Begin work on Integrated Unit
Purpose:
To help participants prepare for writing their integrated units.
Materials:
Deborah Short article in the Study Guide, pages 125-138
Instructions:
Purpose:
To give participants the opportunity to integrate their learning from this course in a content area unit that they can use in their teaching.
Instructions:
Develop a one-week curriculum unit that integrates both language and content instruction.The lessons in your unit should account for the needs of ESOL students at the pre-production and early production stages of second language development, as well as for the needs of ESOL students with more advanced proficiency in English. Your unit should include the following:
Part A: Required
Components
1.
Activities that address each of the Three Principles:
Increase Comprehensibility, Increase Interaction, and Increase Higher
Order Thinking Skills. (See the last page of
this assignment for a partial list of suggested activities for
addressing the Three Principles.)
2. Activities that address ESOL students‚
cultural needs. For example, are there cultural
assumptions/background knowledge he/she may need? Can
the ESOL students make a unique contribution to the unit?
3. Correlations of objectives to Sunshine State Standards (access Standards at www.firn.edu/doe/omsle/cdpage2.htm).
4. An alternative assessment method for
the unit which focuses on showing the students they have learned the
key concepts
Part B. Select One of the Following Strategies:
1. Making connections across the content areas.
2. Strategies for the "Culture in the Content Areas" readings.
3. Banks' approaches to multicultural education.
4. Your personal priorities for teaching diverse students.
Part C. Presenting the Integrated Unit
2. How well does the unit address Principle 2?
3. How well does the unit address Principle 3?
4. How well does the unit address ESOL students'
cultural needs?
5. Does the unit include one additional
strategy/activity of the author's choice (i.e. making connections
across the curriculum)?
6. Does the unit include an alternative assessment
method and correlations to Sunshine State Standards?
Background Information about the Unit
The number of lessons in the one-week unit is up to you the curriculum designer. One lesson may span three days, while another lesson may span thirty minutes. Instead of counting lessons, make sure lessons span a minimum of one week. Be sure to specify language and content objectives for each lesson, as well as the material needed to implement each lesson. (Information about language objectives is printed near the end of the Integrated Unit Assignment.)
When designing and creating your integrated unit, use the instructional sequence (motivation, presentation, practice/application, review/evaluation, and extension) highlighted in the Deborah Short article (see sample lessons also provided in the D. Short article). However, please note that every lesson does not need to utilize each phase of the instructional sequence and some lessons may include one or two phases of the instructional sequence more than once. For example, your unit may culminate with one extensive extension activity rather than include several extension activities at the end of each lesson.
Introduce your unit by specifying grade level,
content area, and topic or theme.
A Word About Language Objectives
While content objectives identify what students should know and be able to do as a result of a lesson, language objectives should support a student's language development. A wide variety of language objectives can be addressed in the mainstream secondary content classroom. For example, some language objectives may focus on vocabulary building, while other language objectives may focus on enhancing reading comprehension skills or writing development skills. Language objectives may also address the functional uses of language (i.e., using language to request information, justify opinions or make comparisons), and some language objectives may focus on specific grammar points.
When thinking about language objectives for a particular lesson, examine the goals and content objectives of the lesson and determine what language objectives are compatible with these goals and objectives in terms of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. For example, if the content objective of a social studies lesson is to learn about the way of life of the pioneers traveling westward, a few compatible language objectives may be as follows:
*Develop
vocabulary related to the Westward Movement.
*Read and
listen to information about events and ways of life of the early
pioneers.
*Write
summaries of information read or listened to.
*Use language
(written and oral) to compare and contrast the roles of pioneer men
and women.
Partial List of Suggested Activities:
Activities
that Address Principle 1 (Increase Comprehension)
Teach the
Text Backwards
Directed
Reading-Thinking Activities
From Text to
Graphics and Back Again
Pre, During,
and Post-Reading Activities
Activities
that activate background knowledge
Activities
that contextualize concepts (i.e., hands-on activities)
The lesson
sequence reviewed in Module 4 also enhances comprehensibility.
Use a lesson sequence that proceeds:
From prior knowledge to new knowledge
From the concrete to the abstract
From oral language to written language
From more contextual support to less
contextual support
Activities that
Address Principle 2 (Increase Interaction)
Think-Pair-Share
Numbered Heads Together
Jigsaw
Peer Tutoring
Pair Assignments
Cooperative Projects
Mix and Match
Walking Review
Activities that
Address Principle 3 (Increase Higher Order Thinking Skills)
Follow-up (probing) questions (i.e., How do you
know that? Why?)
Activities/questions that require students to go
beyond the simple recall of facts. For example, activities that
require analysis, synthesis, or evaluation.