Lesson plan 1: literacy-acquisition stages and a reading/writing strategy/activity appropriate for each stage for third grade English as a Second Language (ESL) students

The grade level: Third grade

Content area 1: Language arts

Content area 2: Science

Theme: What is solar energy?

Stages of Literacy Development and Reading/Writing Strategies/Activities

Emergent Stage:

Students in this stage begin to be aware that print carries a message, display directional movement (left to right; top to bottom; return sweep) (School World, 2017) and develop the ability to focus attention on letter-sound relationships (Reading Rocket, 2017). They may enjoy reading using pictures and visual cues, such as the beginning and ending letters of words (Dam, 2017). It is very important for students in this stage to have the foundational literacy skills, such as alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness and print awareness. Therefore, instruction should help them understand the relationship between oral and written language. Reading simple phase books with pictures, which include repeated one or two-sentence patterns and use present tense and first person (Dam, 2017) is recommended. In order to foster students’ writing skills, helping them recognize, copy, or remember the spellings of high-frequency English "sight words" (The Education Alliance at Brown University, 2017) is effective.

Reading/writing strategy/activity for Emergent Stage:

As a lesson preparation, the teacher will make a shorter and easier version of Curious George Discovers the Sun (Rey, 2015): The teacher will pick up ten pictures from the book and write down one line of the story description on the back side of each picture. In the beginning of the lesson, the teacher will have students review what they have learned in the previous lessons regarding the relationship between the sun and heat. The teacher may use students’ native languages to clarify the meanings of the vocabulary words if necessary. The teacher will group students in pairs and pass out the copies of the pictures so that they can look at them. The teacher will read out the sentences, showing the pictures at the same time. Students are allowed to ask questions regarding the meanings or the pronunciations of the words as well as the meanings of the sentences during the reading activity. After the teacher finishes reading, he or she will pass out alphabet cards to each pair. The teacher will ask students several questions regarding what has been read, such as “What is George trying to use to cook the lasagna?” All the answers will be one word and students will answer each question by spelling out the words with the alphabet cards. The teacher will provide answers by spelling out each word on a white board and have students practice saying each word focusing on its syllable.

Early Stage:

In the Early Stage, students have a solid knowledge of the alphabet and are learning to decode by sounding out words (Ford & Palacio, 2015). They still have limited vocabulary and texts should have controlled vocabulary so that they can encounter only familiar words as they read (Ford & Palacio, 2015). They begin to monitor own reading and self-correct (School World, 2017). They also recognize spelling patterns (Dam, 2017) but they may make spelling mistakes and use invented spelling when they write. They need to learn to read and spell common, irregularly spelled, words so that they can recognize them easily when reading, and spell them effortlessly in writing (The Balanced Literacy Diet, 2016).

Reading/writing strategy/activity for Early Stage:

After reviewing the previous lessons, the teacher will group students in pairs and all the activities in the lesson will be done in the same pairs. The teacher will read out Curious George Discovers the Sun (Rey, 2015). If students find anything difficult to understand, they can freely ask the teacher. After reading the book, the teacher will pass out ten pictures which have been copied from the book. Each student will create a written description of each picture in a few sentences. The use of invented spellings will be allowed when they are not sure how to spell a word. After finishing writing the descriptions, students will read them out to their partners.

Transitional/ Fluent Stage:

Students are able to read independently, and they can read silently (Ford & Palacio, 2015). They recognize the importance of monitoring reading for understanding (School World, 2017) and retell what is read in writing and engage in discussions about it (Reading Rocket, 2017). They can also take notes and make chart data, and recognize different literary genres (Dam, 2017). By this stage, the focus of reading instruction shifts to comprehension because they have become efficient at decoding (Ford & Palacio, 2015). At this stage, reading aloud to a partner is an effective way to build fluency and they need to have many opportunities to practice writing (The Balanced Literacy Diet, 2016).

Reading/writing strategy/activity for Transitional/ Fluent Stage:

After reviewing the relationship between the solar energy and temperature, the teacher will provide students with the copies of Curious George Discovers the Sun (Rey, 2015). Students will read out the text in partners. One student will be a reader and the other will be a listener and after finishing reading one page, they will switch their roles. When they find unfamiliar words, they will write them down on their notepads. After the reading-out activity, each student will look up the meaning of unknown words in their dictionaries and then summarize the text using cause and effect expressions including the words such as because, since and as a result, as much as possible. Students will share their summaries with their partners and then other four classmates.