Sample Lesson Plan

Sample Lesson Plan

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an explanation of this lesson plan

Why I chose this content and approach

Because the biggest area of need for my students seemed to be academic writing, I wanted to create lessons that would give my students opportunities to learn about and practice academic composition and rhetorical structures. A common approach to teaching such writing is to have the students practice writing about personal topics that cross into academic subject matter and require the academic style of writing. One of the typical assignments that fits this model is to have students practice the rhetorical structure of comparing and contrasting by comparing elements of their first language culture to elements of U.S. culture.

While I wanted students to be able to talk about their own culture, I soon found out that they were not able to and that there were certain obstacles involved with having such discussions. For starters, they were relatively unaware of the cultural behavior common in their first language culture as well as that of the second language culture even though they had learned some of each. I also suspected that they had difficultly expressing that which they were conscious of because they lacked certain forms and vocabulary. I wondered how we could discuss or write about something of which my students seemed not to be conscious.

Eventually, I settled on designing a lesson in which they would become more aware of the non-verbal communication behavior found in the U.S. and elsewhere while learning how to discuss and describe such behavior. This choice had advantages in that it provided a context for teaching non-verbal communication appropriate to U.S. culture. This later led to a lesson on appropriate behavior for U.S. academic settings, such as making eye contact, and knowing when and how to participate.

In retrospect, I feel that this unit on non-verbal communication was class time very well spent. Many ESOL students pay a high price because the non-verbal communication behavior that is appropriate in the classrooms of their first language culture is inappropriate and sends the wrong message in the classrooms of their second language culture. From this unit, they could learn how to give teachers a better impression of them and thus avoid negative bias.

The following lesson plan relates to the culture domain of the TESOL/NCATE Standards for the Accreditation of Initial Programs in P-12 ESL Teacher Education. This lesson plan demonstrates my own knowledge of the nature and role of culture learning in second language acquisition while standing as an example of how I provide opportunities for my students to engage in "cross cultural studies."

DIFFERENCES IN NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR

a description of the students:

ninth grade ESOL students in a sheltered class of about 16 total
high intermediate proficiency with variable literacy levels
high fluency - low accuracy
have adjusted to and even adopted much of the mainstream U.S. culture but seem very unaware of what they have adopted and how it differs from that of their parents
lack the language needed to discuss cultural differences

objectives:

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to use contrast markers to form complex and compound sentences that express differences in non-verbal communication across cultures. (e.g. but, however, on the other hand)
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to give examples of how non-verbal communication behavior can have different meanings in different cultures and how these differences can lead to misunderstanding.

drill (warm up, gain attention, activate background knowledge):

What non-verbal communication behavior has a special meaning in your parents’ culture or has a different meaning than in the U.S.A.?

introduction

Use the drill to introduce the lesson topic and get students’ interest

Explain the team quiz method to be used and cooperative incentive

developmental activity – full class instruction and modeling

help students to read sample sentences on OHP

check comprehension of samples

present models by helping students to use each of the contrast markers to form sentences including two contrasting items

guided activity – in groups cooperatively

(teacher helps students and students help each other)

give instructions for cooperative activity (a sort of jigsaw learning):

each team member receives a strip of paper with a sentence describing a non-verbal communication behavior and its meaning in a specific country
students read their pieces cooperatively by taking turns reading them out loud and explaining, illustrating, or paraphrasing it
teams make sure each member understands his/her own piece
each member gets up and walks around looking for classmates from other groups whose strips tell of matching behavior with a different meaning
from examining both sentences, students learn how the meaning of the same behavior can differ from country to country and take the information back home to their original group
home groups list different possible meanings for each and practice contrasting using the contrast markers
each person must write a complex or compound sentence using the prescribed contrast marker to contrast the two cultures interpretations of the same behavior
group members trade sentences and check each other's accuracy based on the grammar they learned in the developmental stage
team members take turns sharing their sentences with the whole class

independent activity

repeat the same activity

each team makes sure all its members can combine well

no need for full class wrap up

assessment activity

individuals take the quiz

mark their group # on the test along with their name

the group with the highest average score gets ten extra credit points

closure

students orally state some of the differences they learned

follow up, transfer, and reinforcement

Later in a writing assignment, students will write and essay about how non-verbal communication can differ from culture to culture

note:

These standards were copywritten by Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) in 2002.

Although admittedly this lesson does not teach form communicatively, it offers many chances for students to negotiate both meaning and form while communicating interesting content. In this lesson, the students learn how to talk about culture while becoming more aware of the non-verbal behavior they have been implicitly learning in the U.S. and how it differs from that of their first language.

The class activities in this lesson focus on skill-building exercises but cooperative learning structures such as jigsaw learning create many communicative speaking opportunities as information is exchanged and meaning is negotiated (High, 1993). More importantly, there is interesting and motivating content for discussion.

High, J., 1993, Second language learning through cooperative learning, San Clemente, CA: Kagan publishing)