Final Project: Unit Lesson Plan
SEASONS
Michele Ackerman
EDCI 519: Fall 2005
George Mason University
M. ACKERMAN
ESOL Unit Lesson Plan
Seasons
OVERVIEW:
Teacher: Michele Ackerman
School: (Any) VA Middle School Grade(s): 7-8
Proficiency Level(s): Levels 2-4 Program Model: ESL Pullout
Unit Duration: 5 consecutive class sessions
Class Period Time: 45 minutes
Number of Students: 10-20
CONTENT AREAS: English language; Social Studies – American culture and traditions; Earth
science – Virginia/ Northeast climate and weather
UNIT DESCRIPTION:
This unit was designed for an ESL pullout program model for middle school ELL
students, Levels 2 – 4; however, it would also work well for an Immersion program model.
It mostly centers around content based instruction (CBI) of topics in Earth science: seasons
and weather. The unit also relates to Social Studies topics in American culture. It does this
by giving students background cultural knowledge and vocabulary about some American
holidays and traditions, in a way that allows students to connect with their own cultural
backgrounds. This unit plan is intended to provide these ESOL students with the background
knowledge needed to keep pace and excel in mainstream classrooms while building their
English language skills and proficiency.
For the purpose of this unit plan, the definition of ‘Levels 2 – 4’ would be ESOL students
with proficiency levels anywhere between advanced beginning/ early production through
advanced level for this age group. Each lesson plan contains activities in which students of
all these proficiency levels can participate, however, each lesson also provides ways to
scaffold instruction for lower proficiency levels and differentiate instruction for students of
higher proficiency levels. The goal is to provide a natural approach to learning (i+1), in
which students are motivated to learn in a safe, risk-free environment and challenged at the
appropriate levels to meet a high set of expectations.
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Lesson Plan – DAY #1
PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to express their likes and dislikes in English in both spoken and
written form.
2. Students will be able to discuss their favorite seasons with a partner in class in English
and then paraphrase/ retell their partner’s likes and dislikes.
Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2
TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher uses a wall calendar to review the months of each season
with the class. She then briefly talks about her personal likes and dislikes about each of
the four seasons, using a poster she had put together that provides a visual depiction of
each season along with her favorite aspects of each one. She then solicits a few
volunteers to tell the class what their favorite season is and a few reasons why.
Prior knowledge: Students can relate to seasons (weather/ temperatures, time of year, etc.)
in the way they have experienced them in the U.S. or in their home country.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by using visual aids (calendar, poster) to aid in
the students’ comprehension. For the partner activity, students of similar language
proficiency levels will be paired together. The more advanced learners will be expected to
express more detailed ideas (spoken and written), using more complex vocabulary and
language structures, than the students at lower proficiency levels. The teacher will encourage
this by subtly probing these students for additional information if necessary during the oral
and written activities.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
Think-Pair-Share: Students begin by writing down some reasons why they like and/ or dislike
each of the four seasons including reasons why, descriptions of activities they like to do during
those seasons, etc. Students then work with a partner to orally discuss what they wrote down.
The teacher instructs them to take notes while talking to their partner since they are going to
present this information by paraphrasing what their partner has shared with them. Each student
then informally presents some of their partner’s preferences to the rest of the class.
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Four Skills:
 Listening: Students listen to their partners in pair discussions. They also listen to the
informal student presentations given in class.
 Speaking: Students converse with partners and then present information to the class.
 Reading: Students look at the visual aids presented by the teacher during the warm-up.
 Writing: Students write down their personal preferences and then take notes during pair
discussions.
(3) Practice
1. Students are encouraged to paraphrase the information their partners share with them
during the pair discussions to check their comprehension before presenting to the rest
of the class. Prior to this, the teacher reviews the learning strategy of paraphrasing.
2. Students practice using English for both personal expression and for sharing the views
of others.
(4) Evaluation
1. Students are able to write down some of their likes and dislikes in English.
2. Students are able to work with a partner and able to accurately share and paraphrase
information which their partner communicated to them.
(5) Expansion/ Extension
1. Students will create a poster depicting the four seasons and some of their favorite
aspects about each one.
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach
Other Activities:
Follow-up: The teacher will present a hypermedia presentation to the students on
seasons during the following class, which expands on the topics discussed during this
lesson. Students will present their posters at the end of the unit.
