Differentiated ELL Lesson Plan

Name

Instructor

Course

Institution

1. Students: Students are a class of 28 students out of which 4 are English Language Learners (ELL), Level 2. According to the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners (NYSITELL) a level 2 ELL student is at the “emergent” level. This means that the student is capable of:

  • Communicating limited information in routine situations
  • Use memorized phrases or groups of words
  • Use simple sentences
  • Understand simple sentences and phrases
  • Understands and uses academic vocabulary
  • Understands and uses familiar or colloquial expressions

Additional Information:

All students range between the ages of 11-13 years of age. The ethnic background of the ELL students in this lesson is predominantly Hispanic. One of the 4 students has lived in the United States for 3 years and is about to be re-tested for to see if he will score at a higher level. He serves as a guide and mentor to the Emergent students.

The students are legal immigrants whose parents came to the United States to complete studies. There is at least one working parent in the household and at least one parent has a college education. The students are middle class and they are all males. Two of them are only children, and the other two have siblings.

2. Lesson Context: The students have been studying the Intolerable Acts as a sequence of events that the British have committed against the American Colonists. They have learned that the pressure from Britain was, at first, gradual, but that it is getting worse and worse to make them comply. In this lesson, they will recognize that the Boston Tea Party was the answer that the colonists gave the British as a way to show how angry they were. Students will identify the Boston Tea Party as one of the most pivotal acts that led to the American Revolution.

3. STANDARDS: NYS Common Core Standard- Social Studies (March, 2016)

7.3 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE: Growing tensions over political power and economic issues sparked a movement for independence from Great Britain. New York played a critical role in the course and outcome of the American Revolution. (Standards: 1, 4, 5; Themes: TCC, GOV, ECO)

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.1.- Cites several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-Writing- W.7.2.- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas concept and information through the selection, organization and analysis of relevant content.
  • CCSS.ELA- Language (for ELLs)- Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

4. Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to (SWBAT)

  • Recognize the factors that led to the Boston Tea Party
  • Organize the events that led to the Boston Tea Party in the order that they occurred.
  • Infer what is disenfranchisement, based on how the American Colonists during the Boston Tea Party, based on evidence from the text.
  • They will fully explain at least 3 common sentiments that may have been felt by the Colonists during this time. The sentiments should be attached to the concept of “disenfranchisement” and feeling marginalized and disempowered by people with more power and influence.

Language Objectives

By the end of the lesson my ELL students will be able to

1. Use graphic organizers or other writing tools to properly describe the different sentiments of disenfranchisement that the colonists must have felt prior and during the act of the Boston Tea Party

2. Create a level-appropriate medium to explaining 1 or 2 common sentiments related to disfranchisement that the American Colonists must have felt prior and during the act of the Boston Tea Party. They will gather the resources from the information included in the graphic organizer.

2. ELLs use their language learning tools (thesaurus, dictionaries and translators) to create their narratives using simple language based on the list of potential limitations.

5. Anticipated ESL language difficulties, based on the NYSITELL level 2, “EMERGENT” ELL descriptor

  • Producing basic grammar errors during code switching (Ex: adjective-noun/noun-adjective word order)
  • The focus word is difficult to pronounce for both L1s and L2s, but we will word-attack it throughout the class to get it right
  • Lack of use of figurative language, abstract thoughts, or sarcasm
  • May transfer expressions idiomatically (literally) from one language to the next (Ex: the word “actualmente” sounds like “actually” but does not mean the same)
  • May not be able to acquire multiple-step directions
  • May not be able to understand complex language or extended descriptions

6. Cultural Notes: The day prior to this lesson, 10-minute mini lesson- The teacher will activate knowledge by presenting a simple map of the different European Nations in Colonial North America. In it students will notice that just like there were American Colonists seeking independence from Britain, other European Groups, mainly from France and Spain (ALL IDENTIFIED IN THE CLASSROOM’S WORLD ATLAS) were also here and also had Spanish-speaking and French Speaking Colonies.

I. Teacher will use this graphic on the SmartBoard to show students that there were more than just English-speaking colonists in the US area.

Retrieved from http://users.humboldt.edu/ogayle/hist110/colonial.html

II. Teacher will ask the questions:

  • How come people from California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and similar areas have large Hispanic populations?
  • How come the people from Louisiana have French ancestry?

If students were unfamiliar to these facts, the teacher will bring out the name of cities within those states and ask students if the names of those cities are a) Native American, b) English, c) French, d) Spanish. Teacher will write each name of the city in a flashcard and show students for them to guess.

ELLs will be encouraged to read the Spanish city names and “show off” their pronunciation skills in their L1.

  • Santa Fe, Alburquerque (Native American), Rio Rancho, Las Cruces
  • Amarillo, San Antonio, El Paso, El Alamo, Laredo (Spanish)
  • Mesa, Waco, Wichita, Senoia (Native American)
  • Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Thibodaux (French)
  • Los Angeles, San Francisco, Calabasas, Los Alamitos (Spanish)

7. Aim: The big idea question is: What sentiments did the Intolerable Acts cause in the Colonist that prompted them to plan and organize something as dangerous as the Boston Tea Party.

Prompting questions:

  • What was the point of the Boston Tea Party?
  • What message were the colonists sending to the British with the Boston Tea Party?
  • What emotions/sentiments did the colonials show during the Boston Tea Party?
  • Let’s break the word “disenfranchisement” and explore how we may have felt this way at times.
  • Why did those emotions lead to make a dangerous choice?
  • What do you feel emboldened the colonists to make that choice?
  • How do you think you would have felt if you had been an American colonist?
  • What would have you done if you were a colonist? Would you have joined or declined to join the Boston Tea Party?

