Transcript: Kindergarten Designated ELD w/ Science

Kindergarten Designated English Language Development with Science: Expanding Descriptions of Sea Otters Using Noun Phrases and Academic Words

Kindergarten Designated ELD with Science Video Transcript (DOCX)

Introductory Slides (00:00–03:01)

Narrator: Welcome to the California Department of Education Integrated and Designated English Language Development Transitional Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve Video Series.

Narrator: Designated English Language Development, Building Into and From Science in Kindergarten. In this lesson, the students are learning, reviewing, and practicing how to exchange information and ideas about grade-level science content. They intentionally listen, speak, read, and write in order to build language and linguistic structures. The students will use these language resources to accurately demonstrate their understanding of the science content in writing now and when they return to their science class.

Narrator: The Focal California English Language Development Standards Driving This Lesson:  The English Language Development Standards at the Bridging Level are: Kindergarten, Part I, Standard 1: Exchanging Information and Ideas, where students contribute to class, group, and partner discussions by listening attentively, following turn-taking rules, and asking and answering questions; Kindergarten, Part I, Standard 12: Selecting language resources, where students use a wide variety of general academic and domain-specific words, synonyms, antonyms, and non-literal language to create an effect while speaking and writing; and, Kindergarten, Part II, Standard 4: Using nouns and noun phrases, where students expand noun phrases in a wide variety of ways in order to enrich the meaning of phrases and sentences and add details about ideas, people, things, and so on, in shared language activities guided by the teacher and independently. Watch how students move from early levels of proficiency toward the bridging levels of these English language development standards throughout the lesson.

Narrator: The supporting California Next Generation Science Standards Used in Tandem with the Focal English Language Development Standards: The Science Performance expectation is Kindergarten, Life Sciences 1, Sub-Item 1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes, where students who demonstrate understanding use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. Watch for how these California standards are addressed throughout the lesson.

Narrator: Watch how the teacher leads the students through a series of activities that allow them to expand and enrich their descriptions of sea otters using newly learned language structures and science vocabulary through scientific discourse. Watch the teacher lead the students to discuss the features of sea otters' anatomy.

Teacher Introduces the Lesson (03:02–04:17)

Teacher: Sea otters need to survive in the ocean ecosystem and, if that is their favorite food, they need to have something on their anatomy so that they can eat that. So, what do sea otters have that help them eat sea urchins?

Student 1: Um, sharp teeth!

Teacher: Mahava, you think they have sharp teeth?

Student 1: Yeah, because when somebody have sharp teeth, they could, they could eat it.

Teacher: Okay, so what, what should we write? How do we write that?

Student 1: Like, sea otters have sharp teeth that help them eat the sea urchins.

Teacher: Ah. Show me if you agree or disagree with Mahava. Masija. Thank you.

Student 2: The otters have, the otters have sharp hands to cut open the sea urchin. 

Teacher: Show me if you agree or disagree. Okay. Some friends are disagreeing. Okay, Nadia, why do you disagree with that? 

Student 3: Because they don't have sharp hands, I mean sharp paws, that help them cut their food.

Teacher: I like how you changed that from hands to paws because we need to be specific.

Looking Deeply at Classroom Instruction (04:18–04:29)

Narrator: Watch how the teacher leads the students to understand how the use of noun phrases and academic words expand and enrich their descriptions of sea otters when they speak and write.

Looking at Language (04:30–06:19)

Teacher: Are you ready? Five-star listeners. Eyes are … 

Students (chorally): watching!

Teacher: Lips are …

Students (chorally): closed!

Teacher: Ears are …

Students (chorally): listening! 

Teacher: Hands are …

Students (chorally): closed!

Teacher: Ready?

All (reading chorally): “Sea otters have sharp teeth that help them eat sea urchins.”

Teacher: Okay. Who did we write about?

Students (chorally): Sea otters!

Teacher: Okay, so we wrote a fact about sea otters. Right here. What is the fact that we wrote about? What part of their anatomy did we write about?

Student 1: About their sharp teeth.

Teacher: About their sharp teeth. We wrote about their sharp teeth. And then, boys and girls, we used “that.” And “that” tells the reader that now I'm going to give more information about the sharp teeth. It tells the reader that now I'm telling the reader the purpose of those sharp teeth. What is that purpose, Emiliano? 

