Lesson Planning Form for Accessible Instruction Calvin College Education Program

Teacher Rae Gernant

Date

April 19th 2016

Subject/ Topic/ Theme

ESL Calendars Holidays

Grade 8th-11th

I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
This lesson about holidays connects to calendars because holidays are an important part of the yearly calendar. Holidays happen once a year and characterize a certain
day and sometimes even shape the entire month during which they take place. This lesson about holidays will help students in remembering the order of the months,
because they will now be able to talk about months in terms of weather and in terms of holidays. This lesson will also focus on singular and plural nouns, especially
nouns that end in y and need to be changed to ie when they are made plural.
cognitiveR U Ap An E C*

Learners will be able to:

Learn and remember holiday vocabulary

Students will think about the elements of culture that are below the surface
Compare and contrast a holiday that they celebrate with an American national holiday
Students will consider the value of tradition and culture on the way holidays are celebrated
Describe how several holidays are celebrated
Know what day or date certain holidays take place every year
Students will think about vowels and the phonetic implications of endings when making words plural
Make a singular noun plural

physical
development

socioemotional

R
Ap, E

E, An
Ap, An

U, C
R
U, Ap
C, U

Common Core standards (or GLCEs if not available in Common Core) addressed:
Conventions of Standard English:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.1
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Knowledge of Language:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.3
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or
style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful
word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.6
Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing,
speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when
encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.
(Note: Write as many as needed. Indicate taxonomy levels and connections to applicable national or state standards. If an objective applies to particular learners
write the name(s) of the learner(s) to whom it applies.)
*remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create

II. Before you start

Identify prerequisite
knowledge and skills.

Parts of a calendar, months of the year, days of the week, ordinal numbers (1st-28th), answering
questions about day, date, and time, write the date in two different forms, find and use information on
appointment cards
Pre-assessment (for learning):

Outline assessment
activities
(applicable to this lesson)

Formative (for learning): reading aloud about holidays, writing sentences about their favorite holiday, watching
a video on Youtube that describes a national holiday,
Formative (as learning): writing about a holiday after watching a short video,
Summative (of learning):

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answering the questions on pages 54 and 55 using knowledge from the days class

What barriers might this

lesson present?
What will it take
neurodevelopmentally,
experientially,
emotionally, etc., for your
students to do this lesson?

Provide Multiple Means of

Representation
Provide options for perceptionmaking information perceptible

Provide Multiple Means of Action

and Expression
Provide options for physical actionincrease options for interaction

Watching informative videos about

national holidays, using the
EnglishClass101 Youtube channel

Sharing about traditions/holidays

from their culture with the other
students in the class

Provide options for language,

mathematical expressions, and
symbols- clarify & connect
language

Provide options for expression and

communication- increase medium
of expression

How will your classroom

be set up for this lesson?

Giving students the chance to talk

about their culture and traditions
Provide options for sustaining effort
and persistence- optimize
challenge, collaboration, masteryoriented feedback

Walking around the room and

looking at students responses as
they work and providing
feedback
Provide options for comprehensionactivate, apply & highlight

Ask students to write and speak

about the holidays that they
have celebrated since they have
lived in the United States and to
think about American traditions
and culture
Materials-what materials
(books, handouts, etc) do
you need for this lesson
and are they ready to
use?

Provide Multiple Means of

Engagement
Provide options for recruiting
interest- choice, relevance, value,
authenticity, minimize threats

Provide options for executive

functions- coordinate short & long
term goals, monitor progress, and
modify strategies

Provide options for self-regulationexpectations, personal skills and

strategies, self-assessment &
reflection

Students will need their packets, Chromebooks, and headphones

I will have the packet pages projected on the white board

Students will be seated on three sides of two rectangular tables facing the white board at the front.
They will all be facing the center of the table and able to see the white board.

III. The Plan

Time

Components
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)

Describe teacher activities

AND
student activities
for each component of the lesson. Include important higher order thinking questions and/or
prompts.
I will begin the class by asking the students to read
Students will read the six boxes about holidays on
the boxes about six hoidays in the United States
pages 58 and 59 and will write the date of each
and then write the name and date of each holiday in holiday in the chart on page 58.
the chart on page 58. As they work on this, I will
ask the students what they did to celebrate each of
Students will think about traditions for several
these holidays this year, if they did anything.
American holidays.
After that, I will ask students if they have a favorite
holidayeither American or a holiday from their
home countryand then ask them to write 3-5
sentences describing the holiday and explaining
why it is their favorite.

Students will write 3-5 sentences about their

favorite holiday thinking about its significance to
them and to the culture of the community that
celebrates this particular holiday.
Students will consider the value of tradition and
culture in the practice that they write about.

