Portfolio of Teaching Activities
This is a set of activities that can be used in the classroom for culturally and linguistically diverse students.
What is needed: The students
Objective: You will start by giving the instructions of going around the room and everyone will state their name and what their favorite book is and why. For example I would go first say my name is Taylor and my favorite book is The Host because it has adventure and science fiction. All the students would then go around the room until everyone has gone.
How is it useful?- The objective of this activity would be to help the students get to know each other but it is also a way for students to see who has similar interests when it comes to reading. For the teacher this is also a way to see what the interests are of the students so that you can make your lesson plans and references to something that is relatable to everyone. This is a fun activity that can be used during the first week of school to help break the ice. This can be useful to everyone to figure out common interests within the classroom.
Get to know your classmates
Teacher, I wish you knew...
What is needed: Students and notecards
Objective: You will start by giving every student a notecard. You will instruct the students to write their name on the first line of the note card and then have the students write something that you with the teacher knew. It can be something as simple as homework is easy or difficult for me at home or it can be something more serious like "My family can't afford glasses right now and I'm having trouble seeing from my seat and want to move." or "I have dyslexia so reading out loud is difficult for me."
How is it useful?- This is a simple and easy way to have your students open up to about something they may be struggling with but they don't want someone to overhear. This is also a way for you to understand the student better and what they may be struggling with. Students at this age may not want to share face to face what they are dealing with but feel more comfortable writing it down.
Semantic Mapping
What is needed: Students, Paper, Pencil, and History Book
Objective: You will start by the students writing down new vocabulary words from the chapter that they do not know. They will then create a spider web chart to try and define the word. They will answer: What is the definition of the new term in their own words? What is another word that has a similar meaning? What is an example of this word? What is the opposite of this word?
How is it useful?: This will benefit students because they can take a word they do not know and apply it in a way that makes sense to them and allows them to remember it better. This is also a good opportunity for the teacher to walk around and see if any students need help with defining a word by providing words that they may be more familiar with. This can be beneficial for ELL students because it allows them to make connections with other words and give the teacher an opportunity to see where their vocabulary is at and if they are struggling with anything.
Wordsplash
What is needed: Students and white board
Objective: The teacher will write on the white board words that are important from the text that they are reading from. This can be applied to both English and Social Studies classes. The words that are put on the board should be fairly unfamiliar to the students. Once the students have identified the word that is unfamiliar to them in the text they will then work with partners to use the dictionary, glossary, or index to come up with a definition and a couple other words the students are familiar with.
How is it helpful? This is a great way for students to learn to use their resources when they are unfamiliar with a word. This helps students find ways to think through an unfamiliar text and prepares them for the future. This is great for ELL students because they are able to expand their vocabulary when learning new research tools. The objective is to help students broaden their vocabulary while also making connections to previous knowledge.
Read, Retell, Summarize
What is needed: Students, text, paper, pencil
Objective: The teacher will read different passages that the teacher wants the students to focus on. The key words will be highlighted and the student will take time to summarize the passage only using the highlighted parts as reference. Then working in groups the students will retell the passage to their group. The teacher will walk around and make sure that the retellings are being done accurately.
How is it helpful? This allows for students to learn about more information at a time while also being able to learn to pick out useful information in a passage. This will be beneficial to students to be able to decipher what is important in readings. This will also benefit ELL students because they will be able to learn and work as a group on passages to figure out how to figure out what is important or not which can improve study skills.
Conga Line
What is needed: Students, notecard, pencil
Objective: Teacher will give each of the students a word on the notecard and the correct definition of the word. The students will then read their word and give an example of the word on the back of the notecard. The students will then pair up and teach another student their word and vise versa. When it is time to switch partners the students will trade words so now they are teaching the next partner the word they just learned. The students will continue to do this until the students are exposed to all the words.
How is it useful- This is a great way to have the students interact with each other while learning. This will expose the students to several of the vocabulary words and give them a way to make connections to them. It is important to students are able to define vocabulary in their own way so that they are able to define the terms outside of the lesson. This is great exposure but it does have the drawback of being too many words at once so I think a follow up homework assignment would be beneficial after the activity for further exposure to the vocabulary.
Acting Out History
What is needed: Students and notecards
Objective: Teacher will put the students in small groups were they will be instructed to act of the events of a time in history, or a war. Students will be able to assign parts and a script which they can use the notecards for a way to know what to say. The teacher can then walk around as the students are practicing to make sure they are going to be preforming the events correctly.
How is it useful: Visualizations are really important to students at this age and help make learning easier. In history after learning about certain battles or wars you can put the students into small groups and have them act out the events that took place. This gives them the opportunity to interpret the events in their own way but also in a way that they will be able to remember what happens. This is a fun and interactive tool and will be especially helpful for ELL students if they are having a hard time understanding the text or order of events.
