Content-Based Instruction Lesson Plan

SEASONS

Jenneva Dela Torre

Apayao State College
 Content-Based Instruction Lesson Plan
Seasons

OVERVIEW:
Teacher: Jenneva Dela Torre
School: ASCl Grade(s): 7-8
Proficiency Level(s): Levels 2-4 Unit Duration: 5 consecutive class sessions
Class Period Time: 45 minutes Number of Students: 10-20

CONTENT AREAS: English language; Social Studies – Philippine culture and traditions; Earth
science – climate and weather

UNIT DESCRIPTION:
This unit was created for Levels 2–4 middle school kids, although it would also function
well in an Immersion program. It primarily focuses on content-based instruction (CBI) of Earth
science topics such as seasons and weather. The unit also has a connection to Philippine culture's
Social Studies topics. It accomplishes this by providing students with cultural background and
terminology about some Philippine holidays and traditions in a way that allows them to connect
with their own cultural backgrounds. This unit plan is designed to give these learners the
background knowledge they need to keep up and excel in mainstream schools while also
improving their English language skills.
Students having skill levels ranging from advanced beginning/early production to
advanced level for this age group would be considered 'Levels 2–4' for the purposes of this unit
plan. Each lesson plan includes exercises for students of all proficiency levels, as well as
techniques to scaffold education for students with lower proficiency levels and differentiate
instruction for students with higher competence levels. The goal is to create a natural approach to
learning (i+1), in which children are driven to study in a safe, risk-free environment and
challenged to reach high standards at suitable levels.

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 Lesson Plan

PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1.Students will be able to express their preferences in English, both orally and in writing.
2.Students will be able to speak in English with a companion about their favorite seasons
and then paraphrase/retell their partner's likes and dislikes.
Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2

TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher reviews the months of each season with the class using a
wall calendar. She then quickly discusses her personal preferences for each of the four
seasons, referencing a poster she created that depicts each season visually as well as her
favorite features of each. She then asks for volunteers to tell the class about their favorite
season and why they like it.
Prior knowledge: Students can relate to seasons (weather/ temperatures, time of year, etc.)
in the way they have experienced them in them in their home country.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower-level ELLs by incorporating visual aids
(calendar, poster) to enhance comprehension. Students with similar language competence
levels will be paired together for the companion activity. Students with higher
competence levels will be expected to convey more detailed thoughts (both spoken and
written) and use more complicated vocabulary and language structures than those with
lower competency levels. During the oral and written tasks, the teacher will promote this
by subtly pressing these pupils for extra information if necessary.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
Think-Pair-Share: Students begin by writing down reasons why they prefer and/or dislike each
of the four seasons, including why, descriptions of activities they enjoy doing during that
seasons, and so on, before working with a partner to verbally discuss what they put down. The
teacher tells them to take notes while speaking with their companion since they will give this
knowledge by summarizing what their partner has said. Each student then makes an informal
presentation to the rest of the class about some of their partner's preferences.

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Four Skills:
 Listening: During pair conversations, students pay attention to their companions. They
also pay attention in class to the informal student presentations.
 Speaking: Students talk with their partners before giving presentations to the rest of the
class.
 Reading: During the warm-up, students examine the visual aids provided by the teacher.
 Writing: During pair conversations, students write down their personal preferences and
then take notes.
(3) Practice
1. Before presenting to the rest of the class, students are encouraged to paraphrase the
material their partners share with them during pair conversations to ensure that they
understand it. The teacher goes over the paraphrasing learning approach first.
2. Students explore utilizing English for personal expression as well as sharing other
people's points of view.

(4) Evaluation
1. Students are able to write down some of their likes and dislikes in English.
2. Students are able to work with a partner and able to accurately share and paraphrase
information which their partner communicated to them.

(5) Expansion/ Extension

1. Students will create a poster depicting the four seasons and some of their favorite
aspects about each one.

Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach

Other Activities:
Follow-up: During the following class, the teacher will provide a hypermedia
presentation on seasons to the students, which will build on the subjects presented during
this session. At the end of the unit, students will show their posters.
Assessment: During pair activity, the teacher goes around the classroom, watching
student discussions. She also checks the written notes the students made about their
personal preferences informally.
Homework Assignments: Students will create a layout for their personal poster and
begin collecting visual items to depict parts of each of the four seasons that they
individually enjoy. Students will bring a poster design (either handwritten or created with
computer software like Inspiration) to the following class, as well as any visual aids (such
as magazine cutouts).
Use of Technology: None
Materials Used: Wall calendar, teacher-made poster, notebook paper, pen/ pencil
Closure: Teacher reviews homework assignment with class and gives students some
time at the end of class to start drawing a layout for their posters.

