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