Small Group Activity with Scaffolding for ELLs Deavon Hinebauch

Reading Activity/Metacognitive Strategy

I plan on reading a short text about the Boston Massacre as part of a five day lesson
on the historical event. I want to encourage independent reading, but I am going to use a
number of direct teaching and modeling strategies along with other supports for a small
group that require additional help to ensure student comprehension-namely ELL students.
I would have used these same scaffolds with the entire class previously, but some students
may still require these supports. As a whole class, we will briefly preview the text by
quickly going through the reading, noting pictures, graphs, and titles. The students will
have had a vocabulary lesson bringing attention to unfamiliar words on the previous day as
well. I will then pair students for their reading, one more proficient than the other, to read
the text. They will take turns reading in small chunks, one reading while the other follows
along and asks questions about what he or she is reading. The students will discuss and
record predictions they made throughout the reading, the main ideas, and the supporting
details they have identified. I will then have the pair record their meaning of each chunk of
text, including whether they believe it to be a main idea or supporting information (I would
have modeled, taught, and monitored this process excessively in guided reading groups
thus far).
Those ELL students that are not able to perform this task independently will work
with me in a guided reading lesson. Students will make predictions, read very small chunks
of texts, and be given further instruction on how to recognize main ideas and supporting
information. This will modeled for students first, then I will record information regarding
mapping out student understanding, student predictions (to check for validity as we read),
and how to distinguish between main details and supporting details. I will also want to help
students to make connections between all the skills they have clarified. I will model and
provide feedback on the process of inferring with real text as well for students and record
their responses and supporting information. They should be able to say why-using words,
phrases, and sentences from the text to support their reasoning with guided practice. I will
be able to actively assess students and encourage independence. If students prove to do
well, they can be paired and begin working independently with a partner as well.
This activity will help students with their language development because students
will be reading, writing, speaking, and hearing the text. They will be thinking critically
about information by discussing main ideas, making predictions, inferring text, and reading
in chunks and assessing their own comprehension. Many scaffolds will be used and taught
to encourage independent participation. Those that need scaffolds/supports that require
information in their primary language will be provided the proper accommodations, but
they will also be instructed in English. The lesson may need an extra day to be completed if
needed.