Running head: TASK 5B ANALYSIS Task 5b Analysis 1

Task 5b Analysis

Charles M. Marko’

Sierra Nevada University

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Abstract

This paper is presented to comply with the requirements of our Section 5 Analysis

assignment. Our case study involves a cooperative learning process that was designed to allow

all levels of ELL students—from preproduction to intermediate skill levels—to participate and

contribute to the learning activity. The basic issues to be addressed within in paper are: 1) to

provide background and analysis of the case study, and 2) then select two of the ideas or

activities that could actually be used in my classroom.

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Task 5b Analysis

In reviewing this case study (Yahya & Huie, 2011) my initial impression was quite

positive since this was a very unique and well thought out approach to lesson design when your

student population consists of a diverse mixture of language skill levels. The basic premise of the

lesson was that each student, irrespective of their language skill level, becomes engaged in the

lesson activity and the importance of their contribution to their learning group’s success with the

activity is clearly established at the onset of the lesson.

Cooperative learning activities are a very effective method of helping to address and

improve the learning levels of a wide range of language skills that may exist in your ELL student

population. In this scenario, it was emphasized that the instructor carefully grouped the various

skill levels of each particular student and created learning groups where each of the identified

skill levels were represented in the learning groups that were created. These groups were then

identified as the “home group” for the learning activities.

Once the home groups were established, secondary groups were then created, where

membership was based on groupings of similar language skill level students. These groups were

identified as the “expert groups” and were specifically intended to provide its members with the

requisite level of expertise necessary to complete their skill level tasks which would be vital to

their respective “home groups” when they reconvene in that group configuration later in the

activity. The expert groups were broken down to perform specific functions (i.e. map readers,

illustrators, project organizers, and authors) and group contributions were designed to provide

the necessary skills to each student (irrespective of skill level) with the expertise required to

complete their specific assignments within their individual “home groups”.

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Once the “home groups” are reconvened, each team member would contribute their new

expertise to the balance of the group and the project was then well underway. As described in the

case study, the map-readers would track the route of Tulip's trip on the map and the illustrators

were responsible to help the group to classify the words to develop understanding of action

verbs. The project organizers task was to maintain a proper sequence of the story involved in the

lesson and the journalists provided the focus of group’s attention to the various similes that

appear throughout the storyline.

The final phase of this cooperative learning lesson was to then assess individual student

knowledge about the learning elements that have taken place during the activity. I believe that

the oral assessment is appropriate and I particularly liked the idea of randomizing how the

students would be called upon to respond to questions about the lesson (i.e. randomly by

counting off from one-to-four within each group). Each home group was allowed a limited time

to collectively review their understanding of the lesson among themselves and, while the

students may know the nature of the questions to be asked, they do not know which student may

be called upon to answer any particular question. This approach allows all students to bring a

final degree of focus to the issue that they may personally be a little unclear about and will

provide them with an opportunity to clarify any issues of confusion that they may have. During

the process, it would also have the unexpected benefit of crystallizing something that the student

didn’t even realize they were confused about as they listen to other students’ questions and

discussions.

As with all lessons in general, the closing process of this activity would include an

opportunity for the students (and the teacher) to reflect on their learning activities and
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accomplishments. This is a frequently overlooked step but a critical one that is necessary to bring

closure to and complete the students’ learning experience.

Beyond the review of this particular learning activity, we were also called upon to

evaluate how this approach would be supported by instructions design theories. Cooperative

learning is a design approach where the activity engages each student at their highest level of

ability and encourages student interaction at the uppermost levels possible. Instructional design

consists of two very basic issues: 1) how the students are expected to behave, and 2) what level

of cognitive involvement is the student expected to demonstrate. (SNC, 2011) In reviewing this

case study it is clear that the instructor paid specific attention to including each of the elements

of design that are called upon for proper instructional design. The explanation of the lesson’s

design process included each of the requisite elements of Analysis, Design, Development,

Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) and each element was obviously included by the

lesson as presented (SNC, 2011).

Application

In terms of applying some of the ideas or activities in my particular classroom

environment there are several that would seem to fit. I personally like activities where

cooperative learning activities are used and this particular activity could easily adapted to my

SpEd Math curriculum. For example, the use of maps is a wonderful way to engage the students

when we are covering the concepts of distance in our math class. Of course, the focus of the

lesson that I would develop would be different since my primary objective is to instill the math

concepts involved. Nonetheless, the ELL element of the activity would need to be included and

language objectives could readily be integrated with the activities that would serve the students’

mastery of the math concepts.