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 Lesson Plan – DAY #2

PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1.In English, students will be able to recognize several seasonal activities and sports.
2.Students will be able to identify prominent and/or popular holidays in Philippine
culture by their dates and names.
3.Students will have the opportunity to write about their personal holiday customs and
traditions.
Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2

TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: A PowerPoint slide with the English names of many Olympic sports is
displayed by the teacher. The teacher has created a T-chart on the board with the words
'Winter Olympics' on one side and 'Summer Olympics' on the other. The students take a
piece of paper and copy the T-chart onto it. They next have 5 minutes to write as many
Olympic sport names as they can under the proper chart columns. While the students are
working on this, the teacher goes around to each student to check for homework
completion and to ensure that they are on track with their poster project. The teacher
moves on to the next slide, which shows the final T-chart with all sports correctly put,
after 5 minutes.
Prior knowledge: In the last class, students discussed some common seasonal activities.
They also carry with them prior knowledge of their own customs and traditions for
holidays observed in their families and/or homelands.
Goals for Language Education: (How is instruction scaffolded/differentiated for a diverse
group of ELLs?)
The vocabulary list handouts for seasonal activities and holidays are scaffolded for lower
level ELLs in this session. Multiple visual aids also accompany the instruction. The
homework tasks will be differentiated such that Advanced students have more difficult
assignments.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
The teacher uses a projector to show a hypermedia PowerPoint presentation named "Seasons."
As a class, they go over the 'Calendar' slides for each season to revisit the calendar month topic
from the previous day's lesson. She then leads the children through each season's 'Activity' slides.
These slides show clip art of various activities that, when clicked, disclose the relevant

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vocabulary word(s). Before clicking on each image, the teacher uses questioning tactics to check
the students' prior knowledge.
The teacher next goes over the 'Holiday' slides in the hypermedia presentation with the students
and assesses their past knowledge by asking them questions about each holiday. She adds on to
the conversation as needed. She then refers the students to an entertaining website via a WWW
connection within the presentation's 'Holiday' slides, where they can learn more about other
holidays.
Four skills:
Listening: During the hypermedia navigation, students listen while the teacher and other
students convey information. There are also music clips included in the hypermedia.
Speaking: Students react to the teacher's informal queries.
Reading: Students watch the teacher navigate the hypermedia show in front of the class.
Writing: In the homework assignment, students will write about their Christmas customs.
(3) Practice
1. For their poster project, students can use language from the seasonal 'Activities' and/or
'Holiday' slides.
2. Later on, students will have the opportunity to explore hypermedia on their own and
conduct Internet research on vacations.
(4) Assessment
1. When the teacher reviews the 'Activity' slide images again at the conclusion of class,
students are able to recognize words. They can also use English to describe some of the
activities.
2. In the homework task, students can write about holidays that they celebrate.

(5) Expansion/Prolongation
1. Students investigate more holidays on the Internet, either alone or with a companion.
2. Students work in groups to develop a PowerPoint presentation for the class that
outlines how different civilizations celebrate various holidays. To the final presentation,
each group would submit a few slides.
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach

Other Activities:
Follow-up: The teacher will come back to review the ‘Activity’ slides and vocabulary
words later in the week. They will also be revisited during a unit review game on the last
day of the unit.
Assessment: The teacher does an informal assessment during the vocabulary review at
the end of class.
Homework Assignments: Students will write about some of their own customs and
traditions for holidays that they and/ or their families personally celebrate. It should
include a description of each holiday (name and time of year), traditional customs, etc.
Level 2 students are only required to write short sentences whereas Level 4 students will
write out short paragraphs with more complex sentence structures. The teacher provides
each student with a handout, detailing the specific instructions for that person’s

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homework assignment. She also reviews the assignment with the class and models
examples on the board.
Use of Technology: Projector, MS PowerPoint for warm-up, MS PowerPoint
hypermedia presentation, Internet
Materials Used: T-charts, notebook paper, pen/ pencil
Closure: The teacher hands out a small piece of paper to each student. On the paper,
each student anonymously writes whether they liked the hypermedia activity (“Yes”) or
not (“No”) and the reason(s) why. This completed ‘survey’ will be their ticket out of the
classroom.

