Instructional Session 24

Objective: By the end of class, you will be able to…

Beginner: write sentences in French to give details to inform about the Grand Est region of France Intermediate: write connected sentences in French to give details to inform about the Grand Est region of France, using transition words to organize your writing Advanced: write paragraphs in French to give details to inform about the Grand Est region of France, using transition words to organize your writing

Preparation:

The Guided Oral Input strategy you will be using today is a Big Book. Big Books are basically a series of pictures about a certain topic, with one sentence per page that follows the same pattern (the “sentence frame”) with different facts for each picture in the book. In the context of the “Process Grid Process,” this Big Book is about the first subtopic. In the example lesson series, the first subtopic is the Grand Est region of France.

You can either make a digital Big Book, like the one in the sample lesson, or make a literal big book, as shown in the (blurry) picture below, using big pieces of posterboard paper cut in half and bound together in some fashion, perhaps with a ring clip. On each page, you affix a large picture and write in bold marker, or affix a printout of the sentence in large letters, so that students can easily read the text from their seats. I know from years of reusing my Big Books that the paper versions will last longer if you laminate them before you bind the book. You can hold the book as you teach, or prop it on an easel or perhaps in your chalk tray, and flip the page as you read the sentence on each page and talk to the class about the image on that page. Because you will select images that support the details on each page, you can point to details in the image to scaffold students’ comprehension of the main ideas of the sentence as you read it.

There are many sentence frame patterns to choose from, and some of the “traditional” Project GLAD sentence frames do not sound as harmonious when translated into other languages, so you may want to play

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around with different ways to adapt the frames to your language and preferences. Here are four common

patterns often used in Big Books.

If you prefer a digital format, which is what I use most often, you can use any format, such as a Google doc, like the example here, or a Google slideshow, as shown in the example lesson. On every slide or on every page of the document, similarly to the paper version described above, you will insert a picture and a sentence using the “frame.”

Two things that make a Big Book different from a regular slideshow is (1) on every page there is only one picture, and (2) there is a repeated sentence starter that you say on every page. Generally, you want to “angle” the sentence so that it includes some academic language, or a structure that you want to expose your students to in a targeted and repeated way, perhaps transitions or organizational phrases that they will need to know in order to take a test such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate.

If you Google “Project GLAD Big Books sentence starters” or “sentence frames,”, you will find quite a few examples of academic sentence frames, but I’ll just go ahead and give you some right now.There is one type of Big Book called “The Important Thing”. It would have a starter sentence such as: “the important thing about France is” or “the important thing about the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is”, at the top and repeat it again at the bottom. In French, I like to use “La chose importante.” There are many different ways to

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say “the important thing about” in French, or in any language. I like to say “the important thing concerning”, because this phrase in French sounds very academic. If my students know how to say that, they are going to do really well when they have to go sit for any exam. The essay readers would most likely be impressed.

There is another frame called “Did you know” “Saviez-vous que” as in “Did you know that NouvelleAquitaine is in the Southeast of France”?

The sentence frame that you select for your Big Book is an easy, natural way to get a lot of repetitions of this key structure, as well as introduce facts about the content and build background knowledge about the topic, through the pictures that accompany and illustrate/scaffold the facts in the sentence.

Big Books are generally introduced to students at the beginning of the topic study, before students have had a lot of input on the topic. Since this is new information, and you are just beginning to explore the first subtopic (in the example lesson, the Grand Est region), it is extra important that the picture support in a very visual, concrete way what the sentence is saying, to scaffold students’ comprehension. The idea is not that they are going to understand every single word, but with pictures and repetitions of the phrases in the sentence frame, the academic language structures will “knock around” in their heads enough for them to develop a deep sense of how it sounds, so that they begin to internalize these complex structures in much the same way that a student who grew up interacting with academic-level discourse in your language would: through repeated, meaningful, contextualized, and developmentally-appropriate exposures to this level of language.

Because the language in the sentence stem or frame is repeated so much, it is important that you think about what kind of phrase you will use for your Big Book. You will be well-served by selecting phrases or expressions that you really want your students to internalize eventually and be able to use in their own speech and writing.

