Component 2: Building Background

Feature 7: Concepts Explicitly Linked to Students’ Background Experiences // Something to Think About

Explain what background knowledge is needed to your lesson and compare that with background knowledge of your EL (you can make this up)

In order to comprehend our lesson, Sergei would need to know what an election is, what a president is, how American elections work, who Lincoln was, what Lincoln believed in, as well as other political actors and presidential candidates. He would need to be aware of the North/South divide, what enslavement was, various compromises such as the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1833, and the Compromise of 1850. If Sergei is okay with talking about his birth country, he could tell us how Ukraine’s politics work so we could compare the two countries.

How would you access what your EL knows?

I would use my familiar words chart* that I give to students at the beginning of the lesson to gauge what my students know, are familiar with, recognize, or are completely unfamiliar with. That would give me a good idea of what background knowledge they already possess, and I can add more words or remove some if the content is too challenging or simple for them based on my pretesting.

• How would you  build background knowledge that your EL might need (you might need to extend your lesson)

Based on what Sergei tells me or doesn’t tell me about his birth country, I would be able to take the information that he already knows and use it to to explain concepts relevant to U.S. history. For example, if he goes in depth and tells me how Ukrainian voting systems work, I would be able to bounce off of that in order to explain how the U.S. system is the same or different. Echevarría emphasizes that activating prior knowledge is a must in a differentiated lesson plan (Echevarría 74). To do this, I must learn Sergei really well in order to understand what he knows and what he does not.

Which of your supplementary materials would work - explain why they are appropriate for your specific EL. (Or, do you have to add some??)

For Sergei, I would make sure to have maps of slave/free states, to get a better idea of who the actors are that we are talking about, an electoral map that shows the different political candidates for 1860, and the political cartoons with Sergei’s L1 or simplified captions at the bottom. These would be present in my slideshow.** I think these would work because Sergei speaks Ukrainian and having this context to look at while experiencing the lesson is going to make him understand the points better. If I additionally add the context from his own childhood into the lesson, he’s going to have a mental pathway to which he can link his learning. 

*See figure1

**See example 2

Feature 8: Links Explicitly Made Between Past Learning and New Concepts

Explain how you would connect previous learning by keeping your ELs language level in mind.

In a previous class we would have talked about the Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1833, and the Compromise of 1850. The election would be a demonstration of an event with no compromise available. I would keep Sergei in mind by not using words such as ‘abolitionism’ or ‘Confederacy’ all of the time, but instead say ‘free states’ or some other simpler equivalent. This would not be to water down the material, but rather include a healthy mix of simple vocab and complex vocab which would allow Sergei to associate the synonyms with one another. I would give the recap at the beginning of class. Honigsfeld notes that new language acquisition has to be meaningful, so I would bring up those old terms in context based on what we will be learning in class today (Honigsfeld, 85).

• Do you have to extend your original lesson by adding a connection?

It would not, not really. Based on what I’m envisioning, the recap would be part of the class already, as the events flow together. The only difference is I may specifically speak about topics present in Sergei’s dictionary.

• Do you need any supplementary materials to make the connection clear for your ELs?

All of the materials offered for the class such as maps would still be available from previous lessons. If anything, I would ensure that Sergei’s L1 subtitles would still be there, but other than that, I think obvious comprehensive hand gestures and exposure to materials already offered to the class would suffice. PowerPoints would have been available on our class website after our class session, so students are always welcome to pull those old presentations up from previous lectures. 

Feature 9: Key Vocabulary Emphasized (e.g., introduced, written, repeated, and highlighted for students to see)

Explore the language demand of your lesson (text you will use, handouts, videos, etc.)

Anticipate what your EL might not understand based on their language level (L3, L4, etc.)

Explain how you would teach the necessary vocabulary/reduce the text, use visuals, etc.

Which of your supplementary materials would work (Or, do you have to add??)

I would simplify all of my written language to what any student at a 9th grade language level could understand, including the L1 transcription for Sergei. In my speech, however, I would convey the same complexity of meanings but would make my talking easier to understand by eliminating idioms, avoiding unnecessarily complicated words, and using easier substitutes for non-academic language. Sergei, at L3, might not understand all of the vague academic vocabulary such as explain, describe, etc. so I would simplify instructions by asking ‘Tell me how’ or ‘Why did’ questions as substitutes. I could print out lists of specific academic vocabulary with phonetic descriptions that list the commonly used words in English and L1, perhaps with a picture next to it as well.*

*See figure 3

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.