8—Sheltered Literacy Lesson

I saw the teacher talk a lot.  I became oddly aware of the number of times she said okay, an ineffective way to check for understanding that I sometimes slip into.  While watching the video, I never saw the students show any response to her okays.  I know that we did not see everything but what we did see did not impress me.  The students did not actively participate in the lesson. The teacher seemed to have a very specific idea of the response she wanted and did not initiate much talk with or among the students.

            A couple of students attempted to sing a Spanish birthday song, but it appeared awkward and strained. It seems that the students would have so much to share about different traditions for celebrating birthdays in their families, but I did not see any of that conversation.

            I think that the essential components of a sheltered lesson are the dual objectives—both content and language objectives.  One objective from the lesson we observed was to use inference to predict what may happen, but I did not see a particular language objective.  Another essential component would be including as much language support for the students as possible through, pictures, real objects, demonstrations, total physical response (TPR), gestures, modeling, etc.  I saw very little of this. The pictures that the teacher passed around did not coordinate with her vocabulary instruction. They seemed a disjointed afterthought.  And the vocabulary review only involved her talking. The students had minimal participation, mainly through provided through call and response, which also seems contrary to a sheltered lesson.

            The other key element that seemed missing was student involvement: activities for them to practice the concepts, group work, and opportunities to practice using English in meaningful situations.  Although the students had to create post-it notes which integrated writing and reading, I did not see any integration of speaking. And I did not notice the teacher’s wait time as she asked so few questions, and the same girl, Sarah, answered many of the questions.  I felt quite disappointed with the lesson.