Grade 2 In Class Support

During our planning session with my Grade 2 colleagues we decided to provide one more opportunity for our students to practice the targeted vocabulary of the unit. Collaboratively we chose the Frayer Model to work with the words and I was asked to lead the activity. 

Our students had to work in five groups. Each group received a card with a word and each student received a Frayer Model template. The task was to copy the word in the middle of the template and fill in the 4 corners of the template with a definition written in their own words, facts that they had learned about the word during the past several weeks, and an example and a non-example of the word.

In each group the students had to discuss the word and share their thinking and knowledge with each other. In the end the classroom teacher chose a reporter from each group to share their completed Frayer Model with the rest of the class.

During this activity we had a chance to observe a lot of meaningful dialogues and knowledge exchanges. Our students were mentoring each other, as some of them were able to formulate the definition, others knew more facts than their peers and some had a better understanding of what was an 'example'. It was a challenging activity but most of the students were able to complete it successfully and all of them benefited from it.

Maly and Lili enjoyed working together.

Alicia and Yi Lei think that it is always more fun to do a task when you help each other.

We also chose another learning tool for grade 2 in class support called Stir-the-Class. Once again we wanted our language learners to share information, describe actions and motivations and speak in response to their peers' statements. 

Our students worked in groups and each group had to answer a question related to their lines of inquiry. Each group had to continue the discussion for 5 minutes (the timer was set). When they heard the beep, one person from each group had to move to a new group and a new discussion began. We had 4 rounds and finally the students had to choose a reporter who shared the discussion outcomes and answers with the rest of the class.

In this video Kira is speaking about why there are more people living in urban environments.

In order to ensure the application of academic language during the discussions I have prepared  a scaffold in a form of cards with sentence starters. The sentence starters were shared with us by Dr. V. Rojas during her workshop. The cards had the language for summarizing and informing as well as for inquiry and information, paraphrasing, etc. 

Being exposed to this new supporting tool was a learning curve for our students, however, some of them employed the phrases straight away. I am sure that after several practices, a routine of using the academic language sentence starters will be formed.

Miss Anita's EAL learners worked enthusiastically with their mainstream peers.     

Grade 3 In Class Support

This week we continued to discuss settlements with my Grade 3 EAL students. One of the activities that the students had to do in class was to create a mind map about settlements and their connections to the waterways. The students had to define what is a settlement, give examples of settlements and come up with reasons for building settlements next to the waterways. After accomplishing these tasks our 3rd graders had to show the mind maps to their friends and possibly add some ideas that their peers shared with them. 

While supporting Thomas in Miss Michelle's classroom I made sure that he had a clear understanding of the assignment. Thomas had many ideas and was eager to finish his mind map. As soon as Thomas was ready, he joined Jae Young and they had a very productive exchange of ideas in Korean. Both students were given an opportunity to practice their mother tongue and English. 

Jae Young and Thomas are discussing their mind maps.

I was also supporting Minato in Miss Claire's classroom in his preparation for presenting his summative assessment. Minato had to create a map of an island with a river and a settlement next to it.  He also had to present his map and give detailed explanations, talking about parts of the river and reasons why the settlement was next to the river. 

Minato enthusiastically created the map and his final work was colorful and had lots of features. In order to build up Minato's confidence and make sure he knows what to say when presenting we created cards for Minato. On each card Minato wrote a sentence or two about his island. After that we practiced presenting the map of the island. I hope that with the help of this scaffold Minato will be able to carry out his summative assessment task effectively.

After practicing presenting with cards several times Minato decided to add more colors to his map.