Case One: ESL Lesson Plan

Big Idea: Adjectives and Nouns

1. Overview of Lesson

This is a 45 minute long lesson on
adjectives and nouns intended for
ESL students in Columbia. In this
lesson, the focus will be on students
understanding the difference between English adjectives and nouns. To aid in their
understanding of adjectives and nouns, English vocabulary will be periodically related to words
in Spanish. Students will use a mentor text, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to
identify adjectives and nouns within a text. The text will be read to the story and the classroom
projector will be used for students to easily follow along. When the lesson is complete, a
worksheet will be given to the students that they will use to identify and color-code various
adjectives and verbs.

2. Description of Learners, Intended Learning Goals, and Lesson Content
Learners:
12-14 years old
Evenly mixed genders
Native Spanish speakers
Limited English speaking skills (2 to 3 years)
English speaking abilities are low to moderately low
Intended Learning Goals
Students will learn what a noun and adjective is.
Students will learn the differences between a noun and an adjective.
Students will learn to use their Spanish vocabulary and relate it to English
vocabulary
Lesson Content
Large group discussion on what nouns and adjectives are in English in relation to
similar Spanish words (ex: Hungry in English, Hambre in Spanish)
Large group collaboration on an anchor chart for examples of nouns and
adjectives
Large group read-aloud with a mentor text, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and
discussion of nouns and adjectives throughout the text
Large group collaboration in which students add any new words from the book to
the anchor chart
Individual worksheets that students will use to identify and color nouns and
adjectives

3. Learning Objectives
Students will be able to differentiate the meanings between a noun and an adjective.
Students will be able to identify what a noun is and what an adjective is.
Students will be able to relate Spanish to English nouns and adjectives.

4. Standards

L.6.1e: Recognize variations from standard English in their own and others writing and
speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language.*

W.6.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to
interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to
type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.


5. Required Materials
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Grammar Worksheets
Colored pencils (brown and yellow)
Poster Paper and pencils for anchor chart

6. Procedures
Discussion/Introduction of Big Idea
Ask students to identify as many nouns and adjectives as they can in Spanish
(Classroom teacher will translate)
Ask students to identify the difference between nouns and adjectives in Spanish
Anchor Chart Creation
Using the Spanish nouns and adjectives that have already been given, translate
those words into English
Add these words to the anchor chart and categorize them into nouns and
adjectives
Read-Aloud
Introduce The Very Hungry Caterpillar to students and ask them to identify any
nouns and adjectives they can see immediately in the title
Add those words to a running list that will be added to the anchor chart after the
story is over
Teacher will begin reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar page by page with the
aid of the projector
After each page, the teacher will ask students to identify any nouns and adjectives
they find in the text
Add those words to a running list that will be added to the anchor chart after the
story is over
Return to Anchor Chart and Discussion on New Words
After the story has been read and all adjectives and nouns have been identified,
return to the anchor chart and add both the English and Spanish versions of the
words to the chart and categorize them into adjectives and nouns
Worksheet for Informal Assessment
When the anchor chart is completely finished (all nouns and adjectives from both
the story and the discussion before the story have been added, translated and
categorized), students will work on an individual worksheet that will serve as an
assessment
The worksheet will include a mixed-up list of nouns and adjectives (including
ones found in The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
Each word will be in a box of its own and will be in only English
Students will color in each box with a specific color that represents a noun or
adjective (e.g. Brown for nouns and yellow for adjectives)

7. Assessment
a. Informal assessment: Color It Worksheet
b. Formative assessment: The following day, a quiz will be given to see what the
students retained

8. References and Reference Materials
Pinterest
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts












Two Journal Articles on ESL in APA Style:

The article discusses a study based on teaching English as a Second Language. The
method they used was comparing a standard lecture to a lecture with clickers. This technology-
based study used three different primary schools and gathered 99 random participants. They
developed a pre-test that was then analyzed to see how well the students communicative
abilities were. According to the article, they used boxplot to analyze the data. Since it was an
experiment, they had a control group that was not randomized for the pre and post testing. The
study showed and was able to conclude after the post-test, that using clickers in lectures are more
engaging for the student, especially ESL students. This article definitely relates to our lesson
plan because both are using engaging activities directed for the students. We included hands on
activity for our students (color me activity) just like the clickers in the article. We can assume
that the lesson plan we created for our ESL students will be more engaged much like the students
in the study because of the activity rather than bored or unmotivated. Interaction is necessary in
every classroom and ESL learners often times need the extra special attention because English is
their second language and as teachers, want them to succeed. By having a pre and posttest, a
teacher can see the success rate or maybe even not. These help the teachers to direct their
teaching in one direction or another in order to help the students.


Reference:

Agbatogun, A. (2014). Developing Learners Second Language Communicative

Competence through Active Learning: Clicks or Communicative Approach? Journal

of Educational Technology & Society, 17(2) 257-269.


This article discusses the struggle of Mexican-American children in America. Arnolds
article primarily focuses on Texas where 80% of the children in 1st grade do not know how to
read English books. According to the Developmental Oral Language program, the children can
speak English, but when it comes to reading they struggle. Those who were in this program
would make significant gains towards speaking better, but when it came to reading english, they
were not making large gains. This study showed that there needs to be a closer established
relationship between oral language and reading. The Mexican-American children are at a huge
disadvantage of learning because they have an entirely different background than the American
children, their skills are highly underdeveloped, and lastly, they do not understand English well.
The DOLs goal is to raise the english literacy by spending more time with the Mexican-
American students by having intensive and extensive practices.

Reference:
Arnold, R. (1968). English As A Second Language, 21(7), 634-639