Rosa Henson

C & T 820 Thematic Unit

August 7, 2017

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 Teaching has become a lifelong learning process, where I learn just as much from my students as

they learn from me. My teaching career until this school year has been in rural areas of North Carolina

where I taught special education classes. This year I took on an entirely different realm of education by

accepting a job as an ESL teacher. There are many challenges to my new position, but I am motivated to

learn everything I need to know to successfully teach my students. The first challenge is to teach English

effectively, to motivate English learners to achieve the highest possible level of proficiency under the

circumstances, and to gain a sensitive and complex understanding of the target culture (Diaz-Rico, 2013, p.

15). In my limited experience teaching ESL classes, I would say motivating students is probably one of the

most difficult tasks. This is the case especially for students who have been in services for 4 years or more.

They too have the misconception that if you speak proficiently in English then you dont need services any

longer. My fellow ESL teacher and I are working with the students to understand that there are four

domains in language (listening, speaking, reading, writing) they need to be proficient in to exit the program

along with standardized test scores.

The second challenge for the teacher of English learners is to respect the native language and the

rights of its speakers (Diaz-Rico, 2013, p.15). I totally agree that this is another challenge that I face as a

new ESL teacher. My districts expectation is that English is to be spoken in our ESL classes during the

entire class period. The group that I created my lesson for is my only group that wants speak their native

language in my class. Specifically, it is the Spanish speaking students, which make up the majority of this

group. I struggle with the district policy, because I dont want to sound like a tyrant by constantly

reminding them to speak in English in my class. At the same time, two of the students are from non-

Spanish speaking homes and I dont think it is fair to them if they cant understand what is spoken in the

group. This is a subject I will be talking to my mentor about at our training next week.

Most of my day is spent doing pull out groups. These groups are based on grade levels and language

proficiency levels. The group I chose for my thematic unit project is a group I had last year in 4th grade.

When I took the position in January, this group was the first group that I really built a rapport with. Because

of how quickly our relationship was built, we accomplished many amazing activities and projects. We read a

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Reading A-Z book about chocolate and at the end of our unit we did a chocolate tasting (dark, milk, and

white chocolate). As my fellow ESL teacher and I work on the schedule for the upcoming year, it looks like

they will be in the same group in the fall. For my project, I wanted to create a unit that I would feel

comfortable using with this group this coming year and that was appropriate for the proficiency level.

This group consists of 6 students 4 of which are Spanish speaking students, 1 is Somali speaking,

and 1 speaks Arabic. All six of these students were born in The United States, but are the first generation

to be born in this country. The 4 Spanish speaking students reported to me last year that their parents

know enough English to communicate at work and with their childrens teachers. All four of them said that

Spanish is the primary language spoken at home and they rarely speak in English with their families. The

student whose family is from Somali speak both English and Somali at home. This student and her brother

told me that their parents want them to be proficient in English because they want them to go to college.

The final student in the group speaks mostly Arabic at home, but his mom wants them to speak more in

English because she is taking English classes and wants to improve her English. The student who speaks

Arabic says that his family is from Palestine and they moved here because the Jewish people of Israel kicked

them out. This is information from the student himself and I have not talked to his parents about this.

Both the Somali student and the Palestinian student practice the Islamic faith and participate in Eid and

Ramadan. They both fasted for several days in observance of Ramadan.

The students in this group are Level 3 and Level 4 proficiency in English. They all communicate well

with their peers and with adults, but have difficulty with grammar concepts in their speaking and writing.

One of the students who speaks Spanish, often will switch the noun and the adjective like in Spanish (gato

negro in Spanish and cat black in English). Another concept that is hard for my students is subject verb

agreement in spoken English and written English. We do a lot of role playing games to practice the proper

subject verb agreement in sentences and then we write the sentences so they have a visual to help them

remember how to make the sentence agree. The most troublesome area of language for them is reading.

Many of them are fluent readers, but do not understand what they read. Sometimes the vocabulary is

difficult for them or there is figurative language they dont understand. To support my students with their

reading, we use graphic organizers often to help organize the information we have read.

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 There are three major roles of graphic organizers when using them with students. The first one is

generative. They are used to promote language related to content (Diaz-Rico, 2013, p. 112). This allows

students to have conversations about the information on the chart. The second one is

representative/explanatory. They are used to increase content understanding, either to build background

knowledge before reading a text, to read interactively with help of an organizer, or to synthesize new

information gained from a text (Diaz-Rico, 2013, p. 112). I use the representative organizers the most

especially with building background. Accessing their prior knowledge of the topic you are teaching is

essential, because that is your informal assessment of what your students know coming into the lesson. It

also helps to determine how deep you want to go when teaching your lesson. The final role of the graphic

organizer is evaluative. Graphic organizers can be given as part of an assessment to help students organize

their thoughts in writing down answers. On reading assessments, a narrative elements graphic organizer

can be used for students to fill in characters, setting, plot, and solution.

