Academic

Language

Planning for Academic Language

Edith Romero

University of Southern California

Discipline: Continuity and Change Grade Level: 3

Subject Matter Focus: Social Studies Skill Focus: Compare

Standard(s): Identify and list the state’s Core Content Curriculum Standards that are addressed by this lesson’s
learning objectives, activities, and assessments.

3.2 Students describe the American Indian nations in their local region long ago and in the
recent past

o 4. Discuss the interaction of new settlers with the already established Indians of the
region.


Objective(s): Articulate one to two measurable learning objectives that you intend your students to be able to
demonstrate by the end of this single lesson.

Students will compare the interactions of Native Americans and European settlers by researching on the
internet or through encyclopedias and will then present their findings to the class using a trifold presentation.

Model of Teaching – Group Investigation: Based on your stated learning objectives, articulate how will you
utilize this model of teaching to support learning by ALL students in your classroom during this lesson.

This model of teaching is beneficial because it allows students to create their own questions based on visuals
that they encounter. They are then able to find information to answer these questions and present their
findings to the class. This lesson includes multiple forms of teaching and learning that is at the reach of all
students. It will help ELs by being able to work in groups and having a chance to present. Some theories that are
supported in this lesson are: acquisition learning hypothesis, interactionist hypothesis, and comprehensible
output.

Acquisition learning theory is present in the lesson with the multiple cues that are in the classroom to help with
the student groups. There will be a poster displayed for student group roles which will help so students can
refer back to it while they are working with each other.

Interactionist hypothesis is the theory that is most prominent in this lesson. Student begin by working with a
partner in the beginning to discuss what they have seen in the images that are shown. They are then given
another opportunity to work together in small groups where they are constantly exchanging information and
knowledge. Finally, the product of the lesson is another opportunity for the students to share their information
and receive positive feedback.

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Comprehensible output is present in the lesson where the students are able to share out with the whole class
what their group has found. This provides the students with a chance to vocalize the information that they have
read and written about.

Key Concepts and Academic Language Terms: After you draft the rest of this lesson, identify the key concepts
and academic language words or terms utilized in the lesson.

Native Americans
Settlers
Conflict

Syntax Learning Experience: Describe the Script: Articulate the guiding questions, explicit
ACTION STEPS taken by the teacher instructions, and stimulus for discourse the
and the students within each learning teacher provides to facilitate and stimulate
experience/phase below. learning.
Present the Teacher will:
Puzzlement Present the images of the American
(Independent, Indians and the European settlers and
small group, allow the students to have time to
and/or whole discuss what they are observing in the
group) two images. 15 minutes total on this
section.

Learners will:
Attentively observe the two images
and pair share what they observe.
T: Today we will be learning more about
the Native tribes of our area. The tribe that
we will be focusing on is the Chumash
Indians. I am about to show you a picture
that shows European settles with native
Americans. I would like to clarify that
these images are not specifically of the
Chumash, but your research will be.

T- For now, I want you to simply look at

the picture and think about any questions
that may come up. Anything that comes to
your mind as soon as the picture is posted.

(Give 3 minutes to talk)

T-Now that you have had some time to

think about what you see, please take the
next 5 minutes and talk with your table
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partners. It is okay to have questions; we

will answer them!

S: Do we have to talk about anything

specifically?

T: Talk about what you see. Talk about the

questions that came to your mind and why
you think you thought about those
questions.

(Give 5 minutes to talk)

T-Now, I will show you a different picture

and I want you to do the same thing, but
now with this next picture.

T-Take 5 minutes and talk with your table

partners about the second picture. Discuss
somethings that you notice that are the
same and some that are different.

(Give 5 minutes to talk)

Solicit Questions Teacher will: T-Since all we know is what we see in the
from Students Prompt students to share what they photos, what are some questions that have
(Whole Group) observed in the photos and question popped up in your discussion with the
what they do not know.

people at your table? Questions about the
5-10 minutes depending on how two photos are okay.
many questions the students are able
to come up with. Possible student responses:

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S-Are the Native Americans happy?

Learners will: S-Why are they fighting in one picture but
Create questions seem to be friends in the other picture?


S- Who are they?
S-Where are they?
S- Why are they dressed like that?

T-Great! These are all very thought

provoking questions!
Research Teacher will: T- You all came up with very interesting
(Small Group) Give further instructions about how questions! Now you will have the chance
they will continue to gather
to find the answers to some of those
information to answer their questions.

questions. For the rest of the day today,
10 minutes. you will have time to work with a small
group to choose a questions that you will
be focusing on. This questions will serve
Learners will: as the basis for your final product which
Begin to navigate the internet to be will be your presentation. As a group you
able to gather information to be able will introduce to the class, your question
to present their findings about the
and all of the information that you found.
questions that they developed.

If you have any questions after you do the
research, make sure to inform the class of
those as well.

T-In your groups, you will have to work

together to find the answers to your
questions. You will have to use the
internet for that while some of you will be
using Encyclopedias. I will make sure that
you know who will be using which
resources for your assignment. Are there
any questions so far?

S- How long does it have to be?

T- For your presentation, you will have to

create a poster board as a group. Make
sure to obtain as much information as
necessary to make sure you can answer
questions that your peers may have for
you.

S-Who has to do what? Do we all have to do
something?

