Instructional Session 27

Objective: By the end of class, you will be able to… Beginner: say strings of sentences in French to answer questions in French about the Grand Est region, and use topicspecific vocabulary that we have learned in this cycle Intermediate: say strings of sentences in French to answer questions in French about the Grand Est region, and use topic-specific vocabulary that we have learned in this cycle, and use transitions to organize your speech Advanced: say a series of connected sentences in French to answer questions in French about the Grand Est region, and use topic-specific vocabulary that we have learned in this cycle, and use transitions to organize your speech

Preparation:

The Guided Oral Input strategy you will be using today is the Word Card Review. This strategy is closely related to the Thought Bubble Review, explained in detail in Session 21. Please refer to that page for more details.

You will begin by “Reading the Walls” to review the information from the Input chart you made in Session 26. “Reading the Walls” is a strategy that uses any artifact that you have put on the walls, such as the Kid Grid, an Input Chart, the Cognitive Content Dictionary, a One Word Image, student artwork, the calendar, etc,, to provide review of that day’s learning. This strategy can also be used as the day’s Guided Oral Input, if you have plenty of material to review.

To prepare, you will write 8-12 key terms in dark marker, each word or term on a different card, or prepare digital “cards” like those in the example lesson. These terms might be already written on the chart, or they can be words that are useful to explain or describe more abut the topic on the chart. There is really not any special formula for selecting the words, but I do like to prioritize academic terms that are specific to the topic of the topic I am reviewing, such as “agricultural product” and “metropolitan area”, in the case of, for example, a map that shows some economic regions of a country, and also less-specific, higher-frequency terms that I know are useful in other contexts, such as “compared to” or “contains” or “location”.

Then, for review in class, you simply go through the stack of words and talk about them, standing by the chart and affixing them to the chart near a place where the term is useful.

Perhaps, as you put the cards on the chart, if the terms are already written on the chart, you are simply sticking the card right on top of the term that was already there, written on the chart when you made it with the class. That’s OK; using the new card to “pop out” the term highlights it and helps to imprint it neurologically on students’ brains.

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As you go through the notes, it is best to mix together some statements about them and also some review questions. This keeps the class more engaged than simply listening to their teacher restate the facts. It also fosters a feeling of accomplishment in students, because they are able to have a high-level conversation using academic vocabulary in the course language, and also recall facts that they learned.

To “play” the Word Card Review “game” (which is not really so much of a game, but if you call it a game, then you might find that your students are “tricked” into thinking it is more fun!), you can first offer students some pronunciation practice, and a chance to “earn” the right to play the word card in the “game.”

Divide the class into two or more teams that will compete for the chance to play the card, later during the “game.” Holding the term in front of you, you first say the word and spell it aloud as you write it in a list on the board (this list will help you during game play as you can cross off the words as they are played, and it also offers a chance to reinforce the names of the letters in a meaningful academic context, instead of teaching them in alphabetical order as many language teachers are wont to do), then use the word in a sentence or ask a question with it, and then ask students to repeat it after you.

You will pretend to notice that one of the groups is repeating particularly well, you say, in L2, “Hey, the reds’ pronunciation was great. Here, reds, you earned this card!” with a big show of enthusiasm. Sometimes you just have to sort of randomly pick a team to “earn” the card; that’s OK. It is basically just a pretense to give out the word cards.

After all the words have been accounted for, you can play! You will find more details on how to play this “game” in the section below on Guided Oral Input.

Continue to greet the students in English, review expectations, etc. You might make your own Reading Workshop text, use the ones in our Teachers Pay Teachers store, such as the example below, or work with a Shared Writing text from a previous lesson. Distribute or project the text. Then, share the lesson objective if you have not already done so, check in with your Class Starter (and perhaps Videographer), and begin the lesson.

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Pronunciation Practice with Expert Group Page

In this sample lesson, I use the Expert Group Page on the Grand Est from our curriculum materials, but you will use your own Expert Group readings, which you can easily make by following the instructions in Session 22.

Today, since this is the first time students will see the Expert Group Pages, you will not delve very deep into them. It is suggested that you use the familiar, and very low-stress (as well as almost no prep) Reading Workshop strategy of Pronunciation Practice.

Of course, in any Reading Workshop, you can always choose to use a text that your class wrote together in a previous lesson’s Shared Writing. But in this particular session, as well as in Session 28, the next session, I encourage you to work with the Expert Group Pages that you will read as a class on the first subtopic, in Session 29, Expert Groups.