Hot Seat
What is needed: Students and dry erase boards
Objective: Teacher will split the class into two different groups. Each group will select one person each round to sit with their back to the board facing their other classmates. The teacher will then write a vocabulary word on the board and the students will have to say the definition, synonyms, or antonyms. The student in the hot seat will then try and guess the correct vocabulary word. The student that gets it right first earns a point for their team. The rounds will continue until all of the vocabulary words have been completed.
How is it useful: This is a great way for students to learn and test their knowledge on the vocabulary words they are assigned for the week. This allows them to apply the words and identify the words at the same time. This is a fun way to interact as a class and this is a great game for ELL students because they can see how the word is similar or different to other words that they are more familiar with.
History Bingo
What is needed: Students custom bingo cards, an online randomizer
Objective: Teacher will create bingo cards that have to deal with history. Could be a person, place, date etc. about the current lesson that the students are learning. The teacher will hand out the bingo cards to the students and then the teacher will have a random set of questions to ask the students. For example if they were learning about WWII the teacher could ask "What year did Pearl Harbor happen?" and if the students have the year "1941" on their card they can mark it off. The teacher would continue asking questions until someone has a bingo. The prize could be whatever you would like it to be extra credit or candy.
How is it useful: This is a great way for the students to apply what they have learned in a fun and interactive way. This allows them to recognize dates and gives an idea to the students how they are learning. Since this does take a good amount of listening and thinking it is important that the teacher goes slow enough that students, especially ELL students, have time to process the question and come up with an answer. This does take some prep time for the teacher but once completed I think it could be used for other areas as well. This would also be a fun review game for a test.
Play "Heads up"
What is needed: Students, sticky notes, and pencils
Objective: This can be used for both History and English class. Have the students get with a partner. one of the students will write down either a person, vocabulary word, or event that goes with the lesson on a sticky note. The other student will then put the sticky note on their forehead without looking at it. Once the sticky note is in place the student without the note will then begin to ask questions, describe, or give the definition about the word until it is guessed correctly. Most important to the game is the student describing the word cannot say the word.
How is it useful: This is a great way for the students to apply what they have learned in a fun and interactive way. This allows them to recognize dates and gives an idea to the students how they are learning. This is a great way to make sure that both the students have an understanding of the word and the definition. If the student does not guess the word correctly then they can work together to come up with the best definition for the word. This allows students to learn while also teaching them skills to find definitions and critically think about the word since they can not use the word in the sentence. This is a great opportunity to pair an ELL student with a non ELL student to help with learning.
Reflection
Every student has a unique way of learning, and every student learns at their own pace and style. No student is the exact same and it is important that the students are given activities that benefit all students the best they can. Above I came up with a list of 10 assignments that I believe are inclusive to learners and can be utilized in multiple different settings and are not just geared towards any one subject. It is important to make learning fun and if the students are having fun while learning then they are going to be engaged and participate. Students learn best when they are active learners and it helps when students can relate to what they are learning.
When choosing the activities I tried to keep in mind all types of learners. I thought about the students that are shy, struggle to read, struggle to memorize, and ELL students. All students learn at their own pace and it is important to create ideas that benefit all types of learning. I chose the activities: Heads Up and Acting out History specifically with ELL students in mind. I think that heads up is great for all learners but I think that ELL’s will benefit from the smaller group setting, especially if they are paired with a non-ELL student they may be given a new way to remember the word. I remember when I was in school and my teacher did the “Teacher, I wish you knew...” activity and I always thought that it was a great idea and I think that it really is a great introduction to the students for the teacher so that the teacher can get to know the students on a personal level without having other students over hear. This is a great activity for all learners. I think with any of the activities that I mentioned above there is always room for improvement to make it more inclusive to the learners but as long as the activities are active and the teacher tries to build a safe environment the students will succeed.
I think the activity that I like the most would be the activity “Acting out History”. For students that are learning about events for the first time it could be difficult to remember what happened in each one or the order in which things happened. By having the students act of the events or represent different countries in a war it gives students a visual while also allowing students to be active while learning. As a teacher I don’t want my students to sit all day, I want to make school enjoyable and I want to make teaching lessons enjoyable. Allowing students to express themselves in a safe and creative environment will help build relationships. From my own personal experience I felt like there was not a lot of group work in school and was very traditional of just sitting and learning while the teacher spoke. I do not want to be that type of teacher and want to have a classroom that is inclusive, safe, and fun.
This class has really opened my eyes the importance of taking time to arrange lessons in a way that is inclusive to all students and all type of learners. Taking time to self reflect on a lesson before teaching it, to make sure that every learner benefits, is really important.