Artifacts of Lesson 2

Above are my classmates completed family trees.  Overall, my "students" did a great job!  There were several grammatical errors within each, but they all were willing to try - for the most part.  They all began to sympathize with my practicum students as well - my real reason for completing this lesson.  

El Arbol de mi Familia Reflection! :)

1. Why Spanish? I chose to complete my lesson plan in Spanish because I wanted my classmates to change their perspective about English Language Learners education.  Not knowing correct vocabulary, conjugations, or English Syntax are just a few of the difficulties that my SEI students face each day.  My students are also expected to know every single aspect of the English Language, while their Native Speaking Counterparts can get by without knowing the definitions of a verb, adjective, etc.  I think the College of Education doesn’t provide a thorough education for teachers that want to teach in an SEI environment - BME 430 is the only mandatory class for NAU students.
2. Implementation

·         Good Things:  Two of my students were very engaged and willing to try completing paragraphs with their Limited Spanish Proficiency.  It was so cute reading their paragraphs and seeing the errors within each paragraph.  The amount of effort they put in without knowledge was great and I was proud of them for trying!  Considering their lack of Spanish, their scores for the Spanish placement quiz were good - Lindsay got a 6/10 and Amanda got a 5/10!

·         Bad Things: I had a student with a low level of Spanish knowledge and because of this, she didn’t want to complete the assignment.  It was interesting comparing her reactions to Spanish to my SEI students.  I guess no matter what age, no one like doing something they don’t know how to do and looking “stupid”.

·         Maintenance of Standards: My standards emphasized the student’s ability to communicate in creative ways through writing and speaking.  Throughout the lesson, my students were given the creativity to design their family tree and write about their relatives.  I provided the students with a vague rubric to ensure the highest level of creativity and personal expression could be used.  

·         Modifications During LP: Overall, I completed this lesson as I thought I would.  The only modification that was made was allowing one of the students to use Google translate to complete her assignment - she knew very very little Spanish and wouldn’t have completed the assignment without it.  First, I tried to tell her to introduce 3 family members instead of 5, but she found little success within that area as well.  However, I did tell her that the students in my SEI classroom didn’t speak English at the beginning of the year, yet they are expected to complete assignments as is.

·         Modifications: If I were to complete this lesson plan again, I would make sure my students had a strong foundation of Spanish adjectives, I would also grade my students writing and make them correct their mistakes and resubmit the assignment.  While I was in Spanish, my teachers love doing this step because it makes the students focus on their mistakes and understanding grammatically correct Spanish.

3.            Mechanics:

·         Technologies:  Our class used computers, Lucidchart, and Google docs.

·         How were they used: The students each used their own computer to create a flow chart of some sort on Google docs.  Once they were finished with their family tree, they added a paragraph introducing their family members at the bottom of the document.  Finally, the students could share their creations with the other members of the class and edit them.

·         Time Frame:  My lesson plan was within the correct time frame or ran a few minutes late.  This was because my students stayed on task the entire time and kept moving through their instructions - each of the students worked and their own pace and was successful in their own way.

4.            Assessment of Learning

·         Artifacts: I will be submitting the artifacts separately.  Each of my students completed family trees and paragraphs will be uploaded displaying their success.

·         Student’s Success: Overall, there were a lot of errors within each of my student’s paragraphs, but I knew they would be filled with errors.  As stated before, I wanted to change some of my classmate’s perspective about SEI education to help them understand how hard those students work.

·         My Success: I thought the lesson plan went well, and I achieved my overarching goal of making my classmates be English Language Learners.  I’m happy with my students results because they showed a level of attempting and wanting to be successful in Spanish.  If this was a real class, I think my expectations would be higher and they would have more Spanish knowledge.

·         Individual Reflection: I know I should have focused on building my students knowledge of Spanish, but I also think some lessons that need to be taught don’t come from the state standards.  Technically my lesson would have served its purposed based on the standards - just no with the people I taught it to.

·         Classmate Comments: One of my classmates was angry that we completed it in Spanish, but I assumed one of them would be angry that they had to write in Spanish.  The other two students had fun challenging themselves and remembering Spanish.  So, the amount of the Spanish my students remembered influenced how much success and pleasure they had completing the assignment.  As for the tech aspect, they all were successful in creating their family trees.

Lesson Plan Phase 1 - Family Tree in Spanish!

Grade Level: 7th Grade

Subject(s): Spanish

Topic of Study: Mi familia

Time Allotment: 30 - 60 mins

Standards:  For spanish standards, many schools use the 5 C’s - communication, culture, connections, comparison, community

1.0 Communication: Communicate effectively in more than one language in order to function in a variety of situations and for multiple purposes.

• 1.1 Interpersonal Communication: Learners interact and negotiate meaning in spoken, signed, or write
• 1.3 Presentational Communication: Learners present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media and adapting to various audiences of listeners, readers, or viewers

3.0 Connections: Connect with other disciplines and acquire information and diverse perspectives in order to use the language to function in academic and career-related situations

• 3.1 Making Connections: Learners build, reinforce, and expand their knowledge of other disciplines while using the language to develop critical thinking and to solve problems creatively.

Objectives:

-Students will be able to create a family tree using google docs to demonstrate their spanish knowledge of the simple present tense with 80% accuracy.