The students that I teach take the WIDA test every year to help determine if they are ready to exit.

This assessment is broken down into 4 sections: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. For grades 4 and

up the four parts of the test are on the computer. For Kindergarten, the test is given individually by a

trained examiner. Grades 1-3 take listening, reading, and speaking on the computer and writing is

conducted in a test booklet. There are pros and cons to the WIDA test. A positive about the WIDA test is

that he examines closely the four domains of language. Another positive is how user friendly it is for the

students/examiners. A negative about the WIDA is that it is very time consuming and a great deal of

instructional time is lost. We are given 7 weeks to complete the testing. Each student takes 4 parts and

the speaking is only done in small groups, because the microphones are very sensitive and may pick up

what other students are graded. Another negative about the WIDA is that the grading on the listening,

writing, and speaking are subjective. I think it would be very difficult to grade a students proficiency level

based strictly on the parameters of the test. The graders do not know the students so they are grading

their proficiency on 4 testing sessions and not on the student as a whole. Michigan has changed the exit

protocol for ELL students. In an email, I received from my principal:

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 This year, Michigan has changed the requirements for exiting the program and WIDA has changed
its scoring formula. K-12 students who may be considered for exit from the EL Program must demonstrate
all three of the following:
1. Minimum overall composite score of 4.5 on the Spring 2017 WIDA ACCESS for ELLs 2.0, and
2. Minimum domain scores of 4.0 on both reading and writing on the Spring 2017 WIDA ACCESS for ELLs
2.0, and
3. Grade level or higher performance on the local, state-approved reading assessment (Tabrizi, S., Michigan
Department of Education email communication, August 3, 2017).

Based on this information, the other ESL teacher and I will have to pull out the WIDA scores and the

NWEA scores to determine who will get to exit the program this year. Since WIDA has also changed the

scoring, I am not too sure we will have many exiting based on the new criteria.

References:

Diaz-Rico, L. (2013). Strategies for Teaching English Learners 3rd edition. Pearson

Publishing

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SIOP Lesson Plan Outline

Date: 08/05/2017 Grade/Class/Subject: 4th grade/ESL Class/ELA

Unit Theme: Reading Unit on Penguins

Michigan Tesol Standards:
L.4.3.a Understand vocabulary and discourse features of content areas
L.3.2.f Identify the main idea and some supporting details of oral presentations, familiar
literature, and key concepts of subject matter content
S.4.2.f Participate in guided discussions
W.2.1.b Use nouns (singulars and plurals), verbs (singular and plural), pronouns, adjectives,
adverbs in writing
Lesson Objectives:
Content Knowledge: By the end of the lesson, ESOLs will:
1. Students will identify vocabulary words in their reading.
2. Students will identify text features and explain their importance to the text.
3. Students will identify the main idea and supporting details of different sections of the book.

Language Objectives:
1. Students will use vocabulary words in the written responses to discussion questions.
2. Students will match text feature cut outs to the corresponding column.
3. Students will write written responses in their journal identifying the main idea and supporting
details.

Function
(in ing form, eg. Retelling a story )
1) recalling facts from the text
Form
(grammatical term and/or example, eg. Past Tense:
The boy went to see his grandfather;)
Using present progressive ex. Penguins are
amusing animals.

2) write the main idea Present tense ex. All penguins live in the southern
hemisphere.

3) orally answering discussion questions 3rd person singular present tense ex. Pollution
means harmful substances that are in the soil, air,
and water.

Vocabulary Objectives: By the end of the lesson, ESOLs will demonstrate an understanding of the
following vocabulary words:

Content Vocabulary Academic Vocabulary Cohesion Words

(vocabulary that may need to be taught or
(new vocabulary to be explicitly taught that
emphasized that is critical to participation in
is critical to an understanding of the
academic tasks, such as categorize, list,
content) describe)
(vocabulary that may need to be taught or
emphasized that link concepts in meaningful
ways, such as conjunctions and time
markers)