Student 4: Um, to eat sea urchins.

Teacher: Exactly. I use "that" to explain more. Now I have one more question, though. We wrote "that help them." Who are "them"? 

Class (calling out): Otters, sea otters, sea urchins, no sea otters.

Teacher: Sea otters? Who does it help? It helps the sea otter, so "them" refers to sea otters. Nice job.

Pair and Trio Discussions (06:20–07:28)

Student 5: I think that sea otters have ... eyes to see underwater.

Teacher: So what are those called, Allyson? Thank you for helping your friend. Closable nostrils.  Mustafa, let's listen to Mariam first. “Sea otters have [blank].”

Student 6: Sea otters have closable nostril.

Teacher: Let's look. “That help them [blank]. “

Student 6: … that help them …

Teacher: How do they help them in the ocean ecosystem?

Student 6: to dive for, for …

Teacher: a long …

Student 6: a long …

Teacher: time.

Student 6: time. 

Teacher: Yeah. That helps them.

Student 1: The sea otters have paws that help them grooming. What else have you learned? 

Student 4: I think sea otters eat spiny sea urchins. What else have you learned?

Student 1: I learned that sea otters have flippers that help them swim and dive.

Whole Group Debrief (07:29–08:02)

Teacher: What do sea otters have, Mariam?

Student 6: They have sharp teeth that help them eat.

Teacher: Do you agree or disagree with your friend? I agree with you too. Boys and girls, here we're using “sea otters have mmm,” and you were telling me the piece of the anatomy, and then you used the “that “chunk to tell about the purpose of that part of their anatomy. Pat yourself on the back.

Looking Deeply at Classroom Instruction (08:03–08:14)

Narrator: Watch how the teacher leads the students to move towards collaborative and independent writing about the descriptions of sea otters using newly learned language structures and science vocabulary.

Collaborative Writing (08:15–10:22)

Teacher: I heard you earlier say, to use these notes, you said sea otters have a long body. Is that still what you want to write? Okay? Would you tell me the whole sentence?

Student 5: Sea otters have a long body that help them swim.

Teacher: Fabulous. What's the first word you need to write?

Student 5: Sea otters.

Teacher: Oh, can you write that? Go ahead, Allyson. So, you wrote that without looking anywhere.  Have you learned how to write that? Nice job. Now Allyson, how are you gonna know what, what word comes next?

Student 5: “Sea otters have …”

Teacher: Hmmm. Nice job rereading. That helps me too, knowing what word comes next. And look at you putting a finger space between your words. What do you do now?

Student 5: “Sea otters have long body.”

Teacher: How are you going to find that? Okay, now let's listen. Can I teach you something? Okay, do we say “sea otters have long body,” or do we say “sea otters have a long body?” When I heard you talk earlier, I heard you say “sea otters have a long body.” How do we write that? And now what are you gonna write?

Student 5: Long body. 

Teacher: And where will you find that? On your notes. And I liked how you really, you knew that was this, because here is the line from our diagram and the label tells us that this is the sea otter's long body. Keep writing Allyson, you're doing a wonderful job.

Beyond the Lesson (10:23–10:55)

Narrator: Beyond the Designated English Language Development Lesson: Building Into and From Content Instruction. By engaging in designated English language development lesson such as this one, the students are better prepared and more confident to express their growing science content knowledge in speaking, reading, and writing during collaborative activities with peers in small groups, as a whole class and individually with diminishing supports. 

Students Share Their Writing (10:56–11:15)

Student 5: “Without kelp, there are no more small animals, because they have no more food.”

Closing Slides (11:16–11:01)

Narrator: Reflection and Discussion: Reflect on the following questions. First, how did you observe the following focal English language development standards and supporting content standards being implemented in this kindergarten designated English language development lesson? English Language Development, Part I, Standard 1: Exchanging Information and Ideas; Part I, Standard 12: Selecting Language Resources; Part II, Standard 4: Using Nouns and Noun Phrases; and Life Science 1, Sub-Item 1, From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. Second, what features of designated English language development did you observe in the lesson? Now pause the video and engage in a discussion with colleagues.

Narrator: The California Department of Education would like to thank the administrators, teachers, and students who participated in the making of this video. This video was made possible by the California Department of Education in collaboration with WestEd and Timber Films.