ELL Writing Project-Cultural Responsive Strategies

To integrate Sam's culture in his English learning, I and his teacher decided to have Sam write about the Passover holiday break. This way he can have a personal connection with his writing on something that just occurred.

ELL Writing Project-Lesson Plan

Candidate’s Name: Aviva Zussman              

Grade Level: 3^rd Grade          

Title of the lesson: Journal Entry

Length of the lesson: Two 45 minute class period plus homework

 

Central focus: ·         Develop and improve an ELL writing skills and ability to express himself in English. ·         Provide clarity and organization to thoughts to create coherent writing.

Knowledge of students: This student is able to converse easily in English. His vocabulary is mainly conversational and uses little words that are only found in writing (ex-therefore, etc).His first language is Hebrew and he spends the bulk of his day communicating in Hebrew with his friends and family members. He has strong phonetic awareness and often times reads and spells words phonetically (ex-brij instead of bridge). He writes basic sentences based on his vocabulary words in class consisting in four or five words. Sam works well when he has motivational contests and gets rewards for his work.

Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Support literacy development through language:   In this lesson Sam will retell a trip that he went on over vacation. He will develop a writing plan with a list of vocabulary that will help with his sentence structure and content. The writing plan will also assist him with writing his narrative in sequential order.

Learning objectives ·         Sam will be able to develop his thoughts in writing. ·         Sam will use a higher level of vocabulary in his writing. ·         Sam will formulate more sophisticated sentences. ·         Sam will be able to write events in sequential order.

Formal and informal assessment: During the planning stage Sam will be assessed on his active engagement in the activity. When he tells over what he did over vacation he should use appropriate words and terms (ex-instead of saying that he went on a “thing with two wheels down the what’s it called” he should say that he “went biking on the path”). When his writing plan is completed and checked over by the teacher, he will then be assessed on how accurately he followed his plan. He will be expected to use all of the vocabulary words on his list in addition to including all of the events that he discussed before.

Instructional strategies and learning tasks: Sam will develop a list of vocabulary that will help with sentence structure (transitional phrases, sequencing terms etc. ) and content (words linked to his vacation like holiday, family, biking etc.). Sam will also write what he did over vacation in sequential order.

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning: Sam will be able to use a portable handheld dictionary/thesaurus. This device has a speaking feature that allows the student to speak into it to get a definition or word that he needs. Sam can also use a digital graphic organizer to help him with planning.

Reflection Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? This lesson was designed with helping my ELL student Sam. In theory however, I feel that the instructional methods that were used with him would also be beneficial when teaching an entire class. Modifications would need to be made on how to give each child an opportunity to speak out his or her ideas. Perhaps in a whole class setting students can discuss their thoughts in groups and the teacher can monitor these groups to help her students organize their writing plans. What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? This lesson is meant to develop Sam’s English communication skills. Although Sam is able to carry a conversation in English with ease, I feel that one of his overall goals to work on throughout his schooling to develop his communication in both speech and writing. Specifically in this lesson I feel that in addition to working hard on organizing his passage writing, we should practice to orally retell in an organized fashion. Perhaps having Sam repeat his thoughts after short discussions on organization and vocabulary to improve his retelling skills would centralize Sam’s learning. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory. Developing ELL’s academic English skills is imperative for these students’ future academic success. The website Readersrocket.org suggests that specific time blocks throughout the day should be dedicated to teaching academic English skills. This can be done in a variety of ways such as using technical terms like compare and contrast, quote, etc. Having both the teacher and the students using these terms regularly will be very helpful for their language development.

 

