Planning by Objectives for Instruction for ELL

Jill Kerper Mora

San Diego State University

Website: moramodules.com

Language

Literacy

Content

Academic Needs of L2/Bilingual Learners

Differentiated Instruction for English Language Learners (ELL)

Differentiation is distinct for ELL because of the relationship between their language & literacy levels & cognitive demands of learning tasks. Therefore, we differentiate according to:

1. English language proficiency levels 2. Language arts abilities & skills: listening,

speaking, reading & writing3. Reading levels & demands of the text4. Levels of concept & content learning

challenges: abstract/concrete; simple/complex; experiential/referential

ELD/SDAIE in 4X4 Model

ListeningLevel 1

ListeningLevel 2

ListeningLevel 3

ListeningLevel 4

SpeakingLevel 1

SpeakingLevel 2

SpeakingLevel 3

SpeakingLevel 4

Reading Level 1

Reading Level 2

Reading Level 3

Reading Level 4

WritingLevel 1

WritingLevel 2

WritingLevel 3

WritingLevel 4

ELD

SDAIE

The Lesson Cycle for ELD/SDAIE Instruction

Curriculum

Standards

Curriculum

Standards

AnticipatorySet

AnticipatorySet

Presentation

Check forUnderstanding

Presentation

Check forUnderstanding

ClosureClosure

MonitorandAdjust

MonitorandAdjust

IndependentPractice

AssessMastery

IndependentPractice

AssessMastery

Correction(Reteach)

Correction(Reteach)

ExtensionExtension

TaskAnalysis

TaskAnalysis

PlanLesson

PlanLesson

YesYes NoNo

GuidedPractice

CheckMastery

GuidedPractice

CheckMastery

NextObjective

NextObjective AssessAssess

Text Analysis for Literacy Instruction for ELL

• Linguistic surface features (decodability, sentence structure, idiomatic expressions, literary devices & figurative language)

• Features of text that support access for ELL (graphics, organizational clues, glossary, etc.)

• Assessing the concept load of a text & vocabulary challenges

• Author’s intent, purpose or function & message• Text structure, style & patterns of exposition• Relevant background & cultural knowledge to

comprehend text

Thematic Planning for ELL

• Theme selection & goals definition

• Staging the concepts

• Vocabulary

• Reading selection

• Guided practice

• Evaluation

The Language-Concept ConnectionInstructional Model

Domain Language Concept Learning

A Unknown Unknown Limited: Modify Instruction

B Known Unknown Concept Development

C Unknown Known Language Development

D Known Known Concept & Language Mastery

Use known language to teach an unknown concept.Use known concepts to teach unknown language.

State Content Standards& ELD Standards

Instructional objectives & learning outcomes

Specify language & content objectives

Conduct task/text analysis & design learning activities

Design assessments

Curriculum Development Processfor English Language Learners

From Curriculum Standard to Instructional Objectives

8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.

1. Discuss the influence of industrialization and technological developments on the region, including human modification of the landscape and how physical geography shaped human actions (e.g., growth of cities, deforestation, farming, mineral extraction).

2. Outline the physical obstacles to and the economic and political factors involved in building a network of roads, canals, and railroads (e.g., Henry Clay's American System).

3. List the reasons for the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to the United States and describe the growth in the number, size, and spatial arrangements of cities (e.g., Irish

immigrants and the Great Irish Famine).

Questions About Instructional Objectives

1. Why do we need to write instructional objectives? What are IO good for?

2. How do instructional objectives relate to the curriculum standards in my content area?

3. Why are the verbs we use in instructional objectives so important? Why does the verb need to be precise?

4. Why do we need to create both language and content objectives?

5. What is the difference between a language objective and a content objective?

Characteristics of Effective Instructional Objectives

• Student-oriented: telling what students will do rather than what the teacher will do.

• Descriptive of learning outcomes: It is the learning outcome, not the learning activity that are described in IO.

• Clear & understandable: IO are explicit, using a clearly stated action/process verb

• Observable: IO indicate what behavior(s) demonstrate that students have mastered the objective.

Guide to Analysis of Objectives

Look at the original objective. Pay attention to potential flaws such as:Vagueness of behavioral verbsLack of specificity regarding context where students will demonstrate the behaviorLack of clarity or specificity about the product students will produce to demonstrate the behavior. Lack of indication of listening/speaking, reading or writing application Lack of specificity about the critical thinking skill or process involved

Revising the Objective

In the rewritten objective, aim for the following:A precise behavioral verb that describes the learning outcome.A context where the behavior will be observed.A performance or product.A language skill application.A critical thinking skill or process.The application or example of how the objective’s behavior & skill or content is applied within one or more of the 5 steps of the lesson plan.

