Planning for English Language Learners

Planning for English Language Learners

For the following 2014-2015 school year I will be teaching a Kindergarten unit on sequencing events. The following are examples of activities I will do with ELL students at specific stages of language acquisition.

Stage I:         Pre-Production

Teacher will read a short story about a child getting ready for school. Teacher will point out specific activities in the story that the child may recognize as an activity he or she may do at home. Teacher will point to pictures and the words that correspond to the pictures within the story. Teacher will say the action the character is doing and constantly point to the word. For example: wake up, wash, brush, eat, walk etc.

Stage II:        Early Production

The teacher will ask student simple questions that require one-two word responses. For example: “When you wake up do you eat breakfast?” “Do you comb your hair?”  While asking these questions, the teacher will provide visual aids as well, for the child to look at in case there are statements that they do not understand. At this stage, the teacher can also ask the student to put the pictures in order from the time he/she gets up in the morning until the time he/she come to school. First, the teacher will model the activity for the student.

Stage III:       Speech Emergence

The teacher will ask the student to identify the action words within a story that focuses on sequencing. The child will be asked to match the picture with the corresponding word. Child will later put the words in the order the character performed them in the story. Child will also, work with a partner and choral read with that partner the particular selection. Child will be paired with a student who is a strong reader. Peer reader will point to each word in the story and have student re-read what was just read.

Stage IV:      Intermediate Fluency

At this stage, the teacher may ask the child to sequence in order the events that take place before they come to school. Child will illustrate events in drawings and include a sentence to go with each picture. For example:

  When I wake up I eat my breakfast. (Some of the words may have be spelled incorrectly)

Stage V:       Advanced Fluency

At the stage of language acquisition, the teacher many ask the student to write a story showing the sequencing of events of a child going to school and the steps it takes for the child to leave his home and go to school. The teacher may ask the student to include details and add a variety of action words, nouns, adjectives and characters to the story. The teacher may ask the child to share it with classmates. The student may work with a partner and create the story. When creating the story the child will have a clear beginning, middle and ending.