Mini Lesson Plan 1

Lesson Plan Title: Introduce Yourself and Your Family

Name: Amanda Forbes
Grade Level: 1

Date: 1/22/15

ELD Objectives:

ELA Language Standards for Grade Level

After the lesson, students in Grade 1 will orally

duplicate a dialogue using a script and the lesson
vocabulary words in groups of two, with accuracy.
ELD Language Objective:
Listening and Speaking
Early Intermediate Level
-Begin to be understood when speaking but may have some
inconsistent use of standard English grammatical forms and
sounds.
-Ask and answer questions by using phrases or simple
sentences.
Intermediate Level
- Ask and answer questions by using simple sentences.
Advanced Level
- Negotiate and initiate social conversations by questioning,
restating, soliciting information, and paraphrasing the
communication of others.

ELA Content Standards for Grade Level

Written and Oral English Language Conventions
1.1 Write and speak in complete, coherent sentences.
Listening and Speaking Strategies
1.1 Listen attentively.
1.2 Ask questions for clarification and understanding.
1.3 Give, restate and follow simple two-step directions.
1.4 Stay on the topic when speaking.

ELD Content Objective:

Materials
Ball, blackboard and chalk or whiteboard,
flashcards of each member of family,
speakers for music, music storage (USB/CD)

Pre-Assessment: How will you determine

prior knowledge?
Good morning students! So, today we are
going to talk more about family. We all have
family members right? Today we are going
to talk about ourselves and what family
members we have. Does anyone know
some words of family members in their
family?
Possible student responses:
I have sister.
I have mother.
Etc.

Key Academic Vocabulary

Family
Mother
Father
Brother
Sister
Uncle
Aunt
Grandmother
Grandfather
Cousin
Motivation Strategy: How will you catch
attention of students and focus their minds
on the learning goals?
Good morning students! Today we are
going to talk about our families. But first,
we are going to play a game where we talk
about ourselves.
Ice Breaker Ball Game (5-10 Minutes)
Teacher:
-Write on the board: My name is Mrs. Chan.
I like ice cream. I like swimming.
-Toss the ball and catch it, then say out loud
what you wrote on the board.
-Throw the ball to a student.
Student:
-Say your name, then say something about
themselves just like the teacher did.
-They then throw the ball back to the
teacher.
Teacher:
-Choose another student to throw the ball
to.
REPEAT

Research Based Learning Strategies

(provide text chapters/reference)
Conversation Theory Horwitz pages 3437
Conversation theories maintain that people
learn to speak in a new language by
participating in conversations (Horwitz 36).

Real World Connection: How are learning

goals relevant to students lives?
The learning goals are relevant to the
students lives because they are learning
conversation skills along with language
skills that they can use to better their
English, and get to know their friends and
peers better. The activities are also relevant
to the students lives because they will be
talking about something very personal,
their family life. Talking about their families
will give their peers and their teacher
insight into their background and their
home life which strengthens those
relationships.

Presentation/ Learning Activities (Strategy Steps)

(includes language and content objectives, comprehensible
input, strategies , interaction, feedback. Used bullet points.

Practice and Application

(Meaningful activities, interaction, strategies, practice and
application, feedback)

Objectives

ELA
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
1.1 Write and speak in complete, coherent sentences.

Activity 1: Greeting and Introducing (10 Minutes)

-Write the following dialogue on the board:
A: My name is ________. What is your name?
B: My name is ________.
A: Nice to meet you.
B: Nice to meet you, too.
- Teacher demonstrates the dialogue our loud to the class.
-Teacher picks two students to do the dialogue in front of
the class.
-Let students shake hands when saying nice to meet you.
-Teacher picks two more students to repeat the dialogue.
-REPEAT
(This activity uses conversation scaffolding of
conversation by the teacher as suggested by the
conversation theory in Horwitz Chapter 2.)

Listening and Speaking Strategies

1.1 Listen attentively.
1.2 Ask questions for clarification and understanding.
1.3 Give, restate and follow simple two-step directions.
1.4 Stay on the topic when speaking.
1.5 Use descriptive words when speaking about people,
places, things, and events.

ELD
Listening and Speaking
Early Intermediate Level
-Begin to be understood when speaking but may have some
inconsistent use of standard English grammatical forms and
sounds.
-Ask and answer questions by using phrases or simple
sentences.
Intermediate Level
- Ask and answer questions by using simple sentences.
Advanced Level
- Negotiate and initiate social conversations by questioning,
restating, soliciting information, and paraphrasing the
communication of others.
Comprehensible Input

The teacher is using a scripted dialogue for

students to use with their partner. This is material
for students to read in the target language.

