Chris Catelli

Planning Commentary
22 February 2015

Planning Commentary
Write a commentary of 5-8 single-spaced pages (including prompts) that addresses the
following prompts. You can address each prompt separately, through a holistic essay, or a
combination of both, as long as all prompts are addressed.
1. What is the central focus of the learning segment? Apart from being present in the school
curriculum, student academic content standards, or ELD standards, why is the content of
the learning segment important for your particular students to learn? (TPE 1)
The central focus of this learning segment is to have students analyze and critique the formation
of Mexican history through multiple lens ranging from: the indigenous population, the Spanish
colonizers, the reformers/revolutionaries and the current mestizo populous. In order to develop a
cohesive history students must engage in the progression of multiple dimensions of knowledge
and understanding.These dimensions range from understanding how the geographical factors of
the region influence the progression of Mexican history, to evaluating how the ethnic and social
makeup of the region has effected cultural and political issues. The central focus of this learning
segment hinges on building students understanding of perspective. Teaching students to be
historians and emphasizing the assessment of facts, ideas, and concepts is another key in this
learning segment that will help students develop skills they can use across content areas.
Approximately 18 of my 28 students are of Latino origin, of which a large majority can trace
their heritage back to the Mexican region. The content of this learning segment will inherently
bring a personal connection to the students. Although, many of my Latino students may be
unfamiliar with the history of Mexico I think through the progression of this learning segment
students will be able to slowly make connections between the content and their personal lives.
This learning segment will be useful in that it will engage students based on the relevance of
content and in turn will support students development of critical thinking skills due largely to
interest level. Students should also be able to connect with this learning segment through a
language medium. The linguistic demands of this learning segment will at times be automatically
scaffolded to help students whose first language is Spanish. The academic language and
vocabulary in this learning segment often has Spanish origins and 17 of my students speak
Spanish at home.
2. Briefly describe the theoretical framework and/or research that inform your instructional
design for developing your students knowledge and abilities in both history-social
science and academic language during the learning segment.
When discussing the epistemology of this learning segment it is important to recognize the
structure of the Choice Program. In this learning segment I am using tools and materials from the
Choices Program that support the learning of knowledge in two main structures. This

instructional design focuses on developing basic concepts and facts through reading a textbooktype reader. This learning segment reader is the first instructional design and is called, Caught
Between Two Worlds: Mexico at the Crossroads. The instructional design of the reader gives
students sufficient content information which lays out a historical framework of events. The
Choices Program then provides primary and secondary sources that are designed to develop
further knowledge and concepts while also giving students the framework for developing
connections, interpretations and judgements about specific historical events pertaining to
Mexican history. This two-prong instructional design is rooted in creating a constructivist
teaching ideology, where students create their own meaning through interacting with content,
materials and other students. Nevertheless, in order to foster a constructivist theoretical
framework actives must be student-centered and students must actively engage with material,
coming up with their own conclusions. The instructional design for this learning segment is not
limited to the framework provided by the Choices Programs.
In order to meet student needs, emphasize academic language, and develop language literacy I
have integrated other instructional strategies. These instructional designs add to my constructivist
theoretical framework. In order to develop deeper understandings and make clear connections
students must also engage in instruction based on vocabulary and academic language. Students
must build their own understanding of terms taught and reinforced in the learning segments and
use their understanding to complete other learning tasks.
3.

How do key learning tasks in your plans build on each other to support students use of
facts, concepts, and interpretations to make and explain judgments about a significant
historical event or social science phenomenon, and to develop related academic
language? Describe specific strategies that you will use to build student learning across
the learning segment. Reference the instructional materials you have included, as
needed. (TPEs 1, 4, 9)

Each lesson in the learning segments follows a structured set of learning tasks. First students
access prior knowledge and then develop a basic understanding of the content supported by facts
and concepts. These learning tasks are then aligned with assessment tasks that challenge students
to synthesize the knowledge and recall academic language and vocabulary. Next, students are
given the task to make clear connections by developing a deeper understanding of how the facts
and concepts align. To assess this progression of learning tasks students will be asked to interact
with each other and formulate clear definitions and historical contexts. Finally, students are
challenged to interact with each other and primary sources to evaluate and create interpretations
and judgements about specific historical events.
To begin this learning segment in order to establish a clear starting point for supporting student
learning the first task must be activating students prior knowledge. This learning segment is part
of the Latin America unit where we first focus on this region as a whole. In a sense, the Mexico
segment is a case study of the region. Students will be able to apply broad concepts they learned
about the Latin American region and develop a deeper understanding of those concepts by
focusing on more specific examples. For instance, prior to starting this learning segment students
will develop an understanding of the Columbian Exchange and the impact of the Old and New
Worlds colliding. However, before beginning the Mexico segment their understanding of the

