Jake Mell Differentiated Instruction Activity Plan

Date of teaching: February 23, 2016

Students level (of language proficiency): Intermediate Low, Spanish III
Lesson topic: Assessing students construction of a formal letter
A brief overview of the lesson

The objective of the lesson is for students to be able to learn how to write a formal
letter based of an authentic example.
The purpose is to test the writing skills of the students in the target language as
well as exposing them to an authentic version of the text.
Language Learning Objectives
Cultural Objectives
The cultural objective is to expose
Students will be able to state the historical
students and provide them with
and cultural significance of Csar Chvez.
information regarding formal letter
writing in Spanish.
Standards
Previous Learning
-Cognates
1.3.M.W.cPresentbriefwrittenreportsaboutpersonal
-Formatting
experiences,school,andcommunityhappeningsinthetarget
-Spanish grammar/vocabulary with
language
community
3.2.M.a- Use audio, visual, and/or print materials
available only in the target language to acquire
information

Activity 1
Rationales:
The objectives of this activity are to get students thinking and recognizing the
difference between regular writing and formal writing
Participation structure:
Whole class / Pair work
Procedures:
1. Teacher will hand out a couple of letters in English that
are written in a formal business style and have students
highlight differences from normal colloquial language
use.
2. Class will discuss the differences with the teacher
writing them on the board.
3. Teacher will pass out an example of a formal Spanish
letter to a university professor and have students
discuss the differences as well.
4. Teacher will facilitate a discussion where the students
share what they wrote down for their differences.
5. Students will then be presented with the rubric and
prompt for the activity in which they will need to write
their own formal letter.
6. Teacher will facilitate a discussion where the students
share what they wrote down for the first part.
7. Students will write down what they wonder about those
thoughts and observations of the photo in their native
language.
8. Teacher will facilitate a sharing/discussion of the activity
before revealing the true nature of the photo and the
characters involved.

Materials / resources
needed
Csar Chvez photo
http://www.trbimg.com/
img543eb68f/turbine/lame-cesar-chavez19930424
Worksheet

How will you evaluate the success of the activity? How will you know if
students have achieved the objectives of this activity?
I will be evaluating the success of the activity from informal assessments and
understanding checks throughout the activity. Looking at the students inputs and
contributions during the activity will provide insight. Ill be assessing their knowledge of
Csar Chvez on the formal assessment at the end of the Unit to see how well they

retained the lessons objectives.

Homework & Extensions
This is the introduction of the lesson involving Csar Chvez. Starting with just basic
target language observations then producing thoughts based off of those observations
scaffolds the language production. The topic is an authentic cultural icon of Hispanic
culture in the United States. The students will be developing their intercultural
competence by learning how to visualize their thinking about a topic related to other
cultures.