List the way’s concepts will be linked to student’s background experiences-I will explain the concept of beginning, middle, and end by using student’s daily life as examples.  I will visually chart examples of their days and then label beginning, middle, and end  

·  Beginning, middle, end of our school day

·    Beginning, middle, end of lunchtime

·    Beginning, middle, end of silent reading time

 Links between past learning and new concepts

I will relate to story order First, Then, Next, Last used in first grade. I will also build on students understanding of characters and setting from first grade.  The last thing I will do is explicitly teach that the beginning, middle, end is the plot using parts of a story song

II. Link to past experiences: Teacher will display writing samples and discuss guided reading scenarios wherein students problem-solved through the process of working through difficult words to write (construct) and read (deconstruct). Emphasis will be placed on the importance of having knowledge of discrete sounds in words to strengthen their reading and writing skills.  

Visuals- show students familiar pictures to get them to see different letters in their environment 

Videos- show students popular YouTube videos they love to watch and point out different print in video.

Ways links will be made between past learning & new concepts:

Have discussion with students about places they have seen different letters- through symbols like M-McDonalds, W-Wendy’s. This will get them to see letters in their environment and they will be able to point them out and name the letters.

Key vocabulary emphasized:

Consonants, vowels, alphabet, sounds, examples, letter recognition

Word sort- students will be given a list of words to cut out, then they will place words in groups according to the first letter the word begins with. The words will also have pictures to go with them because I have beginning learners, Pre-K students.

Word wall- as a whole group, students will make a list of words that begin with our letter of the week (with help from teacher). The words will then be place under the correct letter on the class word wall. The words will also have pictures to go with them because I have beginning learners, Pre-K students. 

Word study book- students will be given a list of words to cut out and then glue the words with the same beginning letter in their word book under the specific first letter of the word. The words will also have pictures to go with them because I have beginning learners, Pre-K students.

 

Questions for Video: “Academic Language”

1.     Academic language differs from the English we use in everyday life in many ways.  Where language that we use in everyday life has repeated words and the use of slang, academic language uses a variety of high level vocabulary and does not use slang. Some misconceptions people might have about academic language development include that words can be taught easily in isolation. This is a misconception, as words cannot be learned without their context, therefor it is important that words are taught in context and that they are practiced. Another misconception some may have about academic language development is that 

 

2.     Our school does not have an effective, comprehensive academic language curriculum in place. The curriculum we have put into place in my school consists of workshop-based instruction in both reading and writing. We do not have a science or social studies curriculum. Our math curriculum involves a lot of group work and some small group work. In most cases, vocabulary words are not explicitly taught or even noted. While I often teach academic language to my students, we do not have a comprehensive academic language curriculum in place. 

 

3.     As a kindergarten teacher, I teach reading, writing, phonics, math, social studies, and science. For this question I will focus on teaching my students academic language from our science lesson. Students are expected to understand that sound is the result of vibration. In order to teach the word wave as it relates to sound, I presented the word to my students and asked them to think about what the word may mean or if they have heard that word before. I then introduced the topic with an engaging activity in which students were able to listen to a tuning fork that was then put into water. The students could then see the waves created. This visual representation and the fact that I presented the academic vocabulary in context allowed many of my students to understand the word wave and to actually make the connection that sound is made from waves.  This is just a beginning lesson that will lead my kindergarten class to know that sound is the result of vibration. 

 

SIOP Component: Building Background HW

a)     Some ways in which I would build background knowledge for 6^th grade ESL students would be by showing students an engaging video about animal adaptations like this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNqiclBUxdY. This would give students a bit of background knowledge about other animals that have made adaptations in order to survive. It would also provide visuals for students to rely on. 

Another way that I would build students’ background knowledge on this topic would be by pre-teaching the vocabulary found in the passage. Some vocabulary words found in this passage that may be troublesome to intermediate ESL students that are not explicitly defined in the passage may be, physical features, regulate, behavioral, and adaptations. I would introduce these words to my students with visuals to accompany them. I would provide students with an opportunity to match the words with their corresponding definitions in a small group. 

b)    Content Vocabulary          

1.     Thermoregulation

2.     Hibernation

3.     Migration

 

General Academic Vocabulary  

1.     Temperature

2.     Physical features

3.     Adaptations

4.     Behavioral

 

Word parts (roots/affixes) 

1.     Structure+al

2.     Adapt+ation

3.     Small+er

4.     Fast+est

c)     In order to teach the word thermoregulation I would use the read aloud strategy described in our text book on page 81. Read Aloud includes using videos and other supplemental materials to increase a student’s background knowledge. I would use this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJEBfl_LKno that gives several examples, visuals and fairly simple language to describe thermoregulation. 

 

 

R.L. 4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text. 

To build background knowledge, I would begin by showing the Lion and Mouse folklore video.  We would discuss the moral of the story -  what did the author want us to learn?  (turn and talk). This links to 3^rd grade content (morals and folklore).  Students would then discuss whether theme is similar to a moral.  

5 key vocabulary words included in this unit would be theme, arrive, raise, summary, and local.  Arrive, local and raise would be practiced through the four corners activity.  Theme will be re-explained through a video then students would create a poster of what theme means, and the word summary will be reviewed in a pair-share activity. 

ELA RI4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.

To build background for 2 Swahili students and to assess what students may already know about landforms. I gave the SIOP activity Pretest with a Partner. This activity is a pencil/paper test but I adapted the format to match the picture to the landform name. The science teacher has asked that I focus my interventions on key vocabulary L1 Swahili students will need to use in Landforms and Processes Unit. We are beginning with 4 landforms, mountain, valley, hill and plains. Working with a partner students cut then glued the pictures to the vocabulary words.

I participated in a professional development session recently about accessing complex texts.  We were given an advanced science text and told to read it and decipher the meaning.  Most principal were unable to do so and those that could, had a background in science.  Then, we were provided additional materials such as a chart and a couple other more simplified articles.  After, we read the complex text again and were asked to answer the same questions from the first exposure to the text.  It became evident we understood the text much more once provided other materials to build our background knowledge.

There are multiple ways to build background knowledge in the classroom.  New content vocabulary can be categorized to develop concepts and identify relationships.  Using an analogy (such as, cake is to dessert as banana is to fruit) can bridge the gap between something new to something the student already knows.  Multimedia is always a consistent option for building background knowledge.  There are videos, pictures, Google Earth, supporting leveled texts, podcasts, and more on various topics.