Example 1

will be forced to use vocabulary like bilingual, discrimination, position, arguments, and
counterarguments that develops their academic language and also supports their literacy,
specifically writing.
(REQUIRED) 3.
How do key learning tasks in your plans build on each other to develop students abilities to
comprehend and/or compose text, and to develop related academic language? Describe
specific strategies that you will use to build student learning across the learning segment.
Reference the instructional materials you have included, as needed. (TPEs 1, 4, 9)
The focus of this learning segment is for students to take a stand by writing a persuasive
letter to Rush Limbaugh on why they feel he should apologize for mocking the Chinese
language during President Hu Jintao’s speech. Before writing their persuasive letters,
students must first understand bilingualism and discrimination, listen to the audio clips of
Rush Limbaugh and also the components of writing a persuasive letter. On day one, I will
begin by using a cognitive content dictionary (CCD is a strategy to introduce new or
unfamiliar words) chart to introduce/define the words bilingual and discrimination. In order
for students to take a stand, they must understand what it means to be bilingual and the
multiple forms of discrimination. Once we define the words and students provide examples,
I will then pass out the Language Discrimination Scenario handouts and popcorn read the
scenarios as a class. As we read the scenarios, I want the students to think about the
following questions: What is the problem? Can you relate to the students? If not, how
would you feel if you were in that situation? With the majority of my students speaking
another language, I feel that many of them would be able to relate the students in the
scenarios because they are also second language learners. After we read the scenarios, I
will have the students discuss the questions in their groups and then have a classroom
discussion. With the discussion fresh in their minds, I will then ask them to think about the
pros and cons of being bilingual. In their groups, they will talk about the pros and cons of
being bilingual and then as a class, we will create a T-Chart with the pros and cons of being
bilingual. The goal for day one is to have the students think about bilingualism and its
possible advantages and disadvantages before taking a stand on the Rush Limbaugh
incident.
Day two will start with a review of day one. I will ask the students: What did they
learn/discuss yesterday? From there, I will pose the following questions: Is it okay to make
fun of people who speak another language? Have you ever been made fun of for speaking
another language? If so, how did you feel? What should you do if you do not understand
someone speaking another language? I want students to first discuss the questions in their
groups and then as a class, students can report what their groups discussed. Building off of
the Language Discrimination Scenarios, our class list of pros and cons of being bilingual and
their own experiences as English learners, I hope that the students come to a conclusion
that it is not okay to make fun of people that speak another language. With the class
consensus that making fun of people that speak another language is wrong, I will then play
the audio clips of Rush Limbaugh mocking the Chinese language on national public radio.
After listening to the audio clips, I want the students to think about these questions: What
are your reactions? Are you angry? If so, why? Do you want to take action? Want to do
something about it? Maybe take a stand? First, I want students to let out their initial
reactions in small groups, before bringing the class back together as a class. Following the
discussion, to provide students with more context and reactions from legislative officials, I
will pass out the article “Rush Limbaugh Mocks Chinese President Hu Jintao” by ABC News’
Huma Khan. As we popcorn read the article as a class, I want the students to think about
these questions: What do you think about Limbaugh’s mocking of the Chinese language?