Reflection:

Prior knowledge

Before: My students should have a basic understanding of Spanish syntax and vocabulary before we complete this lesson.  Because the formation of sentences is important for their final paragraph, it is important that the students understand the grammar rules - this lesson should be taught after competency of sentence formation is established.

Assessment of PK: Before the students begin their project, I will give them a short quiz about the different aspects of spanish grammar (simple present tense).  This will allow me to assess their level and grade them according to their Spanish ability.  I will be providing informational and vocabulary sheets to my students to help them with their gaps.

Using PK to Plan: I will think about the different ways I can help students whose L1 is English - providing vocab, sentence structure, crash courses in Spanish.  With these tools, their chance of success increases; I will also be walking around helping them during the lesson.

Planning Instruction

Why this grade level: Personally, I think all of our schools should be teaching second languages at younger ages.  When you teach other languages to young children, they are more likely to verbally practice, have a better accent, and develop a deeper understanding.  However, with the current standards, second language acquisition isn’t as popular as it is in other countries, causing me to settle on 7th grade.

Standard Alignment: My lesson will help my students build interpersonal communications skills (writing) and improve their grammar.  They will also get the chance to reference their family tree when creating their sentences and have a way to present their writing.

When to Teach:  This lesson should be taught after the students have learned the simple past tense.  After that, this unit would be a great opportunity for them to practice the present tense while using descriptive vocabulary about families, jobs, and characteristics.  This would provide the students with the foundations they need to have the most opportunity for success.

IMPLEMENTATION

Prior Knowledge

• Assess the prior knowledge of the students with a quiz on basic spanish grammar
• Link to quiz https://docs.google.com/a/nau.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc7Rzc_Rn1hdzRX4zk1hh3LdFO2e1YJ5XGw-jzqLGTM8YHTuQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Instruction

• Introduce the computer program (Lucidchart) they will be using to create their family tree
• Log each of the students onto the computers and have them begin working on their family tree
• Pass out vocabulary sheets and basic sentence formation refreshers
• Help the students create their family trees
• Once their family tree is created, have the students save the image and upload it to another google doc
• Here they will write two sentences introducing 5 members of their family and themselves.

Conclusion

• Edit each other’s sentences

ISTE Standards:

• 6. Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

a. choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their

creation or communication.

b. create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new

creations.

c. communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of

digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.

I focused on this list of standards when creating my lesson plan.  The family tree is a model that the students will create and use to build their writing skills.

Reflection:

Instructional Methods: When I was taking spanish classes, my teacher relied on memorization of verbs, grammar, and vocab - we never applied our information into projects or activities like this one.  I think this lesson gives the students an applicable and fun activity to help them practice their sentence formation and vocab,

Alignment to Methods: Our courses talk about using authentic learning methods - I think constructing a family tree and writing about it will make a memory for my students.  This will help their retention of the vocab and sentence structure as well.

Technology Alignment:

How does your integration of technology support what you know about best practices for technology integration in the classroom? (Use the the ISTE standards and research that you and your classmates did as a resource)

Needs of Students:

How is your lesson designed to meet the needs of all students? ? (Use the the UDL guidelines as a resource)

ASSESSMENT

• Prior Knowledge Test:

I made a quiz on google forms for my students to take to establish their baseline Spanish knowledge.

https://docs.google.com/a/nau.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc7Rzc_Rn1hdzRX4zk1hh3LdFO2e1YJ5XGw-jzqLGTM8YHTuQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

• Rubric:

This is the rubric I will be to grade the student's descriptions of their family tree.

	Yes	No
Family Tree Created
Introduced self
Introduced 5 other family members
Minimum of 10 sentences
At least 6 different verbs used
At least 5 different family vocab words used
Edited another student’s work

Reflect on:

Alignment:

Student Success: The students will finish this lesson with a paragraph describing their family, this will show the teacher whether they are understanding the previous lessons and provide the students with feedback about their writing.  I think the best way to display success and knowledge of a subject is to provide an explanation or essay using the skills they should have acquired.

Higher Order Thinking:  When my students have to edit another person’s paragraph, they will have to think about the different grammar rules of Spanish.  This will cause them to focus more on what the paragraph is saying and improve their language skills.

Individual Needs:  This lesson plan hopes to use the student’s background to help tie into writing curriculum.  This lesson plan can also be extended or remediated depending on the Spanish proficiency within each student - some can introduce 3 family members and other can introduce 7.  Our society heavily relies on written language and this helps build their skills in those areas.  

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Teacher Example of Family Tree

Hola, me llamo Brenna. Soy una estudiante a NAU y quiero ser una maestra.  Tengo una madre, se llama Lisa.  Ella es una ama de casa, pero ella es una maestra también.  Por la otra parte, tengo un padre, Doug.  Mi padre trabaja por una iglesia.  Tengo dos hermanos, Connor y Patric.  Ellos son estudiantes también, Patric quiere ser un ingeniero y Connor espera ser un poeta un día. En la familia de mi padre, tengo un abuelo se llama George.  Mi abuelo es chevere!  George es un veterano de la guerra de Corea y un veterinario.  La esposa de George es mi abuela, Gloria.  Ella es una ama de casa también; todos los mujeres en mi familia son amas de casas.

I’ll be providing these for my students as well

Lesson Plan Phase II artifacts