E-portfolio

The e-Portfolio will demonstrate how you have met the criteria for five (5)
selected standards from the Michigan ESL Endorsement standards and NCATE/TESOL
standards. Provide evidence for these 4 standards: ESL 3.1, ESL3.7, ESL 4.6 and
ESL6.5. Choose one more from ESL1.1, ESL3.1, ESL3.2, ESL3.4, 3.5, ESL3.7,
NCATE/TESOL or National Board for Professional Teaching standards.

ESL 3.1:
The student will understand second language development theories and research, inclusive of
error analysis, performance analysis, and inter-language. (ESL3.1)

ESL 3.7
The student will know and use a variety of strategies to promote full participation of English
Language students in classrooms. (ESL3.7)

ESL 4.6:
The student will show a high level of competency in teaching English Language students to
acquire and use English in listening, speaking, reading, and writing for social and academic
purposes.

ESL 6.5:
The student will know the teacher’s role as a professional within the discipline.

ESL 3.2
The student will show ability to use language acquisition knowledge to create a supportive
classroom-learning environment that includes opportunities for interaction in English.

a)Provide evidence by presenting an artifact which shows evidence of how you have met the standard for
the age group of students taught in the Practicum.

1. State the standard, describe the artifact, provide a rationale for choosing the artifact as
evidence of the standard, provide digital copy of artifact (video, photo, document).
Standard Description of how you met this standard Artifact
ESL3.1 I have met this standard through the implementations Compare and
and discussion of two specific SLA models. I have Contrast
provided a discussion of what the two models are, Methods of
along with how they can be used in the classroom in SLA
 order to accomplish a specific teaching goal. I have
been able to show how using each of them, both
separately and together, can help ELLs move one step
closer to fluency along with allowing them some
autonomy and independence in the classroom.
ESL3.7 I met this standard by creating a unit that was Thematic Unit
accessible to ELL students. Throughout the unit
several opportunities are provided for students to
experience comprehensible input and interact with the
material in an authentic and realistic way. On top of
that, the culminating assessment for this unit is an
opportunity for students to present to an audience in a
real life situation. Students can use prepared notes to
help with their presentation and are able to use the
information from the unit and apply it to a modern
day situation.
ESL4.6 I chose this artifact specifically because it describes a SIOP Lesson
lesson in which students engage in several aspects of Plan 2
the English language. Students will spend some of
their time in the lesson listening to me speak,
speaking to the whole class and to small groups,
listening and taking notes on a video, and also using
their notes in order to help them come to a conclusion
about Athens and Sparta. Students are also able to use
their vocabulary sheets that have been created for
them throughout the lesson including when we’re
taking notes as a class. I make sure that as we take
notes, I’m highlighting specific, important vocabulary
words and making sure students have a strong
understanding of those words in the appropriate
context.
ESL6.5 I’ve chosen this artifact because it describes the role Lab Journal
that the mother tongue plays in the classroom and in
the learning of a second language. Obviously as the
teacher we won’t always be able to be fluent in the
mother tongue language of all of our second language
learners, however, it is important that the teacher is at
least aware of what those mother tongues are. Just
learning one or two words or phrases in that language
can go a long way to helping a student feel
comfortable and safe in the classroom. Just having
students feel like we as the teachers do care about
them as individuals will go a very long way to helping
us be able to teach them and help them grow
academically.
ESL 3.2 I’ve chosen this particular artifact because it is a Journal
reflection on a lesson that I taught that focuses
specifically on how students interact in English. One
of my focuses during this lesson was to make sure that
I avoided the “does everyone understand?” question.
Instead, in order to check for understanding I asked
certain students to re-explain the instructions to me.
This way, I felt, students would get the opportunity to
show that they understood the instructions and to
communicate with me, and the class, in English. The
other reason I like this artifact, is because it talks
 about some of the group dynamics in my classroom. I
discussed how I prefer to let students pick their
groups, and sometimes this means that they choose to
work alone, however that makes it difficult to meet
certain language objectives for that class period. So,
while it is good to give students choice and to make
sure that they feel as comfortable as possible in their
groups, sometimes it makes it more difficult for them
to actually engage with English.

Compare and Contrast Methods of SLA

The two SLA methodologies that I have chosen to compare and contrast are the audio-
lingual method and the task based language teaching method. Both of these methods center
around using language in a context that is not necessarily in an academic context. For example,
in task based language teaching the whole goal is to solve a problem. That problem might
include oral conversation in order to communicate something with another person. Therefore,
both of the methods can be utilized simultaneously in order to practice whatever skill the learner
is trying to practice. If the teacher is wanting the student to practice their oral speaking skills,
then whatever the task is can be created to be strictly a spoken task.

