Casalnuovo !

Jenae Casalnuovo
Professor Stewart
EDUC 4025
13 October 2017

Designated ELD Lesson Observation

I. Summary of Observed Lesson

A. Classroom

I observed an ELD lesson with three specific activities. It took place in a fourth grade

class taught by Lisa Johnson at Short School in San Rafael. Her class is composed of eleven

female and nine male students. Of these twenty students, seventeen have been identified as

English learners. Three students are at the Beginning level, five students are Early Intermediate,

six students are Intermediate, and three are Early Advanced. All of her English learners speak

Spanish, and some also speak specific Guatemalan dialects, such as Kiche. Ninety percent of

her students receive free or reduced lunch. For this designated ELD lesson, I mainly observed

Mrs. Johnson work with three English learners two with Beginning CELDT scores and one

with an Early Intermediate score. The walls of her classroom are lined with instructional

strategies and posters that are inspired by GLAD, which I will touch upon during Section II:

Teacher Interview.

B. Lesson

To begin the lesson, Mrs. Johnson called three students over to the wall, where she was

kneeling next to an instructional poster about Mount Lassen. As she did this, the rest of the

students either worked in teams or individually on a pre-taught social studies task. The first

activity she led with the small group was a Primary Language Retell. Before beginning the
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subject-specific content portion of this activity, she had the students share what language and/or

dialects they speak at home. In this case, two of the students spoke only Spanish at home, and

one student spoke both Spanish and Kiche at home.

Mrs. Johnson then asked the students to teach her specific words from their home

languages, such as mountain and volcano. As she engaged them in this translation, she

always modeled the hand gesture for each vocabulary term. She also reminded the students that

there is a deep value in knowing more than one language, which is why instead of laughing at

someone for speaking in a different language, we take interest in what they know. Next, the

students were asked to verbalize everything they know thus far about the content at hand (Mount

Lassen). Mrs. Johnson noted to me that the teacher can interact with what a student says if (s)he

speaks that language as well, but the point is really just to access their prior knowledge and

validate their language.

After this activity, they moved on to an ELD Review. The three students read along with

Mrs. Johnson as she pointed at the information written on this poster. She clarified any important

definitions using the hand gestures once more. After this content review, they began an ELD

Group Frame. She asked her students to teach her a fact they learned. She clarified that she

would act as a secretary, writing down everything they said. She wrote their answers down

verbatim in order to have an authentic sample of their oral language. For instance, the first

student said, Mount Lassen was a volcano that erupted by tectonic plates. The second student

said, Volcanoes erupt lava. The third student just recently moved to the U.S. in the last month,

so instead of asking him to verbalize a fact, she asked him to touch the mountain, then show her

where he sees a volcano. She also asked him yes or no questions that allowed him to only
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shake or nod his head (which she indicated the oral language record). Finally, she had each

student write their name next to their oral sample that she had recorded on a small piece of poster

board.

Mrs. Johnson allowed these students to return to the rest of the class, then she called three

different students to come to the group work table. These students had completed their ELD

Group Frame with her the day before, and on this day, she was going to review their answers to

clarify any questions and correct any mistakes. These students needed more support to

understand what Mt. stands for, that ou makes an ow sound, and that Lassen and

lessen are different words that are pronounced differently. After verbally going over these

clarifications, the students worked with Mrs. Johnson to create sentences about natural hazards

and volcanic eruptions.

For the sentence building activity, she used scissors, an editing pen, and paper to

construct large sentences in a pocket pouch. Each student contributed at least one idea about

what order the words or phrases should be placed. When necessary, Mrs. Johnson prompted the

students with questions like, What doesnt sound right if we put an a before a plural word?,

and, What do we need at the end of our sentence? Once they finished this as a group, the

students returned to their learning logs to record what they produced together, and to add a

sketch. This closed the designated ELD lesson I observed.

