Nicole Neutzling 257807 University of Calgary ELA Task 1

Class Prole: The following activities are intended for a grade 3 class. This specic class is located in district 3 of the Calgary Board of Education. It is a very complex and diverse class of 36 students. The majority of the class (and school) comes from an Arabic background; either foreign born or rst generation Canadians. The class consists of students from Burma, Nigeria, Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, India, and Cambodia. 24 of the students are coded ELL with the majority (17 being Canadian born ELLs). The majority of this grade 3 class predominately speaks a language other than English at home. For many of the students English is their 3rd or 4th language. Languages in the classroom consist of Arabic, Urdu, Burmese, Hindi, Kashmir, Pilipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, French and Afghani. Religious backgrounds vary immensely; approximately 20 of the students practice the muslim faith with 5 coming from self dened strict muslim families. The Aboriginal voice is also brought into the classroom with one Metis student. Complexity is added to the class with 10 IPPs. 2 students are coded for expressive language difculties, 3 for ADHD, 4 struggle learning disabilities related to reading and writing and one is gifted. The level of language abilities ranges from beginners to uent readers. This class is based on my last practicum class.

Reading Levels: Beginning Students typically hit the beginning level of reading in rst and second grade (Tompkins, 2010, p 119). With proper instruction and scaffolding, children are able to move through this stage and onto the uent stage. The class that the Monsoon activities are designed for is technically a grade 3 class which could be assumed to be predominantly uent readers. Due to the high percentage of ELLs and IPPs many of the students in this class have not quite moved through the beginning stage and therefore activities that cater to this advancement have been embedded. Beginning readers usually recognize 20 -100 high frequency words, can apply reading strategies, write 5 or more sentences, spell phonetically, and are able to use punctuation to capitalize a sentence and indicate the end of a sentence (Tompkins, 2010). The activities, such as the summative project, can all be completed with these basic abilities. In the beginning stage students develop an understanding that reading also involves comprehension (Tompkins, 2010, p 124). They make predictions to guide their thinking about events in stories they read and they make connections between what theyre reading and their own lives and the world around them as they personalize the reading experience (Tompkins, 2010, p 124). Monsoon is a book that encourages this comprehension and ability to connect funds of knowledge to the story further helping students develop and move towards being uent readers. In this stage teachers should plan activities that range from modeled to independent reading and writing, with emphasis on interactive and guided activities (Tompkins, 2010, p 124). The activities build around Monsoon include shared reading and modeling which is then scaffolded to more independent reading. The use of choral reading and mini lessons to provide strategy and skill instruction are also used to meet the instructional needs of the beginning readers in the class.

Fluent The uent reading stage is where this entire grade 3 class should be by the end of the year (Tompkins, 2010, p 125). Once students can read words accurately, rapidly, and expressively, they can easily be distinguished from the beginning readers in the class. According to Tompkins, uent readers recognize hundreds and hundreds of words automatically and can decode other words efciently using strategies, they write well developed multi-paragraph compositions, spell most high frequency words correctly and use correct punctuation the majority of the time (2010, p 125). The book Monsoon contains enough off list vocabulary words that it will still provide to be challenging and interesting to the uent readers in the class. The writing in the book with its rhyming, alliterations, and expressive language can also be used and analyzed by uent readers as an example of what they are working towards in their own writing. Mini lessons on alliteration and descriptive language are included to teach the literary devices that uent readers are learning more about in this level (Tompkins, 2010, p 125). The instructional recommendations of teaching children to make text to self, text to world and text to text connections as well as having children respond to literature through talk and writing have both been included in the Monsoon activities through grand discussions and student journal writing. All of the tasks surrounding the book Monsoon can be adapted to be more challenging for the more advanced uent level readers in the class. These students are also challenged with the important leadership role of helping to scaffold the beginning readers in many activities.

Synapsis: Monsoon by Uma Krishnaswarmi and illustrated by Jamel Akib Monsoon is a beautifully illustrated story that moves through the observations of a young girl in Northern India as she waits for the monsoon. The story evokes the experience of waiting for the rains through describing the scents, sounds, and colours of the anticipation. It is a traditional narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. Monsoon utilizes rich descriptive language that really places the reader into the young girls shoes. The text uses many alliterations, such as gravelly, grainy, gritty, dust, that aid the reader in developing a strong visual of the scene. The story also incorporates a few Hindi words which further enhances its culturally responsiveness. This is a very authentic text written and illustrated by individuals of Indian background. The author being from New Delhi. The book also contains a explanation of what a monsoon is at the back of the book providing further information and increasing reader comprehension of the event occurring in the story. Hindi Words used: Ganesh - the elephant headed Hindu god of beginnings keol- a songbird with a loud whistling call, nosiest just before the rains loo- the hot wind that blows through northern India in summer, before the rainy season neem- a tree of the mahogany family, whose leaves and fruit are used in farming and for medicine. Authors Syanpsis: Children play, birds call, and grownups go about their business during the hot days of summer in northern India. But in the bustle of street and marketplace, everyone is watching, waiting for those magical clouds to bring their gift of rain to the land. Through the observations of one young girl, the scents and sounds, the dazzling colors, and the breathless anticipation of a parched cityscape are vividly evoked during the nal days before the welcome arrival of the monsoon. (Krishnaswami, 2003)

(Akib, 2003) Lexical Prole of Monsoon (rst three pages):

Families K1 Words (1-1000): 54 Function: ... Content: ... > Anglo-Sax...

