PLANNING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
October 22, 2016EditUnit 5: English Language LearnersModule 2: The Culture of Schooling Module 2: The Culture of Schooling Helen Lee Planning for English Language Learners Topic: Halloween (Social Studies) Introduction Next semester I am likely to be teaching a 3rd-grade unit on social studies. More specifically, I will be teaching Halloween culture-based lesson. I’ve been teaching Halloween lessons as a “cultural” topic with historical knowledge at the same time to young learners. I would like to plan a differentiated lesson for English language learners. In my current school, I have about five different English language learners. Their English ability is far different regarding academic levels. Most of my students are in Stage I and Stage II. However, some 3rd-grade students are in Stage III. I’ve taught few students in the Stage IV and Stage V last year; yet, not this year. Some of the strategies in this blog is recommended for ESL teachers. English Language Learners Five Stages
Most of these stages must be scaffolded to its levels. For example, Stage I through Stage 3 should be incorporated into a differentiated lesson at all time for English language learners. Keep checking on students’ English ability is very helpful regardless of their short term objective. Some instructional strategies are necessary for each type of the stages. According to Colorincolorado, Robertson and Ford suggest many instructional strategies include English learners into the lesson. Based on my Halloween lesson, Stage I students will benefit from visual cues, read aloud, and pictures to understand Halloween cultural traditions. Students in Stage I is especially new to learning a language. Chants or visuals are very helpful for the students to acquire vocabularies. For Stage II students, ask the students to point to the Halloween pictures and say the words in English. Have the students work in pair or groups to discuss the Halloween lesson. Repetition in phrases or vocabulary words will help the students to improve their speaking practice. Moreover, Stage III students should be scaffolded all the time. Stage I and Stage II instructional strategies should be all included exceptionally. Also, asking questions and group or pair work should become part of their nature in the classroom. Asking “why” questions will help the students to acquire critical thinking skills. The teacher should pay more attention to Halloween customs and vocabulary pronunciation as much as possible. For Stage IV students, Halloween vocabularies could be a good practice to learn new words in English. The teacher needs to give more feedbacks and corrections with sentences. Giving a Halloween information text and let the students fill in the vocabulary will help their practice. Also, playing an interactive game with proper questions will promote students’ engagement. Some students are easy to drop out their confidence in this level. Lastly, in Stage V, the students are already familiar with Halloween customs and vocabularies. They can speak near advanced level. So the activity or the lesson should be more challenging. For example, let the students guess the Halloween vocabularies and spell them. Unscramble the words and let the students work in pairs to scramble the words in the correct orders.Works Cited Language Acquisition: An Overview | Colorín Colorado. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2016, from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/language-acquisition-overview Stages of Second Language Acquisition. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2016, from http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php
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