In this lesson, students will read a letter that Captain John Smith of the English Army wrote to Queen Anne in 1616. He wrote this letter about his encounters with the Algonquin Indians of Virginia. The featured activity focuses on academic vocabulary from the second paragraph, highlighted in the attached student glossary.

Things to watch for:

• Identification of academic vocabulary
• Distinctions between Tier 1, 2, and 3 words
• A variety of vocabulary instruction techniques
• Encouragement of students to demonstrate mastery of new words
• The use of cognates
• Comprehension checks of vocabulary through discussion, examples, and student sentences
• A combination of pair work and whole class discussion

Note: Based on the language and literacy levels of her high school ELLs, the teacher decided to align this lesson to 7th-grade English language arts standards.