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Title: ANIMALS, ANIMALS EVERYWHERE

Grade: 2nd   Subject: Animal Vocabulary Unit   Class: English as a Second Language   

Purpose
Purpose: The Orientation Center teaches as much vocabulary as possible. Emphasis is placed on listening and speaking, but there is some reading as well. Basic writing activities are included with accommodations made for the one or two non-readers in the class. For this plan, I want to incorporate the signing for each animal (SEE) to help my hearing-impaired student, but also to visually help all students.

I do animals first because they are so popular with the students. Along with these words, I try to teach the question words who, what, where, when, how many, etc. so that they can more quickly function in the regular classroom. Sometimes they would be able to answer the €who€ question because common sense would tell them that the answer is the main character the teacher has been talking about. But when they don€t understand these question words, they haven€t a clue what they are being asked.

Next I use limited English, repetitive books, and do lots of activities mimicking the word order, the tonality of asking questions, and how to write a sentence using capital letters and end punctuation.

We then pick two or three animals to study in more depth. Generally because I do this unit in October, I pick bats, spiders, and one other. The non-fiction writing is easier for them to both read and write.

In summary:
1. Animal vocabulary and corresponding SEE signs
2. Asking and answering simple questions
3. Beginning reading activities.

Objective
Students sometimes stay with me for as just a little over a semester. The speed that they learn English is largely dependent on what their educational background is. And I have had students with lesser abilities for two years as well.

1. The student will list or verbally say in English five animals from each category studied each week. (farm, zoo, pets, insects, etc.)

2. The student will be able to ask and answer four questions such as "Where does this animal live?", "What does this animal eat?" "Is this animal big?" "What color is this animal?"

3. The student will be able to use the Internet and a search engine, and locate images of ten of the animals that they are studying. (Sometimes we have animals in America that other countries do not have. By searching on the Internet for the image of the animal I am talking about, the visual helps them remember what it is. A "walking stick" is so much easier for them to know once they have found it by themselves instead of me just showing them the picture. Then when we watch a clip form a movie like "Bug's Life" for example, they tie the two together easily.)


4. The student will first read the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and then write in English text for another invented page for a classroom book.

5. The student will be able to compare and contrast a spider and an insect using a Venn diagram.

Materials

  1. Animal crackers
  2. Picture dictionaries
  3. Venn diagram form used to compare spiders and insects
  4. Overheads of each animal group
  5. Matching Activity Packets. See Examples 1-4 at www.ofoto.com
  6. Egg Cartons Activities for each category€matching activity. Pictures 15-17 at www.ofoto.com .
  7. Collection of Animal books from Area Education Agency including Brown Bear, Brown Bear, The Very Busy Spider, and What do Insects Do?
  8. Spelling packets for practice spelling the animal words. (See Example 5 at www.ofoto.com )

Procedures

  1. Divide the animals into groups of approximately ten to fifteen. (Farm and pets, zoo animals, animals around Iowa, and insects and other crawlers, etc.) Some fifth graders can handle twenty to twenty-five in their groupings. Some of the second graders or non-readers concentrate on five to ten for each set.
  2. Introduce one group at time, using a mixture of Power Point (using clip art made to represent the animal and its corresponding sign, Examples 6-7, www.ofoto.com ) flashcards, and oral questioning. Demonstrate the €sign€ for each animal as presented.
  3. Reinforce with activity sheets for each set of animals. (Example copies will be at www.ofoto.com .)
  4. Zoo animals: Animal crackers: The teacher will secretly draw an animal cracker from a bag. The students will guess the animal using the above listed questions. (Objective two)
  5. Categorizing: The students will list animals in categories based on a multitude of characteristics. (Example 8 at www.ofoto.com )
  6. Read Eric Carle€s The Very Busy Spider. Compare spiders and insects. Draw each labeling their parts. Use a Venn diagram to compare after you have discussed each.

Questions

  1. Where does this animal live?
  2. What does it eat?
  3. How many legs does it have? (Or other body parts)
  4. What color is this animal? Is this a big animal or small...this type of question for the newer or more limited ESL student.
  5. Name two big animals, an animal that flies, a small insect, etc.

Assessments

  1. A Can say or write nine or more of each animal in each of the groups studied
  2. B Can say or write seven or more of each animal in each of the groups studied
  3. C Can say or write five or more of each animal in each of the groups studied
  4. D Can say or write three or more of each animal in each of the groups studied
  5. F Can identify less than three animals in each of the groups studied

Extensions

  1. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? After reading this book, videotape the students reading and signing the text from the book and their invented additional pages.
  2. Computer: In four weeks, we will have four half-hour computer lab times. The students can do the following activites:
    1. Find ten animals using a search engine/images.
    2. Find five different spiders (tarantula, wolf, black widow, brown recluse, garden spider (black and yellow one) and discover which ones are poisonous.
    3. Do the Koko Activity, a gorilla that signs. (Example 14 at www.ofoto.com )
    4. Write the text for their page/illustration of their animal for the class book of Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

  3. Insect Extension: Study the bee in more depth. (Base on the book by Gail Gibbons.)
  4. Mammal Extension: Study the bat/mammals in more depth.

Readings

  • An Alphabet of Animal Signs (Beginning Sign Language Series) by S. Harold Collins
    This is a good book for beginning signing of various animals that we are studying in this unit.
  • My First Book of Sign Language by Joan Holub
    A beginning of SEE for elementary or beginning signing students.
  • Signing with Kids Cindy Wheeler (Paperback)
    A good inexpensive paperback so that students can continue learning to sign
  • You Can Learn Sign Language!: More Than 300 Words in Pictures by Jackie Kramer, Tali Ovadia, John Smith.
    A picture dictionary of many often used words/signs

Links

Vocabulary

  • ASL:  American Sign Language
  • ESL:  English as a Second Language (sometimes now called ELL: English Language Learner)
  • L1:  the first language
  • L2:  the second language
  • SEE:  Signing Exact English (sometimes just SE)

Standards

  1. Language Arts Writing  Level l (Grade K-2)  
    Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=1
    Benchmark 6 Uses writing and other methods (e.g., drawing pictures, using letters or phonetically spelled words, telling, dictating, making lists) to describe familiar persons, places, objects, or experiences
  2. Language Arts Reading   Level 1  
    Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=5
    Benchmark3. Creates mental images from pictures and print
  3. Language Arts Reading   Level 1  
    Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=5
    Benchmark 7. Uses a picture dictionary to determine word meaning
  4. Language Arts Standard 8:   Level one  
    Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes. http://www.mcrel.ort/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=8
    Benchmark #2. Asks and responds to questions
  5. Language Arts Standard 8:   Level 1  
    Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes. http://www.mcrel.ort/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=8
    Recites and responds to familiar stories, poems,
    and rhymes.

  6. Language Arts Standard 8:   Level 1  
    Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes. http://www.mcrel.ort/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=8
    Listens and responds to a variety of media
  7. Foreign Language Standard 5   Beginning  
    Understands that different languages use different patterns to communicate and applies this knowledge to the target and native languages http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Standard.asp?SubjectID=16
    Benchmark 1. Uses the target language to engage in conversations, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions and information.
  8. Technology: Standard 2.   Beginner  
    Knows the characteristics and uses of computer software program. http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=19&StandardID=2
    Benchmark 2. Knows the basic distinctions among computer software programs, such as word processors, special purpose programs, and games.


Review of Vocabulary
Using a PowerPoint presentation of animals, have the students say the name of the animal as the slide show proceeds through a series of all animals mixed together.