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Uncover, Concentrate, Monitor, Evaluate

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UCME - Uncover, Concentrate, Monitor, Evaluate

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UCME Activity for Biography-Driven Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Vocabulary Quilt Activity for Biography-Driven Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Determine, Observe, Talk, Summarize

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DOTS - Determine, Observe, Talk, Summarize

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DOTS Activity for Biography-Driven Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Foldable activity for Biography-Driven Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Enables students to use their visualization powers to connect and understand what they imagine fits in to the "meaning-making process."

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a strategy that enables students to use their visualization powers to connect and understand how what they imagine fits into the "meaning-making process."
How does it work: The teacher allows students to sketch a picture based on their idea of the given words (a stimulation to their senses). After, the students then check their understanding through interaction and elaboration with their peers about the connections they made.
This strategy's design is one that supports "meaningful learning and imaginative connections." It relies on the educator's ability to obtain and maintain students' attention to increase students' knowledge and add to what they already know.

* In the order they will appear in the text, list the amount of vocabularies on the board * Proceed with the lesson of reading the text. Stop at important parts in the text where the words appear and allow students to infer the meaning of the vocabularies in the lessons' context. * Next, tell groups to come back together as a class and talk about the ideas evoked during the 'listen' part of the strategy and their sketches

* Divide students into a small even amount of groups (preparation for the connection phase)
* Give each student the strategy template
* Explain to students that the strategy is to help them with making inferences through visualization
* Have students 'turn and talk' to discuss the author's intent at that segment of the text and then sketch their understanding of that part. * Affirmation:
* Next, encourage each group to discuss with another group their ideas, the rationale for their inferences and sketches, and thoughts about the words
* Simultaneously, tell students to write their connections in the last column - 'label.'
*Have students discuss their ideas in their groups after.
* Students can also create sentences from the vocabularies, or write summaries based on the part of the text read, or a reflection on what they learned including the vocabulary.
Provide feedback when necessary but allow students to take the lead (the constructivist approach)
* Share the topic of the lesson with the students and encourage them to listen to and visualize an idea of the words of the lesson as they are being called.
* Tell students to write/draw a picture of what they think the words mean in the 'listen' column. * encourage thinking about other aspects (smell, tastes, colors, sounds, and textures)
* Have students share their ideas with their groups after.

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a strategy that enables students to use their visualization powers to connect and understand how what they imagine fits into the "meaning-making process." How does it work: The teacher allows students to sketch a picture based on their idea of the given words (a stimulation to their senses).

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Visualize parts of the story as you are reading to help with student comprehension.

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One way to help a child comprehend what he is reading is to encourage him to visualize parts of the story in his mind. These "mind movies" help clarify information and increase understanding, and can be done with fiction or nonfiction text. The images can include any of the five senses.

Many of the books you read with your child may already contain beautiful illustrations, so try this visualization practice with the longer books you use as your read aloud. Or, sit facing your child and read a few pages without having your child look at the pictures. Then follow these few simple steps to provide your child with practice developing their mental images:

Begin reading. Pause after a few sentences or paragraphs that contain good descriptive information.

Share the image you've created in your mind, and talk about which words from the book helped you "draw" your picture. Your picture can relate to the setting, the characters, or the actions. By doing this, you are modeling the kind of picture making you want your child to do.

Talk about how these pictures help you understand what's happening in the story.

Continue reading. Pause again and share the new image you created. Then ask your child to share what he sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels. Ask what words helped him create the mental image and emotions. By doing this, you are providing your child with practice with this new skill.

Are your images identical? Probably not! This is a great time to talk about why your images might be different. Perhaps your child went on a school field trip or had a school assembly that changed the way they created the picture in their mind. Perhaps experiences you've had as an adult influenced what you "drew." These differences are important to understand and respect.

Read a longer portion of text and continue the sharing process.

Once this is a familiar skill, encourage your child to use mental imagery when she is reading by herself. You can feel confident that these mental pictures will help your child understand the story in an important way.

Reprints

You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Colorín Colorado and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact info@colorincolorado.org.

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Picture This! Using Mental Imagery While Reading

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Subscribe to Growing Readers! Have Growing Readers delivered each month right to your inbox! (In English & Spanish) Sign up here > One way to help a child comprehend what he is reading is to encourage him to visualize parts of the story in his mind.

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A strategy that helps educators to meaningfully take advantage of students' "unique perspectives" to help their learning through guidance.

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A strategy that helps educators to meaningfully take advantage of "students' unique perspectives" to help their learning through guidance.
How does it work: The teacher picks images that are stimulating enough to link students' thinking with their own "language and culture" to the task. From the student's insights, a bridge is developed through "peer interaction" linking thinking to the content.
As Herrera et al. write, visuals are beneficial because they "evoke emotional responses in learners" especially when they are in "color" ultimately helping students to make vivid connections (14).

