Voni - Chapter 8 Lesson Delivery

On page 154, the text says “We caution against any inclination to list the state standard in an abbreviated form, like CA history 5.2.3, as an objective”

Using the state standard such as CA history 5.2.3 for an objective does not qualify in serving the purpose of posting the objectives for any learner, especially the ELL. It would be like me trying to decipher the meaning of technical jargon. It would not make sense and I would struggle to attach meaning to it. The objectives need to be clearly defined in a language that is comprehensible to the learner in order to take him to the next level.

Read pages 157-158. List 3 things Ms. Chen did to support the content objectives in her lesson? Which of these things do you do? What techniques can you add to your teaching practice that will help students learn the content goal?

I liked how Ms. Chen built up background knowledge with the piece of “fools gold” and pre-taught the key vocabulary words so that when she presented to the class, the ELL’s were more apt to comprehend the objectives. When teaching action verbs in my classroom, I had action words written on cards and the students came to the front of the class and pulled a card out of the hat and then acted out the word. The audience got to guess. This gave real life practice to the meaning of an action word, fitting into our lesson of sentence structure. Thinking back on it, I should have had the students write the action word on their white boards. Next time! AND have a volunteer say the word in a complete sentence.

She also modeled coloring the map on the overhead and then let the students work in small groups. Working in small groups allow students to help one another and build confidence in knowing how to understand and apply the task. I find in my classroom I basically teach from the standpoint that vocabulary and expected processes and outcomes need to be pre-taught frequently because of the language and the primary grade level of learning.

➢ What makes this component so important to include in your teaching practice?

Time in the classroom is valuable. Clearly stating objectives eliminates the guesswork of where the lesson is going. Starting on a firm base followed by direct and guided instruction leads to comprehensible practice that reinforces the content and language objective.