Standard: W.K.2: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

Kelli Gaines Sunject: ELA Grade level: Kindergerten
My students have various levels of readiness ranging from low intellectual capacity to gifted. I also have two ELL students in my class. Since the beginning of the school year we have been working on writing and those who were at the school last year have been exposed to writing in Pre-K. I chose these scaffolding strategies because they accommodate every student from my low to my high. I can pair a low student with a high student for partner work and have successful interactions. Conversing with their peers gets all of their thoughts out of their head while gaining a new perspective from anther student they might not have thought of. Questioning during texts and recalling can dig deeper into comprehension while summarizing what we just read. Gestures during reading shows emotions that I want students to draw and speak about in their writing. Sentence stems keeps students on task.
Big Ideas: 1. Build background knowledge through reading and experiences. 2. Read complex text 3. Build and use vocabulary 4. Respond to reading through speaking and listening 5. Respond to reading through writing and drawing 6. Compose writing pieces through writing process
Objective 1: Students will be able to draw a picture and match their sentence to the picture with 80% accuracy explaining their answer to the text focusing question.
1. Sentence Structures/Starters Sentence structures can be a great support for English Language Learners. I often use them during the close of a lesson in the debrief or share. You can also slightly differentiate graphic organizers or recording sheets you provide students by adding sentence structures.
2. Intentional Small Group/Partner Work To support students during independent work time, you can consider small group or partner work. I say “intentional” small group/partner work because it’s important to consider how and why you’re pairing certain students. Pairing two students just because one is a “high” reader and the other is a less sophisticated reader can quickly backfire if you haven’t considered how their personalities/work styles might pair up. Additionally, if you have chosen to provide a small group of students with additional support, just be aware of how much support you’re providing…hopefully not too much! We don’t want to take away all the challenges that a text/lesson presents.
Objective 2: Students will be able to relate/show feelings of friendship, acceptance and belonging in their drawing and writing.
1. Modeling/Gestures If you were to observe me teaching a lesson, you would likely see me making all kinds of funny looking gestures. Funny looking maybe, but supportive definitely! When all you do is talk/lecture to students who don’t speak English as their first language, most of what you say will probably fly right over their head. Modeling and gestures help bring your words to life. Couple this with the use of supportive visuals and say hello to comprehension!
Objective 3: Students will be able to recall information from a text.
1. Give Time to Talk All learners need time to process new ideas and information. They also need time to verbally make sense of and articulate their learning with the community of learners who are also engaged in the same experience and journey. As we all know, structured discussions really work best with children regardless of their level of maturation. If you aren't weaving in think-pair-share, turn-and-talk, triad teams or some other structured talking time throughout the lesson, you should begin including this crucial strategy on a regular basis.
2. Pause, Ask Questions, Pause, Review This is a wonderful way to check for understanding while students read a chunk of difficult text or learn a new concept or content. Here's how this strategy works: a new idea from discussion or the reading is shared, then pause (providing think time), then ask a strategic question, pausing again. By strategic, you need to design them ahead of time, make sure they are specific, guiding and open-ended questions. (Great questions fail without giving think time for responses so hold out during that Uncomfortable Silence.) Keep kids engaged as active listeners by calling on someone to "give the gist" of what was just discussed / discovered / questioned. If the class seems stuck by the questions, provide an opportunity for students to discuss it with a neighbor.