By working with the Expert Group Pages during Reading Workshop in this session, you are preteaching - in a light, natural, unforced way - some of the concepts and language prior to the next session, Session 29, in which you will spend the entire lesson reading the Class Expert Group Pages on subtopic one as a class to set students up for more independent reading of their group’s Expert Group Pages, on subtopic two or three (or four, if you have that many subtopics). You might choose to use Find That Cognate instead, depending on your class’s interests, preferences, and needs. Because both of these strategies are very familiar by this point, there is no modeling of how to use them in this specific lesson. We now move on to the Guided Oral Input - the Word Card Review.

After a few minutes of Reading Workshop, move into the Guided Oral Input, with a short calendar check-in and then begin the class survey. You will not have time to read the entire Expert Group Page. This is actually by design; you are simply exposing students to the reading, to build confidence and perhaps also a bit of curiosity, which will come in handy when you dive into the Expert Group Reading Day in Session 29. For now, you just want to work briefly with parts of the text and move on.

Expert Group Reading

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Quick Calendar Check-In

Move to the calendar for a brief calendar check-in to transition to the Guided Oral Input. It is suggested to begin with a brief calendar check-in to transition to the Guided Oral Input, as an opening routine. The lesson procedures are modeled in graphic format, below.

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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, 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.

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).

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You will continue to use the anchor chart that you set up in Cycle Four Phase One, Sessions 22 - 26, to reinforce the important skill of introducing and previewing the parts of an information paragraph. You will, depending on your sense of students’ readiness to tackle additional skills, also introduce a second, complementary chart, on “teaching academic vocabulary,” or restating content-specific vocabulary in “layperson’s terms.” The goal of the kind of writing we want to model in this phase is something like this:

How well do you know Oregon? There are three important aspects of Oregon’s geography to know about. First, Oregon is a maritime climate, which means that it is beside the ocean. This makes Oregon’s weather temperate, or not too hot and not too cold. Also, Oregon is seismically active, which means that it can have earthquakes…so be careful! And thirdly, Oregon is mountainous, which means that there are lots of mountains in the state.

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. Model procedures for how your Shared Writing might go today are provided below, in graphic format.

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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.

Read in the Language

“Now I will read to you in French and then we will read in English together.” (reading with expression, and pointing to the words, read the text in its entirety.)

Choral Translation

“Now we will read together. Read with the class, not faster not slower, not louder, not softer, just say each word as I highlight it. It might be in a strange order when we say the English, but that’s OK; it’s normal. Say the words as I point. 3-2-1, go!”

Grammar Discussion

“Did anyone notice anything else about the French language, how it is spelled, or put together, that they can teach the class?” (Lead a brief class discussion and circle any students’ noticings on the text, ideally using a second color, and perhaps writing the students’ name/initials by their contribution.)

To continue to Reading from the Back of the Room:

Since you have been doing the same sequence of Shared Reading strategies, most likely you can simply move to the reading from the back of the room spot and begin asking questions, without needing to speak in English to transition. Your specific questions will vary depending on the content of the class discussion.

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Q and A Game with Word Cards

The Q and A Game is explained in more detail in Session Five where it was first introduced. This variation was introduced in Session 25, and again in Session 26. This variation is a further modification, wherein students “play” word cards using the same vocabulary that you reviewed in this lesson.

Students will make their own list or cards, using your cards as a model. As they answer, they will move their cards when they say the term on them, trying to use all of the terms in their answer, or a specified number of terms, or trying to use all the terms over the curse of several answers (it’s up to you how to set this up, and you might want to consider your students’ abilities and level of confidence when tackling a challenge). As you did in the previous sessions, you will want students to have their materials - in this case, their stack of cards or vocab list - in front of them as they speak with their partner.

You will also want to leave the class’s Write and Discuss text, as well as the word cards and charts from today’s lesson, and perhaps from previous sessions, visible to the students as they speak, so that they can refer back to the language and information on the class text and from the chart(s). This not only scaffolds students to say more, but it also sets up a task in which they are quite likely to refer back to the input from the lesson, and perhaps yesterday’s as well, reading back over the class’s text and/or referring back to the images and words on the chart(s).

Walk to your Quiz Spot. Review the Q and A Game, and perhaps set up a points system to track whether the speakers say all of the phrases on the five-finger review chart. You might give students paper clips, checkers, squares of colored paper, or other objects to mark their chart when their partner says the phrases. Then proceed with the Q and A Game as previously described and modeled, giving a bit more time for the speakers to answer, as they will most likely be saying more, using the charts and their word cards to scaffold their responses.

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.

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