Unlocking Comprehension: How to Plan a Unit Before Reading Begins

Before reading a text with multilingual learners of English, teachers’ actions fall into two buckets: planning and introducing the text. Because teachers often have so many ideas already for introducing the text, today we’ll focus on the first bucket, which includes:

1. 1. Finding a text that aligns with the curricular standards
   2. Planning the assessment
   3. Planning the segments of the unit based on the assessment
   4. Planning the lessons based on each segment

1. Find a Text That Aligns With Your Curricular Standards

When analyzing your standards, pay attention to any topics that might be identified in the curriculum. Topics might include individuals, events, regions of the world, or concepts such as justice, responsibility, and sustainability. When we create a text set around a topic, the unit is more cohesive and students can build knowledge over the course of the unit as each text provides more information.

However, if our curriculum only focuses on skills (e.g., inferences, predictions, summarization, and transitions), then we have to select a topic. When we don’t read around a topic, students can become confused as the lessons jump: One day is about dinosaurs, another day is about fire trucks, and yet another about Fredrick Douglass. During each of these days, though they will be working on a specific skill, the content has no connection, reducing the chance for critical thinking and building content knowledge.

2. Backwards Plan the Assessment

With our standards, we plan our summative assessment. A formula used to create the assessment is product + thinking verb + topic.

• • A product is anything that students are to create for the summative assessment (e.g. poster, podcast, essay, explainer video).
  • A thinking verb is the way of thinking (e.g. analyze, summarize, recount, describe, explain).
  • The topic is the content students have to learn.

Here is an elementary level example of our formula: In a short paragraph of 4-5 sentences, explain how Lola learns about her island in Islandborn.

And here is a secondary level example: In an essay, analyze the development of Tam in Moon Bear.

3. Plan the Segments of the Unit Based on the Assessment

With the assessment prompt created, we now divide the unit into segments: beginning, middle, end. Again, we backward plan the unit, starting with the end: We ask ourselves these questions for each segment:

• • End
    • What content knowledge do students have to present in the summative product?
    • What skills do students have to be proficient in to demonstrate thinking skills?
    • What do we have to model for students to produce the final product?
  • Middle
    • What is the sequence of texts used to teach the topic?
    • What skills need to be taught for each text in the text set?
  • Beginning
    • What are the texts we will use to teach the topic?
    • How do we introduce students to the unit’s topic?
    • What systems do we need for students to engage in the unit?

These questions help us logically and systematically plan our unit backwards. Each segment of the unit is connected to teaching the topic and the thinking verb associated with the assessment. With these questions, the lessons are not random nor aimless. With this approach, we end up with a unit where each lesson is intentionally sequenced to lead to the assessment.

4. Planning the Lessons Based on Each Segment

Just like we have a formula for the summative assessment, we have one for the lesson. Our lesson objective formula is product + thinking verb + topic + language demand. It is basically the formula for the summative assessment with an additional language requirement.

Here is an elementary level example: In a sentence, describe how Lola feels when she realizes she doesn’t remember her island by starting your sentence with “Because.”

And here is a secondary level example: In a complex sentence, describe how Tam deals with the news that his village has to be evacuated by writing a sentence that starts with “Since.”

In providing a by part to the formula, we explicitly identify the language domain students must use to succeed in that lesson. This lesson objective formula brings clarity to what students have to produce, the content we have to teach, and the kind of thinking students have to do with the content and the required language. It contains all the clarity of a structured lesson.

Conclusion

Effective, transformational instruction does not occur by having students show up to class and read from a book. It starts with careful, intentional, and logically sequenced planning. When reading instruction is planned systematically, multilingual learners of English can experience transformational growth.