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Kelsey Goodson
Professor Reilly
EDUC 359: Introduction to ELL
19 November 2015

Live SIOP Lesson Reflection


The objective for the lesson was to ensure that the student understood new vocabulary
words based on the context of a poem. I feel that this objective was achieved based on Jacks
responses. Jack was able to decode the first two words, champion, and sprint, with relative
ease before moving on to the last word, proclaim. Our group encouraged Jack to look at the
context the word appeared in and then asked him to guess what the word could mean based on
the sentence it appeared in. Jack was able to decode each word after a few minutes and
demonstrated his knowledge by drawing a picture that represented what each of the three words
meant. When we asked him to explain what the picture meant, he was able to do so. Our dice
game also gave Jack multiple opportunities to demonstrate his knowledge of the word by
engaging him in activities that ranged from acting out the meaning of the word, giving an
antonym, giving a synonym, defining the word, and writing a sentence with the word in it. Jack
was successfully able to complete each of these activities that encouraged higher order thinking.
I personally feel that Jack had more trouble with the concept of a poem than with the
vocabulary words. The hardest of the three vocabulary words did give him a bit of trouble but he
was able to decode said word after a few minutes. Poetry and comprehension seemed a more
daunting task as did the concept of figurative language. Jack had trouble when it came to

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analysis and reflection of the poem. Exploring the purpose of figurative language in a poem was
part of the extension and we implemented it briefly by going over some imagery and stressing
how said imagery related to the theme of the poem. It would have been beneficial to spend more
time on this topic if given the opportunity. Linking poetry to comprehension and figurative
language would have further reinforced the importance of embedded vocabulary. Jacks brief
exposure was however sufficient in that he was able to answer simple questions related to the
poem and understood that most poems encompass a variety of feelings and not all poems rhyme.
His preconceived notion of what poems typically mean was undermined. Jack was able to make
basic inferences from his reading of the poem and from our pre and post white board activity that
encouraged Jack to predict what a poem meant and to decide after the reading whether or not his
prediction was correct.
If I were to do this lesson again, I would choose more difficult vocabulary words.
Proclaim was appropriate because it was difficult enough that Jack didnt recognize it right away
but simple enough that he could decode it. The other two words were a bit too easy and though it
was probably good for him to have a review, I would have preferred to introduce foreign words. I
also, as mentioned, would have extended the time of the lesson and incorporated a more
thorough analysis of the poem for comprehension purposes.
In terms of activities, I feel those went exceedingly well. Jack was thoroughly engaged
throughout the lesson and truly seemed to enjoy the activities. I think the lesson largely went the
way we intended. We did end up swapping the order of some things but I find that to be a normal
part of any lesson. We definitely extended some activities due to Jacks obvious enthusiasm but I
once again find that its extremely important to play a lesson by ear and with student responses in
mind. The key is thinking on your feet which I feel that our group did successfully.

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This lesson could still be used with an ELL student, but, the poem and vocabulary words
would have to be more simplistic. Explanations would have to rely on a lot of non-linguistic
representations such as videos, pictures, and body language. The ELL student would not be
expected to give antonyms or synonyms and the poem would have to be point blank and devoid
of figurative language. The inclusion of such sentences could be confusing for an ELL student.
The time spent on this lesson would have to be more extensive and as mentioned, explanations
would have to be very thorough. Our inclusion of the flash cards and encouraging the student to
draw the meaning of the word as well as acting it out would be beneficial for an ELL student.
However, they would need prompting and guidance. Due to the fact that the SIOP model doesnt
rely on verbal communication, I definitely feel that an ELL student could still achieve the
objectives and would have fun while doing so.

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