In my EAL 6th graders science classes, they have been learning about the 3 states of matter, for many of my students with EAL needs the science vocabulary and content can be quite difficult for them to grasp. The science teacher had created this Google Doc and this Google Doc work for 6th graders to learn about the 3 states of matter:
This would have been too difficult for some of my students with EAL needs so a week before their science class, I worked on supporting their overall background knowledge on the topic.
6 groups of 2 students were sorted/jig-sawed into three topics: solid, liquid, gas:
Solids had 2 groups of 2 students
Liquids had 2 groups of 2 students
Gases had 2 groups of 2 students
SORTING WORK
I try and create as much tactile, sorting work as I can. From my Montessori training, I have really learned the importance of kinesthetic/tactile learning enabling students to be more active in their learning. Rather than lecturing or having students passively read by themselves and regurgitate it in the form of notes, I find the group collaboration, having to move and sort has helped my learners with EAL needs understand the work more deeply.
Each group was given an envelope of cut up sentences for them to sort and put in order. These were the sentences that were used for the Solids group:
As you can see, the different background colors were used to separate the different paragraphs - 3 paragraphs in total.
So every group was given 1 envelope containing a paragraph of cut up sentences for either solids, gases, or liquids. By giving my students 1 envelope at a time, it kind of gamified the activity where they had to work together to sort the sentences correctly, then when they were done they had to call me over to check if it was correct; if it wasn't correct they continued sorting. When they passed my checking, only then did I given them the 2nd envelope containing the next paragraph of cut up sentences. This continued with every group sorting, having to read the sentences and determine the order of the sentences until it made sense.
When all 3 paragraphs were sorted correctly, each group member received the handout with all the sentences/paragraphs on it:
Each student was then tasked with:
- Sketch noting/mind mapping for 10 minutes
- Write 3-5 bullet points of "important" notes to them about the topic; keep it short.
Students were jigsaw sorted so that each group had a member from the solids, liquids, and gases.
I gave students time to share their mind mapping/sketch notes and their 3-5 important bullet points of notes.
Then we IRON CHEFed the learning.
EDUPROTOCOL - IRON CHEF
I have been reading the book, The Eduprotocol Field Guide: 16 Student-Centered Lesson Frames for Infinite Learning Possibilities, which is available on Kindle and tasked my students with an "Iron Chef" protocol.
Here's an excerpt from the book explaining what the Iron Chef protocol is:
"As in the TV show, The Iron Chef, this activity is structured to allow students to complete a task using limited resources and limited time. The teacher prepares a slide deck, to be shared among a group of four students, with links to content resources. The students research the content using the provided links and use the newly gained information to complete building out the slides...Time is of the essence in this activity. The time limit is what presents a challenge to the students and adds to the game structure of this activity."
As suggested by the book, students should be limited to a 10-minute build time, however with my EAL students I gave them 20-minutes to allow for extended time to read/process the information.
Here's the IRON CHEF slide presentation that each group worked on. Instead, of having the "solid" assigned student work on the "solid" slide I had each choose another state of matter to do additional research on another state of matter, rather than regurgitating what they had already noted/sketched/shared.
After 20 minutes, each group presented their learning.
I then had each student fill in the following question sheet to additionally assess their understanding of the information:
