I’ve been an ELL instructor for the last eleven
years and I think I have just about covered every type of lesson and unit you
could imagine. One of my upcoming lessons will likely be on flora
identification for my 5th grade elementary school students. The
objective for this unit is for the students to learn the terminology related to
plants and also discuss different ecosystems. The students will be evaluated on
their understanding of the parts of the plants and their ability to use the new
vocabulary in a discussion or presentation.
Any ELL teacher has to take in
account which stage of language acquisition their students are in. The six
stages of language acquisition as described by Judie Haynes in her article
Stages of Second Language Acquisition are as follows. The first stage is
Pre-production which is referred to as the silent period. In this level the
student is only able to parrot language and will have a small vocabulary. The
second stage is Early Production, where the learner is developing an active
vocabulary and uses memorization to help them communicate. The third stage is
Speech Emergence where the learner can communicate in simple phrases and
sentences. The fourth stage is Intermediate Fluency where the learner has a
larger vocabulary and starting to use complex sentences. The fifth and final
stage is Advanced Fluency where the student is near native speaker
capabilities. (Haynes, 2005)
For
a student in the Pre-Production stage of language acquisition, I would
obviously try to keep the activities that deal with the topic somewhat visual
and use activities that invoke a TPR (total physical response). In the past, I
have done nature walks where the students are given a picture check list of
plants and leaves to collect (or take pictures of with the handheld devices).
When the students are finished the nature walk, we return to the classroom
where we go over the names of the each plant, give simple descriptions using
colors, shapes and sizes. I find if we focus on the listening skills and get
the student to repeat the vocabulary they tend to retain the lesson. I focus
extensively on vocabulary and language development for students in this stage.
I
would say that the majority of my students are in the early production stage of
language acquisition. For this group I
tend to use a very similar approach as the pre-production group. By doing hands
on lessons, I find I really get a great response from my students. However, I
am able to introduce more written work into the lesson plan. For this lesson, I
will spend time going over the different parts of a flower and get them to
label a diagram. I will also use a simple video from YouTube to help give the students
a visual aid to the project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX2m2n2uDAE
For
students who are in the intermediate fluency stage of language acquisition I
would increase the amount of reading materials the students would be
responsible for. Then, through classroom discussions engage the students to
relay what they have learnt from the lesson and encourage them to speak freely
about their thoughts. I would also assign a group project where they
collaborate together to do a presentation about a plant of their choice. They would
help each other with their writing and research. As with the other groups these
students also experience a nature walk but I give them more tasks to complete
while on the walk, such as scientific drawings and expanding their observations
to include various fauna.
For
students who are in the advanced fluency stage of language acquisition, I would
allow for more independent study and basically handle their education like I
would with any of my native speaking students. The students would participate in
classroom discussions on the topic and present ideas. Through the discussion I
would check to make sure that students have gained the skill of metacognition.
Research has showed that this is an important skill for ELL students to gain in
order to become proficient readers. With this topic in mind, I would seek to
get the student to explore more complex ideas about plants and broaden their
vocabulary. I would also get these students to experience a nature walk but
their walk would be much more goal orientated. I have used an application in
the past where students use it to indentify as many plants a possible and also
make detailed scientific drawings of the plants. The application can be found
at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bim.plant. Here is example
of a lesson that I have used with students in this stage. http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/chiwonlee/plsc211/labmanual/lab1.PDF
References
Haynes, J. (2005, January 1). Stages of
Second Language Acquisition. . Retrieved , from http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php
Lee, C. W. (2011, January 1). Lab 1:
Plant Indentification. . Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/chiwonlee/plsc211/labmanual/lab1.PDF
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