Client information

The client for this comprehensive instructional design plan is Brittan Parker. Her email address is parker.brittan@fcboe.org and her Georgia Certification ID is 1512430. She is in her seventh year as an English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher at Oak Grove Elementary. She serves students in all grades starting with Kindergarten through fifth grades. She serves roughly 50-60 students all by herself. For some grade levels, she pulls the students out and works with them in a small group on standards-based instruction in a way they can understand. Other times, she goes into the classroom to help the students and collaboratively work with the grade level teacher. She is constantly looking for new ways to engage her learners in ways that are meaningful and accessible for them.

Instructional problem

The instructional problem that we are focusing on is the fact that her second graders struggle with the concept of compound words. According to the standard, students must be able to use what they know about each individual word in order to gather the meaning of the new word when those two individual words are put together. Obviously, for students whose native language is not English, they will struggle to understand the concept of a lighthouse if they do not recognize the word light and house. To English speakers, this is a skill that most students master quickly. To ESOL students, they often do not get extra time to practice this skill since the rest of the class moves on quickly.

Instructional model

The ADDIE model of instruction was used during the development of this plan. I first analyzed the need of the learners. By discussing in detail with Mrs. Parker, I was able to understand that there is a great need for remediation and re-designed artifacts for ESOL students learning compound words. Mrs. Parker stated that students never quite master the standard and are always in the 50-60% range at best on compound words in their Lexia intervention program. Next, I designed a lesson that would engage the students by using visual cues. I developed the actual materials that were needed for the lesson: an engaging slideshow for lesson use, infographic for student use, and an assessment for students to complete. I implemented the lesson by giving it to Mrs. Parker. Since it is summer, she utilized it with a student group she is tutoring. They are primarily Spanish speakers. Lastly, we evaluated how well the students understood the concept by asking them to create their own visual that would explain a compound word. I also evaluated the overall lesson and artifact efficiency with Mrs. Parker. We discussed what went well and what could be more helpful next time.

Re-designed lesson

The lesson begins with a hook to engage the students (see artifact 1). The teacher will show the students a picture of grass. Then, the teacher will show someone hopping. The teacher will ask the students to put those two together: grass + hopper = grasshopper. Then the teacher will introduce the concept of a compound word. Students will engage in several different visual examples and orally repeat each individual word, as well as the combined compound word. Throughout each individual image, students will describe each picture and what the meaning of each image and word is. Once students have gone through several examples such as goldfish and rainbow, the teacher will then allow the students to talk to their peers in small groups to see if they can brainstorm any compound words they may know. The students will be able to view visuals on slide 11 in artifact 1 that represent different compound words. Students may choose to use the visuals for support. If the students come up with a compound word, they can tell the teacher so the teacher can write it on a sticky note. If the ESOL group is prepared enough to write the word themselves, they can do that as well. The teacher will then give feedback and share with the class the list of compound words that they have created. The teacher will then show the class the infographic on compound words that will remain hanging in the classroom for student reference (see artifact 2).

Assessing and Evaluating the Lesson

To wrap up the lesson, students will complete a small assessment so that the teacher can check for understanding. In artifact 3, you will see an example I have created for students to reference. Students must create their own representation of a compound word. However, students must choose a compound word in which the individual words help the reader understand the meaning of the compound word. For example, they cannot choose butterfly since many students would draw butter and a fly when butter has nothing to do with the meaning of butterfly. However, students may choose an option like baseball in which base and ball’s individual meanings help the reader to understand the meaning of the compound word, baseball. The teacher will give feedback throughout and take notes to see who needs to review this topic the following day.

Explanation of Artifacts

**All artifacts are embedded at the bottom of this page**

Artifact 1:

This artifact is a presentation to guide the teacher throughout the lesson. This presentation utilizes visuals to aid in comprehension for ESOL students. The concept of a compound word is presented in basic terms so that the students are not only engaged, but can also make meaning out of what they are learning. The design is not overcrowded and allows the students to focus in on what matters. The students are repeating each word orally after hearing their teacher speak the words so that students are now only visually seeing the example, but also hearing and speaking it.

Artifact 2: This artifact is an infographic to hang in the classroom so that students can reference it throughout the year once they have moved on to learning about other standards. It is a very simplified way to remind students how to determine the meaning of most compound words. The colors and fonts are consistent. The text is large enough to be read from the back of the classroom. The infographic is not busy and would not overwhelm the reader’s eyes. Instead, its simplicity will allow the reader to easily understand the concept.

Artifact 3:

This artifact is a short video I created to show students an example of how to do the formative assessment. It could be linked on a class page so that students could go back and watch the example multiple times if they needed to hear or see something more than once.

ACRL Visual and Literacy Competency Standards

This comprehensive plan addresses several of the ACRL Visual and Literacy Competency Standards. The first standard addressed is standard one which states that “the visually literate student determines the nature and extent of the visual materials needed” (ACRL, 2011). The students in the lesson must identify and describe key concepts about each individual image when forming the compound word. This description and understanding helps them to describe the details of the compound word visual. This plan also addresses standard 2 which discusses the identification of a variety of sources. In the lesson, there are digital graphics, hand-drawn illustrations, and even a video recording of an illustration on a computer screen. All three of these formats are shown to students, but they are all helping the students gain understanding of the images.

Reflection

It was very impactful to work with our ESOL teacher. We collaborate often, but being able to intentionally seek out specific ways to engage ESOL second grade students into learning compound words was fun. I was able to use what I have learned in this class, as well as what I know works well for ESOL students in general to create the lesson. I was sure to involve not only visual graphics and text, but also auditory portions such as speaking and repeating. This was sure to solidify the concepts.

References

ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2011). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy.