Integrating Science and Reading in Spanish Language Instruction

Instructional Unit Overview In this unit students will be learning how to decode words and improve their vocabulary skills in Spanish. One way I plan on doing this is by integrating the Science Unit about Forces with the Reading Unit. I think integrating science where students are reading about Science they will more likely be engaged with the reading content. Throughout the unit I included a lesson where students share their prior knowledge about a topic, a shared reading and phonics lessons in Spanish. At the end of the unit I plan to give another reading assessment to see how their reading has improved. When given a Raz Kids running record, second grade students will be able to decode words at a 95% accuracy 2 out of 3 times by the end of the year. Learner Analysis Findings Students will need to take the I-Ready Spanish Reading Assessment, which is on the computer and individually. The assessment will determine student’s phonological awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension skills in Spanish. I will also assess students Reading Level using Raz Kids Leveling system so that I can recommend different books to students when they are at home or at school. I know that some students are very familiar with the Spanish language because they speak it at home and some have been in Dual Language since Kinder. I know that some students know their sounds and can read some syllable words. One other assessment that I would use to learn more about the students is their IReady Spanish Reading Assessment. This information would be useful because I would be able to tell if students are able to summarize a story in their dominant language. Using this information will also help me design the lessons in Spanish when choosing the vocabulary they need to learn. Most of the students that are in the service area are bilingual or multilingual. This means that many families are open to their child learning another language like Spanish. Once students feel the motivation or confidence by their teacher they are eager to learn more and some begin practicing at home by teaching their families some words in Spanish. There are 5 students in a classroom that receive IEP services. The students who qualify for IEP services use their Spanish skills to help other students who are learning Spanish. I feel like this is a unique characteristic for the classroom because students are learning from one another, which does not often happen in a general education class. Sometime not often monolingual families have a bad attitude about their child learning another language especially this year that students were learning from home families had a better insight of what students were doing in school. In order to make families and students feel supported in learning Spanish as a school we provide small group instruction or families can opt of the Dual Language School. One strategy that I plan to use for my multilingual and monolingual students is using Total Physical Response. I noticed that Total Physical Response really supports student’s vocabulary skills when learning science concepts. One other strategy that is beneficial in the classroom is recognizing cognate words. I teach this strategy at the start of the school year so that students can start using the skill. One way that we connected with families this past year was through Zoom and holding meetings after 5 pm. In order to support families I think it would be important to inform families about classroom projects so that they are more familiar with what their student is doing in the classroom. Types of strategies will include small group and whole group instruction along with technology practice. Vocabulary and phonemic awareness skills are the important skills to work on to improve student’s language development in Spanish. Planning the Design of the Instructional Unit Task Analysis, Performance Objectives, and Learning Theories The instructional unit will focus mainly on vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. This will be a 3-hour unit of instruction. Each task is set to last 1 hour, with each task building on each other. Tasks Outline each concept and/or procedure that the learners need to know to achieve the goal. Task 1 / LP#1 Performance Objectives Each performance objective should include the three parts: condition, behavior, and criterion. Given an observation chart, Learning Theories Which learning theory(ies) best supports learner mastery of the objective? Include brief justification. Cognitivism – Students use Forces – Observation Charts students will be able to list at their prior knowledge about least three properties of the ice cream and water and Task 2 / LP #2 different states of matter. Given a list of 10 words that apply it to the science unit. Behaviorism: Students are Decode words with different end in –eria, oso-a students being introduced to word word endings –eria, oso-a will correctly identify at least patterns and apply these rules 7 put of the 10 words in the I- when comprehending books. Ready lesson. Teacher will use positive reinforcement when correctly Task 3/ LP #3 Given a list of 10 words that completing the assignment. Behaviorism - Teacher Understand meaning of end with –o, -s, -r, the student focuses on observable and words that end with –o, -s, -r. will identify and sort at least measurable behaviors. 