Columbian Exchanged will be limited to a broad definition of how this concept effected the Latin
America region as a whole. The Mexico segment will provide students with clear examples of
the impact of this concept; furthermore, students will be a able to interpret facts and concepts
while developing judgments about the Columbian Exchange. This process of narrowing down
key concepts and definitions will take place throughout the learning segment.
Activating prior knowledge will first take place in this segment when students are given the task
of filling out a KWL (Know, Want to know, Learned) worksheet. However, before this activity
can take place students must read and examine the first section of the provided learning segment
reader (Caught Between Two World: Mexico at the Crossroads). The reader is broken down into
two main sections (Introduction/Part I and Part II) and correlates with two study guides that are
to be completed after the reading. The purpose of assigning the reading and study guide
questions are to track students basic knowledge of facts and concepts pertaining to the learning
segment. The information presented in the reader should give students a good knowledge base,
which will help facilitate the progression of understanding key ideas and concepts. Even though
students will have processed the reading by answering the study guide questions I will use the
KWL worksheet to focus in on a specific section of the reading that I would like for them to
recall and comprehend. This will also provide scaffolding for students who are trying to process
the sequencing of events by giving them an opportunity to activate prior knowledge. This KWL
worksheet is a great tool for pre-reading, during-reading and post-reading support and will also
provide support for RSP Student A, who needs extra assistance with spatial planning.
The next learning task in this segment deals with deconstructing primary source materials. In
order to make clear interpretations and judgements about the primary sources in this learning
segment students must understand what it means to think like a historian. As an introductory
concept in the Latin America unit students will build an understanding for the meaning and
purposes of making inferences. Comprehending the concept of making inferences about
historical events is key to helping students develop a mindset of thinking like a historian.
Inferences and the idea of perspective will be familiar academic language for students entering
into this Mexico unit. At the beginning of the Latin America unit students will progressively
develop an understanding for what it means to make inferences by engaging in an activity called
Responding to Images (to make clear: this activity is done before the Mexico segment). In this
activity students will be asked to make inferences by looking at the images of countries in Latin
America. Using perspective and making inferences about these images will help support students
when it comes to asking them to deconstruct primary source documents in the first lesson plan in
the Mexico unit. Students can use their understanding of concepts introduced (making inferences
and searching for multiple perspectives) in the Responding to Images activity to build a deeper
understanding of what it means to be a historian. Students will progress from analyzing images
to deconstructing the primary documents in the Mexico segment (The Spanish in Tenochtitlan:
Three Perspectives: TRB 9-11). The KWL worksheet will be used as support/scaffolding in the
form of a graphic organizer for deconstructing the primary sources in the Three Perspectives
activity. Furthermore, as an assessment task students will be asked to complete TRB 12 The
Spanish in Tenochtitlan: Three Perspectives in order to synthesize their judgements on the
primary sources (Sources A, B, and C: TRB 9-11) in the activity.

Further deconstruction of primary and secondary sources will be tasks found throughout the
Mexico unit. Students will progressively build their knowledge through multiple dimensions of
Mexicos history including: analyzing maps (Political Geography of North America TRB 1317) and constructing interpretations of Mexicos history through an analysis of how Mexico
frames their history in textbooks (The Struggle for Mexicos Past TRB 23-25). This progression
of learning tasks hinges on the enforcing academic language. Each lesson in the learning
segments follows a structured set of learning tasks.
4.

Given the description of students that you provided in Task 1.Context for Learning, how
do your choices of instructional strategies, materials, technology, and the sequence of
learning tasks reflect your students backgrounds, interests, and needs? Be specific about
how your knowledge of your students informed the lesson plans, such as the choice of
text or materials used in lessons, how groups were formed or structured, using student
learning or experiences (in or out of school) as a resource, or structuring new or deeper
learning to take advantage of specific student strengths. (TPEs 4,6,7,8,9)

