Effective ELL strategies for four levels of learners in EAL

Lesson Subject: Individuals & Societies

Topic: Ancient Civilizations of the world and their effect on the present society:

Students will research a given list of civilizations and fill in a chart with the information from each civilization & compare the contributions made by each Civilization & present it to class.

- Mayan, Indus Valley, Yellow River Valley, Mesopotamian, Greek & Roman Civilization

Objectives

• The students learn to develop their skills to collect facts using variety of media.
•   Discover cross cultural knowledge and relationships between them.
•   They use knowledge to produce written tasks, oral presentations using media.
•   They will develop skills and strategies appropriate to their level of English to communicate effectively with and audience.

     The Four levels of learners and teaching strategies:

Early Production

The individual begins to speak using short words and sentences, but the emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. There will be many errors in the early production stage.

     Give students the opportunity to participate in some of the whole class activities.

•    Show a video on Ancient Civilizations-[Whole Class] 
•    Post basic vocabulary required on Quizlet[ An online vocabulary tool] with pictures for students to practice- 10 minutes
•    Teacher can group-[The group early production & speech emergent students] will be given only one civilizations – they could choose one from their own country- for Ex: A Chinese student can choose the Chinese Civilization[Yellow River Valley Civilization]
•    Provide research websites, books & resources appropriate for readability and comprehension.
•    The speech emergent students or more English proficient students in the group can read aloud the  information on the website-
•          Early Asian Civilizations Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Image Cards can be used - This will enable them to Look at each picture and think about what it happening,, Create and fill in an chart image identifying and comparing components of early civilizations in India and China, including farming, cities, writing, leaders, and religion; Locate major geographical features on a map of India and/or China;
•     Product-Give graphic organizer template to fill in one word data and pictures .
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     Speech Emergent     

   speech becomes more frequent, words and sentences are longer, but the individual still relies heavily on context clues and familiar topics. Vocabulary continues to increase and errors begin to decrease, especially in common or repeated interactions.

• ·   Speech emergent students will also first start with vocabulary practice from Quizlet with additional words on civilizations. They can match the vocabulary with definitions/flash cards and this is available on Quizlet.
• ·         Since background knowledge is so critical, students should be encouraged to read up on the topic in their own language and try to make connections.
• ·         Read aloud the appropriate text given/ or research on web to the rest of the group.
• ·         Complete graphic organizers with word banks, pictures & one idea as to the main contribution of the civilization.
• ·         In writing activities, provide the student with a fill-in-the blank version of the assignment with the necessary vocabulary listed on the page.
• ·         Product- Read out the fill in the blank writing  and show pictures to the class of the civilization researched

          

 Beginning Fluency

      Speech is fairly fluent in social situations with minimal errors. New contexts and academic language are challenging and the individual will struggle to express themselves due to gaps in vocabulary and appropriate phrases.

• ·         Grouped along with intermediate fluency Students will discuss two different civilizations- one of their own country and another.
• ·         Start with 10 minute Vocabulary Review- with the rest of the class
• ·         Uses teacher given resources on web, books and fills in mind map with additional details of artifacts, scripts used, and contribution to development of present societies.
• ·         Product- Compare the two civilizations and share the findings on a comparison chart.
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 Intermediate Fluency

              Communicating in the second language is fluent, especially in social language situations.    The student is able to speak almost fluently in new situations or in academic areas, but there will be gaps in vocabulary knowledge and some unknown expressions. There are very few errors, and the individual is able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills in the second language such as offering an opinion or analyzing a problem.

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•          Students identify key academic vocabulary- through the teacher given list and they are challenged to add five more new words pertaining to the topic.- Share with the group-10 minutes
•            Teacher provides a higher level of readability and comprehension sources to gather information on two civilizations.
•           They fill in a graphic organizer comparing and contrasting 5 aspects of the two civilizations assigned.
•           Product – Presentation in a power point with words, pictures and oral explanations. 

Work Cited

Ford, C. c.-K. (2008). Language Acquisition: An Overview. Retrieved Nov 9, 2014, from Language Acquisition: An Overview: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/26751/

Haynes, J. (n.d.). Everything ESL. Retrieved November 9, 2014, from Stages of Second language Acquistions: http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php