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T-Yes! You each have roles, that you will assign to

yourselves. The roles are written on the board, as
they have been for every group assignment.
Please make sure to write own each role and who
will be doing it and turn that in to me as soon as
you get into a group.

Group roles:
1. Scribe
a. Will be writing down the findings
2. Illustrator
a. Will be creating the drawings for
the assignment
3. Director
a. Will make sure that everybody is
keeping on task and time is not
being wasted
4. Speaker
a. Will be the main person to
present the information found in
the presentation
5. Researcher
a. The main person to look up
information that will answer the
question
Share and Teacher will: T- Make sure that your title is the question
Summarize Provide materials for students to that you focused on. You need to use text
(Whole Group) create a poster board for their final
and images to show what you found as an
presentation of their findings.

answer to your question.
Learners will:
Work as a team to create a poster (students will have 45 minutes to gather
board that includes information)

(following day, students will have 30
minutes to create poster board
presentation)

T-Here are some sentence starters to get

you ready for your presentation. Please use
them as you need!

● Let me tell you about_______.

● Did you know________.
● I know many things about
__________.
● I can describe__________.
● I learned about _____________.

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● It is fun to learn
about___________.
● One thing I know is ___________.
● In conclusion, I learned a lot about
_________.
● Therefore, ________.
● All in all _________.
● Finally __________

T-Each group has 10 minutes to present

their findings to the class. Audience,
Please make sure
Recycle Teacher will: T- From our research, we will always
(Independent, Facilitate discussion to ensure that come up with more questions because we
small group, students continue to think and learn about something that we did not
and/or whole develop questions from what was
group) found through their research.
know about before. That is okay, that is
the beauty of learning, there is always
Learners will: something new to learn about. As you all
Continue the conversation and will presented, you all had some new question
create more questions to take into come up. For the remainder of the class,
consideration for the future. you will be given the opportunity to create
a retrieval chart, a poster, where you write

down the questions your group had, and
any new questions that may have come up.

Informal Assessments Formal Assessments

Describe any informal assessment of student
learning that occurs during the lesson in
which you receive students’ learning data, but
do not record that data. For example, verbal
responses to questions or ungraded group
presentations. Assessments should promote
learning and inform instruction.
Describe any formative assessment tasks
given during the lesson in which students’
learning data is collected and recorded. For
example, journal reflections, independent
written work, group presentations evaluated
with a rubric. Assessments should promote
learning and inform instruction.

Students will present their overall findings

Exit ticket- what is one thing that you learned after they have constructed a poster board
about the native Americans or the Settlers. with visual and text








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Lesson Resources: List all the learning resources, teaching materials, and digital learning apps or instructional
technology to be used by the students to achieve the learning objective during the lesson. You must show
where in the lesson (code the lesson) these resources appear. In addition to completing this written lesson
plan, you must provide copies of all learning resources, assessments, and rubrics that the students will
encounter during the lesson, such as worksheets, performance tasks, instructions for an activity, etc.


Pictures
Laptops/tablets for students to research
Encyclopedias in case computers do not work









A. Academic Language Bank

Academic Language Bank

Function: Compare
Forms:
● The_____seem happy but _______do not.
● The ____ did _______.
● Let me tell you about_______.
● Did you know________.
● I know many things about __________.
● I can describe__________.
● I learned about _____________.
● It is fun to learn about___________.
● One thing I know is ___________.
● In conclusion, I learned a lot about _________.
● Therefore, ________.
● All in all _________.
● Finally __________
● Cue words:
○ But
○ While
○ Differing
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○ Same
○ whereas
Vocabulary

Content Academic

Chumash European

Settlers research

Encyclopedias

B. Explanation

The lesson is about comparing the way in which European settlers interacted with the

natives of the region. The lesson allows for students to work in group and choose a focus

question for the unit. They are then instructed to work as a team to gather information about their

selected question. This allows for students to work with others and participate in communication

that requires the input and output of information on the part of all learners but requires extra

effort from the ELs. For this reason, the sentence stems would be a helpful way for students to

know how to begin their thoughts, especially on a topic that is difficult to process. The sentence

stems provided range in where they can be used. They can be used in the writing portion of their

presentation assignment as well as in the verbal portion. Ideally, the sentence frames would be

made into a retrieval chart so that it is accessible by all students without having to single out the

students that may need more support and thus use the sentence frames more than other students.

The cue words would also be helpful for students that are expanding to give them an extra

support.

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C. Explicit Use Throughout Lesson

I would incorporate the sentence frames in the section share and summarize section of the

lesson. This would be a way for the students to have a guidance on how to structure the

information that they gather through their research. This would also help with alleviating any

stress that they may acquire from knowing that they have to present their information in front of

the class, which would add to the affective filter hypothesis (1982). I would also make sure to

use the vocabulary explicitly by creating a chart with the students as I use the terminology in the

lesson. Most of the terms would be used in the beginning of the lesson when the students are first

exposed to the content. This would be when I would use my premade cards with the terms, and

put them on the board as I am using them, as well as repeating the definition about the word.

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References

Lantoff, J. P., & Thorne, S. L. (2006). Sociocultural theory and second language learning. In B.

Van Patten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in second language acquisition (pp 201-224).

Li,N., & Destino, T. (2016). ELLs and L2 acquisition theories. In N. Li (Ed), Teaching ELLs

across content areas: Issues and strategies (pp 21-48).

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