II. Teacher Interview

I am placed in Mrs. Johnsons classroom every Tuesday for three hours, and she will be

my master teacher for student teaching next semester. She has worked in the San Rafael City
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School District since 1992, teaching mostly kindergarten, first, and second grades. She spent her

first twenty years in this district at Venetia Valley, and this is her seventh year at Short. The

majority of her students at both schools have been English language learners.

Mrs. Johnson was trained in GLAD ten years ago, which she said changed her

profoundly, given that she is convinced that it is the best way to teach. Four years ago, she

became a GLAD trainer to teach other teachers how to implement this program. This means that

she spends her summers traveling around California, as well as the rest of the United States, to

teach these trainings. She and her colleague, third grade teacher Danelle French, trained Shorts

second through fifth grade teachers in GLAD the week before this school year started. They are

also providing follow-up coaching for the new teachers at Short throughout the year.

The acronym stands for Guided Language Acquisition Design. It is a program that

teaches teachers how to integrate instruction in English and grade-level content in a

heterogenous, mainstream classroom with English learners in it. GLAD moves beyond teaching

students basic English conversation skills, and instead focuses on developing academic English

and the linguistic structures students need to know to participate in context-rich discourse. Its

model consists of thirty-five strategies that fall under four component areas: Focus/Motivation,

Input, Guided Oral Practice, and Reading/Writing.

Mrs. Johnson informed me that all of the teachers in the San Rafael City School District,

which Short is a part of, were trained in GLAD. In recent years, the district officials have chosen

to go with SEAL as a language acquisition program instead of GLAD. She does not agree with

this decision, mainly because SEAL is only created for kindergarten through third grade, whereas

GLAD is created for kindergarten through twelfth grade.

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III. ELD Guidelines

A. Guideline 1: Providing ELD instruction is better than not providing it.

Mrs. Johnson meets this requirement by providing ELD instruction for her students at least

weekly. Two of the teachers at Short, however, have not yet been trained in GLAD or SEAL (the

two language acquisition programs this school uses). Because of this lack of training, these

teachers have not yet incorporated ELD-specific lessons into their teaching. Mrs. Johnson has

gone into these two classrooms to provide ELD instruction, but this happens infrequently due to

scheduling issues.

B. Guideline 2: ELD instruction should include interactive activities among students, but

they must be carefully planned and carried out.

While there was no specific time for students to collaborate on their work for the first group,

Mrs. Johnson still allowed space for them to interact because of the low-risk nature of the small

group setting. Students added to each others statements and commented on their knowledge

frequently, given that there were so few of them involved in this lesson. She could monitor the

conversations easily, thus making sure they are carefully carried out, because she was sitting

amongst the students. The second group of three students interacted to create sentences together

the pocket pouch.

C. Guideline 3: A separate block of time should be devoted daily to ELD instruction.

Due to the high number of English learners in the class, Mrs. Johnson cannot provide

individualized or small group ELD instruction daily. This occurs weekly, or sometimes twice a
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week, when she can structure the class for in depth differentiation lessons. Mrs. Johnson does,

however, provide integrated ELD content lessons daily.

D. Guideline 4: ELD instruction should emphasize listening and speaking although it can

incorporate reading and writing.

Mrs. Johnson explicitly told me that this designated ELD lesson emphasized listening and

speaking. I also observed this, because the students had to listen to Mrs. Johnsons directions

about what information she wanted them to convey, and then either point to the information or

say it out loud (depending on each students abilities). The second groups lesson integrated

writing, as they had to write the sentences they created as a group in their own learning logs.

E. Guideline 5: ELD instruction should explicitly teach elements of English (e.g.

vocabulary, syntax, grammar, functions, and conventions).

This particular lesson focused on vocabulary associated with Earth science specifically Mount

Lassen. It also focused on language conventions, which were further dissected during the Group

Frame review for the students who completed their oral language record the day prior. This

second group also learned about syntax and grammar when they created their sentences. This

meets the guideline of explicitly teaching elements of English.

F. Guideline 6: ELD instruction should integrate meaning and communication to support

explicit teaching of language.

This lesson was focused on understanding the key details about Mount Lassen, and then being

able to vocalize said details. This meets the guideline because students were asked to make

meaning out of the class-created poster on the mountain, and then to verbally communicate their

learning with their peers and teacher.

