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ELA Lesson/unit #2 developed
at the D&D Year-end Meeting, June 1, 2000
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| Grade Level(s):
2nd-5th grades |
| English Proficiency
Level: all |
| Materials:
Age-appropriate biographies; guidelines for writing report; videos, pictures,
etc. about biography subjects; costumes that describe the time, era and
personality of the subject; people with direct experience of the subject. |
| NYC English Language
Arts (ELA) Standard Addressed: Reading E1 B. Student reads
and comprehends at least 4 books (or equivalents) about one issue or subject,
or 4 books by a single writer, or 4 books in one genre. |
| Effective Practices
for ELL Framework: Cognitive Academic Language Learning
Approach (CALLA) Learning Strategies. Metacognitive (planning, monitoring,
selective attention, evaluation), Cognitive (resourcing, note-taking, summarizing,
making inferences) &Social/affective (questioning for clarification,
cooperation) |
| Activity Description:
Teacher reads a biography to class, and discusses/explains
what defines a biography. He/she invites a person whose biography has been
published to the class, or obtains a video about them.
Students choose a biography of their own interest
to read. Teacher shares guidelines for writing a report with class.
Each student writes a report about one of the people
in the biography, and shares it with classmates.
Students repeat for 4 biographies. As an extension,
students can write their own biographies. |
| Assessment: Both
teacher and student self-assessment can be used. Students can evaluate
their own and each others reports using the guidelines. |
| How Activity Embodies
the Framework:
Metacognitive strategies:
Selective attention. Children need to read
the biography selectively, paying attention and finding specific information
to remember and to include in their report.
Self-management. Children need to choose
the biography first, and then they need to read it, understand it, write
about it, and report it.
Monitoring. In general the children need
to be able to think while they are reading, speaking, and writing about
the biography selected and about other biographies.
Evaluation. Judge how well they understood
and accomplished the activity as a learning task.
Cognitive strategies:
Resourcing. Children need to use different
resource materials and books about biographies.
Note-taking. Children need to take notes
while they are reading the biography or getting information through other
means about the personality.
Elaboration of prior knowledge. Children
will use own background knowledge to select a biography of their interest.
Summarizing. Children need to present the
information about the biography in a report; thus they need to summarize
the main idea of the personality.
Imagery. Children can use pictures or other
material to share information about their biography.
Making inferences. Inferences can be make
regarding historical events related to the time /age of the personality,
predict outcomes of his/her life, and put the biography in context.
Social and Affective strategies:
Questioning for clarification. Encourage
children to always ask questions to get additional information or explanation
of facts.
Cooperation. Children can work together
on a specific biography; they can share information with a peer about his/her
biography (like a book, a picture, and a collectible item), they can suggest
ways of reporting information about the biography. |
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