Building Language Instruction into Lesson

PlansA guided lesson revision

activity

Essential Practices inTeaching Academic Language

PlanningLanguage

IntoLessons

Habits ofCommunication

Informal Writing

Brick & MortarWords

HAPGs & Literacy

Commitments

Objectives

Teachers will…• Revisit the important elements of lesson

plans• Review lesson plans for language

instruction strengths and weaknesses• Revise lesson plans to include strategies

and activities that support language instruction

Why is language instruction important?

“Students who underperform often have backgrounds that

have not primed them for mainstream schooling’s ways of learning, speaking, reading, and

thinking. You can probably picture several (perhaps several

dozen) of these students right now…

They are immigrants, great-grandchildren of immigrants, speakers of non-mainstream

dialects, special education students, and others who have

not been immersed in the academic thought and talk that

is valued in school…

As a result, their performances are not valued when they take tests, as

they read and write, or as they participate in class discussions. These students need more than tutoring sessions, new software programs, special classes, extra

visuals, and test prep programs…

They need rich classroom experiences that accelerate the language that

supports their content knowledge, thinking skills, and literacy skills….

They need accelerated learning because their high-performing peers do not just linger around, waiting for

them to catch up.–Jeff Zwiers, Building Academic Language

Lesson plansare scripts

for rich classroom experiences…

“Quick Write” Reflections

3 minutes• When and how did you learn to lesson

plan?

2 minutes• List the essential elements of a lesson in

terms of content and teacher action.• Place a star next to the elements you

regularly script into your lesson plans.

Lesson Planning

DIRECTIONS: Place a check next to each element you explicitly listed in your response to reflection prompt #2.

Establish the learning objectives Introduce goals/objectives of lesson Build student interest—“Hook” Connect to prior knowledge—Help students access related

materials in their brains upon which to build new ideas Model the talking, thinking, literacy tasks, products, and

performances that students are supposed to be able to do after they learn and practice their new knowledge and skills

Scaffold—Up and down Assess—Students apply knowledge and skills in new/novel

ways

Lesson Planning

Debrief• How is this list different from your own?• What does this list suggest are the

important elements of planning for instruction?

A Lesson with Developed Language Instruction…

I. Lesson IntroductionII. Connecting to and Building Background KnowledgeIII. Vocabulary DevelopmentIV. PresentationV. Academic DiscussionVI. Pre-ReadingVII. During ReadingVIII. Post ReadingIX. Pre-WritingX. Writing

Lesson Introduction

• Engage students with a “hook”– Role play or act like a character– Ask a big question– Show a strong image– Play a video clip or song

• Let students know what they will learn and do to become more like content-area experts– Go over content, thinking, and language objectives

Lesson IntroductionReview Locate the “hook”Goal for lesson/class

period is statedGoals/objectives are

student-friendly

ReviseHow can you “hook”

students?State the

goals/objectives in a student-friendly way

How will you introduce the lesson’s goals in a student-friendly way?

Connecting to and Building Background Knowledge

• Begin with an activity that gets students thinking and taps into what they already know– Quick Write, Think-Pair-Share, KWL

• Compare• Infer cause & effect• Predict• Take on a perspective (a role or side of an issue)

• Fill in content gaps, thinking gaps, and brick & mortar gaps

Connecting to and Building Background Knowledge

ReviewLesson taps prior

knowledgePlan for filling in gaps

ReviseHow will you help

students access what they already know?

When and how will you fill in gaps?

Vocabulary Development

• Select key brick and mortar words that are necessary for comprehension of the lesson and high-yield (5-7 words)

• Model hand motions or provide visuals for 1 or 2 words

• Explain other words with visuals or in the context of a sentence from the text; students generate pics or hand motions

• Students practice words with one another

Vocabulary DevelopmentReviewNecessary vocabulary

are identifiedIncludes vocabulary

instruction/review activity

ReviseWhat terms need to

be taught or reviewed in this lesson?

How will you teach vocabulary or facilitate review?

Presentation

• Modeling that focuses students on the lesson’s main ideas– Mini-lecture– Video– Guided-discussion

• Scaffold language with visuals, movements, intonation, and pauses

• Connect to overarching big ideas

PresentationReviewContains visual, oral,

and physical scaffolds for difficult language

Connects to lesson’s big ideas

ReviseWhat visual, oral, and

physical scaffolds are needed to support difficult language?

When and how will you connect to big idea?

Academic Discussion

• Allows students to think about, hear, and try out new language– Think-Pair-Share (TPS)– Think-Write-Pair-Square (TWPS2)– Think-Pair-Share-Write (TPSW)– Read-Pair-Share (RPS)– Read-Write-Pair-Share (RWPS)– Etc.

Academic DiscussionReviewOpportunity to think

about, hear, and try new language and new content knowledge

ReviseWhen and how will

you provide opportunities to think about, hear, and try new language and new content knowledge?

Pre-Reading

• Warm students up with content, thinking, and language they will encounter in the text– Word splash– Anticipation guide– Discussion– Quickwrite– KWL

Pre-ReadingReviewActivity that prepares

students for what they will read

ReviseHow will you prepare

students for what they will read?

During Reading

• Read aloud and think aloud to model what goes on in the mind of a proficient reader– Connect to background knowledge– Make predictions– Organize text information in your mind– Ask questions

• Students apply same processes in notes, on Post-Its, or when they break from text to discuss with a neighbor

During ReadingReviewDuring reading

modeling of thinkingStudents practice

thinking skills while reading

ReviseWhat thinking skills

will you model during reading?

How will students practice thinking skills while reading?

Post-Reading

• Quickly solidify what students read– Pair-share– Quick Write– Complete a graphic organizer

Post-ReadingReviewPost-reading activity

to solidify new information or thinking

ReviseHow will students

solidify new information or thinking after reading?

Pre-Writing

• Prepare students with content, thinking, and language for their writing task– Show models of the writing they will do– Provide a graphic organizer to scaffold

organization of ideas before writing– Facilitate brainstorm activity

Pre-WritingReviewContent, thinking, and

language scaffolds provided

ReviseHow will you scaffold

the content, thinking, and language students need for writing?

Writing

• Build in opportunities for students to provide one another feedback on the clarity of language they’re using– The clearest sentence you’ve written is…– One idea that could be more clear is…

because…• Refer students to posters and lists of

useful writing terms and brick and mortar vocabulary

WritingReviewOpportunities for peer

feedbackTools for language

support

ReviseWhen and how will

you provide students opportunities to give one another feedback?

How will you support and scaffold language use while writing?

Closing Reflections

• How did your lesson change?• What is now the strongest element of you

lesson plan?• What will you lesson plan differently in the

future?

Lesson plansare scripts

for rich classroom experiences…

The richnessof classroom experiences

depends onthe development

of the script performed.