More Christmas literature

Hi all, just thought I would recap a quick Christmas themed lesson that I conducted with my 3rd grade English learner this afternoon.  She is at the early production level.  I used the book, Noni, the Christms Reindeer.  She isn't strong enough to help pull Santa's sleigh, but she sure is good at filling it. 


Santa uses many synonyms in this book to describe the toys Noni brings back. 

Good

Great

Grand

Marvelous

Tremendous

Outstanding

Fantastic

Some of these vary in intensity, according to how excited one is becoming.  We started the lesson sharing ideas about these words and talking about their similarities.  I asked my student to think of things she liked, and then to think of things that she really, really liked!  We used these words and demonstrated the facial expressions that may accompany them.   Then, we began to read the book together, as shared reading.  In addition to talking about how Noni must feel at different points in the story, we made predictions and kept looking out for the above synonyms. 

I also wanted to share one other Christmas book I discovered.  This one is told from a mouse family's perspective, observing all of the goings-on in the human family with which they live.  I think this book is great for English learners, because it introduces them to many common holiday words and concepts.  You might have to help them over words like "Mistletoe".  If you have some real  mistletoe to bring in, you could show them how it is hung. 

Enjoy, and hope this helps.

Some ESOL Strategies I'm using

This week, my 3^rd grade ELL and I studied a book called Did You Hear Something, perfect for Halloween. 

We created a plot wallet for this book, an idea I stole from Mandy's Tips for Teachers.  This mini-lesson activity was helpful in demonstrating the importance of re-reading in order to decide which ideas were really the most important to include in a summary. 

The week before, we were working on academic vocabulary related to the solar system and space.  Some concepts just lend themselves well to being acted out in order to support understanding.  In order to demonstrate an orbit, I placed a chair in the middle of the room.  We walked around and around the chair, holding onto it with one hand.  It is easy to drop something to demonstrate gravity, but slightly harder to demonstrate that this same force maintains the orbits of the planets and their satellites.  Finally, after some more discussion, and re-reading of a text that the student had read in class, we played a charades game.  Each of us took turns acting out a word, which the other tried t identify or explain. Movement and interaction are a great means to support the acquisition of academic language.  This would have been even more effective if I were working with a small group instead of just one student. 

Happy Teaching!