 at the expanding levels. The students are grouped heterogeneously based on their reading levels. During the small group activity, the teacher will act as a facilitator and float between the groups offering support and answering any questions the students have. Visuals, charts, and organizers will be provided to the students that need additional support.

Remediation:  Students who are struggling and didn’t master the objectives will be pulled to the reading table for small group instruction. I will guide the students as they work on the activity and facilitate when they work together. I will remind the students of the language and content objectives and review what they are looking for in their text. The students that are still struggling will be provided with visuals, charts, or differentiated reading passages to support their needs.

Enrichment: The students that are on or above grade level will be grouped together in their book club groups. They will be provided with books on their reading levels. These students will work together and self-correct when needed. These students will be given minimal support, unless they ask for it. These students will be challenged to write sentences based on the text features they found in their nonfiction books rather than listing them.

ESL- Mainstreamed: The ESL students at the transitioning and expanding levels receive push- in services. During this lesson, the push-in ENL teacher will work with the ELL students and provide them with the support they need.

Materials:

·       Anchor charts

·       Pencils

·       Markers

·       Post-its

·       Leveled nonfiction books

·       Book club baskets

·       Computer

·       Smartboard
V. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output):

In the beginning of the lesson the teacher wrote the content and language objectives on the board and had the students read them along with her. After reviewing the objectives, the teacher and the students created an anchor chart listing the purpose of fiction books and the features that are found in fiction books. The teacher then began to introduce Nonfiction books to the students. The teacher pulled up a picture of a fiction book and a nonfiction book on the Smartboard. The teacher told the students to look at the books and see if they notice any differences. The teacher asked, “What do you know about nonfiction books?” The teacher told the students to turn and talk to discuss their ideas about nonfiction books. The teacher waited a few moments providing the students, especially the ELL learners, time to formulate their thoughts and answers. The teacher directed the student’s attention back to her and asked, “What did we notice about the nonfiction book?” The students discussed how the cover of the nonfiction book had real pictures on it and the fiction book had fake pictures. The teacher agreed with the student’s observation. The teacher took a book walk through a nonfiction book pointing out and discussing meaning and purpose of the table of contents, true facts, photographs (real-life pictures), and headings they saw. The teacher wrote down the text features of the nonfiction book on the same anchor chart as the fiction book, to show the students how nonfiction books include different text features as fiction books. The teacher asked, “What is the purpose, or reason, why people read nonfiction books?” The teacher told the students to turn and talk to discuss the question.

The teacher told the students that they are going to be working in their book clubs to find the different text features that their nonfiction book has. The students already know who is in each book club group due to previous reading group activities She explained that each group will have a different book, that is determined by their reading level. All books will be on the same topic, which is animals. For example, group 1-panda bears, group 2- butterflies, group 3-tigers, group 4-snakes, group 5-sharks, group 6-monkeys. The teacher told the students that they will be working collaboratively with their groups to scan the book and find the different text features we just learned. she told the students that they will be using post-it notes and pencils to list the different text features they find. They will stick the post-it note on the page where the text feature was found, with the specific text feature written on the post it. The teacher told the students that the anchor chart with the nonfiction text features they are looking for will be available during their group activity as a reminder.

Before sending the students off to begin their activity, the teacher modeled exactly what they needed to do. She picked up the nonfiction book she used for the book walk. She did another book walk but exaggerating when she hit a nonfiction text feature. For example, when she opened the book, she stopped on the first page that stated, “table of contents.” The teacher asked the students, “Do you notice anything on this page?” The teacher waited a few moments before expecting an answer. She then discussed that it was a table of contents. She picked up her pencil and wrote “table of contents” on the post-it and stuck it to that page. The teacher continued to demonstrate the activity on the next 3 pages of the book. The teacher said, “Give me a thumbs up if you know what you need to do with your group!” The teacher said I have a few reminders, “Remember, we are scanning the book for text features, not reading each page, and if you forget, the text features are listed on the anchor chart in the front of the room!” The teacher told the students to meet with their book club groups in their appropriate reading spots, grab their buckets (which has the reading level nonfiction book, pencil, and post-its, that was prepped before the lesson began) and begin to work. Also, all students need to participate in the activity. Every member needs a turn reading, writings, sharing and listening to ideas!

