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Ryan Smith April 2015

SDAIE Lesson Analysis

Final Exam ~ English 106
Spring 2015
(1)
What is the content being taught in this lesson?
The instructional focus is for the students to learn vocabulary specific to the
geography of Italy as it relates to the rise of the Roman Republic.

(2)

What are the students learning? What are the objectives of

this lesson (content and language)?

Content: The learners will demonstrate their understanding of geographical
features of Italy by writing a paragraph using new content-specific

vocabulary. They will also be able to justify their word choices.

Language: In order to demonstrate their understanding of English language
terms that can be used to describe geographical features, the learners will
write a paragraph summarizing the geography of Italy, using both words
from the vocabulary worksheet and a list of adjectives they will have
generated in response to pictures of Italian landscapes.

(3)

able to express?
Describing and Justifying

(4)

What academic language functions do the students need to be

How are target vocabulary terms and/or the grammatical

structures explicitly taught?

Target vocabulary terms are introduced when teacher displays them on word
cards in a pocket chart.

Ryan Smith April 2015

Students are exposed for the second time to the vocabulary through silent
reading of page 383 of Ancient World history text. Reading the terms in the

context of the chapter will assist students in understanding the definitions.

Students are exposed with the vocabulary for the third time when definitions

of the vocabulary is written on word strips and placed in the pocket chart.
Students are then given a handout where they match the vocab words to the

appropriate definitions.
Students are first introduced to the grammatical structures when using the
OPIN exercise. The worksheet provides a paragraph that is made up of
smaller sentence frames, and they are allowed to put whatever word they
think fits in the blank based in prior knowledge. This allows them to work
with that type of grammatical structure in the sentence and gain practice.

(5)

What are the opportunities for students to practice the

academic vocabulary (terms and/or linguistic structures)?

Dont Know, Sort of Know, Know Well. They are practicing writing the

vocab, which exposes them with the spelling of the words.

Group activity. Students review the adjectives they generated and receive an

extra point if they can justify their adjectives using the new vocabulary text.
Matching pocket chart and matching handout. Students are exposed to the
vocabulary terms and their definitions, in addition to getting to work with

them by gluing them down.

Paragraph writing. Students are asked to write a paragraph summarizing the
description of the geography of Italy, using the new vocab and their groups
adjectives.

Ryan Smith April 2015

(6)
How is comprehensible input provided?
Pictures of geographical features of Italy (visuals)
Kinesthetic- Students place the definitions next to the vocab words while

gluing them down.

Pocket Chart with word cards and definitions
Sentence frames
Multiple readings of text, repetition vocabulary in context
OPIN text
Collaborative group work (adjectives and OPIN)
Terms- Definitions Match activity
Building on know (i + 1) with asking students to come up with adjectives in
the beginning of the lesson, and allowing them to put in their own words to

OPIN activity.
Breaking down the vocab into multiple activities, again using lots of
repetition!

(7)

What are some examples of questions and/or learning

activities that promote higher level and critical thinking?

Students are asked to generate their own list of adjectives and are given
extra points for being able to justify and explain their adjectives using the

new vocabulary.
Students must be able to justify to their partners why they chose the words

they put into the OPIN activity.

Students have to use the handout to find the matching definition for the

vocab words.
Students have to write a paragraph summarizing the description of the
geography of Italy using the vocab and their adjectives.

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(8)

Ryan Smith April 2015

How is learning assessed (formative and summative

assessments)?
Formative: Group-generated lists of adjectives describing the pictures of
Italian landscapes.
Formative: Knowledge Rating Scale of content specific terms.
Formative: Assessing the students ability to justify the terms using the

modified OPIN.
Summative: Students have to write a paragraph summarizing the description
of the geography of Italy using the vocab and their adjectives.

What is your analysis regarding an EL student being able to

demonstrate her/his understanding of the content? Support your
analysis with illustrative examples.

An EL student will be able to demonstrate her/his understanding of the

vocabulary specific to the geography of Italy through the formative and

summative assessments.
First, the students will take part in the Knowledge Rating Scale before ad
after the lesson for the teacher to have a glance at what the student made

progress on within the lesson.

Second, the students will demonstrate their understanding by generating a
list of adjectives describing the pictures of Italian landscapes within their
groups. This will give the teacher another point of reference to where the
students started before the lesson began. The students will then take their
list and be asked to justify the adjectives with the new terms that they have
learned. While using their critical thinking skills, the students will prove if
they have understood the content by explaining his reasoning and making

Ryan Smith April 2015

improvements on language development with learning through language

where children use language in school to acquire new knowledge and
information. Providing students, especially EL students, with opportunities to
engage in the various functions of oral language is critical for them to

develop a full pragmatic range in English.

Thirdly, after using the sentence frames, being given comprehensible input,
having multiple readings of the material in context and having the chance to
work with the definitions of the vocabulary terms, the students will be able to

write a paragraph that shows their knowledge.

