The followings are websites that I strongly recommend for ELL teachers to visit on a regular base. They provide new infrormation to provide teachings and services to all ELL.
NCELA - National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs collects, analyzes, synthesizes and disseminates information about language instuction educational programs for English Langauge Learners and related program. Lesson plans are also available. It is very easy to navigate within the different sections on this page.
OELA, is another page that provides all the information which NCELA provies. In fact NCELA is the official point of contact of disseminating information of OELA.
TESOL -Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languges, offers professional development to educators. The information on TESOL Standards are available, and experiences from the field are posted reading enjoyment. Newly published research and text books on teaching ELL are also available. Some books may be available for purchased.
NABE- The National Association for Bilingual Education offers classroom lessons to be used with ELL population. Information on annual bilingual conferences relating to the teaching of ELL are available at this site.
IRA- International Reading Association provides annual conferences schedules and professional development opportunities for all reading and ELL teachers.
NCTM - The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics offers lots of informatio on math lessons in elementary, middle, and high school. Math National Standards are accessable.
NSTA - National Science Teachers Association provides the standards in Science. This webpage is good for both mainstream teachers and ELL teachers who are teaching both the content area and the English language skills.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Group Discussion 2
The two recurring themes throughout Group #2’s discussion of Fair Use and Copyright involving educational media centered on “giving credit where credit is due” and adhering to usage limitations. The group had commented that we must all incorporate these Fair Use and Copyright guidelines in order to abide by the law and attribute the work of others when deemed necessary. Fostering the “10% use” policy in our students will be a challenge; however, when we, the educators, implement these guidelines which deal with our and our student’s biggest information source—the Internet, we will use other people’s work or ideas in the right ways.
Although music, videos, or information in the form of cell entries are accessible to Internet users, we must educate our students about these acceptable guidelines by emphasizing them as we require our students to organize PowerPoint presentations or create websites. We will emphasize these guidelines in ways such as having a small lesson on copyright rules and fair use practice before the project is given and establishing a written agreement which contains an understanding and reminder about proper use of downloading files.
Although music, videos, or information in the form of cell entries are accessible to Internet users, we must educate our students about these acceptable guidelines by emphasizing them as we require our students to organize PowerPoint presentations or create websites. We will emphasize these guidelines in ways such as having a small lesson on copyright rules and fair use practice before the project is given and establishing a written agreement which contains an understanding and reminder about proper use of downloading files.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Webpage Evaluation
NCELA Website Evaluation
If there is only one website that I would recommend to teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and parents, it would be the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA). On an evaluation scale from poor to excellent, I would give the NCELA webpage an excellent rating on all the aspects and criteria being evaluated, such as its utility, navigation, and its relevance to education.
The utility of NCELA website is an exceptional one where one can easily identify what is the usefulness of it. It clearly shows that all information are useful for administrators, teachers, researchers, students, and parents. The set up of the webpage is structured in a way that all basic information are at the forefront of the first page and the details are located at each page. The navigation part is also easy to manipulate as they are very clear of what they are. There are information listed at both horizontal and vertical setup at the top and the left side of the page. The relevancy of this page is so unique that everything a teacher needs in regards to teaching ELL and the policy relating to the field are all available. There are lots of lesson plans available on the classroom page. Many presentations of successful teaching programs to ELL are also available.
I have to admit though, that this page lacks the information on integrating technology in the curriculum or the teaching of using technology with ELLs. This doesn’t surprise me because the whole US Department of Education is still learning of this aspect of integrating technology in the curriculum. In fact, there is a call of the submission of ideas from experts in the technology field to be sent to the Secretary of Education on the US Department of Education webpage (Spellings 2007). That is the only weakness of the NCELA website that I could find.
Despite the one weakness, the page offers lots of powerful tools for administrators, teachers, and parents. The website offers some very interesting research-based teaching programs, recent statistics regarding the ELL population, and suggestions from important and prominent figures from the national level. Researchers such as (Bray, Brown, Green, 2004) contributed that technology is very important because it offers hope to students with disabilities. As stated in the findings, students are considered to be disadvantaged when their disability creates problems for them in specific situations such as when amount of reading and writing is required of them to perform, but if graphic design is provided the difficulties won’t be that great. The graphic design can even be presented technologically.
The page offers a lot of information which parents need to be aware of such as the parents rights, ELLs rights in regards to the many services by the education departments at the federal, state, and local level. The page also offers the area of assessment of both mainstream and ELL population. That is why administrators and teachers must be familiar with the regulations and policies which cover the ELL and ELL with disability population.
Reference
Bray, M., Brown, A., & Green, D. T., (2004). Technology and the diverse learners:
A guide to classroom practice. Thousand Oaks, CA. Corwin Press.
U.S. Department of Education. (2007). What’s new Retrieved May 11, 2007, from
http://www.ed.gov/admins/landing.jhtml
If there is only one website that I would recommend to teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and parents, it would be the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA). On an evaluation scale from poor to excellent, I would give the NCELA webpage an excellent rating on all the aspects and criteria being evaluated, such as its utility, navigation, and its relevance to education.
The utility of NCELA website is an exceptional one where one can easily identify what is the usefulness of it. It clearly shows that all information are useful for administrators, teachers, researchers, students, and parents. The set up of the webpage is structured in a way that all basic information are at the forefront of the first page and the details are located at each page. The navigation part is also easy to manipulate as they are very clear of what they are. There are information listed at both horizontal and vertical setup at the top and the left side of the page. The relevancy of this page is so unique that everything a teacher needs in regards to teaching ELL and the policy relating to the field are all available. There are lots of lesson plans available on the classroom page. Many presentations of successful teaching programs to ELL are also available.
I have to admit though, that this page lacks the information on integrating technology in the curriculum or the teaching of using technology with ELLs. This doesn’t surprise me because the whole US Department of Education is still learning of this aspect of integrating technology in the curriculum. In fact, there is a call of the submission of ideas from experts in the technology field to be sent to the Secretary of Education on the US Department of Education webpage (Spellings 2007). That is the only weakness of the NCELA website that I could find.
Despite the one weakness, the page offers lots of powerful tools for administrators, teachers, and parents. The website offers some very interesting research-based teaching programs, recent statistics regarding the ELL population, and suggestions from important and prominent figures from the national level. Researchers such as (Bray, Brown, Green, 2004) contributed that technology is very important because it offers hope to students with disabilities. As stated in the findings, students are considered to be disadvantaged when their disability creates problems for them in specific situations such as when amount of reading and writing is required of them to perform, but if graphic design is provided the difficulties won’t be that great. The graphic design can even be presented technologically.
The page offers a lot of information which parents need to be aware of such as the parents rights, ELLs rights in regards to the many services by the education departments at the federal, state, and local level. The page also offers the area of assessment of both mainstream and ELL population. That is why administrators and teachers must be familiar with the regulations and policies which cover the ELL and ELL with disability population.
Reference
Bray, M., Brown, A., & Green, D. T., (2004). Technology and the diverse learners:
A guide to classroom practice. Thousand Oaks, CA. Corwin Press.