7 words to the corresponding Students will be rewarded for column with the same ending. corrects answers. Task 4 Given 12 picture cards with Behaviorism – Teacher Decode words with initial the initial sounds of que- and guides students to correct sounds of que- and qui-. qui-, students will sort at least answers by restating 9 correct picture file images pronunciations and showing to the column that how words are correctly Task 5 LP #5 corresponds on Seesaw. Given a Summarizing spelled. Cognitivism - learned Informational Retell Informational Graphic different rules on how to read Organizer, students will be certain Spanish words and able to determine the main apply them. Teacher and idea of a text about forces. students build off prior knowledge to read a nonfiction text. Behaviorism - Students will be rewarded for corrects answers. Lesson Plan #1 Title: Forces – Observation Charts Performance Objective: Given an observation chart, students will be able to list at least three properties of forces. Resources or Materials Needed: Observation Chart of push and pull forces, Observation Chart of images of magnets, and Observation Chart that have images of trains, slides and rollercoasters. Sticky notes, Pencils. Observation Charts with sentence stems. Time: 1 hour Step 1: Pre-Instructional Activities: Teacher will introduce Science Forces Unit. Teacher will begin by first building background and activate prior knowledge. First as a whole group, we will practice vocabulary words with Total Physical Response (TPR). Step 2: Content Presentation: (Teacher Models) Teacher will present an observation chart and model how to use sentence stems to list off the different properties of the images. Teacher will use images to support student’s Spanish language when using sentence stems. Step 3: Learner Participation: Learners will participate by listing on a sticky note the observations of the different forces. Students will be in groups of 4-5 talking about their observations then listing their observations. Learners will rotate to different the observation charts with their groups until they list off one observation for each observation chart, making it three observations listed. Step 4: Assessment: Students draw something they understood from the lesson. They can label their diagram or picture using as many Spanish words as possible. Step 5: Follow-Through Activities: Teacher sings Forces chant at the end of the lesson students can follow along. Lesson Plan Summary: This lesson plan is to help students build vocabulary and oracy at the beginning of the unit. This lesson uses cognitivism where students are building on what they know about forces by relating it to images about movement in their daily lives. Teacher provides them with support on vocabulary and strategies to memorize the vocabulary then students apply can apply it to their writing and language skills. Lesson Plan #2 Title: Decode words with different word endings –eria, oso-a Performance Objective: Given a list of 10 words that end in –eria, oso-a students will correctly identify at least 7 put of the 10 words in the I-Ready lesson. Resources or Materials Needed: Computers and headphones Time: 30-45 minutes Step 1: Pre-Instructional Activities: Teacher will introduce different suffix words in Spanish that end in –eria, oso-a by writing them on the boards in Spanish like panadería, pescadería, camaradería. Teacher will then ask students what they notice about these words. Step 2: Content Presentation: (Teacher Models) Teacher will then explain that when adding parts to the end of a word are called sufijos. Teacher seperates the words and explains that this suffix means it can be used to créate the names of stores or can also be used with meaning of “related or relating to.” Teacher writes the sentance on the board: Mi mama y yo fuimos al panadería después de la escuela. Students and teacher read it aloud. Show the word panadería and think out loud to show how to segment the word and determine it’s meaning. Step 3: Learner Participation: Learners will engage with the lesson by logging on to I-Ready. Teacher will have assigned the lesson “Sufijos communes –eria, oso-a.” Students spend 20-25 minutes Step 4: Assessment: Teacher gives students a work sheet with the word base (palabra base). Students have to write the word a suffix and give the significance. Step 5: Follow-Through Activities: Students find words in their independent reading books with –eria, oso-a suffixes and write them then use them in a sentence of their own. Lesson Plan Summary: This lesson plan is to help students build vocabulary by teaching phonic rules in Spanish. This theory that supports the lesson is behaviorism. Students are being introduced to word patterns and apply these rules when comprehending books. Teacher will use positive reinforcement when correctly completing the assignment. Teacher provides strategies to decode and find meanings of words so they can apply to their writing and language skills. Instructional Material - Assessment: I-Ready – Digital Lesson Sample PDF Lesson Plan #3 Title: Sonidos finales – Multi-syllable Words that end in different sounds Performance Objective: Given a list of 10 words that end with –o, -s, -r, the student will identify and sort at least 7 words to the corresponding column with the same ending. Resources or Materials Needed: Word list with words that end in –o, -s, -r. Word Sort, Images to go along with word list Time: 1 hour Step 1: Pre-Instructional Activities: Explore the vocabulary, Discuss endings with students. Words that end with –o are masculine nouns, words that end –s are plural and words that end –r are verbs that indicate action. Read and identify some examples from the Ice Cream chant. Some words from the chant are respirar, tomar, gustar, estados, solido, liquido, y suelo. Step 2: Content Presentation: Teacher will group students in two and model how to do the sort. Students will see that there are three headings, one ending with –o, another column with –s, and the last one –r. I will show the example cubano, say it has three syllables, and say the last syllable ends with –o. I will ask students to which column it belongs and reward students for participating. Step 3: Learner Participation: Students group words to the column that corresponds with the ending sound. Students practice saying the word with their partner. Teacher walks around the room ask students why they placed certain word in certain columns as a formative assessment. Step 4: Assessment: Make a list of additional words escritorio, invierno, lápices, libretas, escribir, estudiar, y leer and have student make word cards for these words. Students sort them according to their ending sound. Step 5: Follow-Through Activities: Writing activity – Students write words that end in –o, -r and –s. Students draw a picture that goes with the word they wrote. I will remind students that words that end with –o are masculine nouns, words that end –s are plural and words that end –r are verbs that indicate action so that when they might be thinking of words in their first language this will be a support. Lesson Plan Summary: Students should know that when ending like –o, -r, -s can change the meaning of words in Spanish. Words that end with –o are masculine nouns, words that end –s are plural and words that end –r are verbs that indicate action. This rule can support students as they are reading and learning the target language Spanish. This lesson is based on the behaviorism theory because teacher will be focusing on observable and measurable behaviors when students complete the words sorts. Students will be rewarded for corrects answers after the word which is a drill and practice routine. Instructional Materials Lesson Plan #5 Title: Shared Reading Performance Objective: Given a Summarizing Informational Graphic Organizer, students will be able to find the main idea of the text,“Vueltas y mas Vueltas.” Resources or Materials Needed: Vueltas y mas Vueltas.” Razkids Nonfiction Text. Pencils for notetaking. Observation Charts, Google Slides with vocabulary words. Time: 1 hour Step 1: Pre-Instructional Activities: Activate prior knowledge by reviewing what we did the day before with the observation charts. Revisit the Spanish Forces chant with TPR to phrases. Add pictures to the chant to solidify the vocabulary that was discussed. Step 2: Content Presentation: Teacher will assign the reading on Raz-Kids. Students will log on to Raz-Kids and open the assigned reading. Teacher creates instructional groupings where students either get the reading read to them through the Read Aloud feature or students read independently or lastly teacher uses the Shared Reading strategy to guide students through the reading. Students identify the main idea of the text and record it in their graphic organizer. Step 3: Learner Participation: Students use a graphic organizer at the end to fill in the key details and information of the book. For students that finish early, they can read another book and fill in key details. Students may also work in small group with teacher or para for vocabulary support when completing the assignment. Step 4: Assessment: Students turn in graphic organizer. Teacher looks for what types of key details they provided or missed. Step 5: Follow-Through Activities: Teacher and students play Simon Says with academic vocabulary using TPR. Students take turns being Simon. Students practice repeating the academic vocabulary while also doing the movements. Lesson Plan Summary: This lesson plan is to apply what students have learned from the day before about vocabulary to the Shared Reading. This lesson uses the cognitivism learning theory because they have learned different rules on how to read certain Spanish words. Teacher and students build off prior knowledge to read a nonfiction book. The lesson also uses Behaviorism so that students who are reading are rewarded for practicing their oral language skills in the target language. Assessment and Evaluation Method I will be formally assessing students throughout the unit by monitoring how they are participating with their partners and in whole group lessons. The performance objective for Lesson 3 is, given a Non-fiction book “Como hacer helado” students will be able to score at least 12-21 points using the Retelling Scoring from Razkids. The rubric is helpful for teachers to assess student’s comprehension of a non-fiction book. Evaluation of the 6 technology Resources Resource Description Relevancy to Learning 1 Limitation or Challenge 2 Limitation or Challenge Imagine Learning Productivit y Personalized learning for students with differentiated instruction to address the needs of language learners. There are only 10 licenses that the school purchases for each school with at least 300 students. Not all students will have access to the program. I-Ready Productivit y Ready created lessons that cover foundational and The Spanish program is new this year. This means that teachers With students using I-ready, Razkids, Seesaw for tech resources. Students might experience burnout from having to use another computer program. Recommended time should be 45 minutes per subject. Many lessons are available that teacher will also reading standards in Spanish. Raz-Kids Research Calico Spanish Research YouTube Additional Seesaw Additional A library of interactive, leveled digital books in Spanish. Corresponding equizzes and a motivational “Raz Rocket” to engage students. A variety of tools like curriculum, stories, activity sheets, flashcards, videos and trainings all in Spanish or students and teachers to engage in learning in the Spanish language. A library of videos for public use. Many educational videos that are uploaded by other teachers and reading companies to gather ideas to teach or to listen to readalouds. A learning platform where students can demonstrate learning. Teachers can differentiate instruction. Families can engage with students work with home-school connections. have to assign lessons instead of students following a path like the English I-Ready. Students sometimes have a hard time navigating through the books and will get distracted with the motivational “Raz Rocket” The district doesn’t pay for this resource. If the teacher wanted to use it, it cost $280 a year. Advertisements have increased tremendously on YouTube and may be unpredictable content. Teacher can assign lessons to the whole class or can search for assignments from a library. There are a limited amount of resources that are created in Spanish. have to track student progress to see if