Sequence Lessons Strategically
Kids build knowledge through carefully sequenced lessons.
About this practice...
This is a unit-level approach to creating a progressive series of lessons that build essential disciplinary language and literacy skills while teaching content. Throughout the unit lessons, students practice disciplinary skills such as identifying perspectives, stating claims, and identifying supporting text evidence while they also use key vocabulary and language in oral and written activities. In small-group and partner activities, students read, discuss and write about concepts to build depth of understanding. Active engagement and discussion are central to simultaneously building language competence and content knowledge.
Why is Sequencing Lessons to Build Understanding of Language and Content Effective?
- Teachers set an overarching unit goal and then include daily text-based activities that build students’ vocabulary and content knowledge. By engaging students in daily opportunities to read, discuss and write about how the activities relate to the overarching goal, students systematically build their knowledge and skills (Duhaylongsod, et al., 2015; Hogan, et al., 2024)
- Instructional units promote knowledge development for ELs by progressively deepening subject matter knowledge and sensemaking through carefully sequenced activities designed to build content knowledge and language (Capin, et al., 2026; Martinez, et al., 2024; Stewart, et al., 2022)
- There is a positive, reciprocal relationship between knowledge building and text comprehension. As students gain content knowledge through text-based and oral discussion activities, their content knowledge and literacy skills accelerate simultaneously (Capin, et al, 2026; Duke, et al., 2011; Vaughn, et al., 2017).
Citations
Duhaylongsod, L., Snow, C., Donovan, S., & Selman, R. (2015). Toward disciplinary literacy: Dilemmas and challenges in designing history curriculum to support middle school students. Harvard Educational Review, 85(4), 587–608.
Hogan, E., Fishstrom, S., Andress, T. T., Martinez, L., & Vaughn, S. (2024). Instructional practices for secondary social studies teachers: Describing a curricular program designed to improve language, content knowledge and literacy outcomes for emergent bilinguals. TESOL Journal, 15(4), 1–20.
Martinez, L. R., Fishstrom, S., Vaughn, S., Capin, P., Carlson, C. D., Andress, T. T., & Francis, D. J. (2024). Supporting knowledge and language acquisition of secondary emergent bilinguals through social studies instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 59(3), 349-370.
Stewart, M. A., Hansen-Thomas, H, &b Nunez, M (2022). Translingual disciplinary literacies: Equitable language environments to support literacy engagement. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(1), 181-203.
Vaughn, S., Martinez, L. R., Wanzek, J., Roberts, G., Swanson, E., & Fall, A. M. (2017). Improving content knowledge and comprehension for English language learners: Findings from a randomized control trial. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(1), 22
How it Works:
Establish a primary, overarching goal for the unit that represents the “big picture” of the unit content, or the key idea that you want students to learn. Use this goal to generate a guiding question that will be a focal point of unit lessons (see “Organize the unit around a guiding question”).
Outline a reasonable sequence of key ideas that lead up to a full understanding of the overarching goal and unit content.
Build the unit around a sequence of daily text-based and oral discussion activities derived from your sequence of key ideas.
Build in checkpoints along the way to monitor student learning of academic vocabulary and content. Circle back to any gaps in knowledge to meet the unit goal (See Formative Assessment).