U.S. Department of Education. (2007). What’s new Retrieved May 11, 2007, from
http://www.ed.gov/admins/landing.jhtml
Group Discussion 1
Group 2 Discussion No. 1
Technology has changed the way teachers teach students. From the sage-on-the-stage concept, teachers are now famously called guides-on-the-side. Teachers will cease to be sources of information for their students; instead they will be “facilitators of learning”. Instead of being subject experts, teachers are now seen by the students as classroom managers. With the way the definition of knowing has shifted --- from being able to remember information to being able to find information ---- the teachers of tomorrow are the ones that will help students find and use information. In a sense, it is scary to be a teacher of tomorrow. Teachers give up some form of control. However, the end result is that they get students who are able to think for themselves, problem solve, and are in charge of their own learning. And that is what every teacher should hope to achieve. With technology, the types and shapes of interactions among teachers (peers) have changed too. Technology provides opportunities among teachers to be multitaskers. They can interact with their peers on different levels at the same time (e.g. communicate with other peers via internet and telephone, and still manipulating and distributing papers to others) at the same time. With the convenience of multitasking by technology, it is demanding and challenging on the teachers’ part to become updated on the ever changing and updating part of technology. Therefore, learning communities and professional development at school is imperative. Teachers’ profession expands from being teacher to being a coach, trainer, mentor, and facilitator to their peers so that all become up to date with technology. Technology has also afforded the classroom teacher greater access to parents and guardians of those they teach. With Instant Messaging, online grading services such as teacherease.com and mygradebook.com, as well as good old fashioned email, parents can be contacted daily (or immediately) on the performance and behaviors of their child in the classroom. Technology has made education's role on the community efficient and effective. Efficient: With the Internet, schools have amazingly real time access to local and world events. Most news broadcasting networks have become on-line. They offer video-streaming and podcast files to enhance their written and still image productions. Many websites offer online educational resources that augment what the textbooks are giving in the classroom. Discovery Channel, History Network, National Geographic and a lot others provide science, history, math facts in written, image, and video formats. All these resources can be retrieved in astoundingly short time. Effective: The use of real-time video conferencing, chat rooms, emails, Skype and other communication innovations have allowed schools to connect to other schools or people from all over the world. Students could now communicate with them and benefit from each others' exchange. Learning has truly far-reaching
Technology has changed the way teachers teach students. From the sage-on-the-stage concept, teachers are now famously called guides-on-the-side. Teachers will cease to be sources of information for their students; instead they will be “facilitators of learning”. Instead of being subject experts, teachers are now seen by the students as classroom managers. With the way the definition of knowing has shifted --- from being able to remember information to being able to find information ---- the teachers of tomorrow are the ones that will help students find and use information. In a sense, it is scary to be a teacher of tomorrow. Teachers give up some form of control. However, the end result is that they get students who are able to think for themselves, problem solve, and are in charge of their own learning. And that is what every teacher should hope to achieve. With technology, the types and shapes of interactions among teachers (peers) have changed too. Technology provides opportunities among teachers to be multitaskers. They can interact with their peers on different levels at the same time (e.g. communicate with other peers via internet and telephone, and still manipulating and distributing papers to others) at the same time. With the convenience of multitasking by technology, it is demanding and challenging on the teachers’ part to become updated on the ever changing and updating part of technology. Therefore, learning communities and professional development at school is imperative. Teachers’ profession expands from being teacher to being a coach, trainer, mentor, and facilitator to their peers so that all become up to date with technology. Technology has also afforded the classroom teacher greater access to parents and guardians of those they teach. With Instant Messaging, online grading services such as teacherease.com and mygradebook.com, as well as good old fashioned email, parents can be contacted daily (or immediately) on the performance and behaviors of their child in the classroom. Technology has made education's role on the community efficient and effective. Efficient: With the Internet, schools have amazingly real time access to local and world events. Most news broadcasting networks have become on-line. They offer video-streaming and podcast files to enhance their written and still image productions. Many websites offer online educational resources that augment what the textbooks are giving in the classroom. Discovery Channel, History Network, National Geographic and a lot others provide science, history, math facts in written, image, and video formats. All these resources can be retrieved in astoundingly short time. Effective: The use of real-time video conferencing, chat rooms, emails, Skype and other communication innovations have allowed schools to connect to other schools or people from all over the world. Students could now communicate with them and benefit from each others' exchange. Learning has truly far-reaching
Lesson Plan 1
Class: Guam History
Unit: Culture
Topic: Ethnic/Race Origins and Population (Who is born on Guam and who is born outside of Guam). (continued from previous lessons where students were exposed to some ethnic/race population tables from the Guam Census 2000)
Level: High School
Duration: 2 days – Block schedule
Content Standard: GPSS Social Study: Culture: 1.HS.5, 1.HS.7, 1.HS.8, and 1.HS.9
TESOL Standard (1997): Grades 9-12 Goal 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, & 3.3
OBJECTIVE:
Content Objective
· SWBAT
- list the major ethnic/race origins that represent the population of Guam.
- associate the right figure of population with each of the ethnic/race origins.
- create an informational table based on the data gathered from the -resources.
- develop a graph based on the created table
- create a PowerPoint presentation
- assess presentations using a rubric
Language Objectives:
· SWBAT
- present and discuss their findings within small groups
- explain their designed graph to the whole class
- describe their designed graphs
- work together to write a page summary of their projects
- negotiate among them to assign different roles in their small groups.
Key Concepts: The goal of this activity is to give the students the ability to explore the use of Microsoft software by using excel and word processing software and powerpoint to complete the project.
Vocabulary: graph, table, percentage, association, race, ethnic, representation, origin, sets, values.
Student Learning Strategy: Teacher will address all learning styles as students work in cooperative groups to complete the project.
Supplemental Materials: computers, paper, pencils,
Motivation/Building Background: (connection to students lives and prior knowledge)
Vocabulary development: Students (either in groups or individually) are to identify all polysemous words and list them all with meanings.
Presentation: After a short introduction of the lesson of how to use the Microsoft excel to create a table and graph of Guam’s ethnic population representations, the students will be working in cooperative groups. The teacher walks around for monitoring students progress. The project requires communication and interaction between group members.
Practice/Application: Teacher explains to students: Students, choose a cooperative group of 3-4 members. Each member is responsible for a specific task (reporter, recorder, time keeper, assistance for all tasks).
Extension (optional activity)
Arrange a filed trip to school library to research more information on each of the major ethnic groups found in the Guam’s population count.
Interview fellow students or local citizens from the different ethnic groups to gather more information about them.
Review/Assessment: Students will present their power point presentation to entire class. Project is evaluated based on the Project Outcome Rubric on the next page.
Project Outcome:
OBJECTIVES
CRITERIA
Excellent - 5 Good - 4 Fair - 3 Poor -1
Unit: Culture
Topic: Ethnic/Race Origins and Population (Who is born on Guam and who is born outside of Guam). (continued from previous lessons where students were exposed to some ethnic/race population tables from the Guam Census 2000)
Level: High School
Duration: 2 days – Block schedule
Content Standard: GPSS Social Study: Culture: 1.HS.5, 1.HS.7, 1.HS.8, and 1.HS.9
TESOL Standard (1997): Grades 9-12 Goal 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, & 3.3
OBJECTIVE:
Content Objective
· SWBAT
- list the major ethnic/race origins that represent the population of Guam.
- associate the right figure of population with each of the ethnic/race origins.
- create an informational table based on the data gathered from the -resources.
- develop a graph based on the created table
- create a PowerPoint presentation
- assess presentations using a rubric
Language Objectives:
· SWBAT
- present and discuss their findings within small groups
- explain their designed graph to the whole class
- describe their designed graphs
- work together to write a page summary of their projects
- negotiate among them to assign different roles in their small groups.
Key Concepts: The goal of this activity is to give the students the ability to explore the use of Microsoft software by using excel and word processing software and powerpoint to complete the project.
Vocabulary: graph, table, percentage, association, race, ethnic, representation, origin, sets, values.
Student Learning Strategy: Teacher will address all learning styles as students work in cooperative groups to complete the project.
Supplemental Materials: computers, paper, pencils,
Motivation/Building Background: (connection to students lives and prior knowledge)
Vocabulary development: Students (either in groups or individually) are to identify all polysemous words and list them all with meanings.
Presentation: After a short introduction of the lesson of how to use the Microsoft excel to create a table and graph of Guam’s ethnic population representations, the students will be working in cooperative groups. The teacher walks around for monitoring students progress. The project requires communication and interaction between group members.
Practice/Application: Teacher explains to students: Students, choose a cooperative group of 3-4 members. Each member is responsible for a specific task (reporter, recorder, time keeper, assistance for all tasks).
Extension (optional activity)
Arrange a filed trip to school library to research more information on each of the major ethnic groups found in the Guam’s population count.
Interview fellow students or local citizens from the different ethnic groups to gather more information about them.
Review/Assessment: Students will present their power point presentation to entire class. Project is evaluated based on the Project Outcome Rubric on the next page.
Project Outcome:
OBJECTIVES
CRITERIA
Excellent - 5 Good - 4 Fair - 3 Poor -1
Reflection 2
Technology Tools and Diverse Learners
Using various technology tools with diverse learners is an effective tool to diversified lesson delivery. Technology tools help both the learners and the teachers. Technology helps students in lessening their level of frustration, especially with those who understand the concept but cannot unlock the information. Likewise, it helps teachers to find the right presentation and strategy to deliver the information in a meaningful and comprehensible way for the students (Bray, Brown, et al. 2004).
