A Day in The Life (Grade 8)

Title of Project: A Day in The Life (Grade 8)

What does a typical day in my life look like and how does it compare to others?

Schools and Teachers

Wantagh Middle School Teacher: Franco A. Zagari

ENL Proficiency Level | ENL Program | Standards | Technology

Entering, Emerging | Stand-Alone, Integrated ENL/ELA | 8SL4; 8SL5; 8L6 | Book Creator, Pear Deck, Nearpod

Assessments

Each portion of the unit includes vocabulary sets and phrases, in-class discussions, comparisons, homeworks, and mini-assessments: traditional quizzes, writing assignments, Schoology quizzes, Pear Deck, Nearpod. The summative assessment will be the students’ story that is compiled with Book Creator.

Description

The project is called “A Day in the Life.” All of the ELLs in the district will be constructing a project with the same title. I have two 8th grade ELLs that are new entrants. One from China and one from Mexico. To help with vocabulary building, we chose to do “A Day in the Life” for a typical school day. For the final project, the students will create a digital storybook using Book Creator about a typical day in their lives during a school day. The story will take us through their morning routine, getting to school, their day at school, after school routine, evening routine, and bedtime routine. To be able to tell their stories, the students will build on new vocabulary that is essential not just for this project but to build their overall English proficiency through everyday language.

Content

I can talk about my morning and evening routine on a school day.

I can highlight my favorite activities and classes at school.

Language

I can write in clear sentences to describe my daily routine on a school day.

Technology

I can use Book Creator to talk about my daily routine.

Procedure

This unit for our 8th grade ELLs is a presentation on the typical day in their lives on a school day. As the 8th grade ELLs are both relatively new entrants, it was a good opportunity to use this project as an extensive unit on vocabulary building in everyday language.

To introduce the unit, students viewed a slide show about typical everyday activities. It gave them a base of the vocabulary and the concepts we’d be talking about. Subsequently, each portion of the unit was divided into vocabulary and exercises devoted to each time of the day: Morning routine/Prep for school; Getting to school and school arrival; During the school day; After school activities and routine; Evening activities; and Bedtime routine. It also fostered great confidence and SEL elements in regards to adapting to a new life in a new place.

Resources and Other Materials

Book Creator
Pear Deck
Nearpod
Schoology quizzes

Reflection

The "A Day in the Life" project was an engaging and meaningful learning experience that supported vocabulary development, language acquisition, and digital storytelling. The design effectively scaffolded students’ learning through structured routines, sentence frames, and multimedia integration. Implementation went smoothly, with students demonstrating growth in both written and spoken English. In the future, I may incorporate additional modeling and peer collaboration to further support comprehension. The greatest part of the project was that this topic was shared with the entire ENL department. All grade levels/proficiency levels are doing their own “A Day Life” projects. The district’s ELL Celebration in March is a great showcase for the work these students do. Overall, this project fostered confidence, creativity, and authentic language use.

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