=Not Greco-Lat/Fr Cog:

Types Tokens Percent 58 89 69.53% ... -59 (46.09%) ... -30 (23.44%) ... -24 (18.75%) 17 ... ... 21 -13 ... 16.41% (10.16%) (85.94%) 0.00% (0.00%) 14.06% 100%

K2 Words 14 (1001-2000): > Anglo-Sax:... 1k+2k AWL Words (academic): > Anglo-Sax:... Off-List Words: ? 68+?

... 16 91

() 18 128

Off list words: chink, clatters, crackles, grainy, gravelly, gritty, hums, monsoon, seashore, sighs

sprinkling, stall, thrums, tomatoes

The lexical prole shows Monsoon to be a text ideal for introducing new vocabulary words that pertain to describing a scene. The majority of the off list words come from the alliterations used throughout the text. Rationale: I chose to use this book based on the importance of including culturally responsive literature in the classroom. Students engagement is increased when they can related and connect their funds of knowledge to classroom content. With this class of grade 3s being so diverse I thought that bringing in a text from another culture would help them connect and be able to share their own perspectives with their classmates. The grade 3 social studies curriculum also places a high focus on global awareness. Using a culturally based picture book helps to interconnect the English Language Art and the Social Studies curriculum. India is also one of the four countries that is focused on in the Alberta Education Social Studies Program of Learning for grade 3. This book uses the monsoon as the basis for explaining and describing different aspects of life in Northern India. Weather patterns greatly inuence lifestyle and culture in different parts of the word; everyone has had some sort of experience with diverse types of weather and therefore can relate to the text. Monsoon creates an entry point into another culture by using the common occurrence of observing the climate. Activities stemming from this story can therefore start to spread and culturally include all of the students in the class. Monsoon also includes Hindi words, although not as extensive as a dual language book, it still highlights a language that some of the students speak at home and brings it into the classroom. This connects home and school and demonstrates to all of the students that languages other than English are welcome and celebrated. The story from a literary perspective is rich in descriptive vocabulary. It moves through all of the little girls senses and stands as an example for how to effectively create and describe a setting. These lessons would be ideal to use when focusing on describing the setting in a narrative piece of writing. It can be used to enhance and expand all students vocabulary while at the same time highlighting the importance of the authors description of the setting in order to help the reader visualize the scene. The students before reading this book as a class would have started into their social studies unit on quality of life in India. They would also have already started to develop an understanding of what makes a good narrative (beginning, middle, end), proper punctuation, and characterization. This set of lessons therefore would help guide them more into expanding on setting.

General Outcomes: ELA Program of Studies Connections General Outcome 1

Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences. General Outcome 2
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts.

Social Studies Program of Studies Connections

3.1
Communities in the World General Outcome

Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how geographic, social, cultural and linguistic factors affect quality of life in communities in India, Tunisia, Ukraine and Peru.

Specic Outcomes: ELA Specic Outcomes Express ideas and develop understanding connect prior knowledge and personal experiences with new ideas and information in oral, print and other media texts
explain understanding of new concepts in own words explore ideas and feelings by asking questions, talking to others and referring to oral, print and other media texts Experiment with language and forms Consider others ideas
ask for others ideas and observations to explore and clarify personal understanding 2.1 Use Strategies and Cues Use prior knowledge share ideas developed through interest, experiences, and discussion that are related to new ideas and information Use comprehension strategies apply a variety of strategies, such as setting a purpose, conrming predictions, making inferences and drawing conclusions extend sight vocabulary to include predictable phrases, and works related to language use (as they encounter new words, students add them to their personal dictionaries and to the class world bank) 2.2 Respond to Texts Experience various texts choose a variety of oral, print and other media texts for shared and independent listening, reading and viewing experiences, using texts from a variety of cultural traditions and genres. tell or write about favourite parts of oral, print and other media texts Construct meaning from texts

 connect portrayals of characters or situations in oral, print and other media texts to personal and classroom experiences discuss, represent or write about ideas in oral, print and other media texts, and relate them to own ideas and experiences and to other texts