While these two methods do have a lot in common, there are also many ways in which
they are different. The main difference being that the ALM can exist within an academic vacuum
while TBLT cannot. ALM was set up solely to practice spoken skills and could possibly present
students with a very limited arsenal of usable vocabulary. Whereas, if the main goal of TBLT is
to present students with problem solving situations, then students will practice and use their
language in order to get the things that they need, thus building confidence and problem solving
skills. ALM can lead to regurgitation of practiced vocabulary while TBLT will force students to
work just out of their comfort zone.

Both of these methods certainly have their place in the classroom and part of the reason
that I chose to compare and contrast these two specifically is because of their obvious
interactions with each other. For example, if students are studying about the grocery store, then
the class could practice and repeat certain helpful phrases, and then a role playing activity
about going to the grocery store could be utilized as a TBLT exercise. Therefore students are
using some of the vocabulary or phrases that they have practiced while still engaged in using
language to accomplish a task. On top of that, the ALM method focuses on strictly oral skills,
and therefore a task could be developed that uses a combination of written and oral skills, for
example opening a bank account.

Thematic Unit

Outline
● Name of theme or focus of unit - Conflict
● Rationale for theme for given students
○ This is a grade 6 unit where the general theme of the school year has been
ancient history and the development of human societies. For example, our first
unit was “Big History” and dealt with the millions of years of the formation of the
 earth and the universe, then we studied “Prehistory”, third was a unit on “Ancient
History”, and now our fourth and final unit will be centered around conflict, while
our content will focus on early modern Greeks, Romans, and Chinese societies.
Part of the reason for the theme based around conflict is because last year my
teaching partner and I developed this unit with different content and so I am
choosing to continue with the conflict theme, however I am changing the content.
● Age and proficiency level of students
○ This is a grade 6 student for a wide range of academic abilities and language
abilities. This lesson will be taught to two sections of Grade 6 with one of the
classes including 3 students who are in “English B”, which is English language
acquisition. Therefore “6A” is the section that has intermediate beginner and low
beginner students, as well as fluent English speakers. 6B, on the other hand,
does not have anyone in the language acquisition class, but the vast majority of
students in this class do not speak English when they go home. Therefore, these
are all considerations that I need to focus on in this lesson.
● Expected time for unit
○ This unit will last until my term grades are due on June 1. Therefore, I will give
the summative assessment for this unit, which asks students to present to “world
leaders” about how to avoid conflict in the 21st century, pulling examples from
the historical societies that we study.
● Title of each lesson or focus of all lessons in the unit
○ The unit will focus on conflicts experienced by ancient ancient Greeks, Romans,
and Chinese. On top of the content connected to those specific civilizations and
their content one of the skills that we will be focusing on is “thinking critically”. In
order to practice this skill students will consistently have formative assessments
that ask them to have an opinion on a topic and then to use specific evidence in
order to support that opinion.
● Culminating activity or project of unit
○ The summative assessment of this unit will have students “presenting to world
leaders”. After students have studied these historical conflicts, they will be
essentially roleplaying as if they were presenting in front of important world
leaders and giving them advice on how to avoid conflicts, based on their
knowledge of these historical conflicts. In doing this, students will need to present
accurate and true information about the three historical societies that we studied,
while also thinking critically to apply that knowledge to the modern world.
● Grouping or organizational procedure for unit
○ Students will will work in pairs and have approximately 1.5 weeks of in class time
to work on this task.
 SIOP ® Lesson Plan Template 2

Teacher: Brewis Date: 4/16/18 - Grade/Class/Subject: 6/A/Individuals and

4/20/18 Societies

Unit/Theme: Conflict Standards:

Criterion A: Knowing and Understanding:

Statement of Inquiry: i. use vocabulary in context

Conflict affects individual and global interactions and therefore ii. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of subject-
requires communication in search of solutions. specific content and concepts, using descriptions,
explanations and examples.

Criterion D: Thinking Critically:

i. identify the main points of ideas, events, visual

representations, or arguments

ii. Use information to justify an opinion

iii. Identify and analyze a range of sources/data in terms

of origin and purpose

iv. identify different views and their implications

Students Can…

Critiquing opposing claims

Evaluating the value of options in content-based

situations

Content Objective(s): Language Objective(s):

What did Spartan society emphasize the most? In writing, make decisions to support a claim

KEY VOCABULARY: SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS:

● Military PDF file of the textbook that I have found online
● Hybrid
access to the internet
● democracy
● monarchy Overhead projector
● oligarchy
● discipline
 SIOP FEATURES
PREPARATION SCAFFOLDING GROUP OPTIONS
☐ Adaptation of content ☐ Modeling X☐ Whole class
X☐ Links to background X☐ Guided practice ☐ Small groups
X☐ Links to past learning ☐ Independent practice ☐ Partners
X☐ Strategies incorporated X☐ Comprehensible input X☐ Independent

INTEGRATION OF PROCESSES APPLICATION ASSESSMENT

☐ Reading ☐ Hands-on X☐ Individual
X☐ Writing ☐ Meaningful ☐ Group
☐ Speaking X☐ Linked to objectives X☐ Written
X☐ Listening X☐ Promotes engagement ☐ Oral

