Edtpa Task2 Instructioncommentary

Elementary Mathematics
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.
[One video clip will be shown, that was split once. The video documents Lesson 3: Rounding to
the Nearest Hundred.]
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?
[Knowing that I have a rather rambunctious group of students that are full of energy,
establishing, promoting, and maintaining a positive learning environment is very important. As

you can see throughout the learning segment, I chose to seat students at the carpet during
whole-group instruction. Not only are students more engaged and less prone to distractions at
their desk while seated at the carpet but I found that it also builds rapport with the students, as
they enjoy and feel comfortable when I am seated at the carpet with them during their learning. I
have also built rapport with the students by getting to know them on a more individual basis and
thus created our word problems for the lesson to be more personal and relevant to our
classroom. Additionally, I have also built rapport with the students by not allowing them to give
up and encouraging them to keep trying. At 13:30 minutes, a student is sharing her answer but
when it comes to the finishing justifying her answer in her own words, she gets a little hesitant
and does not want to help me finish the sentence. Instead of calling on another students, I
decided to help her start the sentence and then as you can see, she is able to finish the
sentence and correctly justify her answer.
Another way that I have provided a positive learning environment is by demonstrating mutual
respect. One of our classroom rules that we made, as a class is Do not talk while others are
talking. I abide by this at all times, whether it is myself teaching or a student is speaking or
sharing out. As you can see at 2:09 minutes in the video, students are starting to get a little
more chatty a during whole-group instruction and I ask the students to show me SLANT which
means sit up, listen, answer (when necessary), nod to show your listening, and track the
speaker. To show students that I am waiting for their respect, I do not continue teaching and
wait for all the students to show me SLANT and that they are ready to learn. Additionally, I like
to reward those students who continue to show me respect throughout the lesson. Our class
uses an online behavior point system, Class Dojo, and as you can see at 7:17 minutes in the
video, I take the time to recognize and give Dojo points to students who are showing me respect
and that they are ready to learn. Once I do this, the class thus catches on and I then award the
entire class points. I also reinforce positive behavior when asking for student volunteers. As you
can see at 8:47 in the video, I choose two student volunteers to help me answer that question
that are sitting quietly and nicely on their bottom while raising their hand. Additionally, I continue
to show students mutual respect when two of my students are having difficulty sharing their
manipulatives at the carpet. As you can see at 11:26 minutes of the video, instead of separating
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the two, I help them to work together and solve their problem. Both students want to use their
own manipulatives but I have them work together to put their manipulatives together. Even
though one student was still clearly upset, I did not allow him to work independently because as
a class we have been working on working together and learning how to find solutions even
when sometimes we might not agree with our partner.
Furthermore, I have also provided a positive learning environment in responding to students
with varied needs. As you can see at 7:55 minutes in the video, I asked for student volunteers to
come up and read the word problem. The particular student that I chose to come up and read is
one of my students with a Speech IEP. I was extremely happy when he volunteered to come up
and read because he is generally extremely quiet and unwilling to come in front of the class.
After giving him the opportunity to read, as you can see at 8:27 minutes in the video I gave this
student the chance to help me search and underline the important information in the word
problem. When he decided not to, I chose not to further encourage him because I knew he was
already stepping out of his comfort zone and I did not want it to become an uncomfortable
situation where he stopped volunteering to participate on his own. Additionally, at 10:56, as you
can see I have a student who is not working with his partner and playing with his blocks instead.
Instead of reprimanding him and knowing that his IEP calls for re-direction to help him stay on
task and giving direction in multiple ways, I politely ask him to join his partner and check her
work. He does so efficiently and recognizes that his partner is correct in her work and only
needs to add to the ones blocks to complete their task.
Finally, I have further provided student with a positive learning environment by challenging
students to engage in their learning. Knowing that my students can be intimidated by word
problems, I implemented manipulatives to allow students to participate in their learning. At 10:16
minutes, you can see that I ask students to work with their partner to show me 176 using their
place value blocks. Thus, they continue to use these blocks to look at the number in the tens
place and then determine whether it will round up or down to the nearest hundred. Another way
that I challenge my students to engage in their learning is by checking their partners work.
Furthermore, while students are working with partners, I always try my best to ensure partners
are working together on the task at hand. As you can see at 10:36 minutes in the video, I had a
student who let their partner build the number with the place value blocks. Instead of letting him
just sit back and not participate in the task, I challenged him to look at his partners work and see
if she was in fact correct. He agreed that it was correct but then I asked him Is it in the correct
place value order? Thus, he was able to recognize that is was not and then fixed his partner
minor mistake.]
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 understanding of
mathematical concepts.
[Knowing that my students can become easily distracted and often times the distraction leads to
disengagement, it was important for me to find ways to allow students to participate in their
learning aside from just me lecturing. With the use of manipulatives and partner work, I