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As the students make progress on their map route, I would include math concepts such as:

“how many miles would Tulip drive if (s)he drove for eight hours at an average speed of 40

mph” or “using the map, how far is Las Vegas, NV from Phoenix, AZ” or “if gasoline cost $3.75

per gallon in Las Vegas, NV and $4.10 in Lubbock, TX, how much more will it cost to buy 20

gallons of gasoline in Lubbock than in Las Vegas?” and things like that. The only problem that I

would encounter is the establishment of too many “home or expert groups” since, in my SpEd

class, I have a relatively small number of students and even fewer ELL students. I would have to

modify how my groups are created but that should be fairly easy to resolve since my groupings

would be based more on skill levels in general, rather than only ELL skill levels as contemplated

within the case study.

I would also use the assessment process as described in the case study as a group activity.

I liked the idea of using a verbal approach with my students since many of my SpEd students

experience a great deal of angst in verbalizing what they have learned at the conclusion of a

lesson. The thing I would change; however, would be to provide each group with a summary of

the issues that they dealt with as they followed Tulip’s journey across the map. Depending on the

number of sessions that this lesson would span (probably 2 or 3 class hours, I would expect) I

would limit the number of questions that they are expected to answer accordingly, but probably

not more than 15 or 20 questions total, to be answered by the 2 or 3 groups that would have

worked on the activity. I would also have given them this summary of concept question during

the lesson preview, since it would be helpful to front-end load what the expectations were of the

students as the lesson gets underway. The questions that each student would be assessed would

be along the lines of the questions presented in the previous paragraph of this paper.
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Perhaps, the canned method (Echevarria & Vogt, 2008) would be a good way to

accomplish both the question previews and the student assessment process. These questions

could be presented for all levels of cognition—from low to high-level thinking—and could be

designed to include both Math and English language skill elements of questioning. Also, getting

and keeping the students actively involved in their learning of concepts is critical for student

success. (Herrell & Jordan, 2008) By presenting the students with the realia afforded by a map

and a road trip I would expect that student engagement would remain high throughout the

activity.

By embellishing the activity with additional little tidbits of information as the students

are on their map road trip activity I would expect that further engagement and learning would

take place. For instance, short videos could be used that provide vignettes and supplementary

background information about some of the places they will visit throughout their hypothetical

journey. These sorts of digressions would re-engage the students and many cities that would be

encountered on the map have interesting facts that would pique the curiosity of the students.

Consider Las Vegas and its mob-roots, or the current events of the Hispanic communities in

Arizona, or the strange weather happenings currently taking place in the Midwest and you will

find that these are all things that would embellish the students’ learning experience—middle

school kids usually seem to particularly enjoy hearing and seeing these sort of things so student

engagement in their learning process would be enhanced by incorporating as many different

types of learning activities.

As we learned in our Section 2 studies, this particular activity is an excellent example of

the Relia Strategy (SNC, 2011) and would actually address each of the key elements of building

background under the SIOP model. Depending upon the individual student (i.e. the students with
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existing background about travel as well as those with some limited or nonexistent backgrounds)

I am confident that they would all benefit from the activity. Something I always like to do with

my students is to “trick” them into learning. Many times, when a student is unaware that they are

actually learning something they seem to do much better with an activity when compared to

using a more traditional, teacher-led, approach. Cooperative learning is an approach that most

readily transfers a certain degree of responsibility of learning to the students and will typically

provide a more rewarding learning experience for the students.

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References

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. (2008). 99 ideas and activities for teaching English Learners with the

SIOP model. Boston: Pearson-Merrill Prentice Hall.

Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2008). 50 strategies for teaching English language learners with

DVD (3rd Ed. ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Merrill Prentice Hall.

SNC Website. (2011). Retrieved April 29, 2011, from Sierra Nevada College Web site: https://

online.sierranevada.edu

Yahya, N., & Huie, K. (2011). Reaching English Language Learners through cooperative

learning. Retrieved April 22, 2011, through the Sierra Nevada College website link:

http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Yahya-Cooperative.html