SWBAT Verbs are Essential

Vague & unobservable

To know

To understand

To learn

To appreciate

To study

To realize

To value

To review

Observable actions/products

To analyze

To predict

To locate

To explain

To summarize

To select

To list

To choose

To classify

Is it Language or is it Content?

Language• Key vocabulary• Language functions• Language skills• Grammar or language

structures• Lesson tasks• Language learning

strategies• Academic language

Content• Factual knowledge &

information about a topic• Simple or complex

concepts• Concrete or abstract

concepts• Processes, dynamics &

systems• Critical thinking about

content

Verbs for Instructional Objectives

Language Objectives• Listen for• Describe• Edit• Retell• Define• Find the main idea• Compare• Summarize• Paraphrase

Content Objectives• Generalize• Identify• Solve• Investigate• Distinguish• Hypothesize• Create• Select• Draw conclusions about

cause & effect

Language SkillsInstructional Objectives for Listening

• Determine listening objectives to increase discrimination & comprehension of sounds, words & sentences

• Use listening action words: Identify, names, match, select, list, define, sort, display, label.

Language SkillsInstructional Objectives for Speaking

• Determine speaking objectives to elicit authentic oral language use by purpose & function

• Use speaking action words: retell, describe, recite, summarize, explain, narrate, role play, report.

Listening/Speaking

Behavioral verb not specific:

Students will be able to (SWBAT) identify various vocabulary and ideas associated with the Pueblo Indians’ food, shelter, family life and clothing.

Behavioral outcome clearly defined.

SWBAT listen to descriptive statements about the Pueblo’s food, shelter & clothing & classify the statement by its number under an icon on a three-column chart.

Application:

#1. The Pueblo’s main crops are corn, beans & squash. Classify under «Foods» icon.

Listening/Speaking

Too vague & general:

Students will listen to the text about bears.

More specific:

SWBAT respond by signifying thumps up/thumbs down to indicate if a statement about bears is true or false.

Application:

Bears live in the desert. T/F

Bears like to eat fish from forest streams and rivers. T/F

Mother bears give birth four or five cubs in the spring. T/F

Listening/Speaking

Behavioral verb misapplied:

When speaking students will be able to retell in a short description what is happening on the earthquake Richter scale.

Behavioral verb clearer:SWBAT to orally describe or explain the differences between a Richter scale 4.0 earthquake versus a 7.0 earthquake by telling about how much the earth shakes & how much damage each earthquake might cause using 2-3 sentences.Application: «The 4.0 earthquake could knock products in the stores off the selves. The 7.0 earthquake can make a refrigerator fall over. The 7:0 earthquake causes more shaking.

Language SkillsReading & Writing Objectives

• Link objectives to the Reading/Language Arts Standards

• Include critical thinking skills as well as mechanical and decoding skills

• Use action words: summarize, compare & contrast, explain cause & effect, distinguish fact & opinion, paraphrase, outline.

Reading

Focus on process:

Students will read a portion of the text about Pueblo village life and discuss as a group what that section was about.

Focus on learning outcomes: SWBAT read a passage about the work that men and women do in a Pueblo village and name three differences between their roles in producing and preparing food in complete sentences. Application: Women gather corn, cook and make pottery for cooking pots & dishes. Men plan the farming, work in the fields to grow the crops and gather fuel for cooking fires.

WritingNo product described; content vague:

• Students will write a narrative to demonstrate what they think life would be like for the Pueblo Indians.

Product specified; critical thinking skill defined

• SWBAT write an 8-10 sentence narrative of 1-2 paragraphs to compare & contrast the challenges & hardships of the life of the Pueblo Indians in the 18th & 19th centuries with the life of the Pueblo in modern times.

Concept Learning

• Describe• Define• Explain• Give examples• Apply• Justify• Compare and contrast• Contextualize• Generalize

Content Objective ELDBears

Behavior not observable:

Students will learn how to identify different aspects of a bear and how that helps a bear adapt & survive in its environment.

Critical thinking & content clear:

SWBAT classify physical features of bears according to factors in their environment & the function of each feature that enables the bear to adapt & survive in its environment.

Application:

Environmental conditions: cold weather; need to dig for or catch food. Physical features: thick fur, long & sharp claws

Content Objectives SDAIEMagnitude of Earthquakes

Critical thinking skill not specified:

Student will be able to describe the Richter Scale for ranking earthquakes & give Applications of two earthquakes with different ratings.

