American Government 101: ELLs and Beyond

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Greetings friends!   I teach in a third and fourth grade newcomers program.  My teaching partner and I have 36 students, and 1/3 of our students are newcomers to the United States.  In addition, it is not unusual for our "neighborhood" students to also be bilingual learners.  So when I saw that my district's new curriculum map for social studies demanded that I teach an American Government unit first thing in the school year, I moaned, audibly, in the middle of our professional development session. 

On a good day, American Government is tough for 9 and 10 year olds.  Throw language learners into the mix, and I thought I might need to exercise my right to drink heavily on the weekends. 

All kidding aside, I was determined to develop a plan.  Simulations in social studies are always engaging and fun.  So I decided to write my own.  I planned read aloud mentor texts, student response sheets, election activities, continental congress and bill passing re-enactments. What I didn't plan and discovered on day one (as I'm teaching the lesson, of course) is that I needed some kind of vocabulary anchor.  We needed something to document our vocabulary knowledge as we gained it. 

That's when I used the American Government Vocabulary Picture Dictionary from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Running-Things-With-Runnels !   Andrea has some great pictorial resources for ELLs!  We began to use the vocabulary picture dictionary the next day during social studies.

What I really like about it is that it leaves space for students to glue on a picture or draw a picture of each vocabulary word. There's also a space for a definition and sentence for each word.   It covers the usual words teachers use when teaching American Government to students, for example: Legislative Branch, President, Executive Branch, Capitol Building, White House, Supreme Court, etc.  The terms are laid out in a table, over three pages.  Words are on the left of the table, then spaces for pictures, followed by definition and sentence spaces. 

I chose to have my students glue on pictures of the vocabulary words.  I simply googled images of each word, compiled them on a sheet in a word document, and then made it an activity for student groups to sort through the pictures together to figure out which picture went with each word.  We fill out the definitions together as we encounter each vocabulary words in our simulated learning activities.  

Students complete the sentence writing sections on their own. 

This "cool tool" has become our vocabulary anchor for our entire simulation. We add to it at the beginning or end of each lesson.  Even though this is designed to support English Language Learners, it's a great tool for native English speakers as well!  As we travel through our simulation, it has become our "go-to" to review and preview vocabulary. 

To see this fantastic product, click here!  



American Vocabulary Government Picture Dictionary

To check out my blog partner's fantastic blog, click below!
www.runningthingswithrunnels.com

Teach on, my friends!