Some steps towards literacy in the second language: a sample lesson plan

ARELLANO, NICOLÁS ALEJANDRO; VASSOS, SARAH

Toledo, Ohio

Simposio; Multi-Sensory Literacy and Learning Symposium; 2018

School of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Toledo

This presentation is grounded on the experience we have done in the program SITES. SITES is a project that involves the participation of Oberlin College students in the local elementary Eastwood School with the goal of teaching Spanish as foreign language from Pre-K to second grade. The project has been running for twelve years but we have taken part only at the beginning of the fall semester as we are foreign Teaching Assistants.The teaching approach is OWL (Organic World Language) and it consists in a particular teaching sequence that involves the only use of TL and the following parts: review, content, summary. Amongst each step, transitions, groupings and/or brain breaks are inserted.We will present a sample lesson plan with the goal of addressing as many different intelligences as possible. The proposal revolves around the idea of teaching a functional language chunk with a variety of multisensory inputs in order to open every possible learning channel, also for students with learning disabilities. The lesson starts with a hook as main element of context and interest; it develops with presentation of the functional chunk(s) and vocabulary through gestures, rhythm, songs, movements, prompts, realia, books, power point presentations. The lesson plan is created to accommodate changes and allows to present the stimuli in different ways at the same time so that the goal of the lesson is constantly rehearsed. This proposal aims at promoting literacy in the second language through the OWL approach as a follow up step in the language acquisition; despite the fact that the reading and writing skills are not the main goal, they can be acquired by scaffolding the language experience.