1 - Web viewSs pull out a pronunciation chart from the previous ... Nigerian, Japanese and ... Note that the worksheet did have charts that corresponded to the simple

S. McMichaelMid-Quarter Lesson Plan: ELL

Spring, 2015General Education Mid-Quarter Lesson

Lesson Part Activity description/Teacher does Students do

Formal/Informal Assessment of Prior Learning orPreassessment(Sequence start)

In Lesson 7 (on 04/23/15), T administered an informal pre-assessment (Interview Questions, Appendix A) that assessed their current knowledge of the simple past tense and interview-related vocabulary.

Ss completed the assessment and turned it in to T.

Title Lesson 9: Interviewing for a JobStandard WA ELP 9-12.7: An ELL can adapt language choices to purpose, task and audience when speaking and

writing.CCSS. ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.6: Acquire and use accurate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level…

Central Focus (CF) Acquire and utilize English structures and vocabulary in the contexts of searching and applying for jobs.

Academic Language Acquire, utilize (function) simple past tense verbs, jobs, job skills (vocabulary)

Learning Target(LT)

Students can use the past tense to answer four interview questions about past jobs and job skills.

Ss listen and read LT, along with the day’s schedule.

Instruction:Review (e.g. inquiry, preview, review, etc.)

T reviews a chart on the past tense of ‘to be’ verb from Ss’s Stand Out Level 2 workbook. T elicits choral responses from students.

T reviews the homework (mechanical practice w simple past tense) by calling on students to determine their answers.

Ss follow along and repeat in voluntary choral response to T.

Ss respond with answers as T calls on them; Ss follow along as T gives corrections as needed.

Informal Assessment

T passes out three cards to each student (-ed, -t, -d). T reviews verbs relating to eight jobs the class has been studying. T shows a verb on a power point slide on projector and asks students to work in teams of two to write their past tense form. Then T asks for all students to hold up the card that corresponds with the proper past tense pronunciation. T monitors and corrects Ss responses. T repeats this process for the seven other verbs.

Ss pull out a pronunciation chart from the previous lesson. Ss use the chart to inform which card they lift up, indicating how the word is pronounced.

Practice Activity

T pulls out conversation game materials. T introduces simple past/job skill practice dialogue between ‘Player A’ and ‘Player B’ and models for students by reading aloud. T sets up a sample conversation game. The game includes a game board (Appendix B), 8 job cards with job titles (Appendix C) and conversation script (Appendix D) which requires Player B to guess Player A’s job title based on Player B’s responses of their job skill). T plays with a round for students to observe.T passes out games for pairs to play.

Ss listen and watch as T models the conversation game. The game is a modified version of one they’ve played in the past with job titles and job skills. The conversation game involves past tense to-be verbs (was, were) and simple past regular verbs (worked, helped, etc…)

Informal Assessment

T circulates around the room and listens as learners converse and use the past tense with the job titles and job skills. T notes errors but does not intrude on free-flowing conversation.

Ss (seated in paired rows) ‘play’ with their partner, practicing using the past tense with job skills

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Spring, 2015After Ss finish playing both roles, T calls Ss together. T gives Ss general feedback on observed errors.

and job titles. Ss take turns as ‘Player A’ and ‘Player B’

Practice Activity

T instructs Ss to pull out their Job Applications from a previous lesson; these applications are complete with Ss job histories. T also passes out handout (Appendix E) with two sentence blanks and model. T instructs Ss to write two sentences for two past jobs (one sentence naming the job title, requiring the was; one sentence describing the job skill they used in that job, requiring the –ed). Before Ss start writing, T asks where Ss can go if they need help.As Ss write, T circulates and provides help with irregular verbs on individual jobs that haven’t been covered. T has students practice saying these out loud to a partner after the partner asks What was your last job? What did you do there?

Ss listen to instruction.Ss volunteer responses about where they can go for help (pg. 132 in their Stand Out book, their 8 job skill sentences from a previous lesson). Ss write their sentences.Ss use resources to aid them in their writing. Ss read their sentences aloud to a partner and ask What was your last job? What did you do there?

Formal Assessment

T passes out a list of five questions (Appendix F), including the two previously introduced. T reviews questions with students. T shares with Ss that these questions will be asked to them on video, interview style in which they will have only a copy of their Job application. T briefly discusses and models good interviewing practices. T calls Ss one by one and asks them the 5 questions, with the video rolls. T fills out a rubric (Appendix G) with each interview and films the interview. Each interview should be 3-5 minutes. T will burn the interview to a CD—the most readily usable media for this population, whose average age is 60.

Ss listen to T as he presents assignment. Ss practice with a partner as other Ss interview. Ss complete interview w T, using only their job application.

Closure Assessment of Student Voice

At the end of the interview, T hands Ss a half sheet reflection form (Appendix H).

Ss complete half sheet at their desk on how they think they did on their interview.

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Reflection

I taught ‘Interviewing for a Job’ on April 30, 2015 from 1:30-3:00pm to English Level 2b, the more advanced of my two Level 2 classes at Bellevue Goodwill’s Job Training and Education Center (JTE). JTE classes run eight weeks long and this lesson was taught in Week 7, serving as the course’s cumulative asessment. In the previous weeks, we’d covered material on looking for a job, roughly following Chapter 7 of the Stand Out book by Jenkins and Johnson (2007). After several weeks of attrition, the class included seven learners who were mostly female, around the age of sixty and of diverse origin (Korean, Romanian, Nigerian, Japanese and Chinese).

