The lesson topic is about healthy food. This is part of the healthy habits theme.

The last

lesson was about cleanliness, so the students learned about germs and sickness as well as about

washing often and bathing. This food lesson continues the theme. The next lesson will be on

exercising and fitness. After each lesson, students reflect on what they learn that day and have

simple homework that will help them in remembering the lesson for that day. For the cleanliness

lesson, I will send home a note with the student to bring to school one product (shampoo, soap,

hand sanitizer, etc. in a zip lock bag or other secure bag) to share with the class the next day in

the beginning of class. They will then look if other students also have a similar product to

socialize the class. Finding things in common at a young age helps children make friends. The

homework for this lesson is as described. I will be sure to have in the notes for the parents to not

bring foods other students are allergic to. Notes for my ELLs’ parents will always have simple

translations. These translations are possible because my notes will be about simple terms such as

an allergy. For their exercise lesson homework, students can either bring in something related to

sports (ball, dance shoes, jump rope, etc.) or prepare a short demonstration of an exercise they

enjoy.

These lessons in the Healthy Habits unit are not right after each other. I plan to focus on

one content for about two days each, with the second day more about the acquisition and pre-

assessment aids. Non-informative activities about the content will be given to see if students

retained what they learned the day before. Reminders will be constantly scaffolded. Depending

on how well they understand the content, small assessments will be given. Few could be

vocabulary such as matching words to pictures. For this lesson, it could be what foods belong to

a group and if they are healthy or unhealthy. Most of my assessments could be made into games

such as food bingo where I give a description of a food and the students try to figure out the food
(images) on their sheets. An example could be “a vegetable that looks like a green tree” where

the answer is a broccoli. Another idea could have the students do group assessments with sorting

prop foods into bins labeled with each food group then give each student group a food group to

explain. If some students do not know, their other members could help remind them.

The SIOP model consists of eight components: Lesson Preparation, Building

Background, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Interaction, Practice and Application, Lesson

Delivery, and Review and Assessment. In lesson preparation, students should be able to connect

their own knowledge and experiences to the new material in the lesson. Content objectives and

language objectives are included and clearly established. The lesson should be age and

educationally appropriate, so adapting texts and worksheets is needed. This lesson on food

groups is very appropriate for first graders. Support such as charts, pictures, media, graphic

organizers should also be incorporated and are exemplified in my activities. In building

background, it is similar to lesson planning in that concepts should relate to the students’

backgrounds. Healthy habits are a universal concept for everyone. Since this is part of a unit,

past learning and new concepts will be explicitly reminded in my class. I start the lesson with

vocabulary building with picture dictionaries, posters, and worksheets. These vocabularies will

be constantly said by me and repeated by the students as well as implemented in activities, so

students will remember.

In comprehensible input, speech should be appropriate to the students’ language

proficiency. Because the class has both native speakers and ELLs, speaking slowly with

enunciation, repetition, and paraphrasing would help everyone remember important vocabulary

and concepts. Besides speech, body language should be used too along with the visual and

hearing supports. This could be pointing while talking and making facial expressions about
healthy and unhealthy foods. Making a face that shows that a lemon or lime is sour could also

keep the students invested and interested in the content. In strategies, learning techniques should

be explicitly taught such as asking students to repeat pronunciation or handwrite vocabulary

multiple times as ways to retain new information. Others include reading aloud, predicting, and

questioning. In first grade, students are beginning to learn simple reading and writing by

sounding words out since they have already learned the alphabet and what sounds they make in

kindergarten. Having them practice these skills is important for their beginning literacy. These

are all incorporated in my lesson plan. Scaffolding should be used consistently throughout a

lesson. However, it should slowly decrease as the students acquire more language proficiency.

In interaction, students should have many opportunities to communicate in the classroom

community. I planned whole class, small groups, and individual work in my lesson plan.

Discussion, questioning and sharing is very much encouraged in my class based on class

activities and homework I assigned. Native language interactions in my class are not prohibited

so students would feel less affect and accepted. Patience for production is needed, especially for

ELLs. In practice and application, hands-on activities and materials are important tools. The art

activity as well as homework explained are how I used those tools. Students will connect abstract

ideas to tangible concepts better this way. They will also be more engaged to activities that allow

them movement and use all four language skills.

In lesson delivery, everything from clearly stating objectives to the pacing of lessons

should be acknowledged to keep students engaged. Having concepts understandable as well as

hands-on help keep them engaged as well as enhance their retainment of the lesson’s concepts.

Although I have a schedule, the times are flexible depending on the class. Since there are two

days for a concept, the second day will focus on helping students with the concepts. Lastly in
review and assessment, it is important to assess students’ comprehension of concepts and

retainment of vocabulary. That is why my ending has a discussion and questions about the lesson

is encouraged. I will make notes of the questions to answer next class time. Vocabulary will be

used throughout the unit as they relate to each other.

Help for ELLs would include that notes about homework for their parents will have

simple translations. Bringing to school things from their home could open topics to discuss about

different cultures and make ELLs feel more at ease and belonging. Extra assistance will be

offered like in the description and what was mentioned before. When students are grouped, it can

be groups with one ELL in each, two or three in each, or all of them in one group. The last group

will have more of my time to aid them and explain anything they do not understand. For the first

type of grouping, the activity should be simple enough for the ELL to engage with other

students. As activities get more difficult, the latter types of groups would be implemented. The

second grouping could also be if an activity is based on American culture and they would feel

more belonging with a relatable student in the same group. This would be best if the students

spoke the same language and or are from the same country. If an activity requires much more

language proficiency than my ELLs have, I would group all of them together to either guide

them through the instructions or give them a different, but related activity fitted to their language

proficiency. Practice for reading and writing will be given as well if needed. Hopefully my

presence in their small groups will relieve problems with listening and speaking. Visual, verbal,

and physical aids will help ELLs as well as let me know that they do understand concepts

whether they lack the language or not.