Boots on the ground!
Highly Effective example of integrating ESL and Language Arts in a push-in model at the Elementary level.
By Cecilia Vila Chave
Supervisor of ESL Programs
NJTESOL-NJBE President
IG: @themultilingualcollective
As a former Bilingual Teacher, I often second-guessed my effectiveness in the classroom as I couldn’t really calibrate against what my peers were doing. However, as a Supervisor of ESL Programs I have the great privilege of observing teachers in multiple spaces, across buildings and grade levels. Recently, I had the opportunity to observe a collaborative partnership between an ESL teacher and her ELA partner which modeled all the work we have done towards inclusion, integrating content and language attainment, and building independent learners. Ms. Clark, the ESL teacher, was gracious enough to share her process, check it out below!
K-4 ESL Teacher Ms. Julia Clark – Township of Ocean School District
This is an example of a Grade 2 small group ELA lesson given to a combined group of ML and non-ML students. The lesson uses Wonders Grade 2 ELA materials and is designed to support multilingual learners’ vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and academic language production. Aligned with WIDA English Language Development Standards 1 and 2 and NJSLS L.2.4, the lesson focuses on determining the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words and using text-based evidence to demonstrate comprehension. The lesson uses a To-With-By format and most importantly, was easy to plan and deliver to students!
Students were given the student-friendly objective of “I can ask and answer questions using new vocabulary from a text” before exploring the vocabulary associated with the Cat and Dog fictional text which included: actions, afraid, depend, rescue, perfectly, nervous, and peered.
Instruction began with a review of previously taught short-vowel sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words to activate prior knowledge and to establish connections to the upcoming reading. This was done by having students use Wonders short vowel picture cards and a teacher-created sentence strip related to the story: Cass and Dibs are a cat and a dog who slept in a bush.
I then introduced the vocabulary using Wonders visual vocabulary cards and modeled how to locate these words in context using small post-it flags. We then worked as a group to locate and place post-it flags on the remaining vocabulary words before taking turns reading the text. Throughout the lesson, students were encouraged to use the new vocabulary to describe the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and development within the story.
For the independent portion of the lesson, students completed a worksheet requiring them to illustrate selected vocabulary words and compose an original sentence. Formative assessment included teacher observations, questioning, student responses, and a review of the completed worksheets to evaluate students’ ability to identify, explain, and apply new vocabulary.
I have to give a special thank you to Ms. Carolyn Beam who is not only an amazing 2nd grade teacher, but also a wonderful resource and colleague who so generously shares her expertise and teaching/learning materials with me.