Development
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We will read the boxes on pages 58 and 59 of the

packet that write about six American holidays.

Students will read along with me each of the boxes

on pages 58 and 59 and then they will fill in the

I will write the answers for the chart on the white

board.

chart on page 58 about what day each holiday takes

place.

I will ask the students to each pick one of the six

holidays and then ask them to take out their
Chromebook and headphones.
I will write EnglishClass101 on the board and
have students search for this channel on Youtube
and then ask them to go to the playlist of American
holidays where they should find the holiday that
they chose.

Students will choose one of the six holidays and

then open Youtube and search EnglishClass101 and
find the holiday they choose and watch the video
that corresponds to the holiday.

I will ask students to write down two things that

they learned about the holiday from the video that
they did not know before.

Students will think about the elements of culture

that are below the surface as they watch the video
and learn new things about possibly familiar
holidays. For example, they might have celebrated
Thanksgiving or Valentines Day this year but not
know the history behind the holiday.

I will ask students to share with the rest of the class

the two things that they wrote down.

(the largest
component or
main body of
the lesson)

Next, I will ask the students to compare and

contrast their favorite holiday with the holiday that
they learned about in the video. I will ask them to
make a chart with the two holidays on either side
and to write how each one is celebrated in the
respective column. Once they have described both,
I will ask the students to write 1-2 sentences about
how the two are similar and 1-2 sentences about
how they are different.

Students will share the two things that they learned

about the holiday from the video.
As they compare and contrast, students will
consider what connections two holidays may have
and how many traditions overlap in the ways that
they are celebrated. Students whose favorite
holiday comes from their home country will
consider how their cultures values and traditions
differ from those of America as well as how they
might be similar.

After every student has had a chance to share their

sentences, we are going to move on to the
Window on Grammar section of page 59

Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
wrap-up)

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I will begin by pointing out the words like

holiday do not use an ie when they are made
plural. I will say that the grammar rule in play here
is that if there is a vowel before the y, then you
keep the y. Other examples include: boy, journey,
survey, and key. Then I will ask students to finish
the activity on page 59.

Students will think about vowels and the phonetic

implications of endings by understanding that
words that end with a vowel and then a y do not
need to change the y to an ie when making
them plural.

I will make sure that all of the students understand

plurals by looking at their answers to the chart on
page 55.

Students will do part D on page 55 to determine

which words are plural and which words are
singular. They will apply their understanding that
plural almost always end in s because this
activity does not incorporate plural words that do
not end in s

To end the class, I will have the students apply their

learning from the day to the remaining activities on
pages 54 and 55. I will check students as they work
and provide help when needed.

Students will complete parts A-C on page 54 in

order to solidify the holiday vocabulary.

Students will complete parts E and F on page 55 to

practice changing words from their singular form to
their plural form.
Your reflection about the lesson, including evidence(s) of student learning and engagement, as well as ideas for improvement
for next time. (Write this after teaching the lesson, if you had a chance to teach it. If you did not teach this lesson, focus on the
process of preparing the lesson.)
I was very excited as I planned this lesson, because I really enjoy holidays and talking about holidays. This will be an
interesting lesson to teach this class since it is half and half with students living in English-only homes and students living
with their birth parents who speak another language at home. These students may not celebrate all of the national holidays
that we discuss in class or they may celebrate the holidays differently. At the same time, four of the students came here this
school year, so they may not have been in the country to celebrate some of the holidays that we are going to look at. I was
very interested to hear from all of these students about the holidays they celebrate or the different ways that they celebrate a
national holiday.
Teaching the lesson was not as enjoyable as planning it, because I think that my expectations were really high. This week it
was the middle school that had testing, so I did not have two of my students, and of those remaining, Jean Claude worked
with his one-on-one teacher during first hour. The hardest part about teaching today was teaching what seemed like two
different lessons. Two of my students did not seem interested in sharing or discussing holidays and traditions; instead, they
worked ahead on the activities whenever I gave attention to the third student, who was confused much of the time. Then
when we moved on to watching the videos on Youtube, I had thought that the class would be excited since they are always
getting in trouble for using Youtube during class. (This is the greatest downfall of giving every student a Chromebook.) I
thought that I would show students that Youtube can be used as an educational tool by using these videos, but the students
either misunderstood the assignment or did not watch the videos. At the end of class, one student had only made it through a
minute of the video and another had been trying to write down everything that the narrator said. I certainly learned a lot
about using technology and transitioning into a technology activity. Next time, I think I will try to clarify directions before
asking the students to take out their Chromebooks. Additionally, I think I should have used the projector to walk the students
through what I wanted them to do by giving them an example.

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