students are passing lessons. Students are likely to be more efficient with their reading time if teacher assigned several books to students to choose from. This requires teachers to plan time to assign these different books. Some video lessons are in Spanish on YouTube. The lessons aren’t the full lessons and there are only limited not a full library. Teachers will have to assign students the link on Seesaw so that students don’t get distracted and watch other videos. Students must have access to WiFi or internet in order to access Seesaw. If students don’t have WI-FI at home families won’t be able to engage with the home-school connections. Chosen Technologies I was able to successfully find six technology resources that I could integrate into he instructional unit. Out of the six different technologies that I potentially to integrate in my instructional unit I plan to integrate I-Ready, Raz-Kids, and Seesaw. I-Ready is the first choice that I would use for the productivity category. This resource has been useful and very relevant for assessment purposes in the past for the English side of the Dual Language Program. One of the challenges is that the Spanish Program is still in its developing process. Currently I have to assign the lessons to students and keep track of student’s progress. One way that I can address this challenge or limitation is to make a recording sheet of the lessons that I want students to complete during the instructional unit. One way to make my time efficient is write down the steps to get to the lessons. I am having a hard time navigating the site. If I record how to get where I’d like to go I would be using my time efficiently. Then I will be able to see which students are passing lessons and where they are having a hard time. Students seem to be more engaged with I-Ready compared to ISation, the resource we were using in the past. The second technology choice that I plan on integrating is Raz-Kids. Raz-kids is a library full of digital books that I hope I can integrate science related book within the unit. Now that students all have their assigned reading levels I will now know which books I can assign to groups of students. I also would like to set a time and day where I am continuously doing this. I plan on setting time aside every Tuesday to assign Raz-Kids books to groups of students so every week I am able to keep up with this. As students are reading on Raz-Kids I might be conducting a small group. When the small group ends I can walk around the room to remind students to choose a book from their assignments column to make sure they are at least engaged with one of their books. I could also have an exit ticket where students share one thing about the book they read during that independent reading time. Students love that they can engage with “Raz Rocket” and earn points when reading. This has been a great motivational tool for the reluctant readers. The final technology that I chose was Seesaw. Seesaw is a platform where students can share their learning using differentiated instruction. UDL focuses on students meeting their learning goals and focuses on differences in the classroom (Understood 2021). Students can type, draw, or record their voice. I can search for assignments in the search bar to assign to students. I can also spend time during my planning to create assignments for students to work on. I would have to review the instructional unit to see where I would like to integrate the Seesaw lessons. This would also be helpful for the next years so that I could reuse the assignments that I created. Last year during distance learning the district worked really hard to get hot spots for families. During conferences I will explain how Seesaw is a great resource to stay connected and engaged with the projects that we do in school. I will ask our school counselors to see if there are hot spots still available for family use so that I am prepared to set up families when they come to conferences. Students used this resource last year during remote learning so this year they are very familiar with it. Rational for Integration The three resources that I plan to use I have used in the past or I am getting accustomed to using them in different ways in my Literacy Units. The first resource is I-Ready, I am planning to use this resource for decoding skills. This resource will support students when reading in Spanish and learning the rules for certain words. The phonics lessons in my unit are lessons 2, 4, 5 and 7. The lessons are engaging by having engaging videos and vivid images. The program will also tell me if students are passing lessons. As the program is getting developed they are also including the lessons so that the teacher can direct the lesson. I think this will be helpful so that I can personally see and hear if students are practicing the skills they need to. Sometimes I can tell that when students needs that adult attention instead of doing the work on the computer. The second resource that I chose was Raz-Kids. Raz-Kids can be used for task 6 and 8. I would like to choose a book that is related to the Science Unit, which is about properties of matter. I can either assign the book to students so that they can either read or listen to it on their own. Understood is a team of writer sand educators who find ways to support kids who learn and think differently says, “listening to a book being read aloud while looking at the words printed on the page helps kids build reading skills” (Martin 2021). I could also record myself reading it and upload the video to Seesaw. Sometimes students are more engaged with the reading when their own teacher is reading the text. The third resource is Seesaw. Some students have been in quarantine because they have CO-VID or have been exposed to CO-VID. In order to engage these students at home I would like to assign some of my recorded lessons to the students. I could also record my teaching in the classroom then upload my lessons later to keep them for future use.