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014

ELL Writing Assignment-Reflection and Documentaion

Working with my ELL student (pseudo name: Sam) was an enriching experience. I gained so much from being able to converse with his teacher Mrs. Strauss. She gave me a fresh view on teaching and I was inspired by her enthusiasm and dedication. When discussing Sam with Mrs. Strauss, based on her input and my observations we decided that Sam scored high on the writing rubric and scored 4s on the SOLOM Matrix in every area except for grammar which was a 3. Since Sam lives in Israel he does not have an IEP.
Sam is a bright boy with creative ideas. We decided to ask him to write about his Passover vacation as a way to motivate him to write about something that he had a personal connection with. When I asked Sam if he went on any special trips over his Passover break he responded "Yeah, why?". So I told him that we were going to write about his vacation. He seemed a bit skeptical but he began to tell me about how he went repelling in the park near his house. He also had his grandparents over for the holiday. His sisters went to sleep at his cousins' house nearby. He also played a game with his parents and had a great time. I wrote down all of these points on the board. Then I asked him to put the points in the order that they happened in. He put a number by each point. Next I asked him for a list of words that he thinks he is going to use in his writing that he wanted to know beforehand how to spell. He could not think of any. I wrote down a list of transitional words like then, next, when etc. I asked him if he thought that this discussion and plan was going to be helpful when he started writing and he said that he was not sure. When Sam picked up his pencil he started to write very slowly without paying much attention to our plan. I asked him if he was planning on looking on what we developed together and he responded that he didn't need to since he remembers what we said. After a few sentences Sam did look at the plan and used to it to write.
I was impressed with how diligently he was working. In my observations and conversations with Mrs. Strauss I gathered that he did not generally spend time to make lengthy journal entries. Yet now I was seeing him putting in a lot of effort to add detail to his work. At the end he used his plan but smiled at me and said that he decided to add more details than what we discussed. I was thrilled since this meant that he was writing for reasons beyond following his planning map. The quality of is writing was somewhat improved from his past work. This time he definitely added more detail than usual. His spelling can use some extra help. I feel that he did not ask for the correct spellings of the words or try to use the portable dictionary because he did not feel that he needed it. When I corrected his spelling mistakes he seemed a little surprised that he made them. All in all I think that this was an eye opening experience for everyone involved. One of the most beneficial outcomes was that we discovered the need to teach Sam that when he has even a small trace of a doubt on a word's spelling or usage, he should ask the teacher or use his dictionary. He can be rewarded with a point system for every fifty times he uses his dictionary to look up a word he can get a treat. At the beginning this may cause to look up words without purpose but at least the message of the importance of researching words will get across. Mrs. Strauss agreed with my proposal and said that she will try to implement something similar to help Sam in his studies.

 

ELL Writing Project-Interview

 

Interview questions with classroom teacher: This interview was done with Mrs. Gila Strauss, the head of the  English Chug School in Israel. She works in conjunction with the Israeli schools and is in charge of teaching English to the children in her neighborhood.

 

• Please describe your ELL teaching experience.

As an ELL teacher for orthodox Jewish Israeli children, I have to balance a mix of fun and education. My class is on top of an already intense Hebrew educational program. I need to be considerate of the cultural differences between American and Israeli styles and accommodate their sensitivities. For instance these children live very sheltered lives and try to limit outside influences such as the internet and secular books. This presents a challenge when trying to come up with materials for these children to read.

 

What is your perception on ELLs in terms of their learning motivation and performance(especially in reading and writing)? What learning difficulties do ELLs usually encounter in schools? What is the role of family and community in helping ELLs’ learning?

 

Since my students are learning an entire curriculum in Hebrew plus English class, it is hard to encourage my class to make my class their main focus. However, they are all motivated to learn English since they feel that it will open many more windows of opportunity for them. In Israel it is considered cool to speak English. Although this is the case, not always is the motivation to be “cool” enough to motivate the students to put in the hard work it takes to learn a new language. There are many students however who are motivated and are able to achieve great heights in their English studies. Studying English is like any other subject, if you are good at it that makes it all the easier to absorb.

Some of the learning difficulties that ELLs encounter are a clash in culture and style. There are many subtle differences in every culture that are often overlooked but for children can make a tremendous difference on a student’s perception of a situation. Furthermore, when students try to translate in their head from their native language to English, often these translations do not work and what comes out is incoherent.

The role of family and community in helping ELL’s learning is crucial. Learning English should be encouraged at home. Teachers need to keep in mind however that it’s important for students to also maintain their cultural identity even while adapting to their new English speaking setting.

 

 In your opinion, how do classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties? What strategies do you adopt? Are they effective or not? Do you participate in on-going professional training for teaching ELLs? What is your experience in terms of working students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds? How do you make sure that your teaching is culturally responsive? How do you go about reaching out to the family and the community?

