Elementary Education

Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 9 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the
brackets. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored.

1. Central Focus
a. Describe the central focus and purpose for the content you will teach in the learning
segment.
[ In this segment, students will be continuing to work on finding the main point and supporting
details and summarizing a text. They have worked on this skill previously and have difficulty
identifying supporting details that fully relate to the main point and help the reader understand
the text. By working in both small and large groups with new and familiar texts, students should
be able to identify the main point more fully, and be able to use that information to summarize
the text. ]
b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your
learning segment address

an essential literacy strategy

requisite skills that support use of the strategy
reading/writing connections
[ The objective and standard included in my plans for this lesson segment are to have students
find the main point and supporting details of a text and be able to summarize the text using that
information. The essential literacy skill encouraged in this segment is reading a text closely in
order to differentiate between supporting details and interesting facts in a text. The requisite
skills students are practicing are built into the coding element, which is included in all lessons.
The use of these code symbols encourage students to ask questions about the text, identify
main points, and highlight aspects of the text that they didnt know prior to the reading. The
reading/writing connection in this is clear, as students are first asked to read a text and then
write a summary based on the notes they make in each text used in the segment. ]
c. Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections
between skills and the essential strategy to comprehend OR compose text in meaningful
contexts.
[ By having students start with a very short summary of the text, they are required to focus on
only the most important details that are included. Students have had experience with
summarizing in the past, but they tend to focus on interesting details instead of important facts
that support the main idea. With this short summary at the beginning of the segment, it
encourages students to be look closer at the text and differentiate between which parts are
interesting and which parts are important. Over time students are asked to elaborate more in
their summaries while still focusing on the main idea. By using both new texts and familiar texts,
students are able to have multiple opportunities to look for the most important details. ]
2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching
For each of the prompts below (2ab), describe what you know about your students with
respect to the central focus of the learning segment.
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/support
(e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, struggling readers,
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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted

students).
a. Prior academic learning and prerequisite skills related to the central focusCite
evidence of what students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning
to do.
[ Students read to self often during Daily 5, in small groups, and at various times during the day.
Students also have experience with identifying the main idea, and non-fiction information in
paragraphs. They also work in groups and participate in think-pair-shares on a regular basis.
They still have difficulties differentiating between supporting details of the main idea and
interesting facts.]
b. Personal/cultural/community assets related to the central focusWhat do you know
about your students everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices,
and interests?
[ Students in this group are of a middle to lower-class SES and have a comfortable home life.
These students are identified as the on-level students but have trouble focusing during both
small and large group settings, unless carefully grouped. The students have shown interest in
non-fiction texts in the past and enjoy learning new information. They also have ample
opportunity throughout the day to learn in a group setting and know class expectations. ]
3. Supporting Students Literacy Learning
Respond to prompts 3ac below. To support your justifications, refer to the instructional
materials and lesson plans you have included as part of Task 1. In addition, use principles
from research and/or theory to support your explanations.
a. Justify how your understanding of your students prior academic learning and
personal/cultural/community assets (from prompts 2ab above) guided your choice or
adaptation of learning tasks and materials. Be explicit about the connections between
the learning tasks and students prior academic learning, assets, and research/theory.
[ This particular task has thoughtful grouping built in during the first learning segment. It groups
students within the small group with students of various other levels in the large group, which
hopefully will encourage students to stay on task and work together to create their summary of
the first article. According to social learning theory, students thrive while working in groups and
can build off others knowledge of a text in order to create new meaning and better understand a
text. By including a text that they already have experience with students are also asked to draw
on prior knowledge to locate information in the text that would constitute as a supporting detail
of the main idea. This connects to developmental learning theory because the text is
developmentally appropriate for the students both because of the content and their reading level
is being supported. Also, according to cognitive learning theory, basing instruction on
background knowledge helps students to retain the information, and in this case, use the
information in a new way that helps them to retain the skill being taught. ]
b. Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are
appropriate for the whole class, individuals, and/or groups of students with specific
learning needs.
Consider students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, struggling readers,
underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted
students.

