CDE Standard:

Grade: 1st
Standard 4. Civics
Concept 2. Notable people, places, holidays and patriotic symbols
Element a. Give examples of notable leaders of different communities leaders to include but not
limited to the president, mayor, governor, and law enforcement (DOK 1)
WIDA Standard:
Standard 5: English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary
for academic success in the content area of Social Studies
Activity:

In the box below, draw a leader who is important to you.

Who are they? What do they do?

After discussing different leaders in the community, have students think about a leader in their
community that means a lot to them. Have students draw that leader, then write about the leader
that they picked. For ELL students, offer to go through the writing with them, helping them
where they get stuck and providing some extra help. It will be helpful to allow ELL students to
draw this figure first, so that the teacher has an idea of who they are thinking about and can work
with their drawing. Allow students to put this away or turn it in. Then, the next day, have
students take the work out and review what they wrote and the community member that each
student picked. Allow them to make any changes. The ELL student should try to read their own
work at this time, and go over any words that they still want to know or are still learning.
Justification:
The goal of this lesson is to get students thinking about leaders in the community as well as
getting them to develop some literacy skills. It is good for young students to practice writing
often. For ELL students, this is important because students are able to practice their literacy
skills. Samway states that it is not even necessarily important that they know everything about
writing, so long as they are learning vocabulary and content (Samway, 28). Thats why students
are allowed to draw before they write. This helps them with ideas, especially if they are able to
label their drawings. Then, the teacher can help with vocabulary and some writing, in order to
push the student to improve. It has been stated multiple times how important it is to draw on the
learners background. One thing I specifically liked about a strategy that Colombo gives is that
teachers can help ELL students write their prompt, and then the ELL student can go back and
read the prompt as a reading assignment (Colombo). So I took what Samway said, and what
Colombo said, and combined them. The teacher can help the student write the prompt, making
sure to give the student the opportunity to do everything they can without help. Then the teacher
can help the student write the prompt, so that they can see what improvements they can make
and so that they have reading for the next day that is meaningful to the student.

References
Colombo, M. (2011). Teaching English language learners: 43 strategies for successful K-8
classrooms. Sage.
Samway, K. D. (2006). When English Language Learners Write: Connecting Research to
Practice, K-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.