1. Activity # 12 Insect Thematic Lesson
Ana Perez
BIE/DL 5338
Summer 2014
Dr. Gomez

2. Video Presentation Link

3. Bridging
Based on Beeman & Urow (2013), Bridging occurs once students have learned new concepts in one language and is used by teachers to help students connect the content area knowledge and skills they have learned in one language to the other language. The Bridge is the instructional moment when teachers bring the two languages together to explore the similarities and differences between the two languages by using contrastive analysis and transfer (LM3, Bridging Literacy, Slide 8). To smooth the progress of the Bridging of students’ minority language to the majority language, I would incorporate the use of visual aids, such as anchor charts and graphic organizers. Even though anchor charts can take a lot of time to make, one of the benefits is that they provide students with a deeper understanding of how their languages are connected (Beeman & Urow, p. 86). Similarly, based on SIOP Model practices, graphic organizers are a “common strategy to increase the chances that students who are unfamiliar with English will understand lessons sufficiently is to provide scaffolding in the form of visual representations of language” (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2013).

4. Objectives TEKS 1.9 Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction.
English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS)
(5) Cross-curricular second language acquisition/writing. The ELL writes in a variety of forms with increasing accuracy to effectively address a specific purpose and audience in all content areas. ELLs may be at the beginning, intermediate, advanced, or advanced high stage of English language acquisition in writing. In order for the ELL to meet grade-level learning expectations across foundation and enrichment curriculum, all instruction delivered in English must be linguistically accommodated (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with the student's level of English language proficiency. For Kindergarten and Grade 1, certain of these student expectations do not apply until the student has reached the stage of generating original written text using a standard writing system.
The student is expected to:
(F) write using a variety of grade-appropriate sentence lengths, patterns, and connecting words to combine phrases, clauses, and sentences in increasingly accurate ways as more English is acquired.
TEKS
1.9 Reading/Comprehension of
Literary Text/Fiction.
Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding.
Students are expected to:
Describe the plot (problem and solution) and retell a story's beginning, middle, and end with attention to the sequence of events.

5. Objectives Content Objective
The students will sequence in order the events of the story using a flow map.
Language Objective
In groups of two, the students will compose complete sentences using correct punctuation.

6. Materials Book: “Hey, Little Ant” by Phillip M. Hoose Index cards Glue
Index cards
Glue
Construction paper
Cognate anchor chart

7. Before
In this thematic unit, the students have been learning about insects.
First, the teacher will write and tell the students the objective for the lesson:
Today, you will learn how to sequence the events of a story using a flow map (graphic organizer).

8. Before
The teacher will then show the students the book cover: “Hey, Little Ant” by Phillip M. Hoose and will ask students to predict what they think the book will be about. The teacher will have students to “think- pair-share” and then will call on a few students to share their predictions.
Then, the teacher will ask students to define and share what they know about ants.
The teacher will write students’ responses on a circle map.
After waiting for students’ responses, the teacher will read the book aloud creatively and with expression.

9. During
To encourage critical thinking, the teacher will ask questions to the students during the reading of the book.
Some questions that will be asked are:
Do you think that the kid should squish the ant?
What if the ant were a mosquito?
What if the ant were other insect or animal?

10. After
After the reading of the book, on an anchor chart, the teacher will write the words “sequence”, “events” and “order” together with sequencing signal words, such as “First”, “Second”, “Beginning”, “Middle” and “End”.
The teacher will explain the students that the words “sequence, events and order” are cognate words in Spanish for “secuencia, evento, and ordenar”. As the teacher is explaining to the students, she will add the words to the cognate anchor chart already displayed in the classroom.

11. Guided Practice
The teacher will move on to model how to sequence the order of events of a school day using a graphic organizer (flow thinking map).
Sentence stems used for this activity will be:
“In the beginning, I __________”;
“In the middle, I _____________________”, and
“At the end, I _______________”.
Students will aid the teacher by completing the sentence stems and telling her the order of events in a school day. As the teacher continues to model how to sequence events with the help of the students, she will remind students to use the available resources located around the classroom that can help them in composing their sentences, such as the word wall and other anchor charts.

12. Independent Practice
In groups of two, the students will move on to the independent practice.
For this activity, the students will draw three pictures (one on each index card) of three events they remember from the story and then write a sentence on another index card to go along with each picture.
The students will then sequence their drawings and their sentences using a flow map. The students will glue their drawings and sentences on a construction paper.
The teacher will remind students again to use the available resources located around the classroom.
As students work independently, the teacher will monitor students and will ask them to read the sentences.
During the observation, the teacher will provide students with constructive feedback to enhance their writing and understanding the importance of sequencing.

13. Assessment
The teacher will assess students’ activities based on the completion of their thinking maps and their sentences.
The teacher will observe that the writing is written in complete sentences.

14. Reteach
The teacher will provide students with illustrations and sentences for them to sequence events in order.
The teacher will reread the book and help students to sequence events from the story.

15. Enrichment Activities
The students will compare and contrast the similarities and differences of themselves and an ant using a double bubble thinking map or Venn Diagram.
The students will write a persuasive writing using complete sentences:
Why or why not an ant should or should not be squished?
Retrieved from:

16. Closure
The teacher and the students will discuss about the importance of using a thinking map to organize ideas.
Students will comment how their thinking maps were useful to organize the information and their thinking.

17. References
Beeman and Urow (2013).Teaching for Biliteracy. Caslon Publishing.
Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2013) Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners The SIOP Model. Pearson.