Middle and High School Trial Lesson
Below is a jpeg slideshow of the powerpoint I will use during the lesson and then a written outline of the lesson below that. The PowerPoint has animations that aren't visible in the format of viewing it on the website, but will be integral to the flow of the lesson in the class.
Setting:
A summer school classroom of 7th-11th grade WIDA level 1 and 2 students. Majority native Arabic and Spanish speakers with other languages, Amharic and Tibetan, also represented in the classroom. Known countries of origin for the students are Ecuador, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, and presumably Tibet and Ethiopia.
Objectives:
Students will pronounce the velar “R” sound of American English in beginning, medial, and final sounds of words, including in consonant blends, in isolated words and sentences.
Students will give feedback to peers on consonant articulation using sentence prompts such as “I think…because…” and “I saw you…” and “I could hear you…”
Reasoning for Objectives:
According to the WiDA Speaking Rubric impedance of communication via phonological errors in phrasing beyond short sentences is an indication of Level 2 speaking. For Level 1s only memorized language is expected to be communicable.
Phonemic awareness and oral fluency have long been established as necessary precursors for literacy in second language acquisition. There is also a variety of social stigma associated in with accents that are perceived as foreign (Giles, 1970, Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010), and based on my own experience teaching learners from throughout the Arab world a high value is placed culturally on acquisition of accents that are deemed to be properly “British” or “American” when undertaking English acquisition.
Furthermore, the American “R” sound is one that both Spanish and Arabic speakers, as well as speakers from other languages, commonly struggle with. While Spanish and Arabic have letters in their alphabet that are “equivalent” to R their actual articulation is different and more similar to the English L sound (alveolar tap as a point of articulation vs. velar construction).
Also, scientifically-based research suggests that ELLs respond well to meaningful activities such as language games and word walls, especially when the activities are consistent and focus on particular sounds and letters. Songs and poems, with their rhythm and repetition, are easily memorized and can be used to teach phonemic awareness and print concepts to ELLs (Hiebert, et al., 1998)
Although the feedback portion of the lesson will involve some higher-order thinking skills the material here is also intentionally chosen as low risk content with a high likelihood of being acquired within the course of the lesson. This is chosen to due to the unique setting.
Since the teacher is also being assessed here the objective is not only to teach a language objective, but also to demonstrate cardinal tenets of what the teacher’s classroom would feature such as, agenda-setting, explicit modeling, guided practice, independent practice, peer-to-peer feedback and interaction, visually engaging instructional materials, sense of sequencing connection to native languages and culture, utilization of student cultural funds.
Since this is the very first interaction the students will have with the teacher there will need to be a place in this lesson of taking initial steps towards building trust and relationships. This means the students must be set up for success with the tasks they are asked to perform and to accommodate the fluid practice of classroom learning structures (although underlying the ever-present theme of the need to be willing to experience discomfort in language learning will also underly this entire lesson). Also, even though this may be a language item that is generally too small to devote a full class or too many classes too it is important phonemic awareness and development articulation is nonetheless essential for literacy development and most of these students are at critical ages for such development in a second language; and at the end of class they will be introduced to a resource that they can use on their own time to practice with this topic.
Lesson Sequence:
Teacher Introduction:
The teacher will give a brief introduction of himself, this will involve poking fun at his name and physical appearance an explanation of where he grew up and his ethnicity and prior work experience. Some questioning will be done here to illicit responses from students that it could be anticipated they will connect to; therein will be a semi-intertwined assessment of prior knowledge, just affirming and assessing the amount of students that speak Spanish and Arabic because those languages will be drawn upon during the lesson.
Agenda Setting:
This is where the student friendly objective will be built up to and presented and students will be told exactly what they are going to do.
Activation of Prior Knowledge and Modeling
Students will be guided through a comparison of how the R sound in the Arabic word Raka’ and the Spanish word Rojo contrast with the articulation of the English word Red. The teacher will transition to guided practice with an anecdote about the discomfort that can take place when training one’s tounge to do something it is not used to (just like training muscles to do something they are not used to) and the discomfort he experienced when learning to pronounce Arabic letters that had no English language equivalent. Unless the mood of the class and lesson at this point is such that it seems wholly unnecessary.
Modeling and Guided Practice
Students will be taken through repetitive practice of articulating words with the R sound and then transition to saying sentences that are sort of tongue twisters. Going through this will also establish a criteria for performing the task correctly and for students to give feedback on each other in the next activity. Which is
From there two students will be taken to model with the teacher to model the small group practice and feedback procedures.
Independent Practice
Students will be put into groups of three to practice speaking the tongue twisters and giving feedback to each other. For the sake of giving a sense of accountability students will be told that when they are done they will have to choose one person from their group to perform the tongue twisters in front of the whole class.
Closing
Students will be given the website soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu as a resource for practicing phonetics along with a little talk about how this is not usually something you will practice in school, but it is something helpful that they can do on their own.