The lesson, which filled out all of the 90 minute class period, went well. There were, however, a few bumps along the way. First off, this lesson was the second in a mini-unit on interviewing and the simple past tense. The previous lesson had run over and so I had to assign the mechanical practice of the past tense in haste. On the morning of ‘Interviewing for a Job’, as I was making the teacher key for the mechanical practice worksheet, I realized that the worksheet included use of the negative (wasn’t, didn’t) which I’d failed to go over, meaning that the learners had done this at home without instruction. Ideally, homework should prompt the learner to complete exercises that they have full knowledge of and have had controlled practice with in class (Marzano, 2007). I had unwittingly exposed my learners to more than I’d taught them. Note that the worksheet did have charts that corresponded to the simple past negation; but I still felt the impetus to go over this chart explicitly with students, highlighting the de-inflecting effect of the auxiliary did and the reason for using did vs. was. Going over this mechanical practice turned my five minute review into a fifteen minute critical input.

I therefore decided to jump ahead in my lesson, skipping the pronunciation practice and heading straight for the practice activity with the conversation game. This decision was prompted in part by the learners’ skill level; most had already intuited the three pronunciations of –ed (-t,-d and –ed). Therefore, I reasoned in the moment, if I had to cut one thing, it had to be the pronunciation. After the conversation game, however, I looked at the clock and realized I had some minutes to spare. I also heard several learners pronounce the past incorrectly (fixED, talkED, etc…) and so I felt it worth the previous minutes to go ahead with the pronunciation practice. This proved to be a good idea, as many learners had not received explicit instruction in this facet of the simple past before and many struggled, despite the presence of the chart, to intuit which ending sound to make and when. Another snafu occurred during this presentation, when I realized that I was holding up one of the three cards the entire time, accidentally misleading some of the lower learners into thinking the –d pronunciation was the right ending for all of them. In terms of sequence, this pronunciation practice would have been ideal before the conversation game, allowing learners a chance to practice this skill in a controlled setting.

Lastly, there were two issues with the interviews. Firstly, during the interviews, my scoring sheet proved cumbersome. As my attention was fixed on conversing with the student, I found my own form disorienting. Later, I watched the videos and was able to score them qualitatively with ease. Secondly, one of the questions (What special job skills do you have?) aimed at prompting the learners correct use of modal ‘can’ to describe a job skill, but the question stem’s use of ‘have’ dissuaded speakers from the target language. Many ended up replying “I have...”, a natural response. On the last two

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Spring, 2015interviews, I asked ‘what special job skills can you do’. This yielded more on-point answers, though it is perhaps less authentic.

The recording of the lesson revealed my strengths in lesson structure, informal assessment and pedagogy. The lesson’s progression was logical and it arrived at its conclusion through a series of steps increasing learner autonomy. The number of pedagogical techniques allowed for diverse configurations of student to student and student to teacher interactions: pair work, individual work, etc… The informal assessment, as it’s defined in this course, speaks to a skill of mine: being present with students.

I can grow in the area of Student Voice. The method of handing out a reflection form at the tail end of the interviews seemed perfunctory. Indeed, learners weren’t able to fill this out in class because the classes ended and I wasn’t able to walk them through what each sentence meant, meaning they probably will not understand it. Note that our next class convenes Tuesday May 5th where we can go over the reflection form as a class. Each student will also sit down with me, watch their video and reflect on their performance in the class as a whole. Nevertheless, I would like to learn more options for integrating student voice into the lesson’s structure.

As for feedback, my supervisor, Da’yo, gave me a glowing review (Appendix I), marking me ‘Distinguished’ in all categories except pedagogy for which she gave me a ‘Proficient’. I think her review is generous, but I would agree that, in terms of pedagogy, the absolute highest I could get would be ‘proficient’, as I’m not yet able to anticipate student error or confusion but have to respond in the moment.

In conclusion, for my end of the quarter lesson, I will go over the mechanical practice ahead of time with students. Also, I will do the pronunciation practice before the conversation game and I won’t hold the cards up leadingly. Also, during the interviews I will use the question ‘What special skills can you do?’ and I won’t bother trying to score students during, since I’ll have a video recording doing the work for me.

References

Marzano, R.J. (2007 ) The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective

Instruction. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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Spring, 2015Appendices

Appendix A: Pre-test

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Spring, 2015Appendix B: Conversation Game, Game Board

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Spring, 2015Appendix C: Conversation Game, Job Cards

Appendix D: Conversation Game Script

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Appendix E: Writing Exercise/ Interview Prep

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Appendix F: Interview Questions

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Appendix G: Interview Evaluation Rubric

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Appendix H: Student Reflection Form

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Spring, 2015Appendix I: Observer Feedback Form

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Documents

1 - Web viewSs pull out a pronunciation chart from the previous ... Nigerian, Japanese and ... Note that the worksheet did have charts that corresponded to the simple