Elementary Education

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 6 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the
brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Commentary pages exceeding the maximum will not be
scored. You may insert no more than 2 additional pages of supporting documentation at the end of this file. These pages
may include graphics, texts, or images that are not clearly visible in the video or a transcript for occasionally inaudible portions.
These pages do not count toward your page total.

1. Which lesson or lessons are shown in the video clip(s)? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan
number.
[
The lessons that are shown in the video clips are day four on proofreading and editing
(Clip 1) and day five on reviewing and final draft (Clip 2). ]
2. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment
Refer to scenes in the video clip(s) where you provided a positive learning environment.
a. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to
students with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in
learning?
[
In the proofreading/editing lesson I had the students get involved in determining what
was important for our list of things to check. At one point (Clip 1 time:1:05) I promote confidence
in the task we are discussing by reminding them that most of the proofreading skills are actions
they already implement on their own.
During class discussions I also implement a few different ways for students to
participate. The most common is calling on individuals to share what they know. I also make a
point to ask struggling learners and ELLs to respond to questions I know they can confidently
answer (Clip 1 time: 6:44). To allow for ELLs who have a low proficiency in speaking but a
medium proficiency in listening and the content I include whole group nonverbal responses with
simple thumbs up or thumbs down. This also allows me to do a quick check on all students and
their confident level. For example when it is an obvious answer I will take note of students who
are looking to their peers to respond or who are flip-flopping their decision because they are not
certain what I am asking (Clip 1 time: 3:30).
I allow my students who are gifted to flourish by not limiting them to a set list and
allowing the students to be involved in making our checklist in the proofreading lesson. For
example one student suggests that we check to make sure our narration stays consistent
throughout our writing (Clip 1 time: 4:42). Identifying the narration in a story is a topic we have
been discussing in our reading content but is a concept most students are still working on
understanding. I do not want to discount that as an option for students to check for in their
writing if they are capable of completing that task.
I show the good rapport I have established with my students in the review and editing
lesson when we have a short side comment about my possible first name and my sister (Clip 2
time: 7:18) This is completely off topic and task but over time I have built a relationship with
students to have open conversations that include information on my interests and family. I
believe sharing that information allows them to realize I am just as human as they are and can
relate to some of the same experiences they may have in life. ]
3. Engaging Students in Learning
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your responses to the prompts.
a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing an essential literacy
strategy and requisite skills.
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Elementary Education
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

[
In the proofreading lesson students are asked to provide information to add to our list. I
am ultimately guiding them to include items I want on the list, but students are bringing in their
own information about what they do. Also in the first clip I have students respond in various
ways where they are all able to be involved. I want to make sure students are understanding
what is being put on the checklist so I include words and phrases they use and even use
symbols to help remind them (Clip 1 time: 3:58).
In the review/final draft lesson I have the students guide the editing process altogether. I
have them give me suggestions on what needs to be done to fix my rough draft so I am ready to
write my final draft. To ensure all students are able to be involved I have included low level
errors and higher level errors for students to catch. I purposely call on students who are my
struggling learners to point out missing periods and capital letters. I also know to call on my
students who can catch more challenging spots like extraneous sentences (Clip 2 time: 00:00)
or areas that need clarity (Clip 2 time: 1:13). ]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[
With the proofreading lesson I am incorporating students prior academic learning by
highlighting what they know when it comes to editing their own work. Students are offering up
what they know and resources they use to help them with editing their own work. In the lesson
on proofreading I know one ELL in particular who is not confident in most areas of writing. I do
know they are confident in punctuation and therefore I call on them to respond when we add it
to our list (Clip 1 time: 6:44) ]
4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your explanations.
a. Explain how you elicited and built on student responses to promote thinking and
apply the essential literacy strategy using requisite skills to comprehend OR compose
text.
[
Students were able to use their own language to describe the various items to check for
when we proofread. I use their language and add to it to reach the academic language we want
them to be using when discussing proofreading. For example a student described using capital
letters for names of stuff. Through my response I led the students towards using proper nouns
instead of simply saying names of stuff (Clip 1 time: 4:00).
I was also not expecting to add narration to the list of items on the checklist. Most students
still struggle with identifying the type of narration in the stories we use in our core reading
lessons. This would be something I would talk to that particular student about to challenge them
in their own writing. I did take his suggestion about being consistent throughout our writing to
guide the lesson towards staying consistent with the verb tense so our writing is clear for our
audience.]
b. Explain how you modeled the essential literacy strategy and supported students as they
practiced and applied the strategy in a meaning-based context.
[
In the review and final draft lesson (clip 2) I had an example of my own writing for them
to edit. I made the same errors the majority of students had made when working on their draft.
Students were able to show their ability in implementing the skills taught during the week by
telling me where I should make changes that would allow my audience to better understand my
writing. I use time order words for them to identify how I should organize my writing. I made sure
when I wrote the corrections on my draft that I modeled the same markings that were decided
on during our proofreading lesson. Later in the lesson (not shown in the clip for time purposes) I

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Elementary Education
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

was able to model how to transfer the draft onto the paper I would use for final publishing. I
made sure to review what each of the markings are telling me to do when I write my final draft. ]
5. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your responses to the prompts.
a. What changes would you make to your instructionfor the whole class and/or for
students who need greater support or challengeto better support student learning of
the central focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support, such as students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students.
[
One change that would have helped all learners stay engaged in both lessons would be
providing a copy of my examples for them in their hands. For the proofreading lesson I would
have provided students with tangible examples they could read instead of myself verbalizing
examples or given them space on their own checklist to write their own examples. For the
lesson on reviewing skills and the final draft I would have given students a copy of my sample
writing and time to write down their proofreading marks.]
b. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your
explanation with evidence of student learning AND principles from theory and/or
research.
[
The proofreading examples would have helped my ELLs who have a low proficiency in
listening. Instead of just giving my students preset examples I also may have given them a
blank checklist to fill out and put their own examples down. Research suggest that when
something is presented in a students own words or the words of a peer they may understand it
better since their language skills are similar and would be able to use similar schemas to
understand the concept.
Having the sample of my writing in front of them would have allowed students to
remember more than one thing they saw that could be improved upon and have another
practice at applying the requisite skills they were learning throughout the week. By having my
students write on a copy for themselves for the lesson on reviewing and final draft they could
have come up to the whiteboard and participated with their own instruction in their own words. I
have learned in other content areas that when students get a chance to either interact with
technology or be a leader with the marker they all are more engaged in the lesson. I also could
have used it as yet another assessment to see how well they implemented the requisite skills.
My biggest struggle was keeping all students engaged at all times and this would have been a
solution to my problem.]

Copyright 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

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All rights reserved.
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The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is
permitted only pursuant to the terms of a written license agreement.