Fjollza Shabani

Professor Reilly
Intro to ELL
14 May 2015
Live Lesson Reflection
For out SIOP lesson, we decided to focus on science, specifically outer space. To perform
our lesson we used a smartboard, worksheets, and journal writing.
Our language objectives included students will be able to visually and verbally represent
their interpretation of each of the vocabulary words, define each of the vocabulary words, and
create their own planet using key vocabulary words. Our content objectives included students
will learn about the earth and space, they will learn about various topics such as rotation, planets
and stars, students will engage in an activity that shows the earth, sun, and moons rotation, and
students will be able to list the planets in order from the sun. I feel like we achieved these
objectives based on what I observed the student do throughout the lesson. For example, after
completing the worksheet where Jack colored and placed the planets in order, he was able to
perform the same task on the smartboard. Jacks completion of his story writing also proved as
evidence that we achieved our objective because his planet included the characteristics of what
defines a planet while still being creative.
I believe that we challenged Jacks vocabulary when it came to the terms rotation and
revolution. Since the words sound similar, to help Jack understand the difference, for rotation,
we had him spinning in a circle alone. For revolution, we had him spinning in a circle with one
of us spinning around him at the same time. Id imagine that this strategy would be effective to
use on an ELL student as well because it uses a whole-body approach rather than just a linguistic

approach. After completing this exercise we asked Jack to explain to us what the difference was
and although his response was not fully accurate it did provide new understanding of the terms.
I think the concept that the debate of what constitutes a planet made it a bit difficult to
convey what a planet actually is. For young children and perhaps more for ELL students, it is
harder to grasp the idea that some believe Pluto does qualify as a planet while other scientists
define it as a dwarf planet. Since Jack is not an ELL student, he accomplished his story writing
task with great ease. However, an ELL student would have more difficulty in accomplishing this
task. Perhaps an accommodation that could be used for an ELL student if doing this lesson again
would be to provide a vocabulary worksheet key in the students native tongue. If the student is
having trouble remembering how to say a certain word, the vocabulary sheet would provide
common words that would be used in the writing exercise as reference. Also if I were to do this
lesson again, I would provide a copy of the notes and slides that were gone over on the
smartboard in the childs native tongue to help make connections and build on his/her
understanding of English.
Overall, I think this was an effective exercise because it allowed us to think what possible
obstacles or challenges we could face if we had an ELL student in our classroom. This activity
allowed us to come up with strategies to help ELL students that could be used in our future
classroom.