algae text features but

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 conservation table of contents because
insulation diagram (used at beginning of sentences)
krill captions
pollution heading
species subheading
streamlined glossary
waddled index
charts
Special Cross-Cultural Considerations for ESOLs: This book is also available in Spanish and French.
These versions can be used along with the English text for support. Videos with subtitles can also be used
to support ESOL students.
Materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HTu3qspiYQ penguin video, computer, Reading A-Z Level
S book Penguins, vocabulary Power Point, journals, question cards, pencils, chart paper, KWL chart, poster
paper, crayons, markers, scissors, glue, question cards, dry erase boards, dry erase markers
Lesson Sequence (This may be adjusted as necessary to accommodate unique lesson plan features)
Day One:
Go over goals for the unit
Introduce reading topic to students
Watch introductory video about penguins from You tube
KWL chart- Fill in the K with what they already know about penguins. Fill in the W for what they want
to learn in this unit. Put chart aside until the end of the until the end of the unit.
Introduce vocabulary using the vocabulary Power Point.
Review text features activity On a piece of chart paper, I will divide the paper into six sections
(caption, map, table of contents, index, glossary, diagram). I will have several pictures for the students
to glue on the chart paper under the heading that it goes with.
Pass out books and students take a picture walk with a partner. Students will write down anything they
find interesting or have questions about.
Day 2
Revisit our goals for the unit
Vocabulary mill game to review vocabulary. Students each have a card with a vocabulary word on it.
During the game, they walk around the room and meet with partners. They ask each other the
definition of the word. If they are right they exchange cards and go on to the next person.
Review the text features in the book.
Read Penguins aloud to students. The first read is always straight through so that they have
knowledge of the entire book before we begin to analyze the text.
At the end of the book, students will meet again with their partners to determine whether they were
able to answer their own questions.
Day 3

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 Revisit our goals
Play vocabulary show down. Teacher defines vocabulary word and students write the word on their
boards. Then when teacher calls show down all students show their answer.
Reread Penguins as a group. Students and I Popcorn read. (I begin and then I popcorn to
someone else to read. It continues that way until we are done reading.)
As we read, we stop to discuss the main idea of each section and any other questions they may
have.
Partner activity question cards There are six questions. Each partner set gets two questions. They
will answer both questions together and write them in complete sentences. These will be collected
for another activity on Day 4.
Day 4
Revisit our goals
Vocabulary quick quiz
Partner activity question cards partners will be given back their question cards. The students will
then write their answers on the chart paper for each question. After each group has written their
answers, then the other groups will get to add on to their answers. At the end of the activity, we
will discuss the answers to the questions.
Writing project students will work with a partner. They will be given a large piece of construction
paper. On their paper, they will draw a picture of the penguins, their habitat, what they eat, and
anything else they found interesting about the book.
Day 5
Review goals
Finish posters and write a reflection about their poster and the book in their journals. My students
know that journal reflections will be one to two paragraphs and they must use proper capitalization
and punctuation.
Students present their posters to the group.
As a group, fill in the L section of the KWL chart.

MOTIVATION: (Describe how you will build background and the specific strategies that you will use to
ensure the participation of ESOLs.)
I will start the lesson with a video on penguins. Then we will do a KWL chart to access their prior
knowledge and determine what they want to know.

PRESENTATION: (Describe the specific techniques you will use to make your presentation of new material
comprehensible to ESOLs, to provide opportunities for interaction through appropriate questioning, and to
assess whether or not ESOLs are getting it.)

During the week of lessons, there will be turn and talk activities so that students can discuss the content.
Also, I will be using vocabulary mill and vocabulary showdown to informally assess their knowledge of

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vocabulary words. After reading, students will work as partners to answer questions and then we will put
their answers on chart paper and discuss they answers.

EXTENSION: (Describe additional follow-up activities you will use with ESOLs to address any areas that you
deem need further explanation or practice to ensure their mastery of the content and language objectives.)

To extend this activity, students can work in groups to do a research project on a specific species of
penguin. Students could then make Power Points to present to their classmates on the penguin of their
choice.

Activities:

Vocabulary Power Point

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)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-7uMMogVZs Link for waddle slide

Vocabulary Mill Cards

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 Algae Conservation Pollution

Krill Streamlined Species

Waddle

Chart Paper Activity

Captions Table of contents Glossary

Index Diagram Map

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Discussion Cards

Why do you think penguins have Using the chart on page 10, what How do scientists group the
black backs and white bellies? can you tell about the macaroni penguin types? Use the chart on
penguin and the king penguin? page 10 to help you.

If penguins cant fly, why are Where do penguins live? How do Why do you think the male
they considered birds? they adapt to the climate? penguin takes care of the egg
and the mom hunts for food?

Vocabulary quiz

Algae Conservation Pollution Krill Waddle Streamlined Species

1. Penguins eat __________________ out of the sea.

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 2. How many different ____________________ of penguins can you name?

3. Most animals walk, but penguins _____________________.

4. Penguins are _________________________ so that they can swim smoothly through the water.

5. _________________ is a living thing that grows on water that produces its own food.

6. ____________________ in the air, water, and soil can be very harmful to all animals.