employed active learning, the act of providing opportunities for students to engage in the
material, participate in class and collaborate with others, to engage my students throughout the
lesson. In this lesson, students were to use base ten blocks to determine whether to round up
and down. As you can see, 18 seconds into the video, I asked students to use the visual of their
blocks to determine which two hundreds they might round to. Students should now have the
procedural fluency to determine the two nearest hundreds by looking as the base blocks. I
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continued to ask students questions such as: How many tens make 100? What is halfway of
ten? How many ten sticks do I have to have to be halfway? If I am at the halfway point, do I
round up or down? Have we passed the halfway point yet? How many ten sticks do we have to
be at the halfway point? (1:19 - 2:39) to guide their thinking and test their prior knowledge from
previous lessons while using the place value blocks to help students conceptually understand. I
go to continue to hold up different number of ten sticks to test students procedural fluency. I
hold up numbers such as 1 ten stick and 5 ten sticks multiple times because I want to ensure
that students understand 5 tens sticks is 50, which is the halfway point which thus means to
round up. Students had shown signs of struggling with the halfway point in previous lessons, so
I wanted to practice that multiple times. (3:09-5:28). Additionally, students were also engaged
through the use of partner work throughout the lesson. As you can see at 13:16, I guide
students in solving a word problem, while also allowing them to work in partners. This allows for
time for the students to practice what I want them to learn and takes on the idea active learning
- I do and I learn, where students are participating in their own learning. Furthermore, I also
engage students through the use of student volunteers. At 9:07, as a class, we practice finding
and focusing only the most important in the word problem. I call on students to come up and
help me underline the important information and explain why they believe it is important. Again,
knowing my class struggles with problems this practice will help students become more
confident in trying and solving these types of problems.]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[Prior academic learning that is linked with new learning can again be seen at 1:19 - 2:29, when
I used the base-ten blocks and asked students the following questions: How many tens make
100? What is halfway of ten? How many ten sticks do I have to have to be halfway? If I am at
the halfway point, do I round up or down? Have we passed the halfway point yet? How many
ten sticks do we have to be at the halfway point? These questions prompted students to think
about what they already learned from previous lessons while connecting it with the use of the
base-ten blocks from this lesson. For example, in the first lesson students relied on the number
line to help them visualize the halfway point and marked all the halfway points on their number
line. In this lesson, students have an understanding of the use of the halfway point but now have
to use their knowledge to round to the nearest hundred versus the nearest ten. Additionally, I
connected student learning with the personal, cultural, and community assets in creating word
problems that used students names and/or with things they were familiar with and enjoyed. For
example, at 8:07, you can see that I connected the word problem to sports because I know the
boys in my class thoroughly enjoy sports, as that is their number one choice during recess. I
also added in their P.E. teacher's name in the word problem to link it someone they know. My
students always love to see their names or people they know included in our classwork.]
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
develop understandings of mathematical concepts.
[At different times throughout the lesson, I elicited and built on student responses to promote
thinking and develop the understanding of rounding. In the beginning of the video, I asked
students to think about what two numbers 236 could round to. At 39 seconds, you can see that
the student states that it would round either to 200 or 300. I then ask her to explain why and she
goes on to state, Because 234 is between 200 and 300. At 4:38 in the video, students share to
me that they would round down if they only had 1 base-ten block in the tens place. I then ask a
student to share why this is so. He responds say if its less than 5 round down, if it is greater
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than 5 round up. Another time I build upon students responses that shows similar conceptual
understanding is at 5:48 in the video. During this time the student is sharing why she choose to
round up with 5 ten sticks in the tens place. At first, she struggles to give her exact answer so I
prompt her with question to guide her thinking. Eventually, she explains that 5 ten base blocks is
50 and thus the halfway point. I then prompt the whole class to again understand that 50 is the
halfway point and if you are at the halfway, always round up. This type of thinking is shown thus
again near the end of the lesson, while we are practicing writing sentences to justify the answer.
At 12:16 in the video, I ask one students how many tens 178 has and after counting her base
ten blocks, she answered It has 7 tens. I then had her partner answer and explain he if would
round up or down to finish the sentence frame. He explains that he will round up because 7 tens
is bigger than 5. I then continue to write his response to finish my sentence to display as an
example for the class to refer to. In all these examples, by further prompting their thinking not
did it help them to conceptually understanding why they were rounding to the number they
choose but they were also working towards understanding the language function and thus,
practicing justifying their answer(s).]
b. Explain how you used representations (manipulatives, models, tools, diagrams, charts)
to support students understanding and use of mathematical concepts.
[Manipulatives were used throughout this lesson not only as a visual tool for students but to also
support them in understanding the concept of rounding and avoid misconceptions. I used the
base-ten blocks to help students understand the amount in each place value. For example, if
there were 6 base-ten blocks in the tens place this would not mean there is only 6 in the tens
