INST 463- Second Language Methodology ESL/Bilingual

SPRING 2014

Megan Troy

Lesson Plan Modification Assignment (10 points)

OBJECTIVE: To practice analyzing and modifying an activity + assessment for ELL students that is being used with
PROFICIENT SPEAKERS of English.
Below you will find a sample Lesson Plan The Earthquake Story for an instructional assessment activity (a description of
the activity, a worksheet, and a rubric to grade the students work).
This mini lesson plan was designed for proficient speakers of English and you must modify it to suit the needs of the English
Language Learners in the class. The modification must take into consideration the students level of language proficiency
and sociocultural background and provide necessary support for ELLs of the indicated proficiency levels. When you submit
your modifications, you must include an explanation of all changes to the assessment, as well as to the activity and an
example of the modified assessment (if changes are made). YOU MUST ADD CLEAR CONTENT & LANGUAGE OBJECTIVES.
YOUR CHANGES + EXPLANATION/NOTES ABOUT THE CHANGES CAN BE WRITTEN DIRECTLY ON THE WORD
DOCUMENT PROVIDED.
You may make changes to any part of this instructional assessment activity except for the text of The
Earthquake Story itself.
Some things to consider:
Are language AND content objectives for the ELL students clear? If not, you must provide them.
How can you adapt the classroom activity for the language proficiency levels of the ELL students? (Name some specific
supports.)
How can you adapt the worksheet & rubric for the language proficiency levels of the ELL students? (Name some specific
supports.)
What modifications can be made to adapt the classroom activity for the sociocultural background of the ELL students?
(Name some specific supports.) What modifications can be made to adapt the worksheet for the sociocultural
background of the ELL students? (Name some specific supports.)
Does the assessment accurately measure for one or more of the stated language and/or content objectives? Which ones?
*Bring a hard copy of the first draft of your Lesson Plan Modification to class on March 5th (6 points).
Choose a partner to peer review in class using the rubric provided.
Final draft is due online, post one Word document as an Assignment by March 17th at midnight (4 points).
Content Objective: Given a listening activity with a short story, the student will be able to gather information to correctly
identify the main idea, sequence of events, and important details of the story.
Language Objectives:
Proficient: The student will be able to answer ten out of ten questions correctly about the story by writing an
explanation using complex sentences that properly answer the question and fulfill the requirements of the rubric.
Intermediate: The student will be able to produce short phrases about the main idea, sequence of events, and
important details of the story that will answer questions 1-6, 9, and 10. Question 9 will be modified to ask What is
the setting of the story?

Beginner: The student will be able to identify and sequence main events of the story using a small stack of six
provided visuals and using their hands to move them into the correct order of when they occurred in the story.

Use the activity description + story text + worksheet provided below:

Information: 3rd Grade Class with 23 students three of the students are ELL students.

Background of the ELL students:

Two of the ELL students were born in the U.S., and the third was born in northern Mexico and came to the U.S. with her
family at age 5. All three ELL students come from families who use predominantly Spanish language at home. All three
students have been in mainstream classrooms for both kindergarten and second grade and have been receiving some ESL
support in school.
All two of the ELL students are at the Beginning level and one is at the Intermediate level.
Note: Use the ELPS & TELPAS Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) to better understand the level of ability and needs
of all levels of ELL students.

Earthquake Story + Listening Comprehension Activity:

The teacher wants to measure the listening comprehension of all the students in her classroom. She writes a list of eight
vocabulary words from a fictional story on the board and goes over the pronunciation and meanings of the words with the
whole class. Then she asks all the students to sit quietly together while she reads a fictional story aloud to them. The story
is about a child who experienced an earthquake with his family (see below). After reading the story, the teacher hands out a
worksheet (see below) to each child in the class and asks each of them to fill out the answers on the worksheet alone
(without help from others in the class). Then she collects the worksheets to analyze at home.
How would you modify this activity + assessment to support the ELL students in your class?

The Earthquake Story

Assignment
page 2

INST 463: Assessment Modification

Here are the vocabulary words from the story that the teacher wrote on the board:
photojournalist
skyscrapers

Spring Break
tremble

Metro system
magnitude

commuters
afterschock

The Earthquake Story

My name is Todd. My dad is a photojournalist. He took the entire family on a tour to Japan during Spring Break as
a part of his journey to capture the beauty of our planet's cultures. We left the hotel room on Thursday morning
excited to discover Tokyo. There was no way we could have known that instead, we would end up experiencing
one of the most frightening events of our lives.

We had just emerged from the belly of the Metro system. Thousands of commuters and tourists jammed the train
platforms and the shops. It was around 3 p.m. we were lined up at the ticket counter. It was then that I felt the
ground move under me slightlyit was almost like a subway rumbling through a tunnel far beneath my feet. I
ignored it, as did my parents and my big sister, Kelsey. Then, seconds later, things started crashing to the ground,
and signs hanging from the ceiling began swinging violently. I looked at Kelsey who stood next to me. She said
with panic: Earthquake?!"
We ran for the door as quickly as possible. The ground was shaking so violently that it was difficult to run in a
straight line. My heart was pounding when I reached the street. My parents asked us to keep moving until we
were in a large park surrounded by skyscrapers.
The noise was loud. We could hear the buildings groan as they shook in their foundations. We wanted to get as far
away from these buildings as possible, but in Tokyo, finding any truly open space is extremely difficult.
I turned to look at the building that we had just run out of; it was still shaking violently. My dad started to shoot
photos of everything that was happening.
We stood in that park for about two hours as did most everyone else. During this time, the ground continued to
tremble. My mom would find out later that afternoon that the quake was a magnitude 8.9, the strongest
earthquake she had experienced.
There were a few women crying, people pointing up at the buildings as they shook, but many others appeared
calm and relaxed. Making our way back to the hotel was quite a journey. The rail system was completely shut
down and millions were trying to make their way home on foot. The streets were jammed, but we didn't learn how
bad the event had actually been until we got to the hotel and turned on the news.
We called my grandparents in Ohio while the aftershocks were still hitting hard. This was my first earthquake
experience abroad and I hope the last one. I was on dry land and yet I felt seasick when I was talking to my
grandparents about it.

