Staying Home
Title of Project: Staying Home
Schools and Teachers
The Wheatley School Teacher: Tara Dennington
ENL Proficiency Level | ENL Program | Standards | Technology
Appropriate for all levels | Stand-Alone | 9-10R2, 9-10SL5, 9-10L3 | Hyperdocs, Flipgrid
Assessments
Formative: Students will respond to various prompts with simple sentences.
Summative: Students will write a paragraph and present the information in this paragraph in the form of a Flipgrid video.
Description
This lesson took place during remote learning. It intends to address the socio-emotional development of the students during the current circumstances. This 5-part lesson delivered in the form of a Hyperdoc focuses on staying home and staying busy during social distancing.
Content
I can read texts at an appropriate level to recognize various details in a text.
Language
I can read informal texts at an appropriate level and use Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) along with given sentence starters to respond to a prompt orally and in writing.
Technology
I can use various types of technology including Hyperdocs and Flipgrid to intake and produce information in English.
Procedure
Students are familiar with Hyperdocs. The document will be assigned in Google Classroom and a copy will be made for each student to complete. Throughout the document, students must click on the picture in each section in order to find the links to the various materials they will use.
Engage: Students will click on the picture of a germ to find a cartoon depicting a person trapped in their apartment during the pandemic. Students will be prompted to list 5 things that they see in the image. Then, students will be asked to analyze the meaning of the cartoon. This section prompts students to produce written language solely off of a visual.
Expand: In order to frontload vocabulary, students will be asked to translate and define several new words that will be found in the subsequent assigned reading. A link to wordreference.com is included in this section. This section encourages English vocabulary development.
Explore: Students will each be assigned a color to coincide with their reading level. Lower proficiency students are purple, intermediate proficiency students are yellow, and higher proficiency students are green. Students will click on the shape in their color in order to find a reading that is appropriate for their level. The article was found on Newsela.com. It is the same article at 3 different reading levels. Students will read the article and write 3 things that astronauts recommend doing during isolation. This section serves to encourage the development of reading skills; primarily reading for detail.
Apply: Students will use the information in the previous sections and their prior knowledge to explain their social distancing experience in paragraph form. Students will be given several sentence starters including, “staying home makes me feel…,” “I have been…,” “I have started…,” and “I would like to…,” in order to provoke full and thoughtful sentences. Sentence starters serve as a support for lower proficiency students but they are not a requirement. This section encourages development of writing skills; primarily expressing opinion in the first person.
Share: Students will create a Flipgrid explaining their experience during this period of social distancing. Students may read the paragraph that they wrote in the previous section or they may include other ideas that they have. Allowing students to read their paragraph serves as a support for reluctant speakers. Students must speak in their Flipgrid but do not need to include their picture. This section encourages development of speaking skills, primarily articulation of appropriate language.
Resources and Other Materials
The assignment was delivered to students via Google Classroom.
The assignment is presented in the form of a Hyperdoc.
Students will use a photo prompt from the New York Times, a NewsELA article, and Flipgrid to complete the assignment.
Reflection
While technology is always a useful tool to use in the classroom, it has become essential during this period of remote learning. But new technology can become overwhelming for both the teacher and the student - it can be difficult to introduce new tools to students when you cannot be there to explain how it works. I have been favoring Hyperdocs as my method of assigning work to my students during this period. I find them to be well organized and clear. They tactfully combine any links and directions for an assignment into one document while leaving space for student responses. My students understand how to use them and the routine eliminates student apprehension, leaving room for them to focus on their language acquisition. Meanwhile, Flipgrid encourages my students to use their voices. I have several students that could easily spend this time of social distancing without speaking English once. While it cannot replace authentic conversation, Flipgrid is another opportunity for students to use their voices outside of Google Hangouts. While I’ve noticed my students becoming overwhelmed by the influx of new software being used in all of their classes, consistency with the software used and the slow introduction of new technology has helped my students tremendously.