Classroom Activities 

Classroom Speaking Activity #1

Standard: 2-ESS2-2: Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.      

Content Objective: Students will be able to develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.    

Language Objective: Students will be able to explain their model to peers in class including where things are placed on their model and the reason why they chose this (using words like lake, mountains, river, etc).     

Translanguaging: Students will be given a chart with an image of the landforms with the name of the landform written in both English and their home language. This will be used as a resource for when they are creating their model.

Lesson Description: In this lesson, students in a second grade classroom will have been learning about different landforms found around the world. In this, students will create a drawing of the different landforms and will label them. Once they have completed their model, they will explain it to their peers. They should be able to explain why they placed landforms where they did, why they drew the landforms the way they did, and how they labeled it. This will get students to speaking about their own models as well as hearning what other students did. Students can then have a discussion about similarities and differences they can see between their models. 

Classroom Speaking Activity #2

Standard: RL.2.3: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events or challenges.      

Content Objective: Students will be able to list the feelings Madeline experiences during the beginning, middle and end of the story.                                                                                                                                                                           

Language Objective: Students will be able to describe how Madeline overcame her fear of reading by listening to the story and connecting feelings to their own lives.

 Translanguaging: Three main vocabulary words will be focused on in this lesson, pretend, nervous, and librarian. Students will be given translations of the vocabulary words and will be given a description of the words in both English and their home language.

Lesson Description: In this lesson, students in a second grade classroom will listen to a reading of the book, Madeline Finn and the Library Dog. Before the story, students will conect to their own lives and share a time they have been afraid of something and how they overcame that fear or if they still have it. They will then listen to the story, keeping in mind the three vocabulary words and making predictions throughout. After the story, students will turn and talk in pairs about what Madeline felt in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. This will get the students speaking to each other, using the vocabulary we discussed. When they come back, they will revoice what their partner told them to the whole group. To end this lesson, students will explain in groups what Madeline learned about herself in the story and how she overcame her fears by using the vocabulary words. 

Classroom Listening Activity #2

Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.2: Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

Content Objective: Students will develop listening skills by actively listening to excerpts from the book "Our Class is a Family" and recalling key ideas and details presented.

Language Objective: Students will demonstrate comprehension by recounting key ideas and details from the story, including the importance of treating classmates like family, resolving conflicts, and fostering a sense of community in the classroom.

Translanguaging: Students will be provided with visual aids such as images from the book and key vocabulary words written in both English and their home language to support their understanding during the listening activity.

Lesson Description: In this lesson, second-grade students will engage in a listening activity focused on the book "Our Class is a Family." The teacher will read selected excerpts from the book aloud, pausing periodically to discuss with students key ideas and details presented in the story. Students will actively listen and participate in discussions, using visual aids and key vocabulary words provided in both English and their home language to support their comprehension. Through this activity, students will enhance their listening skills while also deepening their understanding of important themes such as community, empathy, and cooperation presented in the text.

Classroom Writing Activity #1

Standard: W.K.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they
tell a reader the topic or the name of the book
they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is . . .)

Content Objective: Students will be able to use a combination of drawing, dictating, writing to compose an opinion piece by telling their reader about their favorite book.

Language Objective: Students will be able to share their opinion by presenting their opinion piece to a peer. 

Translanguaging Strategies: Students will be presented with a sentence frame to assist them in writing their opinion piece. The sentence frame will be "My favorite book is ___ because ____." or "My least favorite book is ___ because ____." They will also have the opportunity to write in their home language. If they do this, they can translate this sentence into English after. They will also have books that they have read in class available to reference to help them with ideas of what to write. 

Lesson Description: This lesson ideally will occur once the students have been read-aloud a decent amount of books in class. This will be conducted around the middle of the year. The students will be asked to think back to some of the books that they have read together throughout the year. Books will be placed in the front of the class for the students to think about and to reference. The students will be provided with writing paper, where there is a space for drawing as well. At the front of the class, sentence frames will be available to them. They will also be told that if they have a different idea for an opinion sentence, that they can try it out! They will then have time to complete this. After this is done, they can present their work to a peer and discuss. 

