Before you teach — read this first

Grade 4 · Lesson 6 — What is special about academic English? — bring the words back

Academic language · What is special about academic English? · using them · blocked · 30 minutes · 24 slides · Launch → I do → We do → Read → You do → Closure
The language behind this lesson — read this before you teach it.
WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT ACADEMIC ENGLISH?

What it is. You have met these and used them; now you choose between them.

Why our test works. By Grade 4 a child knows several words for nearly the same thing and treats them as interchangeable. Forcing a comparison is what turns a vocabulary into a set of choices.

Leans on. Grades 1-3 built single words. These are groups, which is new.

Watch for. Watch for a child altering the phrase — *carry out* becoming *carry over*. It looks like a small slip and it is a complete change of meaning; correct it every time or it sets.

What this lesson is

Match 6 academic words to their everyday partners and use each in a sentence frame. The worked example is built on Consider what happens when water freezes., ringing consider. The class reads Writing Book 4, p.45 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.

Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“Speech was given so meaning could be made clear; choosing well is part of the gift.”
A different reason every lesson, on purpose. It is not on a slide and it is not a script — if you have a better reason today, use yours. What should land is the idea, not a sentence they can recite.
How it goes

You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.

Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word consider alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then think about arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: Consider what happens when water freezes.. Three clicks, three things said. Do not let the whole slide arrive at once — a slide that arrives whole gives the answer before the question is asked.

The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class matches each item to its partner aloud, then uses the frames in pairs. Every child says at least one frame. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.

They open Writing Book 4 to page 45 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.

Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone through the five steps — match, choose, frame, write their own. The frames stay on screen while they write: You may use the frame for two of your three. Try the third without it. Say both halves of that — the frame is there if they need it, and it is better writing without it. Walk and note who used it; that is your group for tomorrow, not a mark against them today.

You close on the exit direction — Say one sentence using consider. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Two ways to say it — and you choose.

Exit directions — in full, standing still, before anyone moves
Sheet and pencil · Read the word bank BEFORE you fill any gap · Fill every gap, then write your own sentences
Watch for

Watch for a child altering the phrase — *carry out* becoming *carry over*. It looks like a small slip and it is a complete change of meaning; correct it every time or it sets.

As-Suffah Academy · Writing · narrative brief