Module 2: Unit 5:
activity 3
Preet Khinda
I am not a teacher yet. So I am going to have a hypothetical
classroom, hypothetical students and then lesson plan for them.
I am a mathematics teacher, teaching grade 6. I have 20
students in the class with four as ESL. One of them has recently come form
India, and is totally Hindi Speaking, two of them have shifted from Lebanon,
with basic English knowledge and the forth one is from Korea, who can understand
but refuses to speak in English.
As I study my class to prepare the lesson plan, The first
thing I do is a little background check on all four students.
Subject A:
a.
He is from eastern side of India
b.
He has had no formal training in English till
date
c.
The only words he can speak are Good morning,
good afternoon and Hello.
d.
His mother is totally Hindi Speaking. Father can
do a rough conversation in English. Don’t think he can get any practice at
home.
Therefore, he is at the pre
production stage. Teaching him in the mainstream classroom will be
quiet difficult without any additional help. So I check if there is another
Indian student in the class, whose help I can take in order to help me with the
basic translation. I find two Indian students, from which only one girl, seems
very proficient in her native tongue namely Hindi. The first thing I do is to
make him sit with the girl in the seating arrangement.
Subject B and C:
a.
Both these subjects are from Lebanon.
b.
They have been born and brought up there but
studied in an International school.
c.
They have basic knowledge of English.
d.
They can express themselves haltingly in
English, but if it is spoken to fast, they miss the point. The medium in which
they were taught English was Arabic.
e.
They have been together for a long time, and
tend to stick together.
f.
One mother is fluent in English but with strong
Arabic accent, where as second mother is totally Arabic speaking. Both the
father are fluent in English. The children can be helped at home as well.
They are at Speech
Emergent stage. Because of the area of the world they come from, and
keeping in mind their comfort level with each other due to same native
language, same culture and history of being together, I don’t want to separate
them totally but have to keep them apart a bit for a learning environment of
the class to be productive. I chose two high grade level students one from
Lebanon and the other from Jordan , to be sitting with them during the class.
This way they are in their language comfort zone but at the same time, would be
able to concentrate on the lessson more.
Subject D :
a.
Subject D is a Korean girl, Very Proficient in
mathematics but not proficient in English.
b.
She understands the Language very well but has a
hard time in expressing herself fluently in English.
c.
She seems to be a confident independent learner.
d.
She also seems to be very comfortable being the
only Korean in the class.
e.
Parents are fluent in English. Lots of help at
home.
She also seems to be on the Speech Emergent stage, but on the other side of the
spectrum. I will have no difficulty in explain her subject, but will be a
challenge to make her speak in English.
Keeping all these facts in mind and keeping in mind the rest
of the class I plan my lesson in a way that these four can follow the lesson
without others getting bored. The unit that I am teaching is collection, display and Interpretation
of data.
My lesson plan consists of:
INTRODUCTION
Breaking ice:
I make sure that I can learn salutations in Indian, Lebanese and Korean before
the class starts. Usual mathematical words are put on the walls , so that
students can view them from time to time. The moment the students start
entering the class, I wish them accordingly in the language they are
comfortable in. thus getting smiles from them, which I feel is a good
beginning.
The lesson starts with making everyone comfortable in the
class and with each other. The seating arrangement in the class is that of one
to one. This allows like-minded students to have a choice of sitting together,
with lots of free space for the students to move around freely.
I start the lesson with introduction of the concept with a
real life example and giving them the first most important definition of DATA.
In order to keep everyone engaged, for the next five minutes, everyone
participates in the class, giving their own examples of different kinds of data
that we come across in our daily life. Then they are explained the first method
of collecting data, namely tally marks.
Explaining the concept, I keep in mind the four ESL students
in the class, and thus, try and avoid any kind of paraphrasing.
GETTING DEEPER
To make the concept clearer and to make the lesson
interesting, the next 10 minutes are spent in watching an interesting video on
you tube. It might be a little below level for some students but I feel that it
is very important to make the basic concept clear.
The video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKHgqqk4NbE
PRACTICE AND
PERFORMANCE
Once this is done, I give them the first written exercise of
data story writing. Everyone is asked to write find real life data, from around
the class, depict it pictorially with tally marks and write it in words. They
are allowed to make groups of four and discuss the stories before they write
it. It inculcates in them the practice of using mathematical language. When the
class is settled to do this, I give my focus to the four ESL students in my
class. One by going to them, explaining the definition of data once more,
asking them questions like, do u see data around you? Can you collect data and
write it down etc. making sure that all my questions can be answered in yes or
no.
The Indian student, is given a short joint lesson by me,
which is translated by the Indian girl. He manages to understand the concept,
then he is asked questions like show me data around the class, how many pencils
are there?? Etc. then he is given some extra time working with his partner, to
create his picture data depiction.
Giving this around 10 minutes, we then discuss individual
stories, again making the whole class engaged and interested.
Conclusion
Once this is finished, they are given a short homework to
make 2 data flash cards. Thick paper of equal size is already cut and kept,
making their task easier and interesting. Which are then given out for them to
bring it back the next day. They are then given simple instructions as to what kind
data they can collect and that the flash cards will be put up on the wall for
constant viewing. This makes the students given the option of coloring the
flash cards thus making the activity interesting for the students.
