Demographics
Our school is in transition, changing into a science and mathematics magnet school serving students in grades 6 - 12. This school houses one of the two middle level transitional bilingual programs (Spanish/English) in our district. At our school, this special program is indeed a "school within a school" serving approximately 85 students in the sixth - eighth grades. These students are English Language Learners (ELLs) who share Hispanic ethnicity. As recent immigrants or migrants, they are simultaneously acclimating themselves to a new school system, country, culture, and way of life. These students have all of their content area classes (English Language Arts, social studies, mathematics, and science) with the program's three teachers. I am one of these three teachers.
This unit is designed for these middle school ELLs in a multi-grade English class. The class is leveled so that sixth, seventh, and eighth graders performing at the highest English ability level (second to fifth grade reading level in English) are grouped together. In our classroom, this unit will take almost four weeks of block classes (84 minutes) to complete.
Comments: