As students begin to work under the new common core, teachers will need to find a reliable of easy-to-access online resource for both fiction and non-fiction documents/materials. With ELLs in many classes, these sources should ideally contain some support without watering down the content.
With this goal in mind, I found a site with incredible resources in history, social studies, film, English literature. Though I only linked 5 areas, there are more. You will need to register (free) to have full access to every feature on the site.
AWESOME STORIES -- Some areas covered are biographies, famous trials, disasters, flicks, history, the arts, etc. Actual photographs are embedded throughout and those photos provide context for ELLs. You will also find audio files. Since many ELLs develop their listening skills before the more complex ones of reading and writing, they would benefit greatly from this feature.
AWESOME STORIES INDEX To plan out lessons that will make use of the site, use the index so students can be directed to the areas tied to the lesson. There is some incredible material. It is well worth exploring on their part, but maybe at home since school time is limited:)
AWESOME STORIES RADIO BROADCASTS Some of these historical speeches are accompanied by video! Churchill's WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER speech is part of the collection along with a 9 minute HBO video on this event. Short video clips are far more effective in teaching ELLs especially since they are better able to concentrate on the content and not get lost in the language.
VISUAL VOCABULARY BUILDER Vocabulary is frontloaded here. Teachers would need to decide which one(s) of the KEY vocabulary words need detailed explanations (pictures, synonyms, antonyms, examples, etc.). However, by dealing with this at the start, ELLs would get more from the lesson.
VIDEOS
The videos are free---newsreels, films (short clips), etc. Again, to an ELL, this format provides visual context to which they can attach lecture information. This is schema building.
DOCUMENTS
Famous speeches (Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech for example), 450 B.C. - The World According to Herodotus, Abraham Lincoln - Letter Accepting Nomination, 1860, and much more!
I hope you find this site useful to lesson planning....by the way, there are also LESSONS on the site:)
Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS
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Showing posts with label common core standards ELA and social studies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label common core standards ELA and social studies. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
COMMON CORE ELA Sample LITERACY Lesson for High School--Gettysburg Address
What might a high school English instructional unit deliver under the COMMON CORE? It will open the door to powerful instruction which will reach all students including struggling learners with special needs including, but not limited to, language.
Here is model draft unit on teaching President Lincoln's The Gettysburg Address SAMPLE LESSON UNIT My suggestion is to print this out OR open it in another window so that when you watch the video, you can easily follow along as the moderator explains how this unit should be taught.
VIDEO EXPLAINING THE LESSON
As you watch, notice how the techniques discussed would broaden vocabulary for all (notice the focus on the word "DEDICATE"). This unit could be jointly taught in both US history and English literature classes with English focusing on language (figurative language, mood, tone, word choice, etc.) and history class focusing on underlying message (not just WHAT WAS SAID, but also WHAT WAS NOT SAID). For example, why did he date the birth of the country as 1776 and not a later one? Why did he not mention SLAVERY explicitly? For such questions, the content issues must be addressed by the history teacher and not the English teacher.
Another key point is that much of the discovery of the meaning of the text is uncovered by the students working with partners. Students are analyzing text with support as needed (ex. graphic organizers for note-taking purposes). They are having "hands-on" experiences in developing skills that will transfer over into the real world when they leave high school. In such settings, they are analyzing, clarifying their understanding with others, justifying their viewpoints with support from text, etc.
I am still looking for similar examples for middle and elementary schools, but haven't found one yet. I am also still working on finding links related to lesson development linked to COMMON CORE to share with you. All you will need to do is subscribe to get the latest news on the topic.
Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS
Here is model draft unit on teaching President Lincoln's The Gettysburg Address SAMPLE LESSON UNIT My suggestion is to print this out OR open it in another window so that when you watch the video, you can easily follow along as the moderator explains how this unit should be taught.
VIDEO EXPLAINING THE LESSON
As you watch, notice how the techniques discussed would broaden vocabulary for all (notice the focus on the word "DEDICATE"). This unit could be jointly taught in both US history and English literature classes with English focusing on language (figurative language, mood, tone, word choice, etc.) and history class focusing on underlying message (not just WHAT WAS SAID, but also WHAT WAS NOT SAID). For example, why did he date the birth of the country as 1776 and not a later one? Why did he not mention SLAVERY explicitly? For such questions, the content issues must be addressed by the history teacher and not the English teacher.
Another key point is that much of the discovery of the meaning of the text is uncovered by the students working with partners. Students are analyzing text with support as needed (ex. graphic organizers for note-taking purposes). They are having "hands-on" experiences in developing skills that will transfer over into the real world when they leave high school. In such settings, they are analyzing, clarifying their understanding with others, justifying their viewpoints with support from text, etc.
I am still looking for similar examples for middle and elementary schools, but haven't found one yet. I am also still working on finding links related to lesson development linked to COMMON CORE to share with you. All you will need to do is subscribe to get the latest news on the topic.
Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS
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