Bretten Allen

Lesson Analysis #1
1) As we got our group together we asked everyones names and introduced
ourselves. We then explained what the coat of arms is for and how we were
going to personalize it. We explained what would go into each piece of the
coat of arms. They began writing and drawing, as they asked questions or
were visibly stuck, we assisted in asking the question again, thinking of ideas,
or sharing what we were doing for ours. After everyone was complete, we
took turns sharing what we had made. When each of the girls told us what
language they spoke at home, we asked them to teach us a word. We all
repeated it together until we got it correct. Then we moved on to the cup
game. We set it up and explained what their goal was. After they worked
together to move one cup without knocking over the others, they took turns
reading the questions that were taped inside of the cups. Some of the
questions were about their neighbors answers from the coat of arms and
some were to just get to know each other better. The students helped clean
up and wrote down the essential question in their planners.
2) We had four young girls in our group. Divine, Run, Mudan, and Zainab. Divine
is from Rwanda and speaks Kinyarwanda. She was the most talkative and the
most excited about the activity. She has a fairly large family with three sisters
and two brothers and then her mom and dad. Run had the largest family with
five brothers and four sisters. She is from Somalia and speaks Somali. She
was very kind and helpful with all parts of the lesson. Mudan is also from
Somalia and speaks Somali. She was quieter than the others but seemed very
kind as well. She knew the least amount of English and so we did some one
on one with her. She lives with her mom. Zainab was very hesitant in the
beginning, she didnt seem as though she wanted to participate and made a
few comments that supported that. However, as the time went on, she began
to laugh more and with more volume and enthusiasm. She is from Iraq,
speaks Arabic, and has three brothers and her mom and dad.
3) The creating and sharing of the coat of arms went very well. Some drew
pictures but most of them were able to write sentences about the questions
that were asked, which showed a higher level of English capability than only
providing visual representations. The girls were excited about sharing what
they had written, if they werent sure what to put down for a certain question
they asked for help, they were very interested in talking with us about what
we were drawing/writing, and they were very helpful with Mudan because it
was more challenging for us to communicate with her in English.
4) The cup game with the questions inside was overall well done, however the
game itself of using the strings and rubber band to take down one cup at a
time was not as useful as we may have thought it would have been. We
encouraged them to talk with each other to find the best way to get the cup
down without knocking all of the others over, but almost always one of the
girls would just pull it towards herself and it worked. I think it could have been
a little more complicated in order for there to be a need for more
communication. However the questions inside of the cups was a really good
idea and it worked out well. The girls asked if it was their turn to read and
everybody participated in answering.
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5) Zainab was at the beginning of being at a level three on the WIDA scale. She
had some specific language of content areas, made some errors in oral
language, more in writing, but the meaning was still very clear. Run and
Divine both were in level two on the WIDA scale. They spoke in shorter
sentences but still had a good grasp of the general language and how to
create sentences. With Mudan, there was a lot of need for Run to assist
because she spoke Somali to translate or go into more depth. I would say that
Mudan is at level one on the WIDA scale because she was not able to
understand a lot of what we were saying to her but she could write short
sentences with assistance.
6) In general, I learned that there are so many stages to learning a language. It
was very helpful to see that although students can seem to be on the same
level, it doesnt mean that they are going to know exactly the same words or
grammar structure. I also noticed just how excited and willing these students
were to share pieces of their language with us. I think that it is important to
note that during our teaching of English, we should not be disallowing the use
of their first language. I also just learned how to communicate and interact
with English language learners, I have rarely been in a situation to do this,
and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lesson Analysis #2
1) We met in the library with our group, Mudan was absent. We started with
asking the students to write down the essential question. Then we asked
questions about how they solve conflicts at home and can they still be friends
with somebody that they have had a fight with. We read the folktale, two of
the students volunteered to have parts but then only one, Divine, ended up
reading her part so Drew and I read the parts while pointing to the words as
we went. We reviewed that story and what happened at the end. They all
answered questions about who was in the story and why they were having
the conflict. Drew and I introduced the definition cards, we had originally
wanted to get through three of them, but were only able to do one before we
felt we needed to move on in order to complete the rest of the activities. I
think that next time we will need to look more closely at the spelling of the
students, Zainab reads quite well but has a more difficult time spelling the
words we introduce to her. The definition card was useful but it took more
time than expected. We moved to the Rachel Platten song and helped the
students with the first two fill-ins, then we went through the song pointing to
the words as she sang them so they would not get lost. The song was a bit
too fast, but we didnt want them to get bored, so it was kind of a trade-off.
We ended up going through the whole song again, they would tell us the
answers that they got and we would tell them what was actually said in the
song, most of the answers in the first part of the song were correct, the last
few were skipped over on most of their papers. After we fixed the fill-ins we
watched the music video and then discussed what it really means to stand
by someone. How it doesnt mean to be in close proximity, but to be an
emotional support and be helpful in a time of need. Then we talked about
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how communication can help when somebody is in a tough situation. We

