Component 1: Lesson Preparation

My Student: Sergei

Sergei came to the U.S. at 13 from Ukraine. He's fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, has near fluent French, but little English proficiency. He is in 9th grade, and uses an electronic dictionary, but has a paper dictionary for class materials. At the end of the day, he puts vocabulary from class into his online dictionary, which he is allowed to use during class. He's friends with Neera, a student from India, and Calvin, a student from the U.S. Sergei is excellent at Math and Coding but not so much at History. He is a hardworking and serious student, but needs to work on his speaking and writing abilities. He can be very shy, especially when he is not around his friends. Sergei has a solid understanding of BICS, but his CALPS needs to be further developed. Sergei is an L3 Learner. L3 learners "can participate in everyday communicative activities and will be able to converse and read and write about a range of academic topics using appropriate vocabulary and basic grammatical structures" (Honigsfeld, 78). 

Feature 1: Content Objective // WI DPI Standard:

SS.Hist4.b.h: Historical Context: Analyze how the intended audience influences a primary or secondary source.

SS.Hist4.c.h: Analyze the intended purpose of a specific primary or secondary source.

SS.Hist4.d.h: Analyze how the POV of the author can influence the content and intent of a primary or secondary source and identify whose voices may be left out.

REVISED for ELL:

SS.Hist4.b.h: Historical Background: Learn how the source is written based on who the author is writing for

SS.Hist4.c.h: Learn the purpose of a first-person or second-person source.

SS.Hist4.d.h: Learn how what the author thinks can change the meaning of a first-person or second-person source. Based on what the author thinks, who are we not hearing from? 

Feature 2: Language Objective // ELD-SS.9-12.Explain.Interpretive Original: Students will interpret social studies explanations by:

• Determining multiple types of sources, points of view in sources, and potential uses of sources for answering compelling and supporting questions about phenomena or events.

• Analyzing sources for logical relationships among contributing factors, causes, or related concepts

• Evaluating experts’ points of agreement and disagreement based on their consistency with explanation given its purpose

REVISED for ELL:

• Students will read different political cartoons, their points of view, and explain their uses for answering interesting questions about Lincoln’s presidency.

• Students will read political cartoons to determine important historical background for Lincoln’s presidency, events that caused it, and views of his presidency during the time.

• Determine, based on class material, whether the points of view characterized in the cartoons are legitimate or not and why.

JUSTIFICATION: 

My lesson has to do with analyzing political cartoons from the era to determine what people ‘on the ground’ thought about Lincoln during his time. I used the ‘Explain’ section for this language standard because students will be reading and determining the theme of the cartoon and then explaining it to their group members. ELLs will be expected to participate in this activity to the same degree as their peers, with accommodations to assist them in retaining the material. 

Students will be listening in the lecture, reading their cartoon, explaining it to other groups, and writing an exit ticket. According to Honigsfeld, L3 students can “express ideas with emerging academic vocabulary,” can “decode familiar text with increasing fluency,” can “sequence information that is visually supported,” and can “describe people and places using increasingly varied vocabulary in simple sentences” (Honigsfeld 78-80).The point of the lesson, however, is to explain the significance of each group’s cartoon in the broader context of the leadup to the Civil War, Lincoln’s presidency, and the Civil War generally. 

Feature 3: Content Appropriate for Age Level

My content is based upon perceptions of Lincoln before and during the Civil War, and how his election was the progenitor for the conflict. This is an age appropriate topic for 9th graders, as long as the material is not watered down. Sergei will have been in the classroom for the whole semester, so he will need to be refreshed on material, but he has been instructed since the beginning of the year and should know where we are in comparison to the other units. As for modifications, I would provide Sergei with a word chart that he could use during our lessons*. Honigsfeld cites that providing student friendly explanations is a useful way to bridge students into using what they call Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary (Honigsfeld, 82). The vocabulary would be at level for his grade, but technical language would be simplified for him to understand. I would also use less idioms and abstract ideas to explain the concepts but still convey the important information.