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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

[ The focus group in this particular lesson does not include any students who have specific
learning difficulties as identified by an IEP or 504 plan, but many students in the small group do
have trouble focusing during both small and large group instruction. By building in group work
and discussion, students are encouraged to share their ideas during those times instead of
during direct instruction. Also, the careful grouping of students ensures that students will have
support during the initial segment in that they are grouped with students who are high and low.
By grouping them in this way it motivates those students to perform better and base their
discussion in the task at hand. Because group work is built in to all parts of the overall segment,
this allows students to be able to have focused conversation instead of distractions. ]
c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within
your literacy central focus and how you will address them.
[ The main difficulty this group has is differentiating between supporting details of the main point
and interesting facts found in an article/text. By beginning the lesson with the 20 words or less
summary, students are required to narrow their focus to the details that have the most relevance
with what the article is addressing. By slowly building on the short summaries to where they
start writing whole paragraphs and short essays about a topic, students will be able to easily
determine important details first instead of focusing on interesting facts. Also, thoughtful
questioning that causes dissatisfaction in prior misconceptions is important in any lesson. By
asking questions that ask students to compare interesting facts to the main idea, students will
realize which facts are important and which were included only to catch the readers attention. ]
4. Supporting Literacy Development Through Language
a. Language Function. Identify one language function essential for students to develop
and practice the literacy strategy within your central focus. Listed below are some
sample language functions. You may choose one of these or another more appropriate
for your learning segment.
Analyze

Argue

Categorize

Compare/contrast

Describe

Interpret

Predict

Question

Retell

Summarize

Explain

[ Differentiate. Students will need to differentiate between main points and interesting facts in
non-fiction texts in this lesson segment. Students have shown struggles in this area, and have
been using interesting facts that dont necessarily support the main point of a text. Using the
coding strategy, students should have a better opportunity to evaluate a text and see the
difference between main ideas and interesting facts. ]
b. Identify a key learning task from your plans that provides students with opportunities to
practice using the language function in ways that support the essential strategy. Identify
the lesson in which the learning task occurs. (Give lesson day/number.)
[ In lesson one of the learning segment, students are asked to summarize an article in 20 words
or less. As they go through the article students code the paper using code symbols that help
them identify important details, questions they have, and new information. After each section of
their reading, students are required to edit the summary they have to include any new or
important details that they think would help an outside reader get the main idea of the text. They
do this with a gradual release, starting with teacher modeling, then working in carefully chosen
groups, and finally working by themselves. ]
c. Additional Language Demands. Given the language function and learning task
identified above, describe the following associated language demands (written or oral)
students need to understand and/or use:
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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

Vocabulary or key phrases

Plus at least one of the following:
Syntax
Discourse
Consider the range of students understandings of the language function and other
language demandswhat do students already know, what are they struggling with,
and/or what is new to them?
[ Students needs to understand the terms main point, supporting details, and summary. They
have knowledge of these terms in past context but it is important to identify these at the
beginning of the learning segment so students can be successful. Students also need to know
the symbols used to code their text so that I could read their coding and understand what their
thinking was while reading the text. Students should also know what a biography is, as in the
last segment, we discuss what important facts you need in order to write a biography.]
d. Language Supports. Refer to your lesson plans and instructional materials as needed
in your response to the prompt.

Describe the instructional supports (during and/or prior to the learning task) that help
students understand and successfully use the language function and additional
language demands identified in prompts 4ac.
[ Students have multiple graphic organizers and worksheets that they will use to organize the
information they find in the selected texts. Each of these uses terms like main idea,
supporting details, summary, etc. in order to help students use those phrases in context of
the learning segment. ]
5. Monitoring Student Learning
In response to the prompts below, refer to the assessments you will submit as part of the
materials for Task 1.
a. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments will provide direct
evidence that students can use the essential literacy strategy and requisite skills to
comprehend or compose text throughout the learning segment.
[ The one informal assessment I have during the lessons is making sure that all students are
participating in the first lesson by means of a spreadsheet to help me keep track. This ensures
that all students are participating and sharing ideas during that particular part of the learning
segment, and the spreadsheet allows me to track individual participation as well as group
sharing. The formal assessments in this lesson are in checklist format and ensure that all
students are participating and completing all parts of the lessons that determine whether or not
they understand the learning segment. All assessments allow students to work in group but
show evidence of understanding on the individual level. They do this by first allowing students to
discuss the information they found and coded and building off each others background
knowledge(social learning theory), and then asking them to use the information to create a
summary. This is consistent in each lesson and gives students ample opportunity to succeed. ]
b. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.

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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

Consider all students, including students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language
learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students.
[ Within the small focus sgroup, all students should be able to meet the criteria for each
segments checklist without little or no teacher intervention. Students in the class who have 504
plans or IEPs would be able to complete these with some teacher intervention. Aids do come in
throughout the day and would be able to help students with this part of the lesson. All students
who are identified as ELLs have experience writing in paragraphs including important details.
By making sure not to include a criteria in any of the segments in regards to spelling or grammar
gives these students the opportunity to succeed without worry of losing points. Also, during
group time, students who are identified as ELL, or have an IEP or 504 plan are paired with
students who do not need accommodations, ensuring that all students should succeed at that
stage of the learning segment.]

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