peer

Grade level of students for whom the lesson was developed: 12th grade

Subject/content area(s) for the lesson: ELA

Title of the lesson: Historical Perspectives: Focus Period 750-1066

Time needed for lesson: 2 days (55-minute classes)

1. LEARNERS & LEARNING ENVIRONMENT – SIOP Lesson Preparation

• Who are the learners that this lesson is designed for?

SIOP UNIT Part One- Write a paragraph overview of the classroom that the lessons are

designed for.

This lesson is designed for a 12th grade ELA class, at a comprehensive school in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The vast majority of my students are Hispanic (70%+), African American (~15%), Arabic (~10%), and other. The bulk of the students I see in my classroom are at a proficiency level between beginning and expanding. Seeing as the majority of the students at the school are between beginning and expanding levels, the majority of teachers take these into consideration when planning out the delivery of their lessons.

a) Engaging and Supporting Diverse Learners: Applying Principles of Universal Design

for Learning:

SIOP UNIT Part Two-

From 1915 to the early 1920s, Michigan’s Hispanic population, consisting of mostly Mexican immigrants, grew from virtually nonexistent to 4,000. These migrants were hired on by sugar companies and automotive companies. Unfortunately, within the next few years, due to the economy’s recession, were deported and repatriated back to Mexico – including Mexican Americans, who were, in fact, American citizens. Over the course of the next 30 to 40 years, as laws changed, more Mexican migrants were smuggled across the border and brought in to work in the fields, and those that did not work in agriculture turned to construction and the automotive industry for jobs. It is hard to say when other Hispanic ethnic groups began making their way to Michigan, as the Mexican population remains the highest population of Hispanics. However, many of the early Mexican migrants’ families began to lose the use of their native tongue as a result of racism towards Spanish-speakers. The migration of Hispanics continues at a fairly steady, if not increasing, rate to this day, due to political unrest and lower quality of life in their home countries. This has led to the development of what is known as “Spanglish” – which is the interspersing of English words while speaking Spanish, the interspersing of Spanish words while speaking English, and even the development of brand new words that have been adapted from English to Spanish or Spanish to English.

The community in which I teach is mostly comprised of Hispanics, the majority of which are of Mexican descent. As we do have Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorians, Guatemalans, etc., there are many different varieties of Spanish spoken. As a native Spanish speaker myself, I have noticed that the vast majority of the Hispanic groups do tend to assimilate and use the Mexican dialect (not the accent) more. The community, as a whole, works hard on ensuring that bilingualism is maintained, as there are Latino newspapers, and many other community organizations designed to embrace the spirit of being Hispanic, as well as companies that actively recruit Hispanics in a variety of work positions. Our school, as well as centers around the neighborhood offer ESL classes to adults, many of the cultural centers are led by Hispanics to help Hispanics, and many of the spiritual centers (churches, in this case) offer separate services in English and Spanish, whichever their members feel most comfortable attending.

Materials, Digital Tools, Supplementary Resources:

• What resources will you use to support the learning activities and language tasks?

Students will be able to access their textbooks online, while I can assign specific portions of the lesson specifically designed for ELL students’ advancement of their understanding; student’s consumable textbook (for notetaking and annotations)

2. OUTCOMES & ASSESSMENT

Lesson 1: Historical Perspectives – Focus Period: 750-1066 (2 days)

1) Lesson Preparation

• What are the content objectives for the lesson? How are they clearly defined, displayed and

comprehensible to students?

Content Objectives:

Day 1: I will apply the term “melting pot” to today’s society.

Day 2: I will analyze the feudal system from the Focus Period and compare it to today’s society.

• What are the language objectives for the lesson? How are they clearly defined, displayed and

comprehensible to students?

Day 1: I will describe what a metaphor is. I will explain the concept of a melting pot.

Day 2: I will analyze the meaning of the word “venerable” and apply it to the feudal system.

• What content will be addressed?

Historical background and perspectives throughout the years 750-1066, during which time Beowulf was written and shared. This includes short excerpts of real texts and quotes.