*See figure 1 and 2

Feature 4: Supplementary Materials

All students will receive hand-outs with political cartoons from the era. Sergei will have the option of receiving one of three versions for this activity. Each version will contain the same academic information, but will be differentiated based on Sergei’s comfort level with the material and my interpretation of his skill level. The first version is the version all students will receive that have no accommodations.* The second version will have simplified language that I interpret as too complicated for L3 Sergei.**  The third version has captions in Ukrainian for Sergei so he understands the message that is being communicated through the pictures.*** Echevarría notes that adapted text can be used to assist a language learner if they are not able to understand the concepts in academic English (Echevarría, 47). Since the political cartoons will already have pictures, no additional visuals will be provided, and students will be prompted to investigate the visual context clues to understand the message and point of view. Sergei will be given instructions that he can understand.

*See example 3

**See example 4

***See example 5

Feature 5: Adaptation of Content to Language Needs

I am assuming that Sergei has been in my classroom for the entirety of the semester up to this point. Because of this, I think that Sergei will have a sizable knowledge base of the material we have covered up to this point in U.S. history. He will have his word dictionary that has him rewrite the material in his own words.* Honigsfeld mentions that students cannot remember more than 5-6 words for a lesson that has direct instruction (Honigsfeld, 84). As a result, I will pick 6 words that will be the target for the lesson. 

• Abolitionist: Someone who wishes to abolish or get rid of slavery.

• Confederacy: The name of the group of Southern states that seceded from the United States and formed their own country during the Civil War.

• Bleeding Kansas: Series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas

• John Brown: American abolitionist leader who was captured and executed for a failed incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry preceding the American Civil War

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe which had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. It is said to have helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War.

• Secession: The act of withdrawing from a larger political unit. In the case of the Civil War, the Southern states seceded from the United States to form their own country.

I will give Sergei two sheets. One that asks him to list the words that he knows, has seen in print, and can use on his own, and another sheet to add to his dictionary.** I do not want to overwhelm my students with too much information, so the point of the lesson will be to explain these six words within their context and have students use these words to explain broad trends in U.S. history.

*See figure 1 and 2

**See figure 6

Feature 6: Meaningful Activities That Integrate Lesson Concepts with Language Practice Opportunities for Reading, Writing, Listening, and/or Speaking

Students will have multiple opportunities to practice the four domains in this lesson. At the beginning of class students will be prompted to think about the six words we have chosen as the focus of the lesson for that day, and reflect on what they know about them. Students will be asked to discuss with their station mates, who they will be with, what they think each of those words mean, which will prompt them to speak informally to one another. Then, students will listen to a brief lecture detailing what the six words mean in the historical context of the Civil War, writing down informal notes they need to remember information.* Sergei will have his dictionary, which also serves as his note paper for the day**. After the lecture, I will give a brief analysis of one of the political cartoons at random on my desk***. Then I will pass them out to my students. 

Students will read the political cartoons with the expressed task of discovering the author’s intentions and their point of view. Students will be tasked to determine the effectiveness of the cartoon and come up with a final interpretation. These goals will be written on the board or projected on the whiteboard. Echevarría says that presenting objectives to the class makes the lesson more productive (Echevarría 50). Here are some of the content objectives.

• Students will collaboratively analyze and compare editorial cartoons focusing on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era drawn by both American and foreign cartoonists.

• Students will determine the perspective of the cartoon.

• Students will identify the cartoonists' intentions and evaluate the effectiveness of each cartoon's message.

• Students will synthesize and present their final interpretations.

However, students must also take these objectives and manipulate them in order to understand them. Verbally, I will ask my students to talk to each other and paraphrase what they are supposed to be doing with one another, and have them talk to each other again informally. I will also ask them to predict what they think they will learn in the lesson that day. 

*See example 7

**See figure 1 and 2

***See example 8

References

Echevarría, J., Vogt., M., & Short, D. J. (2017). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model. Pearson. 

Honigsfeld, A. (2019). Growing language & literacy: Strategies for English learners. Heinemann.