Focusing heavily on reading and developing academic language and vocabulary is at the
forefront of my instructional strategies and materials. Each lesson plan corresponds with a
reading from our learning segment reader: Caught Between Two Worlds: Mexico at the
Crossroads. The information presented in the reader will provide students with facts and
concepts integral in building a foundation for language and content development. Considering
my class consists of 12 reclassified as fluent English proficient students (RFEP), three English
learners (EL), and two initial fluent English proficient students (IFEP) my instructional strategies
and learning tasks will emphasize language development. In Lesson Plan Day #1 I will need to
make sure I use instructional strategies that emphasize familiar academic language so students
can access prior knowledge pertaining to making inferences and evaluating perspectives.
Consistently using academic language that emphasizes deconstructing primary and secondary
sources will be key in supporting students and motivating them to think critically. My students
struggle with analyzing primary and secondary source material when it is in text form. Therefore,
I have tried to incorporate primary sources (Photos of the Mexican Revolution-Lesson Plan Day
#3) of varying formats.
Other instructional strategies and materials I will use in this segment when dealing with
academic language and vocabulary include: synthesizing through illustrated dictionary entries
and processing vocabulary by voice recording terms and definitions. I have found that my
students respond positively when they interact with the language and vocabulary in ways that are
different receptive modalities. In Lesson Plan Day #1 we will interact with vocabulary by having
students develop Illustrated Dictionary Entries. This activity will challenge a majority of my
students who struggle with economic vocabulary. My students need to develop a depth of
understanding when it comes to vocabulary. This activity will also allow students to use
materials like pens, colored pencils, markers and will emphasize active learning.
With concern to technology this learning segment will incorporate Google Maps in connection
with ancient ruins (Lesson Plan day #1-Google Slide: Early Civilizations of Mexico) and voice
recording to emphasize both productive and receptive modalities (Lesson Plan Day #2Audionote). I have been trying to push the use of Google applications in my classroom so

students can get use to producing documents and files on one interface. I also push the use of
Google application because my students use Google Docs in the their core English class and this
application is useful for editing, sharing documents with groups, and keeping files in a organized,
singular location. Google maps will be an great tool for developing a deeper connection between
the content and the students. I will use the Audionote voice recording application because my
students seem to be comfortable speaking to each other and at times I feel specific students talk
just because they like hearing their own voices (this application will allow them to do just that
but away from class time). However, this will challenge my ELs who rarely engage in receptive
modalities in the classroom setting. Using this technology in the classroom will help students
focus in on vocabulary and give them a chance to engage in the curriculum through speaking and
listening. Furthermore, it is a goal of mine to challenge students to find study habits that work for
them. This learning experience of recording the vocabulary words and definitions and compiling
the recordings into an audio file will give students the opportunity to engage in new or deeper
learning. Two of my ELs have intermediate listening CELDT scores and I am wondering if
listening to vocabulary will be a tool they can use to advance their language fluency.
The seating arrangement for this learning segment will be based off language fluency. Most of
the group activities are formulated through the seating chart and therefore, are intentionally
situated to support students based on their language fluency. My RFEP students have a wide
range of academic performance and unfortunately I do not have access to all of their CELDT
scores. Therefore, my RFEP students are situated around the class based more off of their
academic performance and behavior in the class. Considering a large portion of this learning
segment is coordinated with various reading components I have attempted to group my ELs with
students who are proficient readers and helpful students.
When it comes to the sequencing of my learning tasks I have tried to coordinate a strong
progression of reading paired with vocabulary tasks and assessment as well as scaffolding
reading with multiple graphic organizers. I have found my students respond well when given the
structure of a graphic organizer and tend to show less of a depth of understanding when asked to
create their own annotations and reading organizers. Nevertheless, as the learning segment
progresses I would like to scaffold less and less of the reading material and asks students to
identify their own vocabulary words and make interpretations and connections without the use of
a prompted graphic organizer.

5. Consider the language demands1 of the oral and written tasks in which you plan to have
students engage as well as the various levels of English language proficiency related to
classroom tasks as described in the Context Commentary. (TPE 7)
a. Identify words and phrases (if appropriate) that you will emphasize in this
learning segment. Why are these important for students to understand and use in
completing classroom tasks in the learning segment? Which students?
1 Language demands can be related to vocabulary, features of text types such as chronological accounts or
historical interpretation, or other language demands such as understanding oral presentations or participating in role
plays.

