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Target Student Population

The target student population for this course is a group of six, grade four English as an Additional Language (EAL) students at the age of 10. These students are at an A2.2 CFR level.

Course Timeline

The course is designed to run over a six-week period of time. It can be adjusted by the teacher depending on student needs.

Demographics

The lessons will be delivered at a Regina Catholic Community School, where most newcomer students have little or no experience with blended-, or online learning, depending on the length of time they have been living in Canada for. Some students have little access to digital devices and Wi-Fi at home. The students have access to shared devices in the classroom, that can be booked by the classroom teacher through a centralized booking program. For students who have limited access to technology, there will be suggestions for possible accomodations.

Course Format

The course on Adjectives is designed for blended learning in order to provide support to the students when accessing and engaging in an online space. In order to better assist the students to connect with the content, the asynchronous format of the course will include both face to face discussions and online videos and projects that can be accessed from home or school. The flipped format of the course will give students the opportunity to listen to instructional videos before class, providing more time for group work and addressing questions.

Course Toolset

The course will be housed within the Regina Catholic Schools platform, which utilizes Scholantis Portal as its Learning Management System (LMS). Scholantis Portal was chosen since some students may already be familiar with it. Since Regina Catholic Schools utilizes this online learning platform, it is beneficial for students to become comfortable navigating it.  It also has easy access, students having Office 365 accounts, which makes student set up faster. There is also available online and in-person training and support regarding this platform. 

Assessment Strategies and Tools

In order to meet all students’ needs, there will be various assessment strategies incorporated. The formative assessment will include anecdotal records on student participation and assignments, quizzes on Menti and Kahoot. As part of the summative assessment, students will create a culminating project using Flipgrid, where they will describe a family picture applying correct usage of various types of adjectives. The assessment rubrics will be provided and linked to the module.

Course Content

This course is made up of ten modules starting with an overview and expectations for the course that will be delivered through a Power Point presentation accessible to the parents as well through My Site (Scholantis LMS). All student will receive the classroom website information via agenda, note home, email to parents and online reminders.

There are ten course content modules. All modules will incorporate the content-, and learning/ language objectives. After exploring the content as part of flipped lessons consisting of a brief video lecture (3-5mins), the students have the opportunity to implement their knowledge through both, face to face and online activities to enhance understanding (2-4 mins). There will be also room for asking questions and discussing difficulties as well as successes regarding the content. 

Learning Objectives

In the field of English as an Additional Language, we mainly focus on the four domains, such as: listening, speaking, reading and writing as part of our Language Objectives. All activities and assessments will focus on the following outcomes taken from the Common Framework of Reference Global Scale Data Wall, https://www.spiritsd.ca/cfr/

• Students use enough vocabulary to briefly describe an aspect of daily life, an event or personal experience using simple language.
• Students use adjectives to provide descriptive detail.
• Students begin to use increasingly advanced adjectives, with support (e.g. smooth, shiny, etc.

Overview of the topics covered in the content modules

• Identifying adjectives and their role in the sentence.
• Learning and using adjectives to describe people, places, things, and events.
• Expanding written and oral vocabulary by demonstrating understanding of words, by relating them to their opposites (antonyms) and to words with similar but not identical meanings (synonyms).
• Expanding sentences following the royal order of adjectives in order to improve written skills and quality conversation.
• Converting adjectives into their comparative and superlative forms, incorporating irregular comparative superlative adjectives.
• Examining spelling rules related to the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.

Considerations for common concerns

The two major concerns are lack of devices and absenteeism. For students who have minimal access to technology, there will be possible accommodations made either by referring the family to Community Computers to provide them with a used device, or giving them access to the shared devices in the school building. Absenteeism can be addressed by the wealth of opportunities blended courses offer. The benefit of this blended course on Adjectives is that students can have access to most of the course content as part of the flipped lessons. In case students are travelling back to their country of origin for a longer period of time, they can engage in the online lessons, responses and collaboration activities, providing they have access to devices and Wi-Fi. Students who are absent from school, will be asked to complete what they can at home and if they are unable, can be given time at school.

English Language Learners
In order to best support English Language Learners, the instructional videos will include subtitle to improve both reading-, and listening skills. The asynchronous nature of the course will also allow students to spend as much time on the content as needed.

Rationale

The topic of the blended course on Adjectives was chosen to help foreign language learners express themselves with a full range of emotions. The goal of the blended model incorporating flipped lessons is to accommodate a variety of learning styles, as well as providing additional support regarding both content, navigating- and engaging online in order to help students become successful digital citizens.