ELA & History for ELL students via Technology
Fourth Grade Social Studies/English Language Arts:
General Information:
- Content Area: History & ELA
- Title: Native Americans & Westward Expansion Vocabulary
- Grade Level/Target Groups: 4th Grade ELL
- Computer Lab/Mobile Lab with Internet access
- Dictionary for Kids
- Discovery Education video: The Nez Perce Relinquish Their Land in the Treaty of 1863: Chief Joseph Resists
- Word Reference translation dictionary
- Flashcards on Cram
- Vocabulary Co IL site Parts of Speech Practice
- American History-Clash of Cultures video by ListenAndReadAlong
- Pizzaz information on Cinquains
- ESL Partyland/WyzAnt Parts of Speech Information
- CinquainTemplate on ReadWriteThink
- Big Ideas: settlers, native tribes, treaties
- Essential Questions: What effects did westward expansion have on Native Tribes?
- Objective: ELL students will understand key terms related to treaties to then analyze the effects of westward expansion on Native Tribes.
- Summative Assessment: Create a cinquain poem about the Native American perspective on treaties.using at least 3 vocabulary words.
- Engage: (The Hook) (2 minutes) To begin, present students with a lengthy document with small font that reads "Classroom Agreement". Tell students that they have 1 minute to look it over and then sign their name at the bottom stating that they agree to the terms. Remain silent for a minute and allow their shock and confusion to blossom. Stop the students and ask them what the problems are and why they can't sign their name. Teacher ensures that the discussion leads to the lack of "fairness" since they didn't have the time to read the agreement or the vocabulary to comprehend it.
- Exploration: (The Hook continued) (2 minutes) Explain to the students that what they just experienced was a sample of what many Native Americans experienced long ago with treaties. Have students go to Dictionary for Kids and look up "treaty", guide them to the translations available of the words and synonyms.
- Explanation: (15 minutes) Have students play the following video from Discovery Education on their own:The Nez Perce Relinquish Their Land in the Treaty of 1863: Chief Joseph Resists providing the transcript (available on Discovery Education) for the students to follow along and replay as necessary. Encourage students to look up unfamiliar words using Word Reference translation dictionary.
- Check for Understanding: Meet with students to compare words that were deemed unfamiliar to them. Have students write some of their words on butcher paper in the middle of their group, writing tallies next to them if more than one person had the word. Regroup students and ask them to share the words that appeared frequently-trying to get approximately 20 words. Possible words include: homeland, chiefs, land, agreement, scam, exploitation, immoral, bands, resistance, authorities, allies, coaxing, threatening, winding, resettling, reservation, etc. Guide students to Cram to create flashcards of the words to study, using Dictionary for Kids and Word Reference to find definitions and/or translations.
- Extended Practice: Students will then use their vocabulary words and sort them based on their parts of speech. (Nouns, Adjectives, & Gerunds); using Dictionary for Kids to identify each word. Then practice identifying parts of speech by playing Primary Dolch Parts of Speech on the Vocabulary Co IL site.
- Application: Students will listen to the American History-Clash of Cultures video by ListenAndReadAlong to gain additional vocabulary and understanding of the effect of Westward expansion on Native Americans. After students watch the video in English, show students how to change the language setting on YouTube. Find the language tab at the bottom of the page. Have students select their viewing language.
- Students will use Pizzaz as a guide to write their own cinquain poem from a Native American perspective on treaties. Students are to use at least 3 of the words they learned from the Nez Perce video transcript above. ESL Partyland/WyzAnt provides additional information on parts of speech to facilitate the writing process. Students can utilize the template found at ReadWriteThink. Students will translate their cinquain to their native language using Word Reference translation dictionary and publish them side by side (if applicable).