Assessment: Teacher moves around the classroom, observing student discussions during
partner activity. She also informally checks written notes the students produced about
their own preferences.
Homework Assignments: Students will design a layout for their personal poster and
begin looking for visual materials to represent aspects they personally like about each of
the four seasons. Students will bring a poster design (either handwritten or using
computer software such as Inspiration) to the next class, along with any visual aids (e.g.
magazine cutouts) they could find.
Use of Technology: None
Materials Used: Wall calendar, teacher-made poster, notebook paper, pen/ pencil
Closure: Teacher reviews homework assignment with class and gives students some
time at the end of class to start drawing a layout for their posters.
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Lesson Plan – DAY #2
PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to identify different seasonal activities and sports in English.
2. Students will be able to identify the dates and names of major and/ or popular holidays in
American culture.
3. Students will be able to write about their own holiday traditions and customs.
Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2
TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher displays a PowerPoint slide that lists the English names of
several Olympic sports. On the board, the teacher has drawn a T-chart with the words
‘Winter Olympics’ on one side and ‘Summer Olympics’ on the other. The students take
out a sheet of paper and copy the T-chart. They then write as many Olympic sport names
as they can under the appropriate chart columns during the next 5 minutes. While the
students work on this, the teacher comes around to each student to quickly check for
homework completion and verify that students are on the right track with their poster
project assignment. After 5 minutes, the teacher advances to the next slide, which shows
the final T-chart with all sports correctly placed.
Prior knowledge: Students already discussed some popular seasonal activities in the
previous class. They also bring prior knowledge of their own customs and traditions for
holidays celebrated in their families and/ or home countries.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by providing vocabulary list handouts for
the seasonal activities and holidays. Multiple visual aids also accompany the lesson. The
homework activities will be differentiated so that the Advanced learners will have more
challenging activities.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
Using a projector, the teacher launches a hypermedia PowerPoint presentation entitled
“Seasons.” As a class, she first reviews the ‘Calendar’ slides for each season to recap the
discussion on calendar months from the previous day’s lesson. She then guides the students
through the ‘Activity’ slides for each season. These slides display clip art of different activities,
which reveal the associated vocabulary word(s) when clicked. The teacher employs questioning
strategies to assess the students’ prior knowledge before clicking on each image.
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The teacher then reviews the ‘Holiday’ slides in the hypermedia presentation and again assesses
the students’ prior knowledge by asking them questions about each holiday. She provides
additional information as needed. She then directs the students to a WWW hyperlink within the
presentation’s ‘Holiday’ slides for a fun website where they can go to research more information
about different holidays.
Four Skills:
 Listening: Students listen as the teacher and other students relay information during the
hypermedia navigation. Music clips are also incorporated into the hypermedia.
 Speaking: Students respond to informal questions from the teacher.
 Reading: Students view the hypermedia presentation as the teacher navigates it in front
of the class.
 Writing: Students will write about their holiday traditions in the homework assignment.
(3) Practice
1. Students may use some of the vocabulary from the seasonal ‘Activities’ and/ or
‘Holiday’ slides for their poster project.
2. Students will later have an opportunity to explore the hypermedia on their own and
research holidays on the Internet.
(4) Evaluation
1. Students are able to identify vocabulary for the ‘Activity’ slide images when the
teacher again reviews these slides at the end of class. They are also able to describe some
of the activities using English.
2. Students are able to write about holidays which they celebrate in the homework
activity.
(5) Expansion/ Extension
1. Students work individually or with a partner to research more holidays on the Internet.
2. Students work in groups to create a class PowerPoint presentation that summarizes the
celebration of certain holidays in different cultures. Each group would contribute a few
slides to the final presentation.
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach
Other Activities:
Follow-up: The teacher will come back to review the ‘Activity’ slides and vocabulary
words later in the week. They will also be revisited during a unit review game on the last
day of the unit.
Assessment: The teacher does an informal assessment during the vocabulary review at
the end of class.
Homework Assignments: Students will write about some of their own customs and
traditions for holidays that they and/ or their families personally celebrate. It should
include a description of each holiday (name and time of year), traditional customs, etc.