2.4 Create Original Text

Generate ideas experiment with ways of generating and organizing ideas prior to creating oral, print and other media texts Elaborate on the expression of ideas use sentence variety to link ideas and create impressions on familiar audiences

3.4 Share and Review Specic Outcomes

Share ideas and information organize and share ideas and information on topics to engage familiar audiences use titles, headings and visuals to add interest and highlight important points of presentation

Social Studies Specic Outcomes: Values and Attitudes Students will: 3.1.1
appreciate similarities and differences among people and communities: demonstrate an awareness of and interest in the beliefs, traditions and customs of groups and communities other than their own (CC)
Knowledge and Understanding Students will: 3.1.2 examine the social, cultural and linguistic characteristics that affect quality of life in communities in other parts of the world by exploring and reecting upon the following questions for inquiry: How does daily life reect quality of life in the communities (e.g., employment, transportation, roles of family members)? (CC, ER, GC) How do the individuals and groups in the communities cooperate and share with other group members? (C, CC) How is cultural diversity expressed within each community? (CC, I)

Five stages of the Reading Process: Stage 1: Pre Reading Time: 2 sessions (45 min each) Materials: Photos of different weather events from around the world (focus on India, Tunisia, Ukraine, Peru, and Canada), white board for concept map, student journals, bilingual dictionaries, smartboard, book converted into iMovie Activities: Gallery Walk: photos of different climatic events from different parts of the world are put up on the walls around the class. Students move independently around the classroom observing the pictures. Student Journals: Students take 5 - 10 minutes to write down their initial thoughts about the Gallery Walk. The teacher may chose to use prompts to encourage writing: What is the worse storm you have ever experienced? etc. Students may brainstorm ideas in their home language and utilize bilingual dictionaries to help them express themselves. Students that struggle expressing their ideas through writing may chose to draw their ideas on climate events instead of writing them. Class Concept Map: The teacher uses questioning to generate a grand discussion on climate and how it affects lifestyle. A class concept map is created to visually represent the background knowledge of the class and to get them thinking about the topic.

1st Reading of the Picture Book (book walk): The teacher introduces the book Monsoon by Uma Krishnaswami. Through questioning the teacher formatively assesses students background knowledge and ability to predict what they text will be about by showing the cover and conducting a book walk. This questioning also serves to model how effective readers look at a text and make predictions. Monsoon is read by the teacher to the class. Due to the size of the class the book may be showed using iMovie on a smartboard or screen in order for everyone to be able to see the illustrations and follow along with the text.

Stage 2 : Reading Time: 1 session (45 minutes) Materials: word wall, visual representations of new vocabulary, white board for writing down denitions, iMovie version of the book and a smartboard to show the book or a book viewer. Learning Tasks: Word Wall: A maximum of 5 vocabulary words are introduced. The class works together to create denitions for the words and visually representations. These words are then placed into the word wall. If need be the words may also be translated into the students home languages in order to aid understanding and comprehension.

2nd Reading of the Book: The book is read again for a second time out loud by the teacher using shared reading. The students are encouraged to read out loud and along side the teacher when they come to words they know (specically the newly introduced vocabulary words). Once again an iMovie or book viewer may be used to increase the size of the illustrations and ensure the students can all see the text and follow along. The teacher should model the reading strategies of looking at the illustrations in order to determine the new vocabulary words. The illustrations in the text lend themselves well to this reading strategy.

Stage 3: Responding Time: 1 session (45 minutes) Materials: Student journals, bilingual dictionaries, pictures of Canadian winter storms and the monsoon in India to help prompt discussion and writing. Learning Tasks: Grand Discussion: Class discussion about what is similar about waiting for the monsoon in India and waiting for a snow storm/winter in Canada? What is different? Reading Logs/Students Journals: Students write in their reading logs about their experience of waiting for winter to arrive in Canada. The teacher may add prompts such as How does it feel to be caught in the storm? What does it sound, smell, feel like? What kinds of activities do you do during this time of year? Again students are allowed to brainstorm ideas initially with a partner. ELLs may chose to brainstorm in their home language but must write in English.

Stage 4: Exploring Time: 2 - 3 sessions (45 minutes each) Materials: copy of the book for each group, word wall, 5 senses graphic organizers, thesauruses, large pictures of different scenes, view nders (small magnied glasses), student journals Learning Tasks: 3rd reading of the book using Choral Reading: the class is split into groups 6 groups of 6. Each group is given a section of the text to read. The groups have 10 minutes to read through the text, dene any unknown vocabulary, and practice reading it out loud and for uency. Being in groups allows the teacher to place emergent readers with uent readers who can help scaffold for the task. Everyone in the group must read out loud (they can decide on whether to read each line individually or the entire passage as a group). The class reads the book. Word Wall: The words that groups struggled with or identied as new vocabulary are reviewed as a class and placed on the word wall. Mini Lesson on Describing the Setting Using Senses: The teacher explains that a good way to expand on your setting in a narrative is to describe the scene using your 5 senses. The class is divided into 6 groups of 6. Each group is given a story prompt picture of a scene and a viewer ( by moving the small viewer around on the picture the students can focus their attention to ne details and use this to increase their