After examining the technology tools available on Gmail, I can comfortably suggest that the calendar document will be useful with the English Language Learners (ELLs). I decided to use the calendar and the MS word processing tools as I think they are very much familiar by most students. The Students, especially ELLs are familiar with the use of calendar because it is similar to their school’s year planning book. In addition, majority of them had had exposure with the use of word processing.
The lesson plan also addresses TESOL standards 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 3.1 which deal with students ability to use English language to achieve academically in all content areas. Specifically, Standard 2.1 deals with students’ ability to use English language to interact in the classroom; 2.2 is for students to be able to use English to obtain, process, construct, and provide subject matter information in spoken and written form. Standard 2.3 deals with students’ ability to use appropriate learning strategies to construct and apply academic knowledge and finally Standard 3.1 deals with helping students to use the appropriate language variety, register, and genre according to audience, purpose, and setting (TESOL Standards 1997).
In addition, the lesson plan encompasses the following National Education Technology Standards. It addresses NET*S 2D & 3C “which is to plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment.” Teachers need to know how to deliver the lesson to all students and to make sure that all students comprehend the lesson before even considering to continue the lesson. Using technology is one of the best strategies to use in order to achieve that goal. I believe using technology breaks the communication barrier between students and teachers. Technology is a universal language and tool that can enhance students’ ability to understand and comprehend the lessons and materials being presented. Another NET*S covered by this lesson plan is 3B which addresses the support of the learners and their diverse needs (Cyrus’ ED637 Syllabus 2007). Teachers should realize that the purpose of employing diverse strategies in delivering the lesson is for learners who have different needs. Students come from different level of all backgrounds. This is especially true with immigrant students. Some come with limited and interrupted schooling. Many come from low socio-economic status, and have limited or no English language background.
The needs learners bring with them stand as major challenges to many teachers. Many teachers who haven’t had training to help students who have these characteristics had done terrible job in enhancing the skills in which the students’ need. The use of technology can help teachers in addressing and providing the needs of the learners.
I like this lesson plan because both teachers and students have access to everything they need to do by clicking on the tasks. For example, in the lesson plan outline, the students have access to do research on any of the countries of which the teacher makes it as link. Teachers can make the word document and calendar pages as link and the students can actually work with the tasks as they go through each of them. This lesson plan is different from the first one as the first one was documented as word processing. There wasn’t any link to any resources. It was basically a handout of direction of the expected tasks of the students. Unlike, this lesson plan, it is available on line and all directions, and resources are available with fingertips.
Creating this lesson is somewhat challenging as I wasn’t familiar with the Google web creator. It took me a bit longer to finish the lesson than I usually do with my other assignments. In addition it took my instructor extra time to assist and walk me through the process of creating a google web page and posted my lesson plan. I was able to publish my assignment and hopefully, it can be utilized by other ESL teachers.
References
Bray, M., Brown, G., & Green, T. (2004). Technology and the Diverse Learning: A Guide to Classroom Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin Press.
TESOL. (1997). The ESL standards for pre-k-12 students. Alexandra, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Cyrus, J. (2007). ED637 Intergrading Technology in the Curriculum Syllabus. School of Education: University of Guam.
Using various technology tools with diverse learners is an effective tool to diversified lesson delivery. Technology tools help both the learners and the teachers. Technology helps students in lessening their level of frustration, especially with those who understand the concept but cannot unlock the information. Likewise, it helps teachers to find the right presentation and strategy to deliver the information in a meaningful and comprehensible way for the students (Bray, Brown, et al. 2004).
After examining the technology tools available on Gmail, I can comfortably suggest that the calendar document will be useful with the English Language Learners (ELLs). I decided to use the calendar and the MS word processing tools as I think they are very much familiar by most students. The Students, especially ELLs are familiar with the use of calendar because it is similar to their school’s year planning book. In addition, majority of them had had exposure with the use of word processing.
