EL Support Lesson
Describing Our Homes
Objectives
Academic
Students will be able to write and/or illustrate informational sentences about their homes.
Language
Students will be able to use adjectives to describe their homes using visual and written supports.
Introduction
(2 minutes)
- Gather the class together for a read-aloud.
- Display an image or picture of a house. Display a visual of an eye with a sentence stem such as "I see ____."
- Ask students to turn and talk to a partner to share what they see using the sentene stem for support.
Building academic language
Sentence
(5 minutes)- Explain that today you will be learning about different kinds of homes and using describing words or adjectives to talk about the homes.
- Provide examples of some adjectives students might use: "big," "small," "cozy," "tall," "colorful," "bright," etc.
- Display one of the images of the houses and ask students to help you describe the house using adjectives and the sentence frame, "This house is ____."
- Repeat with additional house images as time allows.
Word
(10 minutes)- Create a classroom anchor chart titled "Homes" and post it on the board to add to and reference.
- Read aloud the text You Lived Here: Houses of the World by Giles Laroche, pausing as you read to define new vocabulary words (using vocabulary cards and glossary) and placing the words on the classroom anchor chart.
- At the end of the book, pass out the Beginning Letter Sound worksheet to review some common parts of a house.
Discourse
(10 minutes)- Bring students back together and display the My Home worksheet.
- Explain that students will get to draw a picture of their own house and write a sentence to describe it.
- Model how to use words from the class anchor chart to write a sentence about your house.
- Have students turn and talk to a partner to share what they are going to write or draw about. Pass out the vocabulary cards for students to use as reference.
- Pass out worksheets for students to complete independently.
Additional EL adaptations
Beginning
- Work with a small group of students using shared writing to create descriptive sentences about homes from the read-aloud.
- Provide access to vocabulary cards and a bilingual picture dictionary and have students label the different parts of the house in English and their home language (L1). Record the parts of the house as students say them aloud.
Advanced
- Have students complete the My House Is... worksheet to practice using additional adjectives.
- Ask students to share their house worksheet with a partner to describe the different parts of their house.
Formative Assessment of Academic Language
(5 minutes)- As students are making observations and sharing with their partners, assess how students are using the new vocabulary words. Are students able to connect the vocabulary words with their drawings?
- Collect work samples and assess how students shared their information. Were they able to stay on task and focus on relevant information about their homes?
Review and closing
(3 minutes)- Display student work samples and the visual of the eye here again and the following sentence stem: "I see ____."
- Invite 1–3 students to share their sentences with the class.
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