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Course, Subject

Home & Careers, English as a Second Language

Learning Context/ Introduction

This learning experience was developed for eleventh grade intermediate to advanced ESL students. The purpose of the learning experience is to help students acquire a better knowledge of themselves, and consequently to make wiser career and educational choices and to perform more effectively in a job interview.

Students developed autobiographies, poems, reviews of literature and reports all based on the “Human Organization Theory" (HOT). The essence of this learning experience was to allow students to explore the many elements that make each of us who we are. These elements include family, health, leisure, education, celebrations, and rights and responsibilities, among others. Moreover, this activity was designed to help students meet the ESL learning standards and to practice all the skills they need to develop for the rigorous ELA Regents exam.

Student Work

• Autobiography Using Human Organization Theory

Procedure

TEACHER ACTIVITIES

• Leads brainstorming of “Who am I?”
• Introduces the poems “Me” and “who are you, little i?”
• Introduces, explains, and analyzes Human Organization Theory (HOT)
• Creates groupings, selects leaders, and elicits criteria for group interaction
• Elicits criteria of a good poem and effective posters
• Reads to students description of own life
• Introduces the text The Miracle Worker and shows the film The Miracle Worker and provides comprehension questions and analysis grid
• Elicits steps of the writing process and provides starters for introduction, body, conclusion for final project
• Assigns final project: writing an autobiography
• Monitors revising and editing process

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

• Complete a free writing activity regarding “Who am I?”
• Read and paraphrase the poems “Me” by Walter de la Mare and “who are you, little i?” by e. e. cummings
• Write a poem about self
• Create criteria for poems and revise poems on the basis of the criteria
• Share personal experiences related to all 14 categories of the HOT
• Create posters related to the 14 categories of HOT by cutting pictures from publications
• Write a report on the teacher's life
• Work with other students in groups to create, review, test, revise, and answer questions regarding the HOT
• Write report on own life
• Brainstorm personal feelings regarding Helen Keller's disabilities and research the lives of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
• Read The Miracle Worker by William Gibson and watch the movie The Miracle Worker and compare the two
• Write an autobiography, following a model
• Create criteria of a good autobiography
• Use writing process to revise autobiography according to criteria

Instructional/Environmental Modifications

 

• Pair/group less proficient students with more proficient students
• Frequently change the position of student desks to facilitate intra-group communication, pair work, and individual activities
• To help all students concentrate on different tasks, to facilitate understanding for those who are more visual, and to inform those who were absent, big colorful charts were created and displayed in the classroom

Materials and Supplies

1. The poems “Me” by Walter de la Mare, click here and “who are you, little i?” by e. e. cummings click here
2. The play The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, click here
3. The film The Miracle Worker by Arthur Penn
4. Chart paper
5. Markers
6. Various print media
7. Access to computers/online resources
8. Access to library resources

Assessment Tools and Techniques

Assessment of student work was ongoing and included evaluations by the teacher and by the students themselves, based on teacher-made criteria and collaboratively generated criteria. Through observations, rubrics, and checklists, students were assessed on the following:

• Oral reports, poems, creation of posters, development of questions, written reports, autobiography
• Reading log indicating the literary elements and techniques used by authors
• Group collaboration
• Analysis of peers' written suggestions for improvement in clarity and logic of writing
• Use of language

Time Required

• Planning: Eight hours to determine procedures and gather materials
• Implementation: 30 days of 45-minute lessons
• Assessments: Ongoing throughout implementation

Student Work

• Poem about self
• Questionnaire about the Human Organization Theory (HOT) chart
• Report on teacher's life
• A personalized Human Organization Theory chart
• Posters illustrating the components of human life (HOT)
• A report about student's own life
• Answers to comprehension questions about the play The Miracle Worker
• A T-chart describing characters in the play
• Autobiography (past, goals, plans)

Selected Examples:

• Autobiography Using Human Organization Theory

Reflection

In the past, most of these students showed some resistance in working cooperatively and in sharing the amazing richness of their cultural background. I could help students overcome cultural barriers by involving them in a meaningful project. I believe this learning experience has been particularly successful because of its primary purpose: to help students achieve a clearer understanding of their past, their qualities, their needs, and their dreams.

The learning experience has provided me with the structure on which I could effectively plan my students’ work and final project. Throughout this activity I maintained the role of facilitator by asking my students to be involved in developing assessment criteria to evaluate individual and group work. This procedure did not intimidate them, but helped them revise their writing.

One of the most rewarding developments from this project was the turn-around made by a small group of disenfranchised students. For the first two weeks, most of these students were late or were doing very little work. By the third week though, I noticed a sudden positive change in their behavior. At the conclusion of the project, they surprised the class with poems, reports, and autobiographies that the class evaluated as the most meaningful.
This learning experience has been one of my most successful teaching activities. I think that its structure and the support I have received have made a great difference.

Author

Adolfo Calovini
Park West High School
New York, New York

Source

Calovini, Adolfo. “who are you, little i?” The Teaching of Language Arts to Limited English Proficient/English Language Learners: Learning Standards for English as a Second Language. New York State Education Department, 100-104.

Related Academic Standards

New York State

ESL.C.9-12.1.1.1 Students identify and use reading and listening strategies to make text comprehensible and meaningful.

ESL.C.9-12.1.1.11 Students use the process of prewriting, drafting, revising, peer editing, and proofreading (the "writing process") to produce well-constructed informational texts.

ESL.C.9-12.1.1.12 Students convey information and ideas through spoken and written language, using conventions and features of American English appropriate to audience and purpose.

ESL.C.9-12.1.1.13 Students engage in collaborative activities through a variety of student groupings to read, gather, share, discuss, interpret, organize, analyze, synthesize, and present information.

ESL.C.9-12.1.1.15 Students apply self-monitoring and self-correcting strategies for accurate language production and oral and written presentation, using established criteria for effective presentation of information.

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