The following lessons are to be representative sample components of many of the elements to take into consideration when implementing this unit in a Dual Language Program. These lessons can be modified to meet the needs of students in a bilingual or ESL program, taking into account their linguistic needs. The two main goals of these lessons are to develop content academic proficiency at the same time that second language acquisition is being targeted. For such a purpose, close attention is placed upon key concepts, outcomes, assessments, appropriateness of language, lessons developed with the second language (L2) learner in mind, and selected vocabulary following many of the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) methods and strategies (Echevarria, 2004). For an expanded description of the Dual Language model offered, please read Mendia-Landa (2004)
As part of the concept development strategy, three types of lessons are demonstrated: 1) concept comprehension (presented in L1), 2) integrated group lesson, and 3) second language development.
Introduction
Every child has at least a personal connection to a shelter structure in the form of a home. In order to activate students' prior or background knowledge, of what architecture is and the importance that it has in our lives, the unit will begin with a shared reading of the classic story of
Los tres cerditos
. There are many versions of this traditional
Three Little Pigs
story and the purpose is to center our discussion of structures as secure shelters from predators (the wolf in this case) and to begin exploring some of the concepts previously outlined. The key concepts throughout the unit will be written in a highly visible area as they are introduced and presented. They will serve as the content objectives and as such will anchor the activities that follow. The students will be able to explain in their own words these statements and will be the opening and closing task of each of the succeeding activities.
The importance of this first activity cannot be understated for it represents the methodology to be followed through the unit. Here the students will need to understand the steps to follow and the concepts in their first language before they are introduced to other mixed linguistic integrated activities where the students will be required to perform in their second language. In order to activate prior knowledge and find out how much the students know, the teacher will do a read aloud and pause after each pig builds one of the houses. Individually, each student will draw each house and in groups of four will name and list all the components that they can visualize. The following might be some possible lead on questions.
What does the house that … built have? How many rooms are there? What are the materials that … used to build the house? Is there a roof / basement/ attic/ chimney, etc.?
As children freely respond through drawings and group created lists of structural elements, the teacher takes note of the observations and makes a list of what the children know, and talk about. This exercise informs the teacher on how much prior and background knowledge the students have and when repeated at the completion of the unit as a means to evaluate how much information the students have gathered.
Next, the teacher will show the students two of the key concepts that will direct the discussion prior to a hands-on activity that will follow the whole class mini-lesson on structures and the senses:
-
· Humans depend on structures as shelter from predators and natural forces
-
· Structures are material dependent
Components of a shelter or dwelling structure
There are many classic books that can be used as building blocks for this unit. Earlier I suggested using the story of the
Three Little Pigs
because of its universality. There are many such stories that can be used as a means of exploring the concepts of structures as shelters from predators and natural forces as well as how these structures are material dependent on local natural resources and on the type of structures that can be constructed using those local or imported materials.
In order for students to be able to better understand these concepts, they will have to perform a series of tasks. That is to say, that the students will be required to build their own structures in order to manipulate the language and understand the concepts first hand. Here is where the two previously stated goals of language and content development are integrated into a meaningful and significant task that will require the student to do much more that simply select a multiple choice to a question or give a yes or no answer.
After the students have read the two key concepts, the teacher will reread any of the versions of the
Three Little Pigs
. This story will allow the teacher and students to begin exploring the concepts of houses as shelters and how different types of materials affect the structure of the shelters. This exploration can also look into animal shelters. Students will explore shelters and dwellings in other cultures that use straw, wood, bricks, or a combination of the three. Some of the guiding questions could be: Where do people make houses made out of straw/wood/brick? What else is straw/wood/brick used for in a house? What is the function of straw/wood/brick in a cob/hut/ house?
Shelters and their composition: Materials at work
Next, the same story will be read looking at how the materials and shape affect the construction and stability of the structure. As a class we will make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the homes. The students will begin using straw to make a structure and come up with the best shape to the shelter so it is stable. Then, they will list the advantages and disadvantages of each of the shapes and how the material affects the construction.
Through this whole group exercise, we can revisit almost any book, and begin to create a word bank that gives us the names of the different elements of a house. Thus, this is a way of presenting some of the vocabulary so when observing a real building; the children can use it in context.