The pictures on the pages are an important consideration in making your Big Book. Since this is the beginning of the topic study, you want to make sure that the picture supports comprehension of the information in the sentence on that page. A well-chosen image allows you to point to specific details in the picture as you read and present the Big Book. It's probably for that reason that so many teachers prefer to make them in a digital format, because you can point on the projector screen or on the smart board to various elements inside the picture, and they are large and visible to the entire class.

One rather impressive trick that you might want to check out is the “magic paper trick.” I learned this trick, which generally impresses students with its cleverness, and is very fun to use, in a Social Studies training from Teachers Curriculum Institute, which published the History Alive! materials that my district used for middle school Social Studies. It’s easy, low-prep, and really helps to draw students’ attention to specific details in a projected image. You use a piece of heavy, blank, light-colored or white paper, such as a square of poster board or a sheet of card stock. With the image projected, you take the piece of paper and hold it in front of

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the image. The light from the projector is “caught” on the paper, and so whatever is “caught” on the paper “pops out” and appears slightly larger on the paper, as if you were holding a glowing part of the image in your hand. The real magic of this trick is that you will have a portable “magnifying glass” - the paper - that you can move around on the picture. You are literally able to hold it in your hand and point things out on this little part of the picture. With practice, you can learn to move the paper closer to and farther from the screen on which the image is projected, which gives the effect of zooming in and out of the details of the picture.

You can also play around with various shapes of paper - circles, starburst shapes, etc, for dramatic effect. Quite by accident, I discovered an even more magical trick, which is to use a paper plate.

One time I was doing a workshop, and we didn't have any paper right at hand when I needed to show some details in a projected image. So I looked around for some paper, and I noticed we were serving snacks on those white paper plates that have the little ridges around the outside of the plate. Seeing no other options, I held a plate up into the light, and it was actually much better than the magic paper trick. The “magic paper plate trick” turned out to be better because it gives this little halo around the part of the image that is “caught” on the plate. It’s really very impressive. It’s the best kind of teacher magic: inexpensive, super-low prep, and almost guaranteed to elicit oohs and aahs from your class.

Big Books are usually about 8 to 12 pages long. In this session, you will read it through and then you can go back and review it in later lessons, perhaps during Reading Workshop. That way, your students will get lot of exposure to these words, as well as reviewing the content of the book.

Big Books are a versatile and very useful teaching tool that are worth the effort you will put into creating them. Not only can you return to them in later lessons, using them with any number of Reading Workshop, Guided Oral Input, Scaffolded Oral Review, and Student Application and Assessment strategies, you can also keep them for independent reading. You can “retire” your Big Books to the class library upon completion of the topic study. If your book is in a digital format, you might print copies of the presentation and bind the pages into a physical book, perhaps laminating the pages or putting them in a folder or slipping them into sheet protectors and inserting the pages into a report cover to make the “book” more inviting and visually pleasing to read.

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Now, on to the lesson procedures:

Continue to greet the students in English review expectations, etc. Share the lesson objective. Check in with your Videographer and other students who have jobs, and distribute or project the Reading Workshop text. Then, give the “class starting” signal and begin the lesson.

Write Inside the Story

This strategy is explained in more detail in Session Nine, when it was first introduced as a Student Application and Assessment strategy, and in Session 12, where it was first used for Reading Workshop.

In this sample lesson, I return to the E-Lit reading from our Teachers Pay Teachers store (CI Liftoff) for Cycle Four Phase One, in French. Of course, you can always choose to use a text that your class produced in a previous lesson during Shared Writing, which is, in many ways, the preferable option, since the text will be customized to the class’s experiences and - because they helped to create it - highly comprehensible, even for beginners.

As always, the lesson notes are written in English. Words that are said in the course language (French, in this example), are in black text. The class’s stronger shared language is denoted by this color.

French E-Lit text

First, tell the class what the topic of the reading is, most likely speaking in the class’s stronger shared language, and then read it aloud in the course language and use the strategy, as modeled below. “I will read this text in French, about things to do in Paris, the capital of France. We will continue using this list of words (point to the anchor chart) to write more details in the text to teach facts about Paris.” (Give the signal to start class, and have your Videographer begin filming, and then read the text in the course language and discuss the

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images and information.)

