For my ELL students, I believe that a great way to begin to engage them in a new topic is by

providing visual learning or engagement. The image below is the cover of a documentary called
Nuclear Savage by Adam Horowitz. This documentary covers the history and more recent
events surrounding the nuclear bomb tests in the Marshall Islands. The content in the film is
very engaging and the images throughout show powerful depictions of what the Marshallese
went through. The information included also coincides and overlaps with Barkers book.
While watching the documentary, I provided my students with KWL to promote their
engagement in the topic and material. These KWL sheets gave me insight on my students
thoughts as they were watching the film.

Not only did it give me insight on what my students already know about the nuclear bombs, but
it also gave me a better idea of what their focus is when it comes to learning more about the
topic. This helped me guide my questions and discussion for future activities.
The KWL sheets also served as a formative assessment that they were learning from the
documentary by having them write out what they learned during the viewing.