As the students are working, the teacher will rotate through the groups. The groups were created on the students independent reading levels. The ELL students are broken into two groups. The ENL push-in teacher is working with the ELL students providing them with the support they need. As the teacher is circulating the room she is acting as a facilitator and giving support as needed. The teacher is also providing oral feedback to the students. As the teacher continues to listen in on each group, she begins to ask the students questions to check for understanding. She asks questions like, “What text feature did this group see in their book?”, “Can you show me where you saw a real-life picture?” or “Did you learn any true facts about your animal?” The students will discuss answers to the questions as a group and have a conversation with the teacher. The students will help each other with the new vocabulary by using context clues, or visuals in their nonfiction books. The teacher continues to monitor the students and their success.

As the teacher circulates the room and sees that the groups are finishing up, she will tell the students to sit back at the carpet with their book club groups and baskets. The teacher will call on each group, one at a time to stand in front of the room to present their findings. The teacher will tell the students to show and tell their classmates the different nonfiction text features that their book has. When the group is finished showing their classmates, they will put their post-its on chart paper. Each group will follow the same directions and present their findings and place their post-its on the chart. As the groups are speaking aloud, the teacher will be there to give assistance or prompting when needed. When all the groups are finished presenting, the teacher will discuss the similar text features that all the nonfiction books had.

During the lesson and small group activity, the remediation group will be pulled to the back table for small group instruction and assistance by the teacher. The enrichment group will be required to work collaboratively with minimal support and write sentences rather than listing ideas.
VI. Check for Understanding:

·       Guided Practice: The students will practice the language and content objectives through the lesson by scanning the story while identifying and discussing the nonfiction text features, they find with their group, and list on post-its. The teacher will model the activity and check for understanding through formative assessment before allowing the students to work independently with their groups.

·       Reteach: Based on the formative assessment, the teacher can determine if the students need to be retaught the skills needed for the activity. The teacher begins by working in whole group then small group. The teacher will work with small groups and review the different text features found in nonfiction books. The teacher will model the activity and provide these students with visuals, charts, highlighted texts, or display a completed outline until the student becomes comfortable and confident with the activity. However, after the teacher provides the students with assistive material, the teacher will monitor and watch as the students work independently in their groups.

·       Strategies: As the teacher circulates the room meeting with each group, the students in the group can display hand signals representing their understanding. This strategy allows the teacher to know as a group and individually which students understand the objectives. As the teacher passes the group, each student can put their thumb up, down, or in the middle to represent their understanding. The teacher can then have a discussion with the students that have their thumbs in the middle or down and then decide if they need to be pulled for small group instruction.

 
VII. Review Learning Outcomes/Closure:

·       Review: After all the groups present the information they gathered on nonfiction text features, the teacher and the students will discuss the similar text features that all groups had. The teacher will pull up an interactive Smart board activity. The teacher will put up different pages from different books one at a time, and the students will need to decide if the book is nonfiction by what they learned about the different text features. The student will have to tap on the picture that represents the nonfiction book. The students need to look for and tap the image that has photographs, table of contents, headings, or true facts. The teacher will call up students one at a time to participate in the activity. This activity will allow the students to review the nonfiction text features they learned during the lesson.

 

·       Assessment: During the lesson, the teacher used formative assessments. As the lesson proceeded, the teacher observed the students during whole group and small group interactions. The teacher used formative assessments to decide if and where she needed to improve instructional methods through student observation and feedback.
VIII. Independent Practice/Extending Learning

·       As the unit continues through the week, the students will continue working with nonfiction text features. The students will begin to independently read nonfiction books rather than scan through specifically looking for text features. But as the students are reading, they will be mindful of the text features they see. The students will start to read and look for important facts in their book. The students will be able to relate their own life and experiences to the facts they read about.

Part 2: Reflection and Post-Lesson Analysis

  1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?

Almost all students achieved the lesson objectives. The students were able to scan the story, identify nonfiction text features, and discuss them with their book club members. During small groups, some students struggled with the fact that some of their books did not include all the text features we discussed. I told the students that not all nonfiction texts have every text feature we spoke about. I told the students that they need to be the detectives and find out which text feature their book includes. Another slight error some groups made was that they wrote all the text features on one post-it, instead of writing the features on individual post-its, on different pages of their book. As the groups presented their findings, they were still able to show the class where they found the text features despite the incorrect placement of the post-its.  Overall, after clarifying the confusion, most of the students did an excellent job and met the objectives.

