How I would teach a new song to my ELLs

 Next month I will be teaching a grade 2 unit on Play Party songs.

In my class, I have four English language learners; three Koreans and one Chinese. All four of them are at different stages of language acquisition.

Jiong Min (Stage 3 ELL)

When Jiong Min left Korea three years ago, he had no English with him; over the years living abroad he has started learning the language for schooling reason.  Jiong Min is bubbly and rather extrovert, and he is not shy in speaking English even though sometimes he finds it hard to express himself. However, he is very quick in fixing his mistakes when the teacher gently corrects his speech. He is able to read slowly and surely at his level.

Tae Han (stage 4 ELL)

Tae Han, a Korean boy who has lived and studied in Singapore for two years before joining our school for first grade. He has rather good English skills and can join in a discussion in class. Using simple English, he knows how to share his knowledge and also to ask for clarification when in doubt .

Ga Eun (Stage 5 ELL)

Ga Eun has been in our school for four years and has plenty of exposure to English at home too. Her English level is pretty strong, and can read and write fluently. She interacts well in class and has no problem following instructions in Music.

Jia Yi (Stage 2 ELL)

Jia Yi, has just arrived in Hong Kong this school year; she was studying in a public Chinese school in Shanghai and was learning some basic English while at school. Jia Yi speaks a little English but can follow instructions when the teacher speaks to her slowly with gestures and in short phrases.

For this lesson, I choose the play party song “ Skip to My Lou” to teach the students.

Choose your partner, skip to my Lou (X3)

Skip to my Lou, my darling

Skip, skip, skip to my Lou (X3)

Skip to my Lou, my darling.

  

Here are my lesson objectives for this unit.

i)              To understand what play party songs are.

ii)            To pronounce the words of the song clearly

                 while singing.

iii)          To sing on pitch and in tune

I am designing this lesson plan to involve everyone in the class in an interactive way i.e. both meaningful for low level language kids and high level kids. However, I have put in much consideration for my stage 2 and 3 ELLs while not boring the non- ELLs and high level English learners. The good thing about this lesson is that we are learning a play party song that involves dance and movement and social interactions. The student will learn by actions and enjoy it.

Strategies and steps:

1) Use a simple sentence to explain what Play Party is - a gathering in which people come together to sing and dance, then show pictures and a video sample of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeFvSs9FTo

                                  

                     

1)   Show the lyrics of the song on PowerPoint. Read slowly to the students while pointing the words. (At this point, the high language level students will naturally read together with me and perhaps Jia Yi, Jiong Min may join in by following the sounds of the words)

2)   Highlight the keywords to the students and have them repeat after me: Choose, Partner, Skip, Lou, Darling ( I will pay attention to my ELL 2 &ELL 3 students)

3)   With simple verbal cues, demonstrate and show pictures of each keyword to the student. Explain with simple words the meaning of Lou. ( I will have eye contact with the the 2 students before I look at others)

4)   Have the students demonstrate using actions how they would i) choose, ii) be partner with someone, iii) skip  ( Make sure the two students are participating)

5)   Read the lyrics together and ensure that everyone is pronouncing the words correctly. Have the class read it in different ways. Examples: very slowly, moderately fast, loudly, softly and whisper.

6)   Group the class into three groups, have the non ELL kids be accountable for each other in their small groups (including Da Eun and Tae Han) to memorize the text, while I spend some time reinforcing the text with Jia Yi and Jiong Min from sentence by sentence to line by line.

7)   Gather the class back and sing the song with them. Ensure that everyone is singing.

If time permits, I will introduce the dance to the students. If not, their take away will be, knowing what a play party is and singing a play party song called “Skip to My Lou”. And I will teach them the dance in the next lesson.

Notes: All names mentioned above are pseudo.