7. Water ______________________ especially during a drought is very important so we dont run out
of water.

SIOP Lesson Plan Outline

Date: 08/05/2017 Grade/Class/Subject: 4th grade/ESL Class/ELA

Unit Theme: Reading Unit on Penguins

Michigan Tesol Standards:
W.4.3.c Produce cohesive and coherent written text by organizing ideas, using effective
transitions, and choosing precise wording
L.3.2.a Listen and respond to stories and other texts read aloud, including classic and
contemporary work
R.3.2.a Use context clues as a strategy to figure out meaning of unfamiliar words and
phrases
Lesson Objectives:
Content Knowledge: By the end of the lesson, ESOLs will:
1. Students will use context clues to determine meanings of unknown words.
2. Students will identify the aspects of poetry in the text.
3. Students will create poetry using rhyme.
Language Objectives:
1. Students will oral define unknown words based on context clues.
2. Students will answer questions based on the aspects of poetry with a partner.
3. Students will write poetry based on their own topic using rhyme.

Function Form

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 (in ing form, eg. Retelling a story ) (grammatical term and/or example, eg. Past Tense:
The boy went to see his grandfather;)
1) orally define words Present tense ex. An aquarium is a tank filled with
water where fish live.

2) answer questions based on poetry Present tense. ex. Some of the aspects of poetry
are rhyme and repetition.

3) will write poetry Future tense ex. Students will pick their topic for
poetry.

Vocabulary Objectives: By the end of the lesson, ESOLs will demonstrate an understanding of the following
vocabulary words:

Content Vocabulary Academic Vocabulary Cohesion Words

(vocabulary that may need to be taught or
(new vocabulary to be explicitly taught that
emphasized that is critical to participation in
is critical to an understanding of the
academic tasks, such as categorize, list,
content) describe)
(vocabulary that may need to be taught or
emphasized that link concepts in meaningful
ways, such as conjunctions and time
markers)

Aquarium Genre None in this book

Biologist Poetry
Aquatic Rhyme
Prescribed Stanza
shivered
Special Cross-Cultural Considerations for ESOLs: This is an electronic book and can be read at
students pace. There are a lot of pictures to use to help determine meaning.
Materials: computers, Epic website, vocabulary cards, paper, pencils
Lesson Sequence (This may be adjusted as necessary to accommodate unique lesson plan features)
Day One:
Go over goals for the unit
Continue penguin unit The new book is a true story written in poetry form.
Introduce vocabulary using the vocabulary cards
Watch video reading of Pierre the Penguin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpLZ4ZHY8ZI
Discussion based on video reading. What did you notice about the way it was written?
Day 2
Review goals for the unit
Vocabulary showdown to review vocabulary
Genre discussion on poetry (stanza, rhyme, etc.)
Each student will have a chrome book to pull up the Epic Book website. We will reread Pierre the
Penguin.

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 With a partner, students will come up with at least two questions they have about the book and
write them down on chart paper to be answered as a group.
When everyone is done with writing their questions we will do a gallery walk so that each group has
an opportunity to answer all the questions.
Discuss the questions and answers the students came up with.
Day 3
Go over goals for the unit
Review the genre of poetry especially how rhyme is used.
As a group, write a sample poem with rhyme.
Students will then choose their own topics for writing their poem.
Students will then write their poems based on their topics. Help will be given as needed.
Day 4
Go over goals for unit
Continue working on poems
When poem is complete, conferences to work on rhyme and spelling.
Students will then type their poems and choose pictures to go with their poems.
Day 5
Go over goals for unit
Finish poems
Poem presentations
Conclusion discussion of penguin unit

MOTIVATION: (Describe how you will build background and the specific strategies that you will use to
ensure the participation of ESOLs.)
This lesson will begin with a video reading of Pierre the Penguin. Students will also be able to use their
computers to read the book on the Epic website.
PRESENTATION: (Describe the specific techniques you will use to make your presentation of new material
comprehensible to ESOLs, to provide opportunities for interaction through appropriate questioning, and to
assess whether or not ESOLs are getting it.)

During this weeks lessons, students will have an opportunity to use technology when reading and listening
to the book. They will also do a vocabulary showdown and gallery walk. When they are writing their
poems, I will be working with them on rhyme and editing. Students will use computers to write their final
draft of their poem and choose pictures to go with it.

EXTENSION: (Describe additional follow-up activities you will use with ESOLs to address any areas that you
deem need further explanation or practice to ensure their mastery of the content and language objectives.)

For their poetry reading, we can make the room look like a coffee house and have the students read their
poems on stage to their classmates, teachers, and friends.

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Activities:

Vocabulary cards

Aquarium a transparent tank of water in which Biologist an expert in the science of living things
fish and other water creatures are kept.

Aquatic an animal or plant suitable for water Prescribed medicine given as treatment

Shivered an animal shaking slightly because of

cold or being scared

Student question sheet

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Names: ____________________________________________________

Questions about Pierre the Penguin

1. ________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Answer:

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

2.

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Answer:

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

What was interesting from your picture walk?

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

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