Language Objective Assessment: The language objective will be assessed through observation. This will be done while they are presenting their work. I will be listening to the conversatiosn that are had to inform later instruction. Further, they will be assessed based on completion. 

Content Objective Assessment: The content objective will be assessed through their piece of opinion writing. I will be looking at this after the lesson is completed. I will be looking for the topic (book title) and I will be looking for at least one reason that they liked/disliked this book. I will not be assessing based on grammar or correctness of spelling. 

Classroom Writing Activity #2

Standard: W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.

Content Objective: Students will be able to write a draft of an informative text.

Language Objective: Students will be able to explain to a peer key parts (topic, facts, and closing) of their informative text.

Translanguaging Strategies: Students will be able to use their home language during the entire activity. Students will also be given a graphic organizer to help them in identifying what they need to complete their informative text. Students will be given sources for their specific topic and translations of these will be provided, if necessary. 

Lesson Description: Students will be asked to identify a flower that they would like to research out of the ones that have been provided. They will gather their resources to research, and they will identify a few facts to inform their reader of (where the flower can be found, what it can be used for, when it blooms, etc.). The students will be given a graphic organizer that has space for three facts, a title, a topic sentence, and a closing sentence. They will be asked to write within each space in the graphic organizer. After they have been completed, the students will turn and talk to a peer about the pieces of their informative text graphic organizer. 

Language Objective Assessment: The assessment of the language objective will be done through observation during the students turn and talk. This will be based on participation and I will walk around throughout to listen to the conversations that are being had. 

Content Objective Assessment: The assessment of the content objective will be done through the graphic organizer. I will gather these all after the lesson is completed. Then, I will assess these through completion of each piece of an informative text. These will not be assessed on grammar and spelling accuracy. 

Classroom Reading Acvitiy #1: 

Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a stroy or drama, drawing on specific details in the text. 

Content Objective: The students will be able to recall specific details from a text after reading.

Language Objective: Students will be able to speak about what they read after reading a non-fiction story. 

Translanguaging Strategies: Students will be able to use their home language if they cannot pronounce a word in english. Students will also have access to the passage in english and their home language to help with reading. 

Lesson Description: Students will read a passage called "What is a Spacewalk". After reading the story the students will be asked questions like "who is a character that was talked about in the passage" and "what is the setting of the story?" Etc. They will then respond to the questions using supprotive details from the text. 

Language Objective Assessment: The students will then be put into small groups to talk about the questions and answering using deatils from the texts. I will be walking around to assess the students and listen in on their conversations. I would expect the students to be equally participating in the conversations. 

Content Objective Assessment: The students will hand in their worksheet answering the questions. I would be looking for accurate work that include details and quotes from the passage. This way I will be able to see the ways the students wrote about specific features of the texts using details. 

Classroom Reading Activity #2: 

Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Content Objective: Students will be demostarting reading comprehension after reading a fictional story. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to express their opinion by using vocabulary words and comprehension skills from the text. 

Language Objective: Students will be able to read a short passage with fluency. 

Translanguaging Strategies: Students will have support by the teacher to help them to pronounce words they may be stuck on and also be provided with visuals to help with words they may not know. Students will focus on a 4 vocabualry words that will also be provided in the students home language. Students will be asked an opinion based question so they will be reminded that there are no right or wrong answers when doing this activity. 

Lesson Description: Before reading, I would tell the students we are going to read a passage called, "Should wild animals be adopted as pets?" I will also talk about the vocabulary words they are going to see throughout the text. We will discuss the vocabulary words before the text and I will mention that the bolded words in the text are the vocabulary words. The students will then with a partner to act out the story and the characters. This will help the students to have support from a classmate while reading. After the reading, the students will head back to their seats and do a quick activity. This activity is going to be an opinion based writing on if they think wild animals should be adoptd as pets, why or why not. 

Language Objective Assessment: Students will share out with the class if they believe wild animals should be adopted as pets. This will show me if they comprehended the text and having their writing in front of them will provide the student with support because they will have already written down their answer. 

Content Objective Assessment: Students will hand in their opinion based writing to show me if they comprehended the text. I will be looking for the ways they included some ideas about if they think wild animals should be adopted as pets.