place but 60, therefore, meaning it would round up to the nearest hundred. Using the base-ten
blocks students could visually see the amount. Additionally, sentence frames were another tool I
used within this lesson to support students understanding and use of rounding. I used and
provided students with sentence frames to help students justify their answers. As a class,
students practiced using them and were encouraged to use until they felt comfortable writing
their own. Also, as a class we also practiced and used the skill of highlighting and only using the
most important information in the word problem. Again, my students struggle with word
problems and I really wanted to practice and reinforce this skill to ensure they did not feel
unsuccessful completing the word problems on their own.]
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 I would make throughout my lesson is to give students more opportunities to
rehearse the responses to my questions. For example, at 29 seconds I asked the students to
look at their place value blocks and determine what two numbers that they could potentially
round to. Instead of calling on a student right away, I would have had the students first turn to
their partners and discuss this question before having a student share his/her answer to whole
class. Allowing students to voice their idea with a partner can allow the responses to be more
fruitful while also allowing everyone in the classroom to engage in the thinking of the question.
Additionally, pair-shares are also beneficial for my EL students, as this activity allows for extra
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time to process the question, the language, and the language needed to answer the question.
Furthermore, this also benefits my IEP students need the extra wait time to process and
respond to answers. Lastly, pair-shares can also help my class as a whole to be less chatty
during whole-group instruction as they are getting more opportunities to voice their answers.
Another change that I would make to differentiate instruction for my gifted students, as well as
my students who still need more practice understanding the concept. At 13:16, after completing
the solving of the first word problem as a class, I could have completed a formal assessment to
gage students understanding. The students who showed understanding, I could sent them back
to their desks to start on the activity while only keeping the students who needed more support.
I could have also planned for a more challenging activity to give to early finishers to even further
the differentiation.
A third change I would make is to use and practice implementing more hand gestures as a form
of scaffolding to help students grasp and comprehend the information being learned. For
example, at 1:19 2:39, as you can see I am asking students multiple questions to test their
knowledge and procedural fluency and what they would round to if they X-amount of tens in the
tens place. Before doing this, I could have implemented hand gestures and students practice
reciting and using these hand gestures. For instance, If it has more than 5 round up, less than
5 round down or Halfway point always round up, could have been practiced and recited with
hand gestures to help the students the better comprehend the concepts being learned. This
would help my entire class to create mental representations in their brain. Additionally, as I have
stated before my class can be a rambunctious bunch at times and they seems to always need
something to keep them moving. In using these hand motions, I am also giving them more
opportunities throughout the day to move, stimulate their brain, and engage in their learning.]
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.
[In change one, I believe productive group work would improve student learning in that it allows
for more opportunities for students to voice their answers thus allowing for a more diverse
conversation where students also have the opportunity to learning from their peers. According to
FIsher and Frey (2008), During productive group work, students use academic language,
validate and extend their knowledge. It is through these peer interactions that students
consolidate their understanding. Furthermore, according to Colorin Colorado, an online
database for EL Learners, pair-shares are a wonderful tool in that The ELL student has the
opportunity to offer his/her idea in a relatively comfortable setting or to get more information
from his/her partner. This can reinforce the students confidence in his/her thinking and provide
modeling for how to say the idea correctly in English. In change two, practicing and
implementing for opportunities for differentiated instruction is beneficial in that I am giving
student more options for taking in information (Tomlinson 1999). By doing this, I am frequently
observing and understanding the differences and similarities between the students and using it
to plan instruction. Knowing that all my students are at different level in the classroom and each
one learns a different way, by differentiating more frequently I am accommodating the different
ways the students learn and responding to the needs of all learners. Within the third change,
implementing kinesthetic movements and hand gestures, I believe that this would improve
student learning in that I am finding and using another tool to stimulate and engage my students
within their learning. When we couple effective scaffolded instruction, complete with modeling
and guided practice, with kinesthetic motions, students become more engaged and they retain
more (Paivio 1991). These activities are not only providing students with a natural way to
demonstrate comprehension and content mastery but it also encourages movement, dialogue,
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and information sharing among students. Additionally, using hand motions not only can make
things more concrete for all learners but are especially beneficial for my EL learners and
struggling readers, as they are often times more observant and can be the first to catch on.]

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What changes does the teacher propose to improve student learning?

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Elementary Mathematics

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

establishing, promoting, and maintaining a positive learning environment is very important. As

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

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