CTEL Instructional Planning for ELs Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A fifth-grade teacher is planning a science lesson with the content objective: "Students will be able to explain the process of photosynthesis." Which of the following would be the MOST effective language objective to pair with this content objective for English learners at the expanding level?
- Students will understand the scientific concepts of photosynthesis.
- Students will listen to a lecture about how plants make food.
- Students will write a paragraph using key vocabulary (e.g., sunlight, chlorophyll, glucose) and sequential language (e.g., first, then, after that) to describe the process. (Correct answer)
- Students will create a complex diagram comparing photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
Correct answer: Students will write a paragraph using key vocabulary (e.g., sunlight, chlorophyll, glucose) and sequential language (e.g., first, then, after that) to describe the process.
A strong language objective is specific, measurable, and focuses on the language students will use to demonstrate content knowledge. Option C clearly defines the language function (describing a process), the vocabulary required, and the communication domain (writing), directly supporting the content objective. The other options are either not language objectives (A), too passive (B), or potentially too advanced without a clear language focus (D).
Question 2: Mr. Liu is planning a unit on community helpers for his first-grade class, which includes several English learners at the emerging level. To make the concepts more concrete and comprehensible, he brings in a firefighter's helmet, a stethoscope, and a mail carrier's bag for students to see and touch. This instructional strategy is best described as using:
- Authentic assessment
- Realia (Correct answer)
- Cognates
- Text-based evidence
Correct answer: Realia
Realia refers to real-life objects used in the classroom to build background knowledge and make abstract concepts tangible and understandable for students, which is particularly effective for English learners. The helmet, stethoscope, and bag are all real-world items related to the lesson.
Question 3: A teacher is planning a history lesson that requires students to compare and contrast the motivations of colonists and the British government leading up to the American Revolution. To best support intermediate-level ELs in organizing their thoughts for a subsequent writing task, which scaffolding tool would be most appropriate?
- A K-W-L chart
- A word search with key names and dates
- A Venn diagram (Correct answer)
- A narrative storyboard
Correct answer: A Venn diagram
A Venn diagram is specifically designed to help students visually organize information by similarities and differences, making it the ideal graphic organizer for a compare-and-contrast task. This structure directly supports the analytical thinking required for the lesson's objective.
Question 4: Which of the following instructional activities best integrates all four language domains (listening, speaking, reading, writing) in a meaningful, content-based sequence?
- Students read a chapter in their textbook silently and then answer multiple-choice questions about the main ideas.
- Students listen to a song, draw a picture about it, and then share their drawing with a partner.
- Students watch a documentary clip (listening), discuss its main points in a small group (speaking/listening), read a related article (reading), and then write a summary of what they learned (writing). (Correct answer)
- The teacher leads a whole-class discussion about a historical event, and students take notes on the key points mentioned.
Correct answer: Students watch a documentary clip (listening), discuss its main points in a small group (speaking/listening), read a related article (reading), and then write a summary of what they learned (writing).
This option provides a logical and connected sequence where each activity builds upon the last, purposefully engaging students in all four language domains. The tasks are thematically linked, allowing for deeper processing of the content and reinforcement of language skills across different modalities.
Question 5: In planning a unit on fables, a teacher wants to use a culturally responsive approach. Which of the following strategies would be most effective for this purpose?
- Focusing exclusively on Aesop's fables as the primary examples of the genre.
- Requiring students to memorize the morals from a pre-selected list of fables.
- Having students research the historical origins of Greek and Roman fables.
- Inviting students to share and analyze fables or traditional stories from their own cultural backgrounds alongside the core curriculum. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Inviting students to share and analyze fables or traditional stories from their own cultural backgrounds alongside the core curriculum.
A culturally responsive approach validates and incorporates students' diverse backgrounds and experiences into the curriculum. By inviting students to share stories from their own cultures, the teacher positions them as experts, makes learning more relevant, and enriches the understanding of the fable genre for the entire class.
Question 6: A teacher is planning a persuasive writing assignment for a class with ELs at various proficiency levels. Which of the following demonstrates the most effective differentiation of the PROCESS for this assignment?
- Grading the essays from emerging ELs more leniently than those from other students.
- Providing emerging ELs with sentence frames and a graphic organizer, while allowing expanding ELs to create their own outlines. (Correct answer)
- Allowing students to choose between writing an essay, creating a poster, or giving a speech.
- Assigning a shorter essay length for emerging ELs compared to other students.
Correct answer: Providing emerging ELs with sentence frames and a graphic organizer, while allowing expanding ELs to create their own outlines.
Differentiating the process means providing different levels of support or varied ways for students to engage with the content and complete the task. Providing sentence frames and organizers is a form of scaffolding that adjusts the process of writing for certain students while keeping the core learning goal the same for everyone. The other options differentiate the product (C, D) or the evaluation criteria (A), not the learning process itself.
CTEL Instructional Planning for ELs Questions and Answers
A fifth-grade teacher is planning a science lesson with the content objective: "Students will be able to explain the process of photosynthesis." Which of the following would be the MOST effective language objective to pair with this content objective for English learners at the expanding level?