The lesson plan also addresses TESOL standards 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 3.1 which deal with students ability to use English language to achieve academically in all content areas. Specifically, Standard 2.1 deals with students’ ability to use English language to interact in the classroom; 2.2 is for students to be able to use English to obtain, process, construct, and provide subject matter information in spoken and written form. Standard 2.3 deals with students’ ability to use appropriate learning strategies to construct and apply academic knowledge and finally Standard 3.1 deals with helping students to use the appropriate language variety, register, and genre according to audience, purpose, and setting (TESOL Standards 1997).
In addition, the lesson plan encompasses the following National Education Technology Standards. It addresses NET*S 2D & 3C “which is to plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment.” Teachers need to know how to deliver the lesson to all students and to make sure that all students comprehend the lesson before even considering to continue the lesson. Using technology is one of the best strategies to use in order to achieve that goal. I believe using technology breaks the communication barrier between students and teachers. Technology is a universal language and tool that can enhance students’ ability to understand and comprehend the lessons and materials being presented. Another NET*S covered by this lesson plan is 3B which addresses the support of the learners and their diverse needs (Cyrus’ ED637 Syllabus 2007). Teachers should realize that the purpose of employing diverse strategies in delivering the lesson is for learners who have different needs. Students come from different level of all backgrounds. This is especially true with immigrant students. Some come with limited and interrupted schooling. Many come from low socio-economic status, and have limited or no English language background.
The needs learners bring with them stand as major challenges to many teachers. Many teachers who haven’t had training to help students who have these characteristics had done terrible job in enhancing the skills in which the students’ need. The use of technology can help teachers in addressing and providing the needs of the learners.
I like this lesson plan because both teachers and students have access to everything they need to do by clicking on the tasks. For example, in the lesson plan outline, the students have access to do research on any of the countries of which the teacher makes it as link. Teachers can make the word document and calendar pages as link and the students can actually work with the tasks as they go through each of them. This lesson plan is different from the first one as the first one was documented as word processing. There wasn’t any link to any resources. It was basically a handout of direction of the expected tasks of the students. Unlike, this lesson plan, it is available on line and all directions, and resources are available with fingertips.
Creating this lesson is somewhat challenging as I wasn’t familiar with the Google web creator. It took me a bit longer to finish the lesson than I usually do with my other assignments. In addition it took my instructor extra time to assist and walk me through the process of creating a google web page and posted my lesson plan. I was able to publish my assignment and hopefully, it can be utilized by other ESL teachers.
References
Bray, M., Brown, G., & Green, T. (2004). Technology and the Diverse Learning: A Guide to Classroom Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin Press.
TESOL. (1997). The ESL standards for pre-k-12 students. Alexandra, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Cyrus, J. (2007). ED637 Intergrading Technology in the Curriculum Syllabus. School of Education: University of Guam.
Reflection 1
Creating Tables and Graphs of Guam’s Current Population
The lesson plan is based on the current Guam Public School System’s (GPSS) High School curriculum for the course in History of Guam. Its organization and formation is based on the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model of lesson preparation (Vogt & Echevarria 2006).
The idea of incorporating technology in the lesson delivery is best fitting in the SIOP Model for the model itself addresses both content and language objectives. The content objectives of the lesson focus on the students’ opportunity to explore the usage of technology by creating tables, and graphs. In this case, students will create tables and graphs of Guam’s current population and the various ethnic groups that compose the total population.
The language objectives focus on the development of language skills which is enhanced by the provided opportunities for students to discuss, negotiate, argue, write, explain and report in both small and large groups and the acquiring of new vocabulary words. The opportunity of using the language skills embraced certain goals and objectives of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) standards (TESOL 1997)
Reflecting on the lesson plan that I created, I didn’t realize how abundant the opportunities of using the targeted language (English) among students. This lesson plan can benefit both mainstream and English Language Learners (ELL) classrooms. I can see the higher order thinking skills or many refer to as the Bloom’s Taxonomy being utilized in every step of the lesson. Students will have the opportunity to synthesize, evaluate, analyze, apply, comprehend and gain new knowledge. Students can construct similar tables and graphs on another topic (synthesis), justify or verify the tables and graphs (evaluate); distinguish, compare and contrast their findings (analyze); show, illustrate or calculate numbers from the tables (apply); discuss, explain and/or describe their work (comprehend); tell name, write, state and/or list matters relating to their project (knowledge.