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Level 2 students are only required to write short sentences whereas Level 4 students will
write out short paragraphs with more complex sentence structures. The teacher provides
each student with a handout, detailing the specific instructions for that person’s
homework assignment. She also reviews the assignment with the class and models
examples on the board.
Use of Technology: Projector, MS PowerPoint for warm-up, MS PowerPoint
hypermedia presentation, Internet
Materials Used: T-charts, notebook paper, pen/ pencil
Closure: The teacher hands out a small piece of paper to each student. On the paper,
each student anonymously writes whether they liked the hypermedia activity (“Yes”) or
not (“No”) and the reason(s) why. This completed ‘survey’ will be their ticket out of the
classroom.
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Lesson Plan – DAY #3
PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to talk about some of their own holiday traditions and customs.
2. Students will be able to use questioning strategies in English to gather information.
Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2, 3
TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher reviews the agenda and objectives, which are clearly
posted on the main board. To model the upcoming activity, she spends a few minutes
describing some of her unique family traditions for a particular holiday, using visual aids
where appropriate. She allows the students to ask questions too.
Prior knowledge: Students will be discussing holiday traditions which they have celebrated
along with their own customs/ traditions.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by incorporating visual aids and writing (large
chart) to supplement the informal class discussions. The teacher also provides them with a
vocabulary handout that summarizes several major holidays. The lesson is also differentiated
for higher level ELLs because they will each have a chance to assume the role of ‘class note
taker’ during the presentations.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
The teacher has the students arrange their desks in a circle so that everyone is facing each other.
On the front board, the teacher has posted a very large sheet of paper with a chart template that
would include columns with labels similar to the following: Presenter, Holiday, Time of Year,
Brief Description, Customs/ Traditions.
The students each take turns reading their homework assignment from the previous day’s lesson,
in which they were instructed to write about their own holiday traditions. Each student spends a
few minutes sharing their cultural/ family traditions about one holiday they celebrate. The
teacher starts off asking for a volunteer; the first student to present then decides who will go next
by tossing a Koosh ball to another student (and so on). In addition, the teacher asks someone
(high level 3 or level 4 student) to be the class ‘note taker’ during the presentation. This person
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goes to the chart posted on the board and uses a marker to completely fill in a row for that
presenter. There is a different note taker for each presenter.
After each student finishes their informal presentation to the class, the teacher encourages
students to pose questions to the presenter. The teacher asks questions too; however, each
student is required to ask at least two questions during the class activity. Every column must be
filled out for the presenter’s row on the class chart before moving on to the next presenter.
Four Skills:
 Listening: Students listen to the informal presentations.
 Speaking: Each student presents to the rest of the class.
 Reading: Students can read the notes on the class chart; Level 2 students can also refer to
their vocabulary handouts.
 Writing: Students take turns filling in the class chart during the presentations.
(3) Practice
1. Students take turns presenting and taking notes.
(4) Evaluation
1. Students are able to verbally communicate some of their holiday traditions with the
class in English.
2. Note takers are able to summarize the presenter’s statements in written English.
(5) Expansion/ Extension
1. Students could prepare and give formal class presentations, in English, about one
important holiday tradition celebrated in their families using MS PowerPoint, symbolic
artifacts, photographs, or other visual aids. Likewise, this could be done in pairs/ groups
by assigning a different holiday to each team, which they would then research using the
WWW and other resources.
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach; Extension activity could incorporate
cooperative learning if the project is done in teams.
Other Activities:
Follow-up: Students may incorporate holidays into their poster project. Questions from
the informal presentations will also come up during a unit review game at the end of the
week.
Assessment: Teacher observes whether students are able to successfully present, take
notes, and pose questions during the activity. She also observes if/ how the lower level
ELLs utilize the vocabulary handouts during the presentations.
Homework Assignments: Students continue working on poster project.
Use of Technology: Extension activity could include the Internet and multimedia.
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Materials Used: Jumbo sheet of paper for class chart; permanent markers; vocabulary
handouts; Post-it notes
Closure: The teacher reminds students to continue working on their poster projects. She
also hands a Post-it note to each student and asks them to write one new thing they
learned during the presentations. They then place their note over on the ‘parking lot’
posted in class before leaving.
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Lesson Plan – DAY #4
PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to use English vocabulary and scientific terminology to describe the
weather.