Materials Needed - poster papers with pictures in the center (one per group), markers/ colored pencil

* Separate students into groups of four or five * Request students to regroup and review the information placed on their original charts * Allow students few minutes to discuss their overall comprehension of the topic

* Choose no more than four pictures that reflect key concepts or the vocabulary from the lesson (clipart, magazines, or textbook pictures)
* Tape picture in center of poster
* Encourage students to draw/write everything they think/feel when they look at the image in whichever language they choose (1-2 minutes)
* Ask students to circle or connect with a line, the common vocabulary/ideas on their charts (connecting words or synonyms)
* Share with students the academic vocabulary for the day. Ask them to look for associations between the ideas/vocabulary on the poster and the academic vocabulary.
* While they share, encourage them to add the word to the poster.
* Have students use the words on the poster to create a rich description/paragraph of the vocabularies learned (pairs/individuals) or have them create sentences based on the target word with the aide of the information on the poster.
* The product from student work in the lesson can be used for review and/or assessments.
* Ask students to then predict what they think the reading/lesson will be about based on the information on the posters
* As the lesson begins and proceeds, encourage groups to confirm/disconfirm their predictions
* Refer to the posters; give students time to talk about their predictions; clarify their understanding; encourage them to add words that connect to the information on the poster that they learn.
* Allow groups to rotate and do the same for all the other pictures
* As a facilitator, walk around to the posters and circle words/ or indicate the drawings that reflect or depict the target vocabulary for the day. Reflecting on what students bring to this activity is a sign of developing "knowledge one's students."

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A strategy that helps educators to meaningfully take advantage of "students' unique perspectives" to help their learning through guidance. How does it work: The teacher picks images that are stimulating enough to link students' thinking with their own "language and culture" to the task.

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Encourage EL students to become proficient in both their native language and English simultaneously, discuss in class the benefits of being bi-lingual, and teach with multi-cultural themes.

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Reach out to families in their home language to see how they recommend their student is supported in school, create and establish strong connections with families, and integrate student home culture into the classroom.

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- "The silent period." New English learners will listen attentively and may copy a few words from the board.
- How to support: engage students in games of charades and linguistic guessing games, ask "yes/no" or "either/or" questions, provide many listening activities

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- Uses one to two word phrases & responds best to "yes" or "no" questions
- How to support students: use graphic organizers when able, provide sentence stems, ask "yes" or "no" questions, give simple instructions

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Provide visual representations, graphic organizers, guided notes, and a printed version of the PowerPoint slides in advance for ELL students.

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- Students have learned enough language to respond in short, simple phrases. Students can understand two step directions and are able to ask simple questions, although they may not be grammatically correct.
- How to support students: ask open ended questions, model ways to answer and restate directions.

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-ELLs have a vocabulary of 6,000 active words.
-They are beginning to use more complex sentences when speaking and writing and are willing to express opinions and share their thoughts.
Support:
-Guide use of reference materials
-Structure group discussions
-Ask students to create a narrative.

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- Near native speech
- Students can produce written & oral language comparable to native speakers of English of the same age
- Continue on-going language development through language arts & content area activities

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·      Read books in the child’s first language

·      Share songs and rhymes in the child’s first language

·      Pre-teach the topic or vocabulary

·      Use visuals during teaching

·      Use visual scaffolding strips to teach rules and routines

·      Use visual sequencing cards for activities with multiple steps

·      Use visual communication boards so children can participate in discussions, answer questions and share knowledge

·      Slow down, give students time to think and make connections

·      Speak slowly and naturally

·      Encourage children to share in their native language

·      Repeat and review the lessons and vocabulary often

·      Rotate themes and vocabulary regularly to promote vocabulary development

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·      Provide a print rich environment with real items around the room labeled in all languages represented.  Labels should be at children’s eye level, in large print and can be color coded for each language.

·      Directions for routines and schedules are posted with clear images and text. Some examples include the job chart, hand washing, arrival procedure, schedule for the day.

·      Images and text reflecting many cultures and languages are visible to children.   Calendar of multicultural holidays, maps, flags, and photos of places and people in traditional and modern clothing.

·      Incorporate student cultures and invite families to share their traditions, music and foods.

·      In the Dramatic Play Center include pretend foods from a variety of cultures, traditional clothing from a variety of cultures, pictures and posters of people from many cultures working and playing.  Dolls and puppets that are culturally, ethnically, and racially diverse and that combat stereotypes.

·      The library corner includes storybooks and informational books that are easy for young children to follow.  Include books in different languages and books from different from different cultures.

·      Math and Science Center can include games from other cultures, number lines with words in English and Spanish and/or other languages.

·      Art center includes materials from different countries. People-shaded paper, crayons markers and colored pencils in arrange of skin tones.  Pictures of types of art from a variety of cultures.

·      Music center includes; multicultural instruments, recordings, songs, and dances.

·      Snack & Cooking area include ingredients and recipes from a variety of cultures.

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For Families

·      Encourage families to continue speaking their native language at home.  Children must build a strong first language.

·      Provide resources to families on the importance of children building a strong first language.

·      Provide all classroom information in families home language

·      Make parents feel welcome in the classroom, invite their participation

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Ask parents for feedback or what tools they need to support students at home during distance learning and try to create opportunities for students to interact with each other virtually.

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- Flipgrid, Seesaw, Google meet, and Voice thread are helpful tools for ELL students to see and hear students and teachers virtually.

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The more practice that ELL students can get in pronouncing vocabulary terms and speaking with academic English during school and their assignments (or through songs and rhymes), the more comfortable they will be in participating in class.

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Send helpful vocabulary terms to families and students ahead of time, so that students can feel confident and comfortable participating in class when these terms are used.

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Create a predictable classroom routine for your students to follow each day. This will allow ELL students to anticipate the order of class and will ease some anxiety in participating in class.

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Offer students a choice on how to complete assignments, watch/ participate in lessons online (un-muting their microphones vs. typing in the chat), and demonstrate mastery of a concept.

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Both the Gsuite and Microsoft Office platforms allow texts, web calls, and PowerPoints to be translated into various languages.

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Extension wheel activity for Biography-Driven Culturally Responsive Teaching