• How can you adapt your lesson so as to meet the needs of students with different proficiency levels?

I will adapt my lesson by having students work in small groups, creating visuals of the feudal system, and providing sentence stems to help students describe what a melting pot is.

3. INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE

a) Introduction:

What are the instructional moves to engage learners in constructing an understanding of the concepts indicated in the content and language objectives?

Teacher will explain that in order to understand the anchor text, Beowulf, there will first be an introduction to the history of the time period, including a timeline of major events, an introduction of the Anglo-Saxons, and of the system that governed the people.

b) Instructional Procedure:

2) Building Background (.25 each – 1 pt total)

• What connections will be made with students’ prior learning?

A class discussion regarding what students think a “melting pot” is – this could include what each word means individually, and then as a phrase; also introduce the word venerable.

The word venerable is a perfect cognate in Spanish – the goal is to see if students have any prior knowledge of the word in Spanish, and guide them to express themselves in English.

• What connections will be made with students’ cultural background?

I would explain to students that just as it is important to understand their own family and cultural history, it is just as important to understand the background of any piece of literature. Once they begin to understand this, we can begin to draw connections between what we discuss about the history of the Anglo-Saxons, and that of students’ own cultural background.

• How will vocabulary be introduced or reviewed?

As reading of the Historical Perspectives begin, students will be asked to circle words/phrases that are unfamiliar to them, and then they will be guided to use context clues and word morphology to help determine the meanings of the words.

3) Interaction (.25 each – 1 pt total)

• What opportunities will there be for interaction?

Small group and whole group discussions will be used for the majority of this lesson; students will work in small groups to build their own versions of a feudal system and discuss why each level is labeled as such.

• How will students be grouped?

The goal is to attempt to group students in groups of 3-4, with one beginning, one to two developing, and one to two expanding students, based on the level distributions of the class.

• What plan is in place to ensure that wait time is provided?

There will be a timer projected on the screen to let students know when time is up; teacher will ask at the 30 second time whether students need more time by a show of hands.

• How can you provide opportunities for students to clarify key concepts in L1 as needed with aid, peer or L1 text?

Since I speak the students’ L1, they can ask me for clarification, or they can ask their elbow partner; there are built-in ELL aids in the text to help students with additional clarification.

4) Practice & Application: (.25 each - 1 pt total)

• How will lessons provide students with practice using hands-on materials?

The students’ textbook is consumable, so students will be able to make annotations in their own books to help them understand the text better – circle unknown words/phrases, highlight key ideas, and underline concepts they would like to review and discuss in more detail.

• How will lessons provide opportunities to apply learning of content?

Learning of content will take place through class and small group discussions.

• How will lessons provide opportunities for learning language – domains of

listening and reading?

Listening and reading opportunities to learn language will be provided through reading the text, and having conversations with elbow partners.

• How will lessons provide opportunities for learning language – domains of

Speaking and writing?

Speaking and writing opportunities to learn language will be provided through conversations regarding the text, and writing interpretations about feudal systems, as well as responding to comprehension check questions regarding the historical section.

Wayne State University College of Education Lesson Planning Framework

For Effective Instructional Design

5) Lesson Delivery: (.25 each – 1 pt total)

• How does the instructional activity or task support student learning and/or

progress towards content objectives?

The instructional activity supports student learning and progress towards content objectives by providing a solid background of the time period in which the text takes place, to better understand the position of the characters’ behaviors throughout the text.

• How does the instructional activity or task support student learning and/or

progress towards language objectives?

Student learning and progress towards language objectives is supported by providing students ample opportunity to identify words/phrases that they are unfamiliar with, and to have conversations in a small group setting with students at their language level or one to two levels above, to better practice.

• How does the instructional activity or task support student engagement?

Student engagement is supported, as it is what will be the guide of the class discussion.

• What is the pacing of the lesson? The pacing of the lesson is actually student led, as dependent on how the small group and whole-class discussions develop, the lesson may take less than 2 class periods, or it could take more than 2 class periods, although I do not anticipate it taking longer than 2 periods.