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 Lesson Plan – DAY #3

PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to talk about some of their own holiday traditions and customs.
2. Students will be able to use questioning strategies in English to gather information.

Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2, 3

TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher reviews the agenda and objectives, which are clearly
posted on the main board. To model the upcoming activity, she spends a few minutes
describing some of her unique family traditions for a particular holiday, using visual aids
where appropriate. She allows the students to ask questions too.
Prior knowledge: Students will be discussing holiday traditions which they have celebrated
along with their own customs/ traditions.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by incorporating visual aids and writing (large
chart) to supplement the informal class discussions. The teacher also provides them with a
vocabulary handout that summarizes several major holidays. The lesson is also differentiated
for higher level ELLs because they will each have a chance to assume the role of ‘class note
taker’ during the presentations.

(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
The teacher has the students arrange their desks in a circle so that everyone is facing each other.
On the front board, the teacher has posted a very large sheet of paper with a chart template that
would include columns with labels similar to the following: Presenter, Holiday, Time of Year,
Brief Description, Customs/ Traditions.

The students each take turns reading their homework assignment from the previous day’s lesson,
in which they were instructed to write about their own holiday traditions. Each student spends a
few minutes sharing their cultural/ family traditions about one holiday they celebrate. The
teacher starts off asking for a volunteer; the first student to present then decides who will go next
by tossing a Koosh ball to another student (and so on). In addition, the teacher asks someone
(high level 3 or level 4 student) to be the class ‘note taker’ during the presentation. This person

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goes to the chart posted on the board and uses a marker to completely fill in a row for that
presenter. There is a different note taker for each presenter.

After each student finishes their informal presentation to the class, the teacher encourages
students to pose questions to the presenter. The teacher asks questions too; however, each
student is required to ask at least two questions during the class activity. Every column must be
filled out for the presenter’s row on the class chart before moving on to the next presenter.

Four Skills:
 Listening: Students listen to the informal presentations.
 Speaking: Each student presents to the rest of the class.
 Reading: Students can read the notes on the class chart; Level 2 students can also refer to
their vocabulary handouts.
 Writing: Students take turns filling in the class chart during the presentations.

(3) Practice
1. Students take turns presenting and taking notes.

(4) Evaluation
1. Students are able to verbally communicate some of their holiday traditions with the
class in English.
2. Note takers are able to summarize the presenter’s statements in written English.

(5) Expansion/ Extension

1. Students could prepare and give formal class presentations, in English, about one
important holiday tradition celebrated in their families using MS PowerPoint, symbolic
artifacts, photographs, or other visual aids. Likewise, this could be done in pairs/ groups
by assigning a different holiday to each team, which they would then research using the
WWW and other resources.

Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach; Extension activity could incorporate

cooperative learning if the project is done in teams.

Other Activities:
Follow-up: Students may incorporate holidays into their poster project. Questions from
the informal presentations will also come up during a unit review game at the end of the
week.
Assessment: Teacher observes whether students are able to successfully present, take
notes, and pose questions during the activity. She also observes if/ how the lower level
ELLs utilize the vocabulary handouts during the presentations.
Homework Assignments: Students continue working on poster project.
Use of Technology: Extension activity could include the Internet and multimedia.

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Materials Used: Jumbo sheet of paper for class chart; permanent markers; vocabulary
handouts; Post-it notes
Closure: The teacher reminds students to continue working on their poster projects. She
also hands a Post-it note to each student and asks them to write one new thing they
learned during the presentations. They then place their note over on the ‘parking lot’
posted in class before leaving.

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 Lesson Plan – DAY #4

PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to use English vocabulary and scientific terminology to describe the
weather.
2. Students will be able to complete a cloze activity based on information gathered by
watching and listening to a recorded segment of an actual televised weather report.

Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2

TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher starts off the class by reviewing the notes that were placed
on the ‘parking lot’ at the end of the previous class. She then reviews the agenda for
today’s lesson on Weather.
Prior knowledge: Students have prior knowledge of basic weather vocabulary. This lesson
assumes that the students have already had some prior instructional practice in this area.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by reviewing weather vocabulary, using
pictures and words, prior to the weather report activity. Each of the cloze activities is
differentiated for each of the ELL levels (see Appendix A). Also, Level 1 students are
allowed to use the illustrated vocabulary terms as a word bank while completing their
modified cloze activity.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
The teacher again pulls up the hypermedia presentation entitled ‘Seasons.’ This time she
reviews the ‘Weather’ slides for each season with the class. Each slide contains picture icons
from the Weather Channel website and depicts a different weather condition. The English
vocabulary word is included with each picture. The teacher reviews the terminology with the
class, most of which is review for higher level ELLs. She also asks volunteers to describe some
of the more difficult terms for the rest of the class.
Students watch and listen to a video recording twice (may be a recorded television segment on a
VHS or saved video clip from the Internet) of a weather report and forecast. Following the
recording, students individually complete one of the 3 different cloze activities based on their

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literacy and oral language proficiency level. See Appendix A (pages A-1 thru A-3) for sample
differentiated cloze activities for this lesson and explanations for each.
Four Skills:
 Listening: Students watch and listen to the video segment(s).
 Speaking: Student volunteers describe weather terminology during the vocabulary
review with the hypermedia slides.
 Reading: Students read the cloze activity and associated materials (see App. A).
 Writing: Students write in the missing words in the cloze activity.

(3) Practice
1. Students review vocabulary terms, drawing on prior knowledge.
2. Students complete cloze activity in class.

(4) Evaluation
1. Students turn in cloze activities to the teacher at the end of class. The teacher later
marks any incorrect responses and then returns the exercises to the students. The teacher
then reviews the completed cloze activities with the entire class so that students can fix
any of their errors.

(5) Expansion/ Extension

1. Students work individually or in pairs to create their own weather forecast using the
Weather Channel’s Interactive Weather Forecast at www.weatherclassroom.com. Refer
to Appendix B on page A-4 of this unit plan to see how this works.
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach
Other Activities:
Follow-up: Students may incorporate weather pictures/ terminology into their poster
projects. Weather related vocabulary will also be revisited during a unit review game at
the end of the week.
Assessment: Teacher informally assesses comprehension during the vocabulary review
at the beginning of class. She also reviews how many responses each student answered
correctly in the cloze activities. In doing so, she notes any trends to identify areas which
may need additional review/ explanation in class. This could also be an indication of a
flaw in the cloze activity itself (e.g. too advanced for learner level, confusing sentence
structure, etc.) which the teacher may need to improve.
Homework Assignments: Students complete final poster project to share in class the
following day.
Use of Technology: TV/ VCR, Internet (extension activity), Projector, MS PowerPoint
hypermedia presentation, video segment
Materials Used: Handouts with cloze activities, pen/ pencil
Closure: Teacher repeats expectations for final poster project and previews the agenda
for the following class (i.e. class game to review unit topics).

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 Lesson Plan – DAY #5

PLANNING PHASE
Performance/ Task-based Objectives:
1. Students will be able to orally present their ‘season’ poster to the class in English.
2. Students will be able to work together in teams during the unit review game activity.
3. Students will be able to correctly answer questions during the game activity to
demonstrate comprehension and retention of topics reviewed during the unit.

Lesson Outline:
National TESOL Standards:
 Goal 1, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 2, Standards 1, 2, 3
 Goal 3, Standards 1, 2

TEACHING PHASE
(1) Preparation
Warm-up Activity: The teacher puts up a list of trivia/ fun facts about each of the four
seasons using either an overhead projector or ‘doc cam’. She asks for volunteers to read
each item aloud to the class.
Prior knowledge: Many students are familiar with the popular TV game show ‘Jeopardy,’
after which the unit review game activity is modeled.
Language Goals: (How is instruction scaffolded/ differentiated for a wide array of ELLs?)
This lesson is scaffolded for lower level ELLs by incorporating lots of visual aids during the
poster presentations and game activity. They will also have the support of their teammates
during the game. The Jeopardy game is differentiated for all levels because the answers on
the game board will be ranked in order from easiest to hardest in language level proficiency.
(2) Presentation
Activities
Multilevel activities:
Students briefly present their posters to the class, describing what they included on their posters
and why.