“There are three important things to know (gesture) about Paris…or there are three important things to know (gesture) if you want (gesture) to visit (point to the word) Paris?”

(Students call out.) (speaking and writing in the course language) “There are three important things to know (gesture) if you want (gesture) to visit (point to the word) Paris…or there are three important things to know (gesture) if you want (gesture) to visit (point to the word) Paris, the capital of France?”

(Students call out.) “There are three important things to know (gesture) if you want (gesture) to visit (point to the word) Paris” (speaking and writing in the course language) “the capital of France.”

“Number one (point to the words on the anchor chart and hold up one finger) is that the Seine is a river…or number one (point to the words on the anchor chart and hold up one finger) is that the Seine is a river that traverses the city of Paris?” (Students call out.)

Repeat with one or two other sentences, using the term(s) on your Anchor Chart to restate the information from the Reading Workshop text. After a few minutes, move into the Guided Oral Input, with a short calendar check-in, and then begin using the Big Book.

Quick Calendar Check-In

Move to the calendar for a brief calendar check-in to transition to the Guided Oral Input. Refer to Sessions 1-8 for more details on Small Talk (calendar and weather).

Display the slideshow, and briefly introduce the Big Book, most likely saying a sentence or two in the class’s stronger shared language.

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“This is a text about important facts concerning the Grand Est region of France.”

The lesson procedures are given below in a graphic format.

After about 12 to 15 minutes, regardless of how many of the slides you covered, even if you were not able to show all the pages in the Big Book, you will move on to Scaffolded Oral Review. You could always choose to do another lesson in which the Guided Oral Input is reviewing and finishing the Big Book, or you could use the remaining pages as the basis for Reading Workshop in a future lesson.

Review Our Charts

Move to your Review Spot. In this Scaffolded Oral Review strategy, you will return to charts that your class has previously made, in this case, the Picture Observation chart, and re-read the facts, observations, or thoughts that your students added to the chart the first time they worked with it. You will add more facts as students suggest them, as you review the chart, speaking mostly, if not exclusively, in the course language.

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Please note that most likely students will be able to suggest more, and think more deeply and completely to process and remember the content better, if they speak in their stronger shared language to give their suggestions. This is true for students at any level, so you will want to think about your more advanced

classes, and whether or not you want to require them to engage in this - or any other class discussion - exclusively in the course language. It is generally best for their learning - at any level - if you allow them to respond in their stronger language(s) and you simply restate their suggestions in your course language, writing them in the course language and perhaps adding simple, quick sketches or translations under the new words or phrases, to reinforce the meaning, and make it easier for students to remember the meaning when they refer back to the chart in the future.

Review as many facts from your previous chart as time permits, writing new ideas/facts as students suggest, or as you think of facts that they now know that relate/extend on the information they added on the chart in the previous lesson(s).

You will continue to use the anchor chart that you set up in Session 22, adding two or three new terms to it today. See the sections on Reading Workshop and Shared Writing in Session 9 for more detailed information on setting up anchor charts and goal boxes during Shared Writing. To read more details on Write and Discuss in general, please see the first eight instructional sessions. The lesson example is provided below in a graphic format.

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Continue as time permits.

The “Go-To” Daily Strategies

Shared Reading is not modeled in this lesson in detail, as you are simply continuing to use the “go-to” strategies explained and modeled in detail in the previous sessions.

Write Inside the Story

Write Inside the Story is explained in more detail in Session Nine. Walk to your Quiz Spot. Students will need paper. Leave the Shared Writing text projected where students can look back at it, and have the Anchor Chart visible. “OK, quiz time. I will read our writing. Your job is to find two sentences that could have more details in them, and then “write inside” the sentence. You copy it and then use the words/phrases on the chart to write “inside” the sentence, to add more.”

We will write inside the text. We will use the chart. We will add to the text.

(You might explain the activity in English and then repeat in the course language, as shown below.)

(You might model with a sentence or two, as shown below.) Give students time to work on their writing, perhaps working with a partner.

At the end of the period, you might want to debrief with students, congratulating them on what went well, and setting goals for future improvements. Page 418