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 the essential literacy strategy for comprehending OR
composing text you will teach in the learning segment.
[ The central focus of my lesson is that students will be able to demonstrate their understanding
of elements of a story by referring back to a text and providing evidence of that reference.]
b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within
your learning segment address

the essential literacy strategy

related skills that support use of the strategy

reading/writing connections

[ELAGSE2RL1: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why,
and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text., ELAGSE2RL3:
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.,
ELAGSE2RL7: Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or
digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot. Support
my central focus because they refer to the elements of a story and created subjects
or questions that causes students to go back into the story they are reading and
find those elements.
]
c. Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections
between the essential literacy strategy to comprehend OR compose text and related
skills that support use of the strategy in meaningful contexts.
[Each lesson builds on one another and they then use the information they gathered the
following lessons will be used in the next lessons along with their books. For example, day one
we found element of our story then the next day we use that information as a checklist for our
summaries. ]
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,
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.
[ My students have a good understanding of the elements of a story when it come reflecting a
story because they have done in passed grades and in second grade up to this point. What they
have a hard time doing is explaining what is happening in isolation. So my focus will be having
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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

my students go back to the story and their prior work and using that information. I also used the
different intelligence in the work that was done during the week. Also students groups were
influence by sociograms and certain students who choose not to work outside of their comfort
zone were directed towards someone who was not in the immediate comfort zone. For example
one of my students just choose one person in their sociogram questions and only worked with
that person. I asked other students to work with him to add more interactions for him. 7 of my
students are very artistic and outgoing due to my true color inventory. I spend lessons focusing
on more hands on lessons that also involve a lot of group work or organizers due to the large
number of golds so in my class. ]
b. Personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focusWhat do you
know about your students everyday experiences, cultural and language
backgrounds and practices, and interests?
[What they have a hard time doing is explaining what is happening in isolation. So my focus will
be having my students go back to the story and their prior work and using that information. I
also used the different intelligence in the work that was done during the week. The information
that the story was about was most likely something they had little or not prior knowledge about.]
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 Literacy Planning Task 1. In
addition, use principles from research and/or theory to support your justifications.
a. Justify how your understanding of your students prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and 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, their assets, and
research/theory.

[ Understanding that my students had a lot of practice working with the elements when it comes
to the story but most of what they have done is just recall. So my lessons have the recall and
proof of evidence by looking in the story to find what they have recalled. I chose to do groups
based on my sociograms due to looking at my group dynamics which is one of the objectives of
sociograms (Margot Phaneuf, RN, Ph.D, P.2) it also shows the where people
stand in the group environment that they are in (Margot Phaneuf, RN, Ph.D,
P.3). So taking those people that are outliers and putting them in groups with
students who are not outliers. I use graphic organizers because most of my
class is gold or is seconder gold. Each color has a certain group of personality
traits or behavior (https://www.gsgatl.org/for-volunteers/volunteer-leadershipconference/Documents/True%20Colors%20Test.pdf P. 1). Part of the orange
group personality is that value organization and desire structure
(https://www.gsgatl.org/for-volunteers/volunteer-leadershipconference/Documents/True%20Colors%20Test.pdf p. 3). This is why use a lot
of graphic organizer. ]
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.

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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

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, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students).
[For my students that have IEPs they worked in small groups and individual. As students finish
with their work depending on their academic level I will either work with them to assess their
work or have them use prior work to check over what they have done.]
c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within
your literacy central focus and how you will address them.
[ I will address any misconceptions or developmental approximations as students go through
their work. I will work with confuse students during as I notice through their work. For some of
those students the misconceptions and approximations references of the books. To handle this I
will model this to students daily and in other subjects. ]
4. Supporting Literacy Development Through Language
As you respond to prompts 4ad, consider the range of students language assets and
needswhat do students already know, what are they struggling with, and/or what is new to
them?
a. Language Function. Using information about your students language assets and
needs, 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

[ Students will be able to explain answers by using their stories and resources that they have
created to explain the elements of the story that they are reading.]
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 literacy strategy.
Identify the lesson in which the learning task occurs. (Give lesson day/number.)
[ The learning task for my plans is to have students go back into a story to find evidence and not
just to use recall. Lesson three had them describe the image and then go back and draw and
answer questions using the story itself and the illustrations. ]
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:

Vocabulary or key phrases

Plus at least one of the following:

Syntax

Discourse

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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

[The language vocabulary for this lesson is yarn, strands, spinning, dye, weave, sharpening,
duplicated, delicious, characters, setting, dialogue, main events, and climax. The syntax is
Students will answer questions in complete sentences to answer the following questions:
Why is Geraldine worried that Glenmae will be angry with her when she gets back from the
store?
Why does Geraldine lose count when Glenmae is wrapping the wool around the loom?
Why does Geraldine feel silly after Glemae clips her wood?
Why do you think Glenmae wants to find plants to make a dye?
What went wrong with Glenmaes plan to dye the wool? ]
d. Language Supports. Refer to your lesson plans and instructional materials as needed
in your response to the prompt.

Identify and describe the planned instructional supports (during and/or prior to the
learning task) to help students understand, develop, and use the identified language
demands (function, vocabulary or key phrases, discourse, or syntax).

[ I used the information that they gained prior learning task to help students understand and
develop work by using it as part of an assessment of what they are working on. I also had them
use their vocabulary words as their completed their work. ]
5. Monitoring Student Learning
In response to the prompts below, refer to the assessments you will submit as part of the
materials for Literacy Planning Task 1.
a. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments will provide direct
evidence that students can use the essential literacy strategy to comprehend OR
compose text AND related skills throughout the learning segment.
[ Each assessment allowed me to see the level of understanding of each person. Students who
had a harder time understanding I spent more time once I released responsibility to the whole
class. If they have it by the detail of their work and answers more self reflection was given to
them.]
b. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.
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, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students).
[ The design of my lessons allowed my students to be able to work with other students to allow
more guidance from their classmates. It also allowed them to use their stories and not just have
instead recall. ]

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