Proficiency Levels

SummarySEI/500

Mary Jane Hill

January 19, 2015

Stephanie Benoit

Sheleta George

Madiha Rahman

Leah O’Hara

The Life of DR. Martin Luther King

JR

• Content Objective: Students will learn about the life

of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• Language Objective: Students will learn about Dr.

King by cultural assimilation, reading Martin’s Big

Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. By

Doreen Rappaport, and writing about his life.

DR. King Lesson

• Activate prior knowledge by asking students if they ever could remember a time they were treated unfairly. How did they feel? Why?

• Explain to students that they will be learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.

• Present visuals around the room for students to see such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Quotes from “I Have a Dream Speech”, visuals from protest marches, and a Dr. King timeline.

• Start the lesson by reading Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport.

Dr. King Lesson

• After reading the story, ask students if they have any

questions.

• Discuss key vocabulary terms such as protest,

discrimination, civil rights, march, boycott, and

peace.

• Develop background knowledge by asking students

to participate in a simulation or an imitation of what

Dr. King lived through during his life. Explain to

students that this will be an experiment to see how

angry or upset the class will be when they are

discriminated against.

Dr. King Lesson

• Have students count out loud one or two, alternating between the two.

• Group one will have benefits such as receiving new pencils, crayons, and erasers. Group two will not receive anything and if they complain about it, they will owe recess time.

• Reiterate to students how this simulation relates to citizens who were segregated.

• Close this activity with students sitting together in a meeting area to discuss how they felt.

Dr. King Lesson

• Have students break into groups according to their level

for some reading and writing activities.

• Basic Level students will read a summary about Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. and answer questions on a cloze

activity.

• Intermediate Level students will write an acrostic poem

about “FREEDOM.”

• Proficient Level students will match vocabulary words to

their definitions and they will write sentences using a

variety of sentence structures with each vocabulary word.

Pre-Emergent Level

• A student at this level has no ability or a very limited ability to communicate in English.

• They can respond to comprehension questions by identifying two to three content area facts using academic vocabulary.

• They can repeat patterned speech with instructional support.

• They can distinguish between phonemes in the initial and/or final positions of words.

Pre-Emergent

ActivityStudents will listen to A Picture

Book of Martin Luther King Jr. by

David A. Adler. After students

listen to the story read aloud

students will be given randomly

pictures from the story and will be

asked who has the picture that

describes what happen first,

second, third and so on.

Students will be creating a

human timeline by creating a line

in the classroom demonstrating

the main events of the story

heard.

Basic Level

• Basic students are able to apply knowledge of English

conventions by using simple and compound sentences

with errors.

• They use sentence structure which include regular

subjects and simple and progressive tenses.

• They identify main ideas listening to read alouds.

• Basic level students follow multi-step directions.

• They ask and respond to academic questions such as,

who, what, where, why, and how, using complete

sentences.

Basic Proficiency Level DEscriptors

• Listening and Speaking Domain:

• A student at this level is able to apply knowledge of

English conventions by using simple and compound

sentences with errors. The student is attempting

self-corrections. The student uses sentence

structures which include regular subjects and simple

and progressive tenses.

Basic proficiency level descriptors

• Reading Domain:

• The student at this level has a limited ability to

decode and comprehend text independently read in

English. The student relies on visuals, organizational

features, and contextual clues to comprehend text.

The student is developing phonemic awareness and

uses sound/symbol relationships and syllabication

rules to decode. The student’s fluency may impede

comprehension. From text read aloud, the student

can identify key information elicited from the teacher.

Basic proficiency level descriptors

• Writing Domain:

• The student at this level has a limited ability to write

in English. The student recognizes that spoken

words are represented by written language. The

student relays short messages by drawing and using

sound/symbol relationships to write words and

phrases. The student organizes writing from left to

right, top to bottom with spacing between words.

Errors in writing conventions impede reader’s

comprehension.

Basic Activity

• Students will read a cloze activity and answer

comprehension questions with help from a word

bank.

• This is link to the activity students can use for their

cloze read assignment.

• http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/MLK/cl

oze.shtml

Intermediate Level

• Intermediate students have a moderate

understanding of social and academic English.

• They can respond using a variety of simple

sentences.

• They comprehend key details and main ideas of text

read aloud to them.

• They have limited ability to decode and comprehend

text read independently.

• They use basic vocabulary to write simple

sentences.

Intermediate Proficiency Level

Descriptors

• Listening and Speaking Domain:

• A student at this level is able to apply knowledge of English conventions by using simple and compound sentences, and attempting complex sentences.

• The student uses sentence structures which include common regular subjects and simple, progressive, and present perfect verb tenses.

• Students are still acquiring irregular subject and verb forms.

• Reading Domain:

• The student at this level has the ability to decode and comprehend text independently read in English.

• The student relies on visuals, organizational features, and contextual clues to comprehend a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres.

• The student uses sound/symbol relationships and syllabication rules to decode.

• The student’s fluency may impede comprehension.

• The student can identify key information and details elicited from the teacher.

• Writing Domain:

• The student at this level has a limited ability to write in English.

• The student applies sound/symbol relationships to spell single syllable and high frequency words.

• The student uses basic writing conventions to write sentences, paragraphs, poems and a variety of functional text.

• The student uses correct subject/verb agreement in a variety of writing applications.

• Errors in writing conventions may impede reader’s comprehension.

Intermediate Activity

• Students in the

Intermediate Level will

write an acrostic poem

using the word freedom.

• Each line will start with a

letter from the word

“freedom.”

• Afterwards, they will share

their poems with the whole

class.

Proficient Level

• Students who are language proficient can show

competency in all domains.

• They can put together simple, complex and

compound sentences

• They can gather information from written text

• Errors will not impede their understanding of English

• They write following grammar rules and have

subject verb agreement in a variety of tenses.

Proficient Activity

Students will write simple,

compound and complex

sentences using the

vocabulary words

http://www.enchantedlearni

ng.com/alphabet/sentencef

oreachword/mlk/index.shtm

l

Students will read the

definition of each vocabulary

word and match the best

possible definition.

http://www.enchantedlearning

.com/matching/wordtodef/mlk/

References

• A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/picture-book-martin-luther-king-jr#cart/cleanup

• Arizona department of education: English language learners. (2014). Retrieved from http://.azed.gov/english-language-learners/elps/

• Freedom Acrostic Poem. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/poetry/acrostic/freedom/index.shtml

• MLK Cloze Activity. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/MLK/cloze.shtml

• Matching Activity. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/matching/wordtodef/mlk/

• Sentence Activity. (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/sentenceforeachword/mlk/index.shtml