  1. What were my strengths and weaknesses?

       One strength I feel that I had during the lesson is how I incorporated many materials such as visuals, charts, technology, and organizers into the lesson. My goal was to meet the needs of each learner by using different tools to support their needs. Another strength I had was the wait time I applied after I asked a question. In most cases, ELLs need more time to formulate answers and should be given some time to think before having to respond to the question. One last strength I displayed in this lesson is the amount of time I allowed for student interaction. Through the lesson I provided the students with numerous amounts of small group interactions. According to the SIOP model, through meaningful interaction, students can practice speaking and making themselves understood by asking and answering questions, negotiating meaning, clarifying ideas, and other techniques. A weakness that I had in the lesson was not spending an even amount of time with each small group. Each group deserves the same amount of attention and support. The only group that I should not need to spend as much time with was the enrichment group because they can work independently.

  1. How should I alter this lesson?

I would alter this lesson by not including the components of fiction books on the anchor chart. I feel that the students could have been confused with seeing both types of books written down on the chart. The students could have interpreted this lesson as comparing and contrasting fiction and nonfiction books. I should have just reviewed fiction books orally and only made an anchor chart based on nonfiction text features. Also, I should have reviewed the new vocabulary more in depth. The students were familiar with the words, but I could have created a concept definition map to ensure they completely understand their new vocabulary.

  1. How would I pace it differently?

The pace of a lesson is extremely important because you want to make sure the students are engaged the entire time. Overall, I feel that I taught this lesson at a good pace. I feel that I spent an appropriate amount of time on each part of the lesson. The mini lesson and small group interaction were completed in a timely manner. As stated above, I would have taken the part of the lesson out where I wrote the components of fiction texts on the anchor chart. This would have saved time during the mini lesson. One part of the lesson that I feel could have been shortened was the group presentations. Instead of having each group show and tell all the text features their book included, each group could have chosen 2-3 features and only shared those. I also feel that the transitions between whole group and small group could have been done quicker by the students.

  1. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?

            I am happy to say that all the students were actively participating during the lesson. Every student had a job when they were working in their group. The students were required to take turns listing text features, speaking to their group members, listening to their group members, and reading information from their book. As I walked around to observe each group, I saw all students actively involved. The students were even more excited to participate when I introduced the interactive Smartboard activity. All students enjoy being chosen to touch the Smartboard and participate in hands-on activities.

  1. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
  2. Bloom’s Taxonomy

In relation to Bloom’s Taxonomy, the lesson was created to meet the six levels. First the students needed to remember the facts about fiction books, and then define what nonfictions books were. Next, the students discuss the concepts of text features in nonfiction books. After, the students were instructed to work in groups and apply their understanding of how to find and list nonfiction text features while scanning and examining the pages of their books by making connections to the previously learned nonfiction text features. The students then evaluated their work by supporting their findings through visuals and context clues. Lastly, the students created post-its to present to the class. According to Armstrong, it is important to incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy because organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for teachers and for students. (2018)

  1. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

This lesson adjusted to many of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences learning styles. Bodily-kinesthetic is used because the students transition from whole group on the carpet to small group interactions in different areas of the classroom. Also, the students interact in a hand-on activity using the Smartboard. Visual-spatial is used when I modeled the activity for the students and when I provided the students with anchor charts, visuals, and other graphics on the Smartboard. Interpersonal is another of Gardner’s intelligences that was used during the lesson. Most of the lesson was involving the student’s interaction with each other. The students worked in small groups sharing ideas, thoughts, having discussions, and spending time and attention away from the teacher.

References:

Armstrong, P. (2018, August 13). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Retrieved April 27, 2019, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

Lane, C. (n.d.). Multiple Intelligences. Retrieved April 27, 2019, from https://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html

Kareva, V., & Echevarria, J. (2013). Using the SIOP Model for Effective Content Teaching with  Second and Foreign Language Learners. 1-10.

Markos, A., & Himmel, J. (2016). Using Sheltered Instruction to Support English Learners. Center for Applied Linguistics.

NYSED. (n.d.). Learning Standards for English Language Learners., from http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/precoll/service_learn/standards/esl.pdf