ELL/Culture Lesson Guidelines

• Write a lesson plan using the Ed Dept template

• This should be planned as a lesson, not a presentation 

• like a “peer” lesson, but you are teaching content the audience
does not have prior knowledge of

• As with any other lesson plan, objectives must always be assessed

(See interaction on later slide)
ELL/Culture Lesson Guidelines

• At the beginning of your lesson, be sure to have your objectives

written on the board and to read them out loud 

• There is no “magic number” for your objectives

• Based on the time frame, this seems appropriate:

• 1-2 objective for your culture lesson
• 2-3 objectives for your ELL lesson 
•  (See content, next slide)
ELL/Culture Lesson Guidelines
• Content: 
• Teaching less content effectively is better than teaching more content
ineffectively
• Once you decide your "key content":  Introduce, reinforce, review, assess...in
a variety of ways
• Interaction: 
• Do not dominate the discussion. Use your “audience”.  Try to remember the
50/50 guideline.
• You should "shift gears" every 10-15 minutes...do not get stuck on the "same"
activity for an extended period of time
• Length:  
• 45-55 minutes for ELL
• 25-30 for Culture
Questions???
• Why is "shifting gears" (not getting stuck on one "activity") in a lesson
plan so important?

• Why is teaching the same content in a variety of ways important for

ELL students (really all students)?
ELL/Culture Lesson Guidelines
• Visuals:  
• Use effective visuals to support/reinforce all key points of your
teaching presentation

• When using slides as visuals, after 3 slides, you must create some
kind of "interaction"
• This avoids too much "teacher talk", gets the students involved

• Avoid the reading of your slides

ELL/Culture Lesson Guidelines
• Co-teaching:  Utilize your resources…try to avoid the “taking turns”
approach

• Learning Styles:  At the end of your lesson, identify how you

accommodated for the different learning styles