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Teacher Clarity

Intentionally Planning Language Objectives
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Whole Group
Strengthening Language Comprehension

Overview

In this video the teachers instruction highlights the importance of language objectives, especially when supporting multilingual learners in the classroom. The teacher uses data to plan for language and skill development that will take place during the lesson. Opportunities for speaking, listening, reading, and writing are prioritized.

Key Take-aways

  • Explain learning objectives in student-friendly language with a focus on clear expectations.
  • Determine and discuss success criteria so that students know what it will look and sound like when they are on track.

Transcript

Dr. Ken Kunz: Third-grade teacher, Mrs. Namati, will take us on a journey that emphasizes the importance of language objectives, especially for our multilingual learners. 

 

Teacher: Welcome to the carpet. We have been reading some nonfiction work, right? We’ve been reading Shark Lady, our picture book, and our chapter book we started, right? So, we are going to go over the objectives of what we’re going to be doing today. Okay? So we’re all going to read them together, starting with the content objective. Can everybody see in the yellow? Yes. Okay. So you’re going to say the S-W-B-A-T means students will be able to, okay, so we’re all going to say it together. Okay. 

Student(s): Students will be able to gather information from a nonfiction text using Ran. 

Teacher: Now, remember, RAN is the strategy we have been using. It’s reading and analyzing nonfiction. Okay. And then the language objective says…

Student(s): Students will be able to discuss new knowledge with partners. 

Teacher: That means you’ll be sharing your new reading and all of your predictions and your findings with your reading buddies. 

Dr. Ken Kunz: In Ms. Namati’s third-grade class students see the intention of learning communicated clearly with student-friendly objectives. This creates an urgency for learning. At the same time, notice how the teacher communicates with clarity as she explains what students will be able to do.

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