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G. Guideline 7: ELD instruction should provide students with corrective feedback on form.

This lesson met this guideline. One day after completing the ELD Group Frame (in which Mrs.

Johnson wrote down student answers verbatim), she conducted a group review of their oral

language record. During this time, she provided explicit, direct feedback about their form. After

this review, students put this new information into their learning logs and added a sketch.

H. Guideline 8: Use of English during ELD instruction should be maximized; the primary

language should be used strategically.

The primary language was used strategically during the first activity the Primary Language

Retell. This activated the prior knowledge of the students in regard to Mount Lassen, thus

allowing them to have access to the contents meaning. It also provided Mrs. Johnson with the

opportunity to voice her opinion that being multilingual is incredibly valuable. During the ELD

Review and Group Frame, the use of English was maximized, thus meeting this guideline.

I. Guideline 9: Teachers should attend to communication and language-learning strategies

and incorporate them into ELD instruction.

Mrs. Johnsons lesson met this guideline. One way she accomplished this was by using hand

gestures to further student comprehension of key academic language, which is a prevalent

language-learning strategy at Short. She also accessed their prior knowledge in their first

language before asking them to communicate their ideas in English.

J. Guideline 10: ELD instruction should emphasize academic language as well as

conversational language.

This lesson was focused on Mount Lassen, therefore requiring students to use Earth science-

specific language to communicate their knowledge. Students also had to use conversational
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English during the review of the previous days ELD Group Frame. The combination of both

usages meets this guideline.

K. Guideline 11: ELD instruction should continue at least until students reach level 4 (early

advanced) and possibly through level 5 (advanced).

Because Mrs. Johnson groups students based on individualized academic needs for each

designated ELD lesson she teaches, Early Advanced and Advanced English learners do receive

ELD instruction. Every student in the class even students who speak English as their first

language also receive integrated ELD content lessons on a daily basis.

L. Guideline 12: ELD instruction should be planned and delivered with specific language

objectives in mind.

Mrs. Johnson meets this objective because she groups students together based on the same

learning goals (or language objectives). For instance, I observed her conduct a review of the

ELD Group Frame with three students who completed an oral language record the previous day.

Each of these students struggled to understand that Mt. is an appreciation for mount, which

is also an abbreviation for mountain. Additionally, these three students also struggled to

understand that the letters ou together make the ow sound. These mistakes created specific

language objectives for Mrs. Johnson to target.

M. Guideline 13: English learners should be carefully grouped by language proficiency for

ELD instruction for other portions of the school day they should be in mixed classrooms

and not in classrooms segregated by language proficiency.

During my observation, it did not appear based on my prior knowledge of these specific

students that they were grouped by language proficiency. When I asked Mrs. Johnson about
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this, she told me that grouping should be flexible and based on a variety of considerations

depending on the purpose. Given that her Group Frame lesson was primarily focused on

speaking and listening, she looked at the students CELDT scores in these specific categories to

form groups. She also uses formative assessments from other classroom instruction to help her

decide who needed ELD support. One of the main assessments she uses is the student learning

logs. In this case, she calls students over who are struggling to get started in the log to provide an

ELD review. For the Primary Language Review, she chooses students who she thinks would

benefit from accessing prior knowledge in their first language, which certainly includes students

who are new to the U.S., but is not limited to them. She added that for the ease of the

demonstration I observed, she chose three students that would benefit from all three types of

lessons she wanted to show me.

N. Guideline 14: The likelihood of establishing and/or sustaining an effective ELD

instructional program increases when schools and districts make it a priority.

In my experience at Short, the school officials and district have definitely made ELD instruction

a priority (whether that be in designated or integrated formats). The fact that they utilize the

expertise of the two GLAD trainers on staff to train the other teachers both before and

throughout the school year shows that they value the academic and emotional needs of their

English learners. Evidence of the GLAD strategies can be seen not only in (almost) every

classroom, but also throughout the schoolyard and in the library.