The paragraph that the student will have written at the end of the lesson
with showcase their progress in their understanding of the vocabulary terms
by the quality of their work. The EL student will be able to complete this after
having the comprehensible input, especially the sentence frames. This
element of the lesson would also tap into the students grammatical

knowledge, which includes syntax and basic grammar skills.

I believe that the students also would be successful in this lesson because of
the affective filter that the teachers will prepare for their students. The
affective filter is addressed by providing a safe environment with the right
amount of scaffolding. These elements of the lesson will allow students who
are struggling to a have a safety net that sets them up to be successful.

(9)
What are your questions? Concerns? Insights?
You were very clever for providing the affective filter for this lesson when you
addressed us in the email! By commenting that your lesson plans were not
perfect, that there was always room for improvement and that you are

Ryan Smith April 2015

always still learning, you made us comfortable enough to dive into this

project without worry of making mistakes.

I wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for opening my eyes
the beauty in language. Your course has given me courage and shown me
that as I look to beginning my career in teaching I have the tools that I need

to be successful in teaching any EL student who walks through my door.

I briefly mentioned this at the end of my KWLQ sheet, but I am really
curious about the CLAD certification and the English Learner Authorization. I
cant wait to use what Ive learned in my own classroom, but if I were to get
these certifications what would that look like?

Two Essential Questions:

A.) What does it mean to be competent in a language?

To fully address the question of what it means to be competent in a

language, there are many elements that need to be pointed out. The
definition of linguistic competence according to Chromsky can be explained
as the ideal language system that makes it possible for speakers to
produce and understand an infinite number of sentences in their language,
and to distinguish grammatical sentences from ungrammatical sentences,
(grammar.about.com). So according to him and other linguistics, what it
means to be competent in a language means that a person can understand
the language when it is spoken or written clearly. They will not have to break

Ryan Smith April 2015

down the words they are hearing into the individual phonemes because they
can comprehend them when they are spoken in the form of full words and
sentences and they dont have to stop to think about the morphemes that tie
a word together, because their subconscious memory allows them to
recognize the affixes used. Being competent in a language, in addition,
means that the individual understands the syntax and rules of ordering
words that are in place for that language, otherwise, the order in which they
would speak would not be correct. Students in their classwork will be able to
effectively place words into sentences in a logical order so that they may be
understood. Even though one may not think of pragmatics and non-verbal
communication as being apart of the necessary elements involved with being
competent in a language, they are crucial for an individual to be able to
communicate. For example, if a teacher said a phrase as simple as, I cant
believe that you wrote that! it would cause confusion to a student who
didnt understand that that statement meant they were proud of them, not
accusing them of plagiarizing. Also knowing what dialects are appropriate in
situations such as a child demanding dessert from their parents versus
discussing their behavior with their classroom teacher are unique, and the
differences need to be paid attention to.
In addition to being able to understand and comprehend these
elements of auditory language, in order to be competent in a language, an
individual must be literate in print literacy, which includes reading and
writing. In todays world it is difficult to get by if you dont know how to

Ryan Smith April 2015

properly read and write, and thats why to be considered competent in a

language this is necessary. For reasons that relate to being a student,
children will fall behind quickly if they cant complete simple tasks such as
writing their name on the top of their paper or reading instructions on the
board.
B.) What does a teacher need to know and be able to do to help
students develop English and language and literacy skills?

In order for a teacher to be successful in assisting students to develop

English, language and literacy skills, they need to be well informed about a
number of elements. First, they need to understand the basics of language,
which includes the components of linguistic structures. A teacher should
grasp phonology because it will allow them to use the phonology teaching
technique, which when combined with other strategies has proved to be
beneficial. When a student is struggling with differentiating how a word is
different from a word that has only one phoneme different, the teacher will
know where to start in supporting them. If they understand morphology, they
can show their students tricks to being able to understand words just by
recognizing affixes and other morphemes. Knowing syntax will allow the
teacher to make appropriate sentence frames that teach all 7 language
functions and semantics will allow them to show students that some words
have multiple meanings and certain phrases dont mean exactly what they
may seem to. Pragmatics is vital for students to be taught because native

Ryan Smith April 2015

speakers have an unfair advantage in that area over them, and nonverbal
communication is crucial for a teacher to understand so that they give clear
directions and dont assume that the students can pick up all nonverbal
cues.
Besides knowing linguistic structures, a teacher needs to be competent
in oral and written discourses of language, be able to provide
comprehensible input, have some knowledge of the theories behind how the
brain learns its first language and a second language, as well as a tool belt
full of activities that provide for this learning to take place. Examples of these
include the repetition of text in a lesson in ways such as repeated readings,
Tableaux, Text Mark Up and Read Alouds that give the students familiarity
with the text. Another would be the activity of concept circles and word maps
that can be used with almost any material and lets the teacher guide the
students to visually learning about language. Word maps could be used with
not only showing students the definition of a word, but also synonyms,
pictures of the what the word looks like, and examples of it if thats
applicable.
Lastly, one element that I think above all is most important for a
teacher to understand in order to successfully help students develop English,
language, and literacy is to be kind, create an affective filter and let your
students know that mistakes are natural, normal and necessary.