A summer school classroom of 7th-11th grade WIDA level 1 and 2 students. Majority native Arabic and Spanish speakers with other languages, Amharic and Tibetan, also represented in the classroom. Known countries of origin for the students are Ecuador, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, and presumably Tibet and Ethiopia.
Objectives:
Students will pronounce the velar “R” sound of American English in beginning, medial, and final sounds of words, including in consonant blends, in isolated words and sentences.
Students will give feedback to peers on consonant articulation using sentence prompts such as “I think…because…” and “I saw you…” and “I could hear you…”
Reasoning for Objectives:
According to the WiDA Speaking Rubric impedance of communication via phonological errors in phrasing beyond short sentences is an indication of Level 2 speaking. For Level 1s only memorized language is expected to be communicable.
Phonemic awareness and oral fluency have long been established as necessary precursors for literacy in second language acquisition. There is also a variety of social stigma associated in with accents that are perceived as foreign (Giles, 1970, Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010), and based on my own experience teaching learners from throughout the Arab world a high value is placed culturally on acquisition of accents that are deemed to be properly “British” or “American” when undertaking English acquisition.
Furthermore, the American “R” sound is one that both Spanish and Arabic speakers, as well as speakers from other languages, commonly struggle with. While Spanish and Arabic have letters in their alphabet that are “equivalent” to R their actual articulation is different and more similar to the English L sound (alveolar tap as a point of articulation vs. velar construction).
Also, scientifically-based research suggests that ELLs respond well to meaningful activities such as language games and word walls, especially when the activities are consistent and focus on particular sounds and letters. Songs and poems, with their rhythm and repetition, are easily memorized and can be used to teach phonemic awareness and print concepts to ELLs (Hiebert, et al., 1998)
Although the feedback portion of the lesson will involve some higher-order thinking skills the material here is also intentionally chosen as low risk content with a high likelihood of being acquired within the course of the lesson. This is chosen to due to the unique setting.
Since the teacher is also being assessed here the objective is not only to teach a language objective, but also to demonstrate cardinal tenets of what the teacher’s classroom would feature such as, agenda-setting, explicit modeling, guided practice, independent practice, peer-to-peer feedback and interaction, visually engaging instructional materials, sense of sequencing connection to native languages and culture, utilization of student cultural funds.
Since this is the very first interaction the students will have with the teacher there will need to be a place in this lesson of taking initial steps towards building trust and relationships. This means the students must be set up for success with the tasks they are asked to perform and to accommodate the fluid practice of classroom learning structures (although underlying the ever-present theme of the need to be willing to experience discomfort in language learning will also underly this entire lesson). Also, even though this may be a language item that is generally too small to devote a full class or too many classes too it is important phonemic awareness and development articulation is nonetheless essential for literacy development and most of these students are at critical ages for such development in a second language; and at the end of class they will be introduced to a resource that they can use on their own time to practice with this topic.
Lesson Sequence:
Teacher Introduction:
The teacher will give a brief introduction of himself, this will involve poking fun at his name and physical appearance an explanation of where he grew up and his ethnicity and prior work experience. Some questioning will be done here to illicit responses from students that it could be anticipated they will connect to; therein will be a semi-intertwined assessment of prior knowledge, just affirming and assessing the amount of students that speak Spanish and Arabic because those languages will be drawn upon during the lesson.
Agenda Setting:
This is where the student friendly objective will be built up to and presented and students will be told exactly what they are going to do.
Activation of Prior Knowledge and Modeling
Students will be guided through a comparison of how the R sound in the Arabic word Raka’ and the Spanish word Rojo contrast with the articulation of the English word Red. The teacher will transition to guided practice with an anecdote about the discomfort that can take place when training one’s tounge to do something it is not used to (just like training muscles to do something they are not used to) and the discomfort he experienced when learning to pronounce Arabic letters that had no English language equivalent. Unless the mood of the class and lesson at this point is such that it seems wholly unnecessary.
Modeling and Guided Practice
Students will be taken through repetitive practice of articulating words with the R sound and then transition to saying sentences that are sort of tongue twisters. Going through this will also establish a criteria for performing the task correctly and for students to give feedback on each other in the next activity. Which is
- The bottom of the tongue cannot be seen.
- A cringe can be seen.
- Speech is loud, clear, and gets faster.
From there two students will be taken to model with the teacher to model the small group practice and feedback procedures.
Independent Practice
Students will be put into groups of three to practice speaking the tongue twisters and giving feedback to each other. For the sake of giving a sense of accountability students will be told that when they are done they will have to choose one person from their group to perform the tongue twisters in front of the whole class.
Closing
Students will be given the website soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu as a resource for practicing phonetics along with a little talk about how this is not usually something you will practice in school, but it is something helpful that they can do on their own.