Design
Prior to this event, the teacher will have familiarized himself or herself with the different buildings that will be studied through the neighborhood, so as to introduce the needed vocabulary and pick an area that has a wide range of architectural styles and elements.
One of the first lessons needs to be on how to make observations and how to gather data using the senses. Children need to be guided step by step through this process so they can later be independent in making their own observations. Students will be directed to draw pictures of the elements that catch their eye.
Neighborhood observation walk
Due to the importance that observation skills play fieldwork as a step-by-step process to the success of the unit, my sample lessons are concentrated presentations. Here begins the process of helping the students to "read" the environment and what surrounds them by bringing their attention to the structures and their elements.
On the first observation that takes place in our walk through the neighborhood, the students will be directed to use only the sense of sight and gather data in a notebook. The original purpose is to introduce to the students the importance of using the sense of sight, smell, hearing, and at times touch and taste to identify the elements of a structure. However, this will be done in separate lessons so as to introduce the specific vocabulary related to each of the senses as previously stated in the unit.
The students will write an entry in their mathematics and architecture notebook, which will include the date and a drawing of the structure or elements of a structure that are the focus of the neighborhood observation walk. Back in the classroom the children will self-assess their entries and share with the rest of the students those structures or elements that caught their attention. We will begin at this time to create a vocabulary picture dictionary with a visual description and key words attached. This lesson will be repeated with the senses of smell, hearing, and touch. Note the importance that these lessons have to vocabulary development and how important, especially in the case of second language learners, to scaffold the vocabulary through the use of word banks, webs, and organizers.
Once the children are able to make simple observations, create a log entry, and also make use of the basic vocabulary needed to describe some of the basic elements and structures that surround the school and nearby neighborhood, we will take another field trip looking for specific elements in the structures. During these follow up observations walks, there will be a theme or specific focus. Thus, one day we may look at the materials. Other day at elements of student interest (i.e. chimneys, doors, garages.)
Main Functions and related functions of structures
Having structured the way that the observations will take place in the neighborhood, we will begin to look at the functions within the school. Here, the purpose is to demonstrate, that the building, and the spaces within a building, make it possible, and often times are designed with a purpose in mind. Also, to bring students' attention to the fact that building spaces have intentional relationships to one another as service spaces or groupings. i.e. main entrance to office; or kitchen to cafeteria; etc. As a class we will list the names of all the spaces in the school (hallways, classrooms, bathrooms, gym, etc.), list the function(s) i.e. walk, read, exercise, and who uses them (teachers, principal, kindergarteners, everyone, etc. The teacher will model how to create a matrix with the information and the relationships among the spaces will be listed.
The picture dictionary
Students will create a picture dictionary with drawings and names of the most significant elements of the exterior and interior of the school. Probably this will be one of the most challenging activities for the teacher and the students. Often students share a sense of "learned helplessness" that they are unable to draw. As visual representations the teacher needs to model for the students that it does not have to be perfect but that it has to have some visual accuracy and tell them that they all have undiscovered talents and unique individual abilities to draw and to sketch (or doodle!). At first, the drawings will not be so, but with time and encouragement the students will succeed in representing through pictures what they see.
Visual representations of story settings
There are many architectural references to most children and young adults literature, which can be explored through the students' imagination. From the "Three Little Pigs" to the Hobbit, students can recreate through drawing such edifices, and towns so as to later come up with their own descriptions. The following description from chapter 1 of
The House of the Seven Gables
is an example of the rich descriptive language to help students visualize and recreate through drawing the structure, elements, spaces, and uses.
The Old Pyncheon Family
Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst. The street is Pyncheon Street; the house is the old Pyncheon House; and an elm-tree, of wide circumference, rooted before the door, is familiar to every town-born child by the title of the Pyncheon Elm. On my occasional visits to the town aforesaid, I seldom failed to turn down Pyncheon Street, for the sake of passing through the shadow of these two antiquities, --the great elm-tree and the weather-beaten edifice.
Other stories such as
Harry Potter
offer students and the reader with rich descriptions of characters and settings that can also be used to encourage visualization. However, the teacher needs to be conscious of the vocabulary and language patterns and structures, in order to ensure comprehension.
