Continuum of Strategies
Introduction
Mrs. Brooks is a first grade teacher in Harvard Elementary School and this year she has twenty five students in her classroom. Of the twenty five students in her classroom, five are English Language Learners. These five students are all Spanish speaking but two are from Puerto Rico and three are of Mexican descent. Mrs. Books has found that two of the five children speak English also.
Today’s lesson in Social Studies is titled Community Workers. In this lesson we will begin with the teacher centered strategy. The lesson will also include the teacher assisted, peer assisted, and student centered strategies. Teacher-Centered: Mrs. Brooks began her lesson by using the teacher-centered strategy of lecture. She informed the children that they would begin a unit entitled Community Workers, and doing a picture walk from the book. Mrs. Brooks has everyone to put there finger on the title and repeat the title together “Community Workers”.
Next she asks the students for suggestions as to who do they think is a community worker? Mrs. Brooks talks about each suggestion then tells the children to look at the pictures on the next page. The children are given thirty seconds to tell their partner the name of the person in the picture. Then the teacher tells them the correct way to say the name of person in English and proceeds to the next picture (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008). The same process continues until the end of the story and the children can verbally identify the names of the community workers.
Teacher-Assisted: After the story is completed, Mrs. Brooks began using a teacher assisted strategy. Mrs. Brooks brought out several boxes and placed them on the table. The children stayed with his or her partner. Each group was given a box with the description of a community worker inside. Inside each box were several items that were in English along with a picture attached. Each group was able to look into their box and decide what they were going to discuss with the rest of the class. The groups were given about three minutes to have their description ready to present to the class.
Once each group had finished presenting their community worker, Mrs. Brooks passed out a worksheet to be completed. Peer Assisted: Before completing the worksheets, the students swapped partners so that one student from each group could discuss their community worker with another student. The students were instructed to write down key elements about each community worker. The students were given 3 minutes and after 3 minutes were up the pairs swapped again. This continued until all students had paired up to cover all five community workers covered.
After this students were given directions to complete the worksheet. Student-Centered: Students were directed to complete the worksheet by using the notes taken during the “pair swap”. Students were also able to refer back to the elements used in their presentations in order to complete worksheet. After completing worksheet, students were allowed time to share and discuss answers. Conclusion: After completing each activity on community workers, the teacher began reviewing the lesson that was taught. She began asking questions about community workers.
She asked the students to name several community workers, what they do, and if they wear a uniform. The workers that were left out she held up pictures of the workers and allowed the students to answer questions about them. Mrs. Brooks saw that the students retain the information that was taught and enjoyed learning about community workers.
References
- Echevarria, J. , Vogt, M. , & Short, D. J. (2008). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners. The SIOP® Model, Third Edition (3rd ed. ). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, Inc. A Pearson Education Company.