The teacher divides the class into two or three teams, being careful to achieve a balanced mix of
ELLs at different proficiency levels in each group. She then reviews the game rules and models
how the game is played using volunteers. In addition to the basic rules of ‘Jeopardy,’ the teacher
provides specific team rules, which encourage/ require all students to participate.

The class then plays the ‘Jeopardy: Four Seasons’ game, which has the following five categories:
Calendar, Activities, Holidays, Weather, and a fifth ‘mystery’ column. The game is designed to
review topics, vocabulary, etc. that were presented and practiced during the unit on Seasons.

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Four Skills:
 Listening: Students listen as other students present their posters. Students listen as each
Jeopardy answer is read aloud; they must then listen to their teammates as they determine
the correct question response.
 Speaking: Students orally present their posters to the rest of the class. They also speak to
their teammates during the game and present their responses orally to the teacher.
 Reading: Students read the Jeopardy categories and game answers as they appear on the
game board.
 Writing: Students write out some of their own Jeopardy answers for the teacher to use
for additional rounds of the game.

(3) Practice
1. Students play the game to practice recalling and synthesizing information they learned
during the unit on Seasons.
2. Students write out their own Jeopardy answers to use during additional rounds of the
game as time permits.
(4) Evaluation
1. The game itself evaluates the students’ comprehension and retention of unit topics.
2. The teacher observes whether all students are participating and whether they are able
to produce accurate responses. The teacher also observes their use of correct English.
3. The teacher reviews and grades the student posters after class. They are graded based
on whether they contain all required elements, depict all four seasons, and show evidence
of preparation and care in presentation.
(5) Expansion/ Extension
1. None
Methods/Approaches/Strategies: CBI; Natural Approach
Other Activities:
Follow-up: The teacher will display all of the students’ posters in the classroom.
Students will also be given opportunities to explore the Seasons hypermedia presentation
on their own the following week. The teacher will also continuously refer back to topics
reviewed during this unit to make additional connections and assess long-term retention.
Assessment: The teacher has the students complete an assessment of the game activity
by answering the following three questions on a worksheet: What worked well? What
did not work well? What would you do differently? They complete this at the end of
class and turn it in anonymously to the teacher.
Homework Assignments: None
Use of Technology: None, unless the game is run off of a computer software application
such as MS PowerPoint.
Materials Used: Jeopardy board and answers/ questions; index cards and markers for
students to make additional Jeopardy game answers/ questions
Closure: The teacher collects the game assessments and previews the upcoming unit.

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 Appendix A
Weather Report Activity (Day #4)
Students watch and listen to a video recording (may be a recorded television
segment or video clip on the Internet) of a weather report and forecast. Following
the recording, students complete one of the following cloze activities based on their
literacy and oral language proficiency level.
Note: The pictures and text in the activity should match up with the weather report viewed
in the video segment. The differentiated activities which follow are just an example. The
cloze activities should be expanded in length at the intermediate and advanced levels to
reflect actual excerpts from the video segment.

I. Level 2: Students may use the following picture to assist them in

completing the cloze activity that follows.

Today (Tuesday, October 11) we are going to have more _________

throughout the day. We should continue to see rain showers until _________ of
this week. Be advised, there are still several ________ warnings in the area
from all of the rainfall last weekend. On Monday, we should finally have
________ weather through Wednesday of next week. We may experience more
_________ next Thursday, however.

A-1
II. Level 3: Students review the following picture, but they do not use it
when completing the cloze activity that follows.

We expect to see a lot of _______ covering the sky today with occasional
rain ________. The chance of __________ is 50%. Be advised, there are still
several ________ warnings in the area from all of the rainfall last weekend.
Tonight we should have some light rain, or _________, with _______ at 5 to 10
mph. Tomorrow, we will likely experience a few more ________. The high
__________ is expected to reach 64 degrees.

A-2
 III. Level 4: Students review the following text, but they do not use it when
completing the cloze activity that follows.

The National Weather Service in Mount Holly has extended the ______ watch
until ________ afternoon. The rain will be a result of two low _________ systems
coming together. Rainfall totals could reach one to two _______ are expected.
Please be very ________ if you will be driving over the next couple of days. The
heavy rain will reduce your ________ and there will be water on the ________.
Wet leaves on the road can also create a driving _______.

A-3
 Appendix B
Screenshot of Extension Activity from Day #4
Interactive Weather Forecast at www.weatherclassroom.com

A-4