Beginners will have an alternate assignment of sequencing the events of the story by putting visuals used in the
telling of the story in order.
Intermediate students will answer questions 1-6, 9, and 10. Question 9 will be modified. The instructions for the
worksheet will say to answer the questions with short phrases.
Proficient: Students will answer all of the questions on the worksheet. The instructions will say to give
explanations for the questions using complex sentences.
The Earthquake Story
Modification Assignment

: Worksheet
page 3

INST 463: Lesson Plan

Name ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________

Date

What do you remember about the story?

Title:
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Questions
1

What happened at the beginning of the

story?

What happened after that?

Who were the characters in the story?

What was the problem?

How did the story end?

What part confused you or did you not

understand?

What would you ask a character if

he/she was sitting beside you?

Intermediate: Question omitted.

Does the story remind you of another
story you have read? Which one?

Intermediate: Question omitted.

Did the setting of the story remind you
of a place you have been? Where?
Intermediate: What is the setting of the

Answers

story?
10

What is the main theme or message of

the story?

TEACHER RUBRIC:

To Assess LISTENING COMPREHENSION:

Very Little
Comprehension
1234567

Earthquake Story

Some Comprehension

Adequate Comprehension

Very Good Comprehension

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Tells many events in

sequence
Tell most events in
for the most part, or tells sequence or
many
tells most key facts
key facts
4pt
3pt

Events

Tell 1 or 2 events or
key facts
1pt

Tells some of the events

or
key facts
2pt

Details

Includes few or no
important details
from text
1pt

Includes some important

Includes many important
details
from
from text
text
2pt
3pt

Includes most important

details
and key language or
vocabulary
from text
4pt

Characters

Refers to 1 or 2
characters or topics
using pronouns
( he, she, it, or they)
1pt

Refers to 1 or 2
characters or
topics by generic name
or label
(boy, girl, dog)
2pt

Refers to many characters

or
topics by name in text
( Ben,
Giant, Monkey, Otter)
3pt

Refers to all characters or

topics by specific name
( Old
Ben Bailey, green turtle,
Sammy Sosa)
4pt

Uses info from story to

make simple
interpretations without
using significant
concepts
2pt

Uses info from story to

interpret significant
concepts logically (with
some gaps) through
analysis, evaluation,
inference, or

Uses info from story to

interpret significant
concepts logically through
analysis, evaluation,
inference, or
comparison/contrast.

Analysis

Makes little or no
interpretation of the
text
1pt

comparison/contrast
3pt

4pt
Uses info from story to
make connections to other
situations or contexts
logically through analysis,
evaluation, inference, or
comparison/contrast.
4pt

Making
Connections

Makes little or no
interpretation of the
text
1pt

Uses info from story to

make only limited
connections to other
situations.
2pt

Uses info from story to

make connections to other
situations or contexts
logically (with some gaps)
through analysis,
evaluation, inference, or
comparison/contrast
3pt

Need for
Teacher
Prompts

Requires many
questions or
prompts
1pt

Requires 4-5 questions

or prompts
2pt

Requires 2-3 questions or

prompts
3pt

Requires 1 or no questions
or
prompts
4pt

Responses to
Teacher
Prompts

Provides limited or no
response to teacher
prompts or incorrect
information 1pt

Provides some response

to
teacher questions and
prompts 2pt

Provides adequate
response to
teacher questions and
prompts
3pt

Provides insightful
response to
teacher questions and
prompts
4pt

Rubric Modifications: The rubric can have extra room for notes for the teacher to add about the students growth and
performance. It can also have a space to put the students name and date.
Classroom Activity Adaptations:

For Language Proficiency:

o Everyone: Write more infrequent or irregular words on the board. Include words like tourist, earthquake, Spring
Break, and hotel. Explain the meaning of all of the words and provide multiple pictures for each of them in
order to give further clarification to students who are unfamiliar with the words. Provide visuals for students
while you are reading the story. Have them play on the projector as you run through the sequence of events so
students can have an idea of what is going on.
For Sociocultural Background:
o Everyone: Give background and explanation for the story. Talk about earthquakes and what they are for
students who do not know about them. Tie in other cultures by providing examples and pictures of earthquakes
all around the world. Show pictures of examples of skyscrapers all around the world. Also, show students where
the story is taking place by showing them Tokyo, Japan on a map and providing pictures of the area. Also show
Ohio on the map and explain where the students are in relation to these places.

Worksheet Adaptations:

For Language Proficiency:

o Beginner: Assess students by having them sequence individual visual cards (that resemble the visuals shown
on the projector) in the correct order of events that happened in the story. The teacher will go around and
provide assistance and guidance as needed and assess how well they were able to sequence the events from
beginning, middle, to end.
o Intermediate: Omit questions 7 and 8 and reword question 9 as stated below. Allow them to write short, simple
phrases as answers. Allow them to use a picture dictionary. Leave up words with their visual representations to
help them recall key words or important details in the story. Go around and provide assistance as needed.
For Sociocultural Background:
o Intermediate: Take out question 7 and 8 because they rely too much on someones past experiences and
cultural background to answer. Reword question 9 to say What is the storys setting? because they may have
not been to a place like this before.
o Beginner: Make sure to provide explanation of the visual aids you will show them during the story and then ask
them to sequence.