explained the rules of the human knot activity and began to play. They
seemed to really enjoy it, even though it was difficult. Drew and I joined but
did not outwardly help them figure out how to get untangled. After we were
successful we talked about how important it was to talk out problems. We
review the essential question and then it was time to leave.
2) We looked up a folktale from Somalia and hoped that would be familiar to
Mudan and Run at least. We also picked a theme that was easy to relate to,
as everyone goes through difficult situations and gets in conflicts with other
people, activating background knowledge. We built background knowledge by
teaching vocabulary that would be important to the lesson beforehand. The
discussions of when situations like that had happened to them personally also
activated their background knowledge.
3) We made the content comprehensible by showing the concept in multiple
ways, the folktale, song, and activity all brought in aspects of communication
and cooperation. We used the computer to show them the vocabulary and
used the online dictionary to sound it out for them so they could hear
specifically how the word was said. We tied it into their own lives and had
them draw pictures and create their own sentences regarding how they
communicate.
4) Yes, they were required to listen and speak during all activities. During the
folktale we encouraged students to take part in reading the story, everyone
had to listen to what the story was about, and then discuss important aspects
of it when it was complete. During the song the students had to use their
listening skills in order to pick out the word that filled in the blank and then
we all read the song together to find out the correct answers, saying them
out loud. With the human knot activity the students had to listen to their
peers and discuss strategies to best get untangled.
5) I learned more specifics about their family make up, the relationships
between each of the students and their families, and how they deal with
conflicts amongst their friends. I continue to learn more about Zainabs,
Divines, and Runs personalities. Divine and Zainab use their phones to
directly connect with their families, Run doesnt have a phone at all. Small
things like this can give us a small hint as to what their family and/or
community may be like. Also, none of the students had hear the song that we
chose and there was a magazine in the library and none of them knew who
the actor was on the front cover. Both Drew and I were fairly shocked. The
song was a super popular song within the last year and the actor was in
Twilight, which was huge as well. It is definitely something that we need to
think through more when we are planning these types of lessons.
6) As I had mentioned above, Zainab seems to have the highest ability out of
the group when it comes to speaking and reading English. However, does not
represent that. It helped me to see that there does need to be dual
instruction for learning English. There should be conversational, natural,
implicit lessons regarding tone and appropriateness of words. However there
is also a need for direct, very specific, explicit lessons that correspond with
spelling and grammar. I also learned that it is easier and the lesson is much
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more successful when important vocabulary is taught prior to the actual

heart of the lesson. Activating their prior knowledge allowed us to make
connections that we otherwise would not have known about. I also noticed
that Drew and I used the approach where a student says a sentence or a
word incorrectly that we wouldnt outright tell them it was wrong, but we
would say it to them over again using the correct method so that they could
get a better grasp on how to use the phrase. This is important to do because
Im sure they are very tired of hearing how they are pronouncing things
incorrectly when all they are doing is trying their best.

Lesson Analysis #3
Our lesson was about family relationships, struggles and high points
that they have had personally, and why we can argue with someone but still
love them. We had a few essential questions but the one that we had them
write down was why is it important to look out for and get along with family
members? We also talked about how they can fight with people they love
but it is always important to remember why they still care about each other.
Our last lesson we discussed communication, consideration, cooperation,
and working through arguments or tough situations. One of our students
talks about how she fights with her brothers all the time and about
everything, so we decided to elaborate on this subject. We talked more about
communication, which was our vocabulary word last time. The two stories
that we introduced last time and this time had similar themes and we were
able to go more in depth because of that.
Drew and I decided to have the students participate in a readers
theater. We had anticipated some rough patches because we have had some
girls who have vocalized how they do not like to read. Our original plan was
to give each student one narrator part and tried to make the amount of
reading equal, then read the entire story with the girls taking turns. However,
after the first page it was quite evident that some of them were getting
frustrated because they were on different reading levels. Run had a
particularly hard time with the reading and needed a lot of help with
pronunciation, Zainab was uninterested but completed her parts with some
assistance, Mudan was a lot more advanced in reading ability than either of
us had anticipated because she does not speak English to us, and Divine was
able to complete all of the passages without help. After the first page we
made a quick decision to have a discussion about the second page and then
continue to read the third page out loud as a group. That definitely went
better but I was disappointed that because of time we had to skip part of the
story. I think that I am struggling with wanting to make the stories we use
interesting but on their levels. I dont want to provide them with a story that
they feel insults their capabilities or that they find boring just because it is
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easy to read. I definitely would have changed our lesson to include even
more pictures and cut down on length and difficulty. Maybe giving them parts
that are different based on their current ability.
I changed my speech during this lesson to be slower and clearer. When
we were discussing the book cover picture we used simple examples of what
it could be about, using clues from the picture. While reading we both slowed
down our own pace of reading so that they could follow along with our parts.
We modeled the drawing activity that came after the reading. We used
explicit instruction telling them what exactly we wanted to know and see. I
would have multiple examples already drawn out to give them more variety
so that they dont copy the one example we show. Also, I think it is going to
be important to write out simple and clear instructions for them to refer back
to if they get lost. We discussed all vocabulary in the story that they were not
familiar with, like the term Bubbie or Babushka in reference to the grandma
of the young boy and girl main characters. We did provide a good picture
depicting the story, actively discussed meaning, brought in their own
personal experiences, and discussed what they call their own grandparents
in their native language.
We had to cut the story down because of time and difficulty but
besides that I think that our planning out of activities worked well with the
time frame that we had. Discussion took a lot of time but I think it was
necessary especially with observing the students and the fact that they were
focused on reading and not as much on content. I learn so much every time I
teach a lesson to these girls. I had no idea that Mudan was to the level of
reading that she is at. I think it just shows that there are so many different
aspects to literacy and learning a language. Reading, writing,
comprehension, academic language, and social language all correlate but
that does not mean that they are going to be at the same level in each area.
It is fairly amazing to see the difference. I think what I learned most about
language learning from this lesson is that you need to be prepared for so
much more than you expect when teaching. I am still learning how to best
cater to each individual person, which is so important if they are going to
progress. In all honesty this lesson was fairly frustrating. I want them to learn
and read but they are seeing other groups playing uno or making crafts and
then they talk about how fun the other groups are. But I am not sure how to
incorporate them making crafts into a meaningful lesson that improves
literacy.