Grade 1 ESL Curriculum Guide

ESL provides students with direct instruction in vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of academic language.  This language instruction is aligned with the WIDA Key Language Uses and planned collaboratively to address core content areas, including ELA Modules. Students engage with books, build content knowledge, and share what they have learned through academic conversations and emerging literacy. ESL instruction responds to the cultural and linguistic knowledge and strategies that students hold and those that they need for success in school. 


Unit

Time

frame

Big Ideas (Statements or Essential Questions)

Major Learning Experiences from Unit 

Newcomer curriculum

(optional - based on teacher recommendation)

6-8 weeks 

  • How can I be a member of the school community?

  • How is my language different/the same as English?


Students will 

  • INFORM by identifying/naming/labeling to participate in grade-appropriate exchanges of information

  • EXPLAIN by summarizing main ideas and key details to describe or report information

Tools and Work

10 Weeks

  • Why do we need tools?

  • How do habits of character help us do work?

  • How do we create a magnificent thing?

Students will NARRATE, EXPLAIN, ARGUE and INFORM 


  • by describing

  • by sequencing

  • by asking and answering questions

  • by sorting and categorizing vocabulary words


See Grade 1 ELA overview for more context

What’s Up in the Sky: A Study of the Sun, Moon, and Stars

10 Weeks

  • Why do authors write about the sun, moon, and stars? 


  • What patterns can we observe in the sky?

  • How do authors use their knowledge and observations to write a story?

Students will NARRATE, EXPLAIN, ARGUE and INFORM 


  • by describing

  • by participating in academic conversations

  • by using words and phrases that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses

  • by asking and answering questions


See Grade 1 ELA overview for more context

Growing as Researchers: Birds’ Amazing Bodies

10 Weeks

  • What makes a bird a bird?

  • How do birds use their body parts to survive?

  • How do specific birds use their body parts to survive?

  • How do we build our research skills and share our learning?

Students will NARRATE, EXPLAIN, ARGUE and INFORM 


  • by describing

  • by constructing complex sentences using but, as, and, so, because, etc.

  • by determining a solution to a problem

  • by summarizing


See Grade 1 ELA overview for more context

Caring for Birds 

10 Weeks

  • Why should we care about birds?

  • How do characters in stories help care for birds?


  • Why do people have different opinions about birds?

  • How can people care for birds so they can live and grow?

Students will NARRATE, EXPLAIN, ARGUE and INFORM 


  • by stating their opinion and relevant facts 

  • by researching and reporting to answer a question

  • by using a variety of noun forms

  • by describing

  • by constructing complex sentences using but, as, and, so, because, etc.




See Grade 1 ELA overview for more context