LESSON SEQUENCE:
We discussed as a class what life would be like in Spartan society along with the organization of their government
system. With regards to the government system, we did a lot of comparing the system to the way in which the school
is set up (the head of school, principals of the lower school and upper school, HOD’s, etc.). The main goal was to
continue to stress how important military life was for Spartan citizens, so this idea was consistently revisited. We
ended with a short video comparing Athens and Sparta

REFLECTIONS:
Overall this lesson went alright. With the overall goal of this unit being and building up to the Peloponnesian Wars,
when I teach this lesson next year, I think I will make sure to do more to describe how Athens and Sparta are both
different, but also competing for leadership in Ancient Greece.

Lab Journal

Response to Question One

UNESCO would advocate for education in the mother tongue because UNESCO is an
international organization that is working to encourage governments to provide the highest
quality education for all of their students. While it is in the best interests of governments to have
a highly educated people, this sometimes might take the form of providing instruction in the
mother tongue. In the document itself, it refers to mother tongue education for “instruction and
literacy acquisition”. This is a wonderful thing to want to and to try to do, however in reality it is
an incredibly difficult and labor intensive thing to do, especially in a country like the United
States. In the USA in any given public school, it would be very possible to have several different
“mother tongues” in one classroom, and so to try to have all of those mother tongues addressed
would just not be possible for a public school. There is certainly research to support the idea
that growth in L1 will result in and help learning in L2 as well, the resources simply are not there
for the vast majority of American public schools to address all of the different mother tongues
that could be in any one classroom. So, overall, if all students could have access to high quality
education and instruction in their mother tongue, that would be highly beneficial for everyone
involved, there needs to be some kind of appropriate and viable medium where those students
are getting access to English instruction that is specifically tailored and modified for ESL
students.

Response to Question Two

I really liked the section in the document, titled “Principle III: Intercultural Education provides all
learners with cultural knowledge, attitudes, and skills that enable them to contribute to respect,
understanding and solidarity among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural, and religious groups and
nations”. This part of the document seems most pertinent to me because all of my teacher
training, I believe, has been geared towards teaching for social justice. I think as a social studies
teacher the connections and the impact of our content can be somewhat clearer and more
explicit in this regard for other content area teachers, however I do believe that this is very
important in everyday teaching. In the middle school curriculum that I teach there is not a ton of
history that I teach, however, we do a unit on the Enlightenment, but then also make sure to a
unit on the movement of ideas and people across Asia during grade 7. In this unit, I make sure
to explain to my students that the things that are happening in Asia, and the Middle East, and
the subcontinent throughout history are just as important as the things going on in Europe.
Again, specifically talking about history and social studies, I think it is very easy to see history as
this natural progression of events in the Western world and to completely ignore the things that
are happening elsewhere, or the way in which the Western world has subjugated and exploited
populations in order to gain the standing and the success that we experience today.

Journal

It was difficult to try and write down all of the questions that I posed to students during my
lesson, however one of the things that I have been making a concerted effort to stay away from
was the dreaded, “does everyone understand?” question. So, today during my lesson with 7th
graders I introduced their task with some specific instructions and instead of asking if everyone
understood, instead I asked students to describe the purpose of our unit and how the specific
task helped us to accomplish our overall purpose. This way, I could make sure that at the very
least students who didn’t understand got an opportunity to hear the purpose and the question
phrased differently. In the next period, I was with grade 6 students and we were talking about
democracy in ancient Athens. One of our vocabulary words for this lesson was “entitled”, in the
sense that Athenian citizens were entitled to protection from the government. After having a
brief discussion about the definition of entitled, again I wanted to ask if “everyone understood”,
but instead asked students to give some examples of things that they were entitled to as
children. We talked about having adults who would look after them, how children should be
entitled to a high quality education but are often not, and general human rights entitlements like
life and safety. Overall I felt like I did a good job of specifically monitoring the questioning that I
was doing in order to make sure that students actually did participate and did understand the
instructions and the content.

In my setting I try to vary the way in which group work is assigned for my class. Most of the time
my rule is that students may work in groups of no more than three, and I feel that this allows for
some flexibility in how students want to organize their groups. The downside to this, however, is
that sometimes I can end up with students who are working by themselves and then perhaps
they are able to complete the task more effectively for themselves, however they are not
practicing some of the communication skills necessary to reach the set language goals for a
specific lesson. In my setting I also have quite small classes, less than 20, and therefore giving
students 60 seconds to get up, find a group, find a place to sit, and get to work is not out of the
question, whereas if I were in a classroom of 34, I could see how that would be quite a daunting
task. In one of my more difficult classes, however, I do often pre select the groups based on
personality types. There have been several issues of bullying with this class throughout the
school year and so it is important to make sure that certain students are not near each other
and I take this into account when putting together my groups.