In addition, the language objectives address all components of literacy skills including, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. There are lots of opportunities given in this lesson plan for student to talk with partners and small groups; listening to speakers in both small groups and the whole class; reading is also practiced by reading information from both tables and graph charts, and writing skills is practiced as each individual is required to submit a page written summary of the project. So without a doubt, I will use this lesson plan in the near future for it provides opportunities of engaging among students.
The part of the assignment that I like the best is the fact that the end product of the use of the technology is not the end of the lesson but rather the beginning of the whole. The graph charts are used to trigger the students’ minds to explore and employ the higher order thinking skills or the Bloom’s Taxonomy. And overall, I like it because it clearly states both the GPSS and TESOL standards to be covered in both content and language.
The challenging part of the assignment is the evaluation. I had to make sure that every objective of the lesson has to be assessed. The only way I can think of assessing each of the objective is to have a rubric. Creating the rubric is time consuming but I think it pays off at the end for it is very easy to look at the rubric and give a point to it. One doesn’t have to guess of what grade to be given or assign to each student.
Citation
Echevarria, J., & Short, S (2004). Making content comprehensible for English language learners: The SIOP model. Boston, MA. Pearson Education, Inc.
Social Sciences Standards, Guam Public School System (1997). A Publication of GPSS.
TESOL. (1997). The ESL standards of pre-k-12. Alexandra, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
The lesson plan is based on the current Guam Public School System’s (GPSS) High School curriculum for the course in History of Guam. Its organization and formation is based on the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model of lesson preparation (Vogt & Echevarria 2006).
The idea of incorporating technology in the lesson delivery is best fitting in the SIOP Model for the model itself addresses both content and language objectives. The content objectives of the lesson focus on the students’ opportunity to explore the usage of technology by creating tables, and graphs. In this case, students will create tables and graphs of Guam’s current population and the various ethnic groups that compose the total population.
The language objectives focus on the development of language skills which is enhanced by the provided opportunities for students to discuss, negotiate, argue, write, explain and report in both small and large groups and the acquiring of new vocabulary words. The opportunity of using the language skills embraced certain goals and objectives of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) standards (TESOL 1997)
Reflecting on the lesson plan that I created, I didn’t realize how abundant the opportunities of using the targeted language (English) among students. This lesson plan can benefit both mainstream and English Language Learners (ELL) classrooms. I can see the higher order thinking skills or many refer to as the Bloom’s Taxonomy being utilized in every step of the lesson. Students will have the opportunity to synthesize, evaluate, analyze, apply, comprehend and gain new knowledge. Students can construct similar tables and graphs on another topic (synthesis), justify or verify the tables and graphs (evaluate); distinguish, compare and contrast their findings (analyze); show, illustrate or calculate numbers from the tables (apply); discuss, explain and/or describe their work (comprehend); tell name, write, state and/or list matters relating to their project (knowledge.
In addition, the language objectives address all components of literacy skills including, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. There are lots of opportunities given in this lesson plan for student to talk with partners and small groups; listening to speakers in both small groups and the whole class; reading is also practiced by reading information from both tables and graph charts, and writing skills is practiced as each individual is required to submit a page written summary of the project. So without a doubt, I will use this lesson plan in the near future for it provides opportunities of engaging among students.
The part of the assignment that I like the best is the fact that the end product of the use of the technology is not the end of the lesson but rather the beginning of the whole. The graph charts are used to trigger the students’ minds to explore and employ the higher order thinking skills or the Bloom’s Taxonomy. And overall, I like it because it clearly states both the GPSS and TESOL standards to be covered in both content and language.
The challenging part of the assignment is the evaluation. I had to make sure that every objective of the lesson has to be assessed. The only way I can think of assessing each of the objective is to have a rubric. Creating the rubric is time consuming but I think it pays off at the end for it is very easy to look at the rubric and give a point to it. One doesn’t have to guess of what grade to be given or assign to each student.
Citation
Echevarria, J., & Short, S (2004). Making content comprehensible for English language learners: The SIOP model. Boston, MA. Pearson Education, Inc.
Social Sciences Standards, Guam Public School System (1997). A Publication of GPSS.
TESOL. (1997). The ESL standards of pre-k-12. Alexandra, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
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