2. Students will be able to complete a cloze activity based on information gathered by
watching and listening to a recorded segment of an actual televised weather report.
Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2
TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher starts off the class by reviewing the notes that were placed
on the ‘parking lot’ at the end of the previous class. She then reviews the agenda for
today’s lesson on Weather.
Prior knowledge: Students have prior knowledge of basic weather vocabulary. This lesson
assumes that the students have already had some prior instructional practice in this area.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by reviewing weather vocabulary, using
pictures and words, prior to the weather report activity. Each of the cloze activities is
differentiated for each of the ELL levels (see Appendix A). Also, Level 1 students are
allowed to use the illustrated vocabulary terms as a word bank while completing their
modified cloze activity.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
The teacher again pulls up the hypermedia presentation entitled ‘Seasons.’ This time she
reviews the ‘Weather’ slides for each season with the class. Each slide contains picture icons
from the Weather Channel website and depicts a different weather condition. The English
vocabulary word is included with each picture. The teacher reviews the terminology with the
class, most of which is review for higher level ELLs. She also asks volunteers to describe some
of the more difficult terms for the rest of the class.
Students watch and listen to a video recording twice (may be a recorded television segment on a
VHS or saved video clip from the Internet) of a weather report and forecast. Following the
recording, students individually complete one of the 3 different cloze activities based on their
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literacy and oral language proficiency level. See Appendix A (pages A-1 thru A-3) for sample
differentiated cloze activities for this lesson and explanations for each.
Four Skills:
 Listening: Students watch and listen to the video segment(s).
 Speaking: Student volunteers describe weather terminology during the vocabulary
review with the hypermedia slides.
 Reading: Students read the cloze activity and associated materials (see App. A).
 Writing: Students write in the missing words in the cloze activity.
(3) Practice
1. Students review vocabulary terms, drawing on prior knowledge.
2. Students complete cloze activity in class.
(4) Evaluation
1. Students turn in cloze activities to the teacher at the end of class. The teacher later
marks any incorrect responses and then returns the exercises to the students. The teacher
then reviews the completed cloze activities with the entire class so that students can fix
any of their errors.
(5) Expansion/ Extension
1. Students work individually or in pairs to create their own weather forecast using the
Weather Channel’s Interactive Weather Forecast at www.weatherclassroom.com. Refer
to Appendix B on page A-4 of this unit plan to see how this works.
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach
Other Activities:
Follow-up: Students may incorporate weather pictures/ terminology into their poster
projects. Weather related vocabulary will also be revisited during a unit review game at
the end of the week.
Assessment: Teacher informally assesses comprehension during the vocabulary review
at the beginning of class. She also reviews how many responses each student answered
correctly in the cloze activities. In doing so, she notes any trends to identify areas which
may need additional review/ explanation in class. This could also be an indication of a
flaw in the cloze activity itself (e.g. too advanced for learner level, confusing sentence
structure, etc.) which the teacher may need to improve.
Homework Assignments: Students complete final poster project to share in class the
following day.
Use of Technology: TV/ VCR, Internet (extension activity), Projector, MS PowerPoint
hypermedia presentation, video segment
Materials Used: Handouts with cloze activities, pen/ pencil
Closure: Teacher repeats expectations for final poster project and previews the agenda
for the following class (i.e. class game to review unit topics).
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Lesson Plan – DAY #5
PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to orally present their ‘season’ poster to the class in English.
2. Students will be able to work together in teams during the unit review game activity.
3. Students will be able to correctly answer questions during the game activity to
demonstrate comprehension and retention of topics reviewed during the unit.
Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2
TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher puts up a list of trivia/ fun facts about each of the four
seasons using either an overhead projector or ‘doc cam’. She asks for volunteers to read
each item aloud to the class.
Prior knowledge: Many students are familiar with the popular TV game show ‘Jeopardy,’
after which the unit review game activity is modeled.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by incorporating lots of visual aids during the
poster presentations and game activity. They will also have the support of their teammates
during the game. The Jeopardy game is differentiated for all levels because the answers on
the game board will be ranked in order from easiest to hardest in language level proficiency.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
Students briefly present their posters to the class, describing what they included on their posters
and why.