Through the progression of this unit, by the time students engage in the Mexico segment they
should be able to recall prior knowledge about the meaning and purpose of the following words
and phrases: regionalism, the Columbian exchange, mestizo, economic disparity, inferences,
perspective, diversity, physiographic features, demographics, indigenous and Old World versus
New World. Theses words and phrases are generalized terms describing broad feature of Latin
America as a whole. Students will need to be able to make connections between these words and
the content illustrated in the Mexico learning segment. These words are important because they
offer students a deeper understanding of how these terms effect the region of Mexico. For
example, before the learning segment students should be familiar with the term regionalism in
that it is term that can be defined as: the division of people in a region based on social, cultural,
political, or geographical factors (this unit focusing more on geographical factors). Although
students should be able to identify how Latin America is separated or regionalized by the
physical geography of Latin America; students will need to take their understanding of this term
and apply it to the historical content of Mexico. This word can be seen as a a connector word for
developing a deeper understanding of how Mexicos history is rooted by the physical geography
of region, and how the regionalism that was created in turn lead to the disconnection of
indigenous societies and overall inability to spread knowledge and customs.Making connections
like this are integral for students developing interpretations and judgments of historical events.
Focusing primarily on the task of deconstructing primary and secondary sources all students will
need to understand the following words and phrases: think like a historian, unpacking primary
sources, biases, perspective, analyzing, synthesizing, making connections, evidence and
developing claims. These terms will be challenging for a majority of my students, but there
should be some familiarity with the words and phrases. In this unit students will deconstruct
primary and secondary source documents in each daily lesson plan. Therefore, it is imperative
that students use these words to describe the content in the primary and secondary source
documents. Using these words in receptive modalities will be helpful for students in gaining
deeper understandings of the content and how arguments are framed in a historical setting.
b. What oral and/or written academic language (organizational, stylistic, and/or
grammatical features) will you teach and/or reinforce?
As stated above, some of the academic language students will need to understand in order to
participate in the rhetorical process of deconstructing primary and secondary sources includes:
thinking like a historian, unpacking primary and secondary sources, biases, perspective,
analyzing,synthesizing, making connections, evidence, accuracy, generalizations and developing
claims. The majority of this academic language should be reinforced through instructional
activities that are stylistic in describing primary and secondary sources both orally and written.
More academic language pertaining to organizational features of learning segment might consist
of words and phrases like: compare and contrast, graphic organizer, complete sentences,
statements, memoirs, conclusion, summarize, data, pathos, ethos and logos. Understanding this
academic language is vital for students writing historical rhetoric. These terms are organizational
in nature because students will need to know how to perform and organize these terms in their
own writing as well as identify them in historical writings. For many of my RFEP students and
ELs, identifying organizational rhetoric in historical content will be difficult because this task

demands exploring academic language by reading through the lines. Enforcing this academic
language through oral and written tasks is key.
c. Explain how specific features of the learning and assessment tasks in your plan,
including your own use of language, support students in learning to understand
and use these words, phrases (if appropriate), and academic language. How does
this build on what your students are currently able to do and increase their
abilities to follow and/or use different types of text and oral formats?
During this learning segment I am going to need to be constantly using informal assessments to
check for understanding of academic language and rhetoric. In this learning segment we will be
engaging with primary and secondary sources that will challenge students to use critical thinking
and deconstructing skills. I have found my students respond well to analogies and are able to
process complex terminology when put in a context they are familiar with. If I can break down
academic language in terms they can understand and I think they should be able to apply their
understandings to develop their own interpretations and ideas.
6. Explain how the collection of assessments from your plan allows you to evaluate your
students learning of specific student standards/objectives and provide feedback to
students on their learning. (TPEs 2, 3)
Using a combination of both formative and informal assessments to evaluate prior knowledge is
the first set of assessments that will take place in my learning segment. Student will be given the
task of reading the learning segment reader (Caught Between Two Worlds: Mexico at the
Crossroads) and answering questions about the reading in the Study Guide: Introduction/Part I.
To assess the depth of understanding in correlation with this content I will first use formative
assessment by simply checking each students work on the study guide questions. I have
provided a rubric for how I will be assessing the study guide (see Mexico Study Guide Rubric)
and it is broken down into three categories: sentence structure (sentence fluency), relevant
information/content, and overall completion. This assessment will take place at the beginning of
each class during the learning segment (each day corresponds with reading from the learning
segment reader and correlates with questions from two study guides). While this formative
assessment is taking place, students will be given either a pre-reading task (KWL Worksheet) or
be working on another formative assessment aligned with academic language/vocabulary.
However, while evaluating understanding of general content (formatively assessing study guides)
it will also be imperative to simultaneously be informally assessing student work on tasks
dealing with either vocabulary or pre-reading strategies (it depends on the day; Day #1: prereading strategies, Day #2: academic language and vocabulary and Day #3; pre-reading
strategies). Immediate feedback can be given to students with concern to the formative
assessment, focusing specifically on giving students feedback about their sentence structure and
overall completion. Feedback on relevant information and overall content contained in the study
guide can be discussed as a class as way to focus on the progression of using this content to
develop deeper understandings.

