Hallelujah! That’s how I feel once I begin this unit. Because this is the second unit I do with my beginners, we are finally ready to get into the swing of things. Classroom norms have been established, and students understand that English class will be rigorous but doable. The anxiety and fear from the first few weeks of school has subsided, and it’s time to get the show on the road! The curriculum will now begin building upon itself. ALL students now have a little background knowledge of the English language. Yay! ***** Covid-19 Update: This curriculum can now be used for ANY classroom situation you may encounter. It works wonderfully for on-site and hybrid models of teaching. It can also be used completely online for distance learning. The digital resources are compatible with Google Classroom.
This curriculum is for middle and high school students. If you used Unit 1, you know that grammar was not tested. The first unit is challenging enough with the vocabulary words. But now, beginning in Unit 2, grammar will be practiced throughout the unit and tested at the end. If students struggle on the grammar portion (This is normal of course! English is hard…), please know that the grammar will continue to be reviewed in the following units. As a standards-referenced grader myself, knowing that grammar will be practiced and tested multiple times in multiple units is so freeing. I know students have multiple opportunities to show mastery of content and this allows me to continue moving on through the curriculum at a reasonable pace for all students.
This unit has 38 vocabulary words (21 nouns, 8 verbs, and 9 adjectives) and 5 important basic sentences, questions, or answers. It reviews singular and plural nouns as well as the simple present tense. It also introduces numbers and writing both positive and negative sentences with be-verbs. It takes approximately 3 weeks. I teach it in eight 80 minute block periods, but the curriculum is very flexible and can fit into whatever you need.
I encourage you to continue using the ME-WE-TWO-YOU format I spoke about in my Unit 1 blog post. I decided to include numbers in this unit. I have found that most students usually pick up numbers in their daily activities, but I feel it’s important to explicitly teach them. While this unit introduces cardinal numbers, Unit 5 on months, seasons, and colors teaches ordinal numbers.
In addition to the unit flashcards, worksheets, speaking activities, fluency paragraph, and bell work, there are two games. One is a simple numbers game and the other is a memory game using unit vocabulary.
As stated in my Unit 1 blog post, I am continuing to teach the short sounds of the alphabet using Words Their Way concurrent to this unit. Additionally, students begin reading silently. I also call them up to my desk as often as I can to have them read to me. If there is ever any extra class time, students are reading on their own. If you don’t have the class time for this, send the books home as homework. We use this library to begin with and students must read through 20 books before I let them advance to my classroom library. I enjoy this series because it covers a wide range of topics that are important to learn about, so students are actually interested in reading them. Although this first library is really helpful, students are proud as peacocks when they complete 20 books and are unleashed to pick their own titles.
Please visit my TPT Unit 2 page to learn more specifics on this unit including the list of vocabulary terms and other phrases. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I am honored to help you with your classroom curriculum needs.