 

In my opinion it is up to the teacher to set the climate of tolerance in the classroom. ELL students need to feel that they are in a safe environment in order to effectively learn English. It needs to be known that is okay to make mistakes and that we are all here to learn together. When students make grammatical mistakes when they speak I often ask them to repeat themselves appropriately. Usually this is effective since it causes students to repeat their thinking process and analyze what sounded right and what did not. Other times the student gets into an even deeper hole. As far as professional training for teaching ELLs, I do not participate in any formal seminars. I am however in contact with the principal of the school who is an expert in this area. Before I came to Israel I never taught students who did not speak the same first language as me. I was pleasantly surprised at the similarities that the children had to my former students and the unique differences that made my Israeli students a refreshing bunch! The English Chug School is very strict to respect the sensitivities of the students’ families as mentioned earlier. I am thankful for this since I am protected from insulting anyone. I do not go out of my way to reach out to my students’ families since in Israel they are the natives and I am the foreigner. I am in touch with them though about their children’s progress. 

 

 If you have an ELL in your class whose culture you are not familiar with at all, how do you go about teaching the child?

I had a student who came from a Sefardic background (his family originated from Persia). I was unfamiliar with his background and customs but I was curious to gain a feel for where the boy was coming from. So, in front of the whole class I asked him questions about his culture. He was very forthcoming with the information and was so happy that I had put in the effort to know and appreciate his background. We laughed about our similarities and differences, and we went on with the rest of the lesson.

 

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 Please describe the ELL’s performance (in terms of learning motivation and writing skills) after participating in this project.

The topic that we chose about the student’s vacation I felt was a great way to motivate him to write. His motivation for writing in general I don’t think improved as a result in participating in the project. He did however gain an important tool on how to plan before writing so that he is work comes out better.

 

 In your opinion, how did this partnership affect the ELL’s learning performance and

motivation?

The relationship between the student and Aviva was strong. The student is not the most outgoing, but he responded well from working with her.

 

What did you learn from this school-university partnership model?

I learned about the many programs there are available for students to get their Master’s degree, even in Israel! With all that aside, I was impressed with the lesson template and I thought that it was very thorough. I also found the standards that the lesson corresponded to very specific and a great guideline for teachers.

 

What difficulties did you encounter in this school-university partnership model?

I did not really encounter any difficulties except for giving over IEPs. The process was overall very smooth.

 

What would you suggest to improve the school-university partnership model?

 As a teacher I would be interested to speak the professors of the university. I feel that I would gain a clearer idea of what is expected and will gain from their knowledge.

 

 

Week 12-prezi

Here is the link to my prezi on how to integrate technology in teaching literacy....enjoy:)


http://prezi.com/rxtryzu8ttqo/edit/#4_27043

Week 12

After reading all of the articles in regard to integrating technology into literacy, I was inspired to get moving right away. I especially liked the idea of a book spine with different writing prompts for each part of the story to be helpful for students to develop their stories. There are so many programs and resources readily available for teachers to use to create digital stories and online writing. The ideas of getting a volunteer to help students use these tools will ensure that the projects flow smoothly. While assessing students it is important to keep the goal of improved writing in mind and not to get distracted by the technology use.


Here is my lesson plan using technology in a fifth grade health and science class:

Candidate’s Name: Aviva Zussman

Grade Level: 5^th  grade

Title of the lesson: Why We Should Eat Healthy

Length of the lesson: three 45 minute classes

 

 

Central focus Students will learn about the benefits of eating healthy and write about their research through creating an interactive digital brochure for the class website.

Knowledge of students to inform teaching (prior knowledge/prerequisite skills and personal/cultural/community assets)   This assignment is occurring after the class learned a unit on the effects of proper nutrition. Hopefully students have background knowledge on the topic as well from home and other health and science classes.

Common Core State Standards   CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.2.a Introduce a topic clearly, provide a general observation and focus, and group related information logically; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.2.b Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.

Support literacy development through language (academic language) Students will summarize their research and what they gained from class in clear sections for the brochure. Students will create topics and subtopics to ensure organization and clarity. The language used should be reader friendly and informative.