The teacher also demonstrates the dialogue

verbally for the students so that they understand
how to reproduce it. This is material for students to
listen to in the target language.

As mentioned in Horwitz (pg. 33), providing input

that is neither too complex nor too simple is key. In
this lesson, sentences find the median between
complexity and simplicity.
Strategies

This lesson focuses on Basic Interpersonal

Communicative Skills (BICS). Students are learning
social language skills like introducing themselves,
saying personal things about themselves, and
speaking about their family.

The BICS students will learn in this lesson can be

used in their daily communications, and the end of
the lesson involves a minimal amount of writing.

The lesson also increases verbal interaction among

students, as suggested in 50 Strategies, along with
providing active involvement opportunities through
the dialogue and the team game settings.

The assessment strategies used for this lesson

include observation and anecdotal records as
suggested in 50 Strategies.
Review and Assessment: What specific assessment tools
are being used?
During the lesson, the teacher will be using observation as
a form of assessment. The teacher should take notes as to
which students are able to follow the dialogue instructions
and pronounce the words correctly.

Activity 2: Class Participation Family (5 Minutes)

-On the board the teacher writes Family and circles it.
-Ask, Who is in your family?
-Call on one student at a time to answer a family member in
their family.
-As each student answers, write their answers around the
word Family.
Activity 3: Flashcards (10 Minutes)
-Teacher has students gather in a circle on the carpet.
-Show each family member using the flashcards.
-As a group, students say what family member is on the
card, saying Father. This is my father, etc.
-Teacher should then repeat the activity calling on individual
students to say who is on the flashcard.
Activity 4: Game - Whos on the Flashcard (10
Minutes)
-On the board, draw a scoreboard for 2+ teams (depending
on class size).
-Explain that if a student wants to answer a question they
should raise their hands as fast as possible, not shout out
the answer.
-Teacher will show flashcards at random.
-Call on the first student to raise their hand.
-Students must follow the pattern, Mother. This is my
mother. Etc. for their team to receive the point.
-Once all flashcards have been done, tally up the team
points.
-A reward to the winning team may be given.
Activity 5: Worksheet Family Match
-Teacher will hand out the worksheet.
-Students will trace the family member words on the page.
-Students will then draw lines matching member words to
the images from the flashcards.

Student Reflection: How will you provide for student

reflection on learning?
After completing the 5th activity, the teacher will call all
students to the carpet area. The teacher should create a
conversation setting in which students can reflect on their

learning from the lesson.

The teacher will also be doing formal assessment by
grading the family match worksheet. This allows the
teacher to see which students remembered the vocabulary
words and the images that represent them.

Reflection
What do you anticipate to be a problem for specific
students?
For Early Level students, I anticipate they may have
difficulty understanding the directions for the two person
dialogue activity. They may also have difficulty reading
the dialogue script written on the board.

ELD Objective
-Ask and answer questions by using phrases or simple
sentences.

Content Objective
1.2 Ask questions for clarification and understanding.
1.3 Give, restate and follow simple two-step directions.
What would likely go well? Why?
I think what would go well would be the activity in which
students can say who is in their family for the teacher to
write on the board. I also think that the flashcard activity
would go well because it matches words with images
which is an effective strategy for introducing new
vocabulary to EL students.
What theory or theorists would most strongly
support use of this strategy?
This lesson and the strategies included in it, would be
most supported by the Experiences Theory and the
Conversation Theory as found in Horwitz. The lesson has a
strong emphasis on conversation and active participation
by students.

Attach copy of student work

Teacher: So students, what did we learn today?

Possible Student Response: How to introduce ourselves.
Teacher: Right, we learned how to start a conversation by
introducing who we are. What did we learn about family?
Possible Student Response: Our family members.
Teacher: Exactly! What were some of the family members
we talked about?
Possible Student Responses: Mother. Father. Sister.
Brother. ETC.
Teacher: Are there any other family words you would like to
learn?
Allow for students to give their input.

Extension:
The next steps for this lesson would be to have students
engage in a writing assignment about their families. I would
base this decision on the need to follow a primarily oral lesson
with a reading/writing lesson. In order to ensure that students
truly understand the family member words of the lesson, I
would have the next lesson include sentence starters that
students could use to write about their families. This would
stem from the last assignment of this lesson in which
students are tracing family member names and matching
them to images. Along with the written assignment I would
have students draw a picture of their family to further
associate the new vocabulary with imagery as suggested for
EL students.