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. |
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