expression). As a group the students write a descriptive sentence for each sense about the scene. These are then read to the whole class without showing them the picture. The class tries to visualize and guess what the picture could be of based on the 5 sense descriptors. The teacher may use a graphic organizer to help students sort their ideas as well as as a work sample for formative assessment. 5 Sense Descriptions: I smell............................................................................................................................................................. I hear............................................................................................................................................................... I taste.............................................................................................................................................................. I feel................................................................................................................................................................ I see ................................................................................................................................................................ Mini Lesson on Alliterations: Teacher explains what an alliteration is using examples from the picture book. The teacher places a picture of a setting on the smartboard/whiteboard and a starting letter. In pairs the students must write down in their journals three descriptive words that all start with the given letter. These descriptions are then shared with the class. Stage 5: Applying Time: 4- 5 sessions (45 minutes each) Materials: paper and illustration materials, dictionaries, thesauruses, graphic organizers, student generated rubric, peer evaluation sheets, enough copies of the picture book for one for each group (6-7) Learning Tasks: 4th Reading of the Book in Small Groups: Students in groups of 5 re read the book together. They discuss the parts of the book that they like and that they would change and why. One of the group members records these likes and dislikes on to graphic organizer which can be formatively assessed by the teacher. Group Collaborative Books: In groups of 5 write a short narrative about a climatic event. Each person should chose one of the ve senses and use descriptive language to write one page of a collaborative book. The pages will then be swapped and a new student will be responsible for the illustrations. Writing with as much description as possible is therefore the important in order to help the illustrator visualize what is going on. Book Presentations: The collaborative books will then be shared with the class in group readings. A student generated assessment (rubric) and peer evaluation will complete the summative assessment portion for this unit. The groups will be decided by the teacher and therefore allow for stronger students to be placed with students that required more scaffolding ( ie; a mix between the emergent and uent readers and writers in the class). Peer editing is also used to help scaffold the students that are still struggling with phonetically spelling and punctuation errors. The project is differentiate for ELLs in that they may utilize bilingual dictionaries and oral discussion with their group members in order to complete the task at hand. They may also chose to brainstorm in their rst language to generate ideas with classmates that speak the same rst language. Foreign born students will be an important asset to the groups in that not all climatic events occur to the extremes that they do else where on the planet. The real life experiences of students in other parts of the world will help to contribute to the description of these events. If possible the teacher should chose weather patterns that are unique to different parts of the world and direct students in researching these events.

Assessment of Students Learning: Pre-Assessment: Questioning Student Journal Writing/Reading Logs Class discussion and concept map Formative Assessment: Questioning Student Journals/Reading Logs Graphic Organizers/ Student work samples Grand Discussion Anecdotal notes Ongoing informal Observations

Summative Assessment: The overall collaborative book and presentation at the end of the unit will be assessed summatively using a student generated rubric and through peer evaluations. The teacher will guide and contribute the expectations for the project and rubric from the specic outcomes. Student journals/reading logs can also be summatively assessed for literacy development.
Strategies for Differentiated Assessment: The activities are designed to provide emergent readers many opportunities to be scaffolded by their peers and teacher. Individually they can be assessed through their journal writing in order to determine the level of their independent work but the overall summative assessment is based on a group project. The group project allows emergent readers and writers to advance their skills set while at the same time contributing more in areas that they may be stronger in (for example the illustrations of the collaborative work or by acting as leaders throughout the group process). Emergent readers are also supported in the classroom by the use of word walls and supports such as graphic organizers. It is expected that this text is above their level but through class discussions, repetition of the story, and ample time to practice reading out loud in the choral group by the end of the unit Monsoon should be accessible to them. Fluent readers will still be challenged by the vocabulary in the text and will be abel to dig deeper into the rich language and writing style the author uses. The Fluent readers are also provided with the task of acting as leaders and supporting the emergent readers. Being able not only to understand the material but teach it to others provides opportunity to absorb the knowledge at a deeper level. Independent activities, such as the journal writing can be expanded upon further by uent writers. The teacher may chose to give them more challenging prompts or add constraints to their writing by suggesting the use of the new vocabulary words or concepts taught in the mini lessons.

Sources : Alberta Learning (2000). English Language Arts (K-9) Program of Study. Retrieved from: http:// education.alberta.ca/teachers/programs/english/programs.aspx Compleat Lexical Tutor v 6.2: for data driven language learning on the web. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.lextutor.ca/ Krishnaswami. U and Akib, J. (2003). Monsoon. Farrar Straus Giroux: New York Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach. Pearson: Toronto.