Learning objectives   Students will learn about the effects of proper nutrition. Students will summarize their learning in a clear, informative, organized and digital way.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed)   Students will be assessed on the accuracy, completeness, clarity, organization and attractiveness of their work. Students will need to ensure that their information is relevant and interesting to the reader.

Instructional procedure: Students will learn about the effects of proper nutrition in their health and science class. Students will then be assigned to create a brochure to inform others on the benefits of proper nutrition and practical advice on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Students may have to research information outside of the text book and resources used in class. Students will use Microsoft Publisher to create the brochure that will be published on the class website. Students will be expected to include at least two forms of multimedia (graphic, interactive graphic, chart, picture, etc). The brochure should be clear, organized, readable and attractive. For students who struggle with reading and writing, they will be expected to produce a single page flier covering one point about proper nutrition. The reading and writing process will be assisted by the teacher on helping the student identify the important points and planning out how the flier should be written. Students can also choose to record their thoughts and make a short animated video.

Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning. Classroom computer use, website publishing

Reflection ●     Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? The instruction of this project was meant to have students write informatively based on their academic level. The creative aspect of the project enabled those with artistic and technological strengths to succeed. The extra support given by the teacher is a must to ensure that students with learning challenges can organize their thoughts and gain as much as possible on proper nutrition. ●     What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? To make supporting better learning the central focus I would choose material that is interesting, pertinent and easy for the students to read in order to gain the maximum amount from their research. I would also make informative videos available for those who struggle with reading and with language barriers. ●     Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory. These changes would help with student learning since when students know that the information is applicable to them, they can comprehend it better. Also background knowledge in the subject will help students comprehend the reading better as well. Furthermore, watching videos on the subject will help both visual and audio learners. Presenting information in different ways assists all students with different learning styles absorb the material.

Week 10, Assignment 4

Candidate’s Name: Aviva Zussman  

Grade Level: 3^rd Grade

Title of the lesson: What is your opinion?

Length of the lesson: 1 period

 

Central focus   How to effectively state their opinions in writing

Students discuss how they feel about certain topics. Many students mention how their cultural background effects their opinion on many areas since  they have different experiences and were exposed to different things throughout their lives.

Common Core State Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1.a Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure that lists reasons. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1.b Provide reasons that support the opinion.

Support literacy development through language (academic language)   Students will need to retell and explain their opinions on the issue of having school in the summer. Students will need to summarize their thoughts and support their arguments. This will be done through a discussion followed by a written report.

Learning objectives   1.    Students will be able to state their opinion effectively in writing. 2.    Students will support their arguments through writing.

Formal and informal assessment (including type[s] of assessment and what is being assessed) Students’ written work will be assessed for spelling and punctuation. In addition, students will be assessed on how clearly their opinion was stated and how strongly it was supported. Students who are ELL will be assessed with the teacher keeping in mind that their vocabulary may not be as strong.

Instructional procedure: Students will be told to imagine that they were told that there is going to be no summer break and that school will continue to resume through July and August. Instead of the large break in the summer students will have off for two weeks at a time four times a year. Students will be asked to write their opinion on the matter and to give two supports or reasons for their argument. For students who are ELL or have trouble writing, they can use a writing technology that translates and writes as you speak into the device. After their writing is completed students will need to creatively demonstrate their opinion to be used as a public communications piece to convey their feelings. This can be done through technology, art, drama, etc. This open activity allows all students to complete the tasks according to their ability and preference.

Art materials, computer, paper

Reflection Did your instruction support learning for the whole class and the students who need great support or challenge? My lesson does support all students and their learning abilities due to the helpful technology. The question is simple and personal enough for students to be able to formulate an answer effectively. The openness of the second activity is great since it allows for everyone to perform according to their strengths. What changes would you make to support better student learning of the central focus? I would try my best to link my lesson to the Common Core Standards. Therefore, I would list of linking words such as therefore, because, etc on the board for students to use in their writing. In addition perhaps I would do a sample opinion together with the class so everyone can see the process of developing one’s thoughts and transferring these thoughts onto paper. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation from evidence of research and/or theory. I think that these changes would improve student learning since one of the best way of teaching is through modeling. All students benefit from seeing how thought processes are developed and how sentences can be formed to convey those thoughts.

 

Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Spring 2014