Activities and SIOP Lesson Plans

A lesson plan is a teacher’s comprehensive outline of the course of a lesson. The two lesson plans developed for pupils in pre-elementary and elementary schools will be assessed in this essay.

“Healthy and Unhealthy Foods” is the focus of the first lesson plan, which was developed by Courtney McGowan of Sugarland Elementary School in Sterling, Virginia (CAL, 2010a). The techniques used in this strategy help pupils become familiar with various food types and discriminate between healthy and bad ones. The pupils had learned about the four basic food groups in prior courses. The interactive poem that was prepared by the teacher was used to distinguish between healthy and bad foods. After this lesson, the students are supposed to be able to listen the stories and tell their buddies whether the food is healthy or not.

Academic vocabulary addressed under this lesson includes words ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’. To support the learning of new vocabulary, different student and teacher materials were used, that is small posters with examples of healthy and unhealthy food, laminated pictures of healthy and unhealthy food, and red- and green-labeled sort organizers. To some extent, the children’s choice of healthy and unhealthy foods was determined by their preferences, not the healthfulness of а certain food. To facilitate the learning for less proficient students, various tools and techniques were used, for example, note cards will help them to gain the courage to share their experiences and talk about them with their classmates.

Utilizing the Smart Board for presentation of different foods will motivate the students to take part in the discussion and aid them in learning what foods are healthy and their advantages for human bodies. The presentation engages children to see large and colorful pictures of healthy and unhealthy foods. Tables were employed as well to name the different kinds of foods and help distinguish them. After reading stories containing healthy and unhealthy foods vocabulary, students can draw the mentioned items and show their pictures to their classmates.

The lesson can be extended with another activity according to which the classroom is divided into two parts by means of masking tape where each part constitutes the healthy or unhealthy side. Students can choose which side to take. This game will boost the children’s memory and help them to learn new vocabulary units effectively and with fun.

The second lesson plan covers the topic of nocturnal and diurnal animals, i.e., those that come out during the daytime or nighttime (CAL, 2010b). The students will learn what animals are called nocturnal or diurnal and how they adapt their navigation to day or night conditions. Learning strategies utilized in this lesson include summarizing essential information about these animals, T-charts usage, photographs, and developing vocabulary context clues.

Academic vocabulary units for this plan are as follows: daytime, adaptation, temperature, habitat, navigate, diurnal, and nocturnal. To support the learning of new words, different materials were used such as glue, scissors, pictures and photographs of animals, construction papers of various colors, objectives written on sentence strips for pocket chart, graphic organizers, crayons, and markers. Students’ motivation is achieved by asking them to describe their home habitats and explain to how they influence the stay of certain animals around their home environment.

Asking questions and involving students into group discussions will aid in introducing various new terms with ease. Presentations followed by practical activities and reviews help children gain all vocabulary material. As an extension to the lesson, the teacher can guide the class on how to create the PowerPoint presentation. Students can depict the animals and write the sentences to explain the illustrations. The complete presentation may be placed to the class web page for parents, students, and other visitors.

References

Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). (2010a). Healthy and unhealthy foods: SIOP lesson plan. Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/siop/pdfs/healthy-unhealthy-foods.pdf

Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). (2010b). Nocturnal vs. diurnal animals: SIOP lesson plan. Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/siop/pdfs/nocturnal-vs-diurnal-animals-lesson.pdf