Each focal learning task is aligned with assessment tasks pertaining to developing deeper
understandings of the content by examining and deconstructing a range of primary and
secondary source documents. For Day #1 the focus learning task will be centered on
deconstructing primary source documents about different perspectives of the Spanish in
Tenochtitlan. Day #2 will focus on analyzing primary sources dealing with the effects of political
geography through deconstructing various maps. On Day #3 the focus learning task will deal
with evaluating secondary sources with concern to their portrayal of the Porfiriato period of
Mexican history. These learning task will coincide with both a summative and informal
assessment. The informal assessment will take place while the activity in progress. Assessment
of group work, the monitoring of productive and receptive modalities and evaluating connections
between content and the learning tasks will be the focuses of the informal assessments. As for the
summative assessment each of the learning tasks coincide with an assessment task which asks
students to deconstruct the primary and secondary source documents through graphic organizers.
These graphic organizers will be assessed during the informal assessment, taking place during
the activity, and evaluated more structurally in a summative assessment after the activity. The
summative assessment is simply a binder check that takes place at the end of the unit. During this
summative assessment student work will be graded (The Struggle for Mexico Past TRB 25,
The Spanish in Tenochtitlan: Three Perspectives TRB 12, and Political Geography of North
America TRB 16) and feedback will be given based on the rubric provided.
Other formative and informal assessments include exit slips (informal), gallery walk with class
discussion (informal), timeline short answers (formative) and illustrated dictionary entries
(formative). The exit slips will allow students to sum up their daily understandings and provide
feedback for where adjustments need to be made in order to clarify content. The gallery walk and
timeline short answer questions will be assessed to make sure the understanding of the basic
content of the lesson is sufficient to proceed with progressive more in depth content and
concepts.
7. Describe any teaching strategies you have planned for your students who have identified
educational needs (e.g., English learners, GATE students, students with IEPs). Explain
how these features of your learning and assessment tasks will provide students access to
the curriculum and allow them to demonstrate their learning. (TPEs 9. 12)
Starting with one of the first features of my learning segment that is planned for both my RSP
students and my ELs is the KWL Worksheet. This worksheet is a pre-reading strategy that
provides my ELs a chance to process their knowledge and comprehension of a specific historical
event (The Spanish in Tenochtitlan). This strategy will allow students to process academic
language and vocabulary and synthesize the reading through a graphic organizer. This strategy
will also lend assistance to RSP Student #1 who has trouble with Visual Motor Integration and
Spacial Planning. This activity should help her manage her difficulties by allowing her process
information from the reading at her own pace and record the knowledge she gains in an
organized structure.
Lesson Plan Day #2 has a heavy focus on vocabulary from the reader and possibly other
academic language (depends on how perceptive students are to material covered in Day #1). I

debated with myself about how I should integrate teaching strategies that will highlight the needs
of my ELs and lower achieving RFEP students. All three of my ELs have place in the
intermediate level for speaking according to their CELDT scores and EL Student #1 and #2 both
placed in the intermediate range for listening. In order to provide access to the language demands
of the curriculum I decided to do a vocabulary activity where students will be placed in groups of
varying language abilities and will be asked to communicate and develop Illustrated Dictionary
Entries and definitions for vocabulary words. In this activity each student is given a particular
job or task: Illustrator, context specialist and language specialist. Each job/task will provide
students a chance to present information in front of the class (Illustrator explains image, context
specialist identifies how the words are found in the context of the segment, and language
specialist reads definitions into voice recorder). Most importantly, this activity will access
students receptive modalities and allow students to access information after the activity via
listening to the recording of the words and definitions. Support handout will also be provided for
assistance on how to present in front of the class.
I will be showing two short videos throughout this learning segment and will provide the
transcripts of those videos for all students or use closed captioning. The PALS reading strategy
will also be a method I will use for reading when dealing with primary and secondary source
documents. At the beginning of this learning segments I will be providing the students with
vocabulary words from the readings while the students supplement more words during their
reading. However, by the end of this learning segment my goal is to have students identifying the
vocabulary words on their own and contextualizing them without the use of a short answer
handout (i.e. Vocabulary and Historical Event Timeline of Mexico).
RSP Student #2 has been struggling to produce consistent notes on the assigned reading. Seeing
as this unit relies heavily on the learning segment reader for contextual information, I am going
to have to figure our a teaching strategy to help RSP Student #2 complete the study guides for
the readings. I will have to discuss this with his support teacher and figure out a strategy that will
allow him to access the information and readily have it at his disposal for classroom purposes.