Indicates critical thinking process & outcomes: SWBAT explain cause & effect of the destruction from earthquakes by giving 3-5 reasons why more property damage & loss of life is caused by earthquakes rated higher on the Richter scale.Application: Students will read newspaper articles about damage from two California earthquakes: Northridge, 6.7 in 1994 & Alum Rock, 5.5. in 2007 & explain the extent of damage. Next step will be to compare & contrast the two earthquakes.

Key Vocabulary Objectives

• State what technical terms, concept words or labels, and other words or expressions students need to discuss, read, or write about the topic of the lesson.

• Are based on a determination of whether the vocabulary for the concept or the concept itself is unknown.

• Must include “ordinary language” about the topic for ELL with lower levels of language proficiency.

Key Vocabulary ObjectivesExamples (Deforestation)

• SWBAT list & define 10 vocabulary words that relate to products and uses of wood.

• SWBAT fill in the missing vocabulary words in a cloze procedure paragraph that are associated with the products & uses of wood.

• SWBAT label a diagram of the carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle for trees with key terms to describe the processes & products of the cycle.

Language Functions Objectives

• Define how students will use language in the lesson or demonstrate knowledge of the content.

• Must be made explicit for ELL since they may not have mastered the “meta-language” to talk about their thinking about the content.

• Often contain a critical thinking or analytical skill (categorize, compare & contrast, etc.)

• May refer to sentence frames, use of “signal words” or academic language students need to talk, read & write about a thought process or patterns among facts, concepts & information about the topic.

Language Functions ObjectivesExamples (Deforestation)

• SWBAT compare and contrast the CO2/oxygen production of a thinly populated or depleted forest and a richly populated healthy forest.

• SWBAT classify rain forest plants and animals according to the forest layer they inhabit.

• SWBAT write a persuasive essay to convince the reader that they should become active in efforts to save the Amazon rain forest.

Lesson Task Objectives

• Require analysis of the linguistic demands of a task in relationship to ELL students’ level of English language proficiency. Ex: Do students know the format for writing a report or does this require explicit teaching?

• Require analysis of the text students’ will read. Ex: Does the text have features that support students’ reading comprehension such as definitions of key vocabulary, graphs & charts to display data, maps, etc.?

Lesson Task ObjectivesExamples (Deforestation)

• SWBAT summarize the main points from an editorial about why we should save the Amazon rain forest and rate the degree of persuasiveness of each point on a four-point scale from unconvincing to very convincing.

• SWBAT draw a flow chart showing the process of making paper and label each step with a complete descriptive sentence based on a written text description of the process.

Grammar or Language Structures

• Describe spoken & written discourse patterns such as questioning patterns, verb tenses, paragraph writing, pronoun usage.

• May define specific word study processes and outcomes, such as prefixes & suffixes for descriptive words or for making comparisons.

• Require the use of language structures in context as well as explicit instruction in pre-teaching or analyzing authentic text. Avoid artificial or de-contextualized grammar & word study.

Grammar or Language StructuresExamples

• SWBAT change the verbs in a two-paragraph passage from present tense to past tense using regular and irregular verbs.

• SWBAT convert statements to questions using the correct form of the auxiliary verb «to do» in the present tense.

• SWBAT use the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and correct phrases to compare three people objects: Ex. tall, taller, tallest; short, shorter, shortest

Language Learning Strategies

• Define self-monitoring & self-correcting strategies such as making & confirming predictions.

• Support students in using strategies to locate information within a text: Ex. Students will find “embedded definitions” within a text.

• Often involve translation or transformation of language or text into another form, such as outlining, paraphrasing, retelling in students’ own words, or representing information graphically.

• Address skills students need to help them when they don’t understand or “get stuck” with unfamiliar language or content.

Language Learning StrategiesExamples (Deforestation)

• SWBAT retell the story or complaint of one character from the book The Great Kapoc Tree in his/her own words.

• SWBAT convert a narrative passage about a trip down the Amazon river into a short dialogue between three of the travelers.

• SWBAT identify ten idiomatic expressions in a the book the Great Kapoc Tree or another familiar story or chapter of a novel about the rain forests and write the expression in «ordinary» language using correct grammar and terms.

References

• Cooper, J.M. (Ed.) (1994).Classroom Teaching Skills, 5th Edition. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath & Co.

• Echevarría, J., Vogt, M. & Short, D.J. (2010). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.