I worked with this lesson plan in a ELA course 8th grade class with 20 students. The English levels were Beginning, Early Intermediate and Intermediate. The unit curriculum was Development of a Project, the theme selected was Development of a Business Plan. This theme was chosen to maintain student motivation and provide opportunity to work in speaking, reading, writing and listening skills, and to improve academic vocabulary words. The material and reading are adapted to different levels of complexity related to the language proficiency of ELLs.
Planning according with SIOP procedures means that the content and language objectives are integrated, the materials and strategies have adaptations for the ELLs, and it is important to use multiple modes of presenting information with planned redundancy. Also it is necessary to always provide several opportunities for partner interaction and grouping activities.
The first day included introducing the theme and motivation/background activity, assigning groups according with TESOL standards and CELA levels, and working in cooperative groups with the teacher supervising and monitoring the groups. On the second day was began referring to information to give to the students planning redundancy, and continued working in small cooperative groups. Next day we started the research assignment in the computer laboratory. On the fifth day the students integrated their information in order to create a Business Plan Description. The following class occurs after the students sell their products for organizing their information and report what happened in their project application. The final class they presented their projects and reviewed their work with the teacher and students.
Development lesson Plan according the SIOP Model is a real helpful tool for English Learners Acquisition; the interaction between partners help each other learn, make them feel comfortable, stimulate their participation, and extend their communicative competence. Students use English to obtain, construct and provide subject-matter information in spoken and written form, and they learn how to construct and apply academic knowledge. This strategy also helps them with their own reflection about their learning process. Cooperative learning is an effective strategy which I will be utilizing more frequently the next school year. It is an appropriate teaching method for each level.
Rosanna Miiller Salas 