8. Prior to lesson day: Mini lesson- Do-Now: Humorous Role Play: “It’s all about the tea!”

Teacher will pass out “It’s all About the Tea” questions to students. If they do not want to read them aloud, the teacher can do it for them.

This portion is done because the students know how important tea was for both the British and the colonists so something really upsetting must have moved them to just part ways with the tea rather than accept the tax.

Teacher will use the prompting questions (above) and paraphrased them into simpler, funny language (focused entirely on the tea) to elicit that the students respond from information from the text.

Example:

  • “I head that the people in your neighborhood just dressed up like Native Americans and dunked all this tea from the British into the ocean! What in the world were you thinking? Don’t you love tea?”
  • “Are you so mad at the British that you are willing to dunk the tea to make a point?”
  • “What in the world could have made you so mad to get rid of the tea?”
  • “Why did you dunk all that tea?! What did the tea ever do to you?”

9. Procedures:

Lesson Day

Day of lesson, step-by-step

Major concepts:

Instructions

  • Start this lesson by poising the following questions to your students. Discuss as a class.
  • Do you always like having to do things that you don't get a say in?

A. Teacher will break the word disenfranchisement into chunks. 5 minutes

DIS EN FRANCHISE MENT

  • Dis- opposite of
  • En-bringing something together
  • Franchise- a power
  • Ment- concept

ELLs: DISIN’- FRAN- CHAIS- MEANT = Write the phonemic sound of the word or have it ready on screen.

It means to take away the power from someone, but with the aim to make them feel powerless.

B. Teacher will complete a Frayer Model with students to complete the meaning of the word- 5 minutes

C. After the first 10 minutes of discussion, the teacher will Activate Prior Knowledge. Students will respond that the steps to this Tea Party were the Intolerable Acts and the fury of the colonists to be treated so unfairly. - 5 minutes. TRANSITION: After writing down the different unfair acts, the teacher will ask students to stand up and be ready to get paired up for reading.

D. Teacher will break students into subgroups of 3 ALREADY DECIDED FOR and have them read the following passage. 5 minutes.

Even though ELLs will be paired with mentor students, they will all receive the document.

Transition- Teacher will play the xylophone, (one tone), and that is the signal for everyone to go back to their seats or stay in their group to be ready to discuss. Teacher will have the online thesaurus ready on the board.

E. Discussion Using the smartboard, discuss the feelings the colonists felt due to disenfranchisement 5 minutes

Possible answers: sad, frustrated, powerless, emasculated, angry, resentful, vengeful, insulted, offended.

As students discuss teacher will ask if they can think of a word that means the same. Teacher can use the “synonym.”

Transition: Teacher will show students an exemplar of writing. It will show what feelings people feel when disenfranchised.

F. Preamble to Activity: Teacher will pass out the “DO NOW” questions to motivate them to write. She will read out a question and ask students to answer candidly. 5 minutes

G. Activity- Directions: 10 minutes Students will select one medium to express the feelings of disenfranchisement either as they have felt them, or the way the colonists did. They can choose from:

  • Fictional autobiographical journal entry
  • Poetry
  • Song
  • Descriptive essay
  • Dialogue (script)
  • Graphic poem (poem with picture accompanying it)

Teacher will tell students that they will have 10 minutes to start their brainstorm about the activity. She will put the timer on to encourage focus and silence. All students will take out a piece of paper and scribble their work, the idea of the work, and provide some idea on what they will be working on. After the 10 minutes they will give that paper to the teacher and this will be the way for teacher to know what they will be working on tomorrow for the majority of the period.

ELL and Differentiation: Teacher will give all ELLs a list of the words used during the lesson (listed in this lesson plan) and tell them to use those words to make their project. If they want to illustrate each word they are welcome to do so, and that can qualify as their project.

ELLs are encouraged to speak to others during work, ask questions, and even sit with the teacher if preferred to get support in sentence structure, spelling and grammar. They should not be asked to use thesauri or dictionaries alone.

Transition: Student will play one note in xylophone to signal that students need to be in their seats about to receive information. It will be the closure of the lesson.

H. Closure- 5 minutes- Teacher will wrap up the lesson by doing a synonym game. She will give a piece of candy to each student that can give a synonym for the word disenfranchisement related to the Boston Tea Party. So, each student must provide an answer that would make sense in terms of American colonists, for example.

  • Abandoned
  • Impoverished
  • Emasculated
  • Slapped in the face
  • Overpowered
  • Insulted
  • Felt worthless

END OF LESSON

10: Follow ups: Students will be assessed the next day on their project as they work on it.

11: Assessment and Reflection of ELLs’ Learning:

ELLs will be encouraged to produce their final work on disenfranchisement based on their personal experiences.

As long as they are able to express accurate descriptions and synonyms related to the word disenfranchisement, they will get credit.

They will also get credit for attempting the pronunciation based on the phonetic aid provided by the teacher that helps them to pronounce the word.

They will have their tests shortened and teacher will look for:

1. Simpler sentence structure, but complete sentences that convey a whole meaning.

2. Accurate synonyms to define the word disenfranchisement

3. Accurate way to illustrate the meaning of the word using a preferred medium

4. Some miscues in spelling and grammar but overall understanding of the word based on the Boston Tea Party readings.

Verbally, the teacher will take the time when students are working to ask overall questions like those in the DO-NOW section to elicit answers in the student.

Teacher will always speak to ELLs by sitting next to them and never singling them out. Teacher will use words slowly and will not over-use language, but the words need to flow naturally so that it does not sound like I am condescending them.

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