CHAMELEON
SCHOOL
SCENARIO
CIRCUMSTANCES
For this group of students, there are several circumstances that need to be addressed before the beginning of instruction. One is the fact that these students are limited in their English. We need to take into account their frustration level that might be reached when trying to understand the instructional content of the lesson and also the implementation of what they have learned during instruction time. Periodic checks of understanding should be conducted by myself and the educators to make sure that students have comprehension and aren't afraid to ask for help if needed.
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Another circumstance is the cultural background of the students. As educators, we should be sensitive to their cultural differences when setting up the classroom learning environment. There may be considerations that we do not think of so it is best to conference with the classroom teachers to see if they have accommodations put in place already.
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And the last circumstance I will address is the behavior problem students. Again, I will conference with the teachers to see what their recommendations may be regarding the students that work best together.
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Based on the current information I have I would place the students into the following groups.
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Group 1
*Mohamet - Lebanon (M)
*Sayed - Syria (M)
Obe - Nigeria (M)
Diego - Guatemala (M)
Carlinhos - Brazil (M)
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Group 2
*Malakhi - Israel (M)
Ramon - Venezuela (M)
Caetano - Brazil (M)
Pablito - Equador (M)
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Group 3
Kamari - Morocco (F)
Wei Tai - Malasia (F)
Mei Lei - Cambodia (F)
Rosalita - Bolivia (F)
Group 5
Fen - Taiwan (F)
Aina - Spain (Basque) (F)
Isabela - Guatemala (F)
Margarita - Venezuela (F)
Fayruz - Syria (F)
Group 6
Fan - Vietnam (F)
Nyonga - Nigeria (F)
Elke - Ukraine (F)
Mels - Turkey (F)
Group 4
*Abrar - Egypt (M)
Alzubra - Syria (M)
Dinis - Brazil (M)
Tran - Vietnam (M)
SEQUENCING OF INSTRUCTION
ABC Order is the second dictionary-skill that I will be presenting to this class. The other dictionary-skill I have taught prior to this lesson is Spelling. The dictionary skills that will be taught after ABC Order include Definitions, Synonyms, Guide Words, and Word Origin. Once these skills are taught, students will apply what they have learned to create their own bound Pioneer Dictionary.
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Materials Needed:
SMARTBOARD Video Projector
Letter Cards A-Z Blank Note Cards
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Key Terms:
Alphabetize
Alphabetical Order
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Lesson:
Alphabet Review:
To get the kids ready to work with the ABCs and have a little fun show the following video on the video projector:
The Alphabet of Nations
By They Might Be Giants
After this video, show the letters of the alphabet
on the SmartBoard as the class sings the ABC
Song with the class.
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Once the students are comfortable and warmed
up, share the next video and allow them to call
out the letter.
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Letter Shapes
By They Might Be Giants
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Introduction:
SAY: Today we are going to learn how to sort words in a way called alphabetize. If you look at the ABCs they are always put into this order when we write them out. (Point to Smartboard). We call this ABC Order or alphabetical order.
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Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling
There are 4 Steps to Alphabetizing.
Step one:
Put letters in order by the first letter.
Arrange words according to the first letter in the word. Example: apple, bat, cup, house, stone
Show the students the picture of the apple and cat on the SMARTBOARD.
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ASK: Which of these words would come first in ABC order?
SHOW: Circle the first letter on each picture and show on the alphabet where the letters are located.
ASK: Which one comes first in the alphabet?
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Step two:
If the first letters are the same alphabetize to the second letter.
Show the students the next set of pictures.
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ASK: Which of these words would come first in ABC order?
SHOW: Point to the first letter and show that we must look at the second letter. Cross out the first letter.
ASK: Now which one comes first?
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Step three and on if needed:
SAY: If the second letter is the same you go on to the next and so on until the letters are different.
If you run out of letters like rain and rainbow, the shorter word comes first.
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Guided Practice:
Have the students in their group put the words in their first pile in order.
These are words from their Pioneer Unit Vocabulary list.
Once the students have completed this task do a quick check of mastery by calling on groups to provide the next word and write it on the smartboard. If a word is incorrect show how and work it out on the board.
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Review:
Go over the rules again for alphabetical order.
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Assessment:
Have students practice on their Ipads a program similar to the following application.
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apple
cat
cup
corn
FOLLOW UP INSTRUCTION
After this lesson, I would have a couple more times where we would get together to practice this lesson before moving on to the next dictionary skills that are to follow this lesson.
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These practice activities could be conducted in groups or individually.
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The Busy Teacher website provides some ideas for wonderful ABC Order activities that are very beneficial to ESL students. These activities can be found here.
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USE OF TECHNOLOGY
For this lesson, I would use a SMARTBOARD and a video projector to share the steps that are involved with completing ABC Order and to watch the fun videos. SMARTBOARDS can be very interactive. I would also set up some games that can be played on the SMARTBOARD to reinforce the students learning. Reading with Roy the Zebra is one site that has created ABC Order games that can be played on the SMARTBOARD. Other technology.
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DIFFERENTIAL STRATEGIES
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The writers at Educator's Technology created an infographic that shares ways in which teachers can meet the needs of the different learners in their classroom. For the full infographic, click here.​
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For this lesson, I tried to place students into groups that allowed for each person to share their strengths in the English language by encouraging the different mix of languages but still keeping a sensitivity to their culture.
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I also tried to give instruction to the auditory and visual learners and some hands-on activities so that tactile learners would have a chance to excel.
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For the subsequent lessons, I would incorporate more differential strategies so that all students would have success in dictionary skills.
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