The teacher divides the class into two or three teams, being careful to achieve a balanced mix of
ELLs at different proficiency levels in each group. She then reviews the game rules and models
how the game is played using volunteers. In addition to the basic rules of ‘Jeopardy,’ the teacher
provides specific team rules, which encourage/ require all students to participate.
The class then plays the ‘Jeopardy: Four Seasons’ game, which has the following five categories:
Calendar, Activities, Holidays, Weather, and a fifth ‘mystery’ column. The game is designed to
review topics, vocabulary, etc. that were presented and practiced during the unit on Seasons.
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Four Skills:
 Listening: Students listen as other students present their posters. Students listen as each
Jeopardy answer is read aloud; they must then listen to their teammates as they determine
the correct question response.
 Speaking: Students orally present their posters to the rest of the class. They also speak to
their teammates during the game and present their responses orally to the teacher.
 Reading: Students read the Jeopardy categories and game answers as they appear on the
game board.
 Writing: Students write out some of their own Jeopardy answers for the teacher to use
for additional rounds of the game.
(3) Practice
1. Students play the game to practice recalling and synthesizing information they learned
during the unit on Seasons.
2. Students write out their own Jeopardy answers to use during additional rounds of the
game as time permits.
(4) Evaluation
1. The game itself evaluates the students’ comprehension and retention of unit topics.
2. The teacher observes whether all students are participating and whether they are able
to produce accurate responses. The teacher also observes their use of correct English.
3. The teacher reviews and grades the student posters after class. They are graded based
on whether they contain all required elements, depict all four seasons, and show evidence
of preparation and care in presentation.
(5) Expansion/ Extension
1. None
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach
Other Activities:
Follow-up: The teacher will display all of the students’ posters in the classroom.
Students will also be given opportunities to explore the Seasons hypermedia presentation
on their own the following week. The teacher will also continuously refer back to topics
reviewed during this unit to make additional connections and assess long-term retention.
Assessment: The teacher has the students complete an assessment of the game activity
by answering the following three questions on a worksheet: What worked well? What
did not work well? What would you do differently? They complete this at the end of
class and turn it in anonymously to the teacher.
Homework Assignments: None
Use of Technology: None, unless the game is run off of a computer software application
such as MS PowerPoint.
Materials Used: Jeopardy board and answers/ questions; index cards and markers for
students to make additional Jeopardy game answers/ questions
Closure: The teacher collects the game assessments and previews the upcoming unit.
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Appendix A
Weather Report Activity (Day #4)
Students watch and listen to a video recording (may be a recorded television
segment or video clip on the Internet) of a weather report and forecast. Following
the recording, students complete one of the following cloze activities based on their
literacy and oral language proficiency level.
Note: The pictures and text in the activity should match up with the weather report viewed
in the video segment. The differentiated activities which follow are just an example. The
cloze activities should be expanded in length at the intermediate and advanced levels to
reflect actual excerpts from the video segment.
I.
Level 2: Students may use the following picture to assist them in
completing the cloze activity that follows.
Today (Tuesday, October 11) we are going to have more _________
throughout the day. We should continue to see rain showers until _________ of
this week. Be advised, there are still several ________ warnings in the area
from all of the rainfall last weekend. On Monday, we should finally have
________ weather through Wednesday of next week. We may experience more
_________ next Thursday, however.
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II.
Level 3: Students review the following picture, but they do not use it
when completing the cloze activity that follows.
We expect to see a lot of _______ covering the sky today with occasional
rain ________. The chance of __________ is 50%. Be advised, there are still
several ________ warnings in the area from all of the rainfall last weekend.
Tonight we should have some light rain, or _________, with _______ at 5 to 10
mph. Tomorrow, we will likely experience a few more ________. The high
__________ is expected to reach 64 degrees.
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III.
Level 4: Students review the following text, but they do not use it when
completing the cloze activity that follows.
The National Weather Service in Mount Holly has extended the ______ watch
until ________ afternoon. The rain will be a result of two low _________ systems
coming together. Rainfall totals could reach one to two _______ are expected.
Please be very ________ if you will be driving over the next couple of days. The
heavy rain will reduce your ________ and there will be water on the ________.
Wet leaves on the road can also create a driving _______.
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Appendix B
Screenshot of Extension Activity from Day #4
Interactive Weather Forecast at www.weatherclassroom.com
A-4