Embedded Files
The Baltimore City Public Schools ESOL Department stresses the importance of aligning ESOL classroom instruction to the unit modules that are being taught in mainstream ELA classrooms. Therefore, a significant amount of pre-planning goes into each unit that I teach. For each grade level, I follow the same process during a unit. First, I identify the mainstream classroom unit themes as laid out in my long-term plan calendar and on the curriculum website. After doing so, I process exactly how I will align my instruction to the ELA curriculum in order to best support my ESOL students, as well as focus on creating an ESOL-friendly modified end of unit assessment in order to backwards-plan to meet an end of unit goal.
Therefore, through these cross-disciplinary planning strategies of ELA curriculum alignment and backwards-planning I am able to map out how targeted ESOL instruction will make challenging ELA curriculum accessible to ESOL students so that they may accomplish the major unit goals.
ELA Curriculum Alignment
ELA Curriculum Alignment
Here are examples of module overlays for Wit and Wisdom Units. These overlays map out each lesson, and shows the scaffolds and support I will provide to my ESOL students. I can then use the overlays to assist me in deciding what service model would be best to support my students for each particular lesson. I also use these overlays to inform me about adjustments I should make to my own unit plans to accomplish the overall "big picture" of unit themes. I do not have to align my curriculum identically to the one provided to me, because I have the flexibility to modify it to meet the needs of my students when they are in the ESOL classroom. This allows me to plan activities such as running projects, or broken-down lesson plans from main-stream ELA classes in order to supplement the curriculum and adapt it for English language learners while maintaining rigorous lessons and aligning content to what they are doing in their classroom.
The two examples shown are for a third-grade and fifth-grade unit. You will notice that not every lesson is included, for often times I only deviate from select lessons in order to help preserve the integrity of the module. You will notice in each unit overview that there are projects, vocabulary pre-teach lessons, as well as supplemental reading activities that are all intended to specifically instruct English language learners.
The lesson plan below the unit overlays shows how I modified a lesson in order to coincide with this module overlay. This lesson is based on the third-grade module, lesson ten. The overlay suggests further breaking down the word photosynthesis through reviewing procedures to complete a notice and wonder chart. That is exactly what I did in this lesson in order to break down this challenging concept. This lesson plan also shows evidence of cross-disciplinary instruction, for the module itself links literary resources to answer the research-based essential question- How do scientists explore the sea?
Grade3_Mod1_ModuleOverlay.pdfGrade5_Mod1_WWOverlay.pdfFixed LP.pdfFurthermore, by studying the module learning goals and module summaries provided to me, I can take the standards and objectives that my students are working on and target ESOL instruction towards meeting these standards. As observed in my Instructional Strategies portion of my portfolio, you will see how module overlays and mind maps interplay with my unit planning in order to successfully break-down challenging ELA curriculum. Through carefully studying these standards, I can ensure that my planning is intentional and streamlines to best support my students during ESOL instruction. Here are examples of the Module Summaries and Module Learning Goals for third-grade and fifth-grade units shown above. You will notice how these modules are cross-disciplinary and incredibly dense. Through knowing the curriculum well and spending extensive time with planning supports for each unit, I can make this curriculum accessible to my ELLs.
While planning, I try to be as transparent with my students about the purpose of ESOL instruction- to best support them! As mentioned, by using the Wit and Wisdom online portal, I am able to align my curriculum with the units that my students are covering in their English Language Arts classes. Through accessing the curriculum early, I am able to plan out activities and project-based learning that I will assign my students in order to help them acquire essential vocabulary and skills to be successful in their mainstream classrooms. In order to share these with my students, I post the themes for each module for each grade level in my classroom, so that they are always aware of what we are learning and how it connects to their overall learning goals.
Backwards Planning
Backwards Planning
Making units ESOL friendly often begins with modifying the End of Module, or EOM task. This entails adding a word-bank with essential vocabulary and using visuals to help explain the prompt. By doing this first, I can then review the unit objectives to ensure that I am planning towards the aims of having my students be successful on the EOM assessment, both as a part of ESOL instructional pull-outs and in their general content classroom. Below, you can see the original EOM task on the top left and the modified assessment on the top right. Notice how the prompt is essentially the same, however, it is written in language and formatting that is much easier for an English language learner to understand. Common test accommodations for ESOL students include adding visuals, using word banks with key unit vocabulary that is pre-taught, and modifying the assessment language to better reflect the level of the English language learner. From there, I continue to backwards-plan for the unit to ensure that class activities will prepare my ESOL students for their EOM assessment. On the bottom right, you can see an example of an activity that I did with my ESOL students to assist them in answering our prompt- Why do people explore the sea? We used this graphic organizer to gather evidence in order to plan our writing. Then, in the assessment, you can observe the outcomes of backwards-planning through how my student included evidence from the graphic organizer in the student's essay.
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