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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.
[The purpose of this learning segment is to provide an exploratory experience that enables the
students to explore character traits within stories. Students will focus in-depth on how
characters feel throughout a story and explain why they have those reactions. This central focus
of comprehension strategies will allow students to fully understand characters in a story, as well
as explain where to find the information within the story. While studying characterization, the
students will also find ways to identify the number of characters within a story.]
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 standards and learning objectives of their learning segment will allow students to build
upon reading comprehension. The students will be able to provide an in-depth analysis of a
character within a story. This analysis will provide students with a way to connect with the
character, which allows them to have an extended application to the story they have been asked
to read. Students must recognize the main characters within a story in order to fully comprehend
what they are reading. It is essential for student to develop ways to describe a characters
feelings, because that allows them to develop a concept of knowing what emotions are and why
these emotions are essential to story development. This also allows students to personally
connect with the characters in the story. Students will already have the ability to read these
stories, but they will not be exposed to focusing on character emotions. This allows the students
to build on the requisite skills of basic reading comprehension. Analyzing the emotions of
character will further develop this skill. The students will be both reading and writing about these
characters, so they will find it essential to describe their characters emotions through writing
about this content.]
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.
[The students will be given the opportunity to connect their comprehension strategy to
themselves. Because the students will be performing a character studies and justify the feelings
of characters within a story, they will be asked to connect justification to their own feelings in
specific situations. This will allow the students to both connect to the text in a meaning full way,
as well as build on their comprehension skills of the story. The students will be able to connect
what they have learned through the model lesson by connecting what I showed the students
while reading a story to what they find within their Readers Workshop. The students will have
the opportunity to build on what they learn from this model lesson to this workshop, which
enables the students to build on this comprehension strategy. The students will also have an
opportunity to present all their findings. This allows the students to demonstrate their
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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

knowledge, which allows their audience to connect what they have learned with their group to
what other groups presented about their characters.]
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.
[From previous activities, students are aware of story order. They are able to correctly identify
setting and themes within a story. Throughout previous lessons, students are able to present
main idea and key details. They are able to read childrens books on their own, if it is at their
independent level. Students may be at different reading levels, but they are all able to read to
some extent. Students can collaboratively work together when reading stories in groups. They
know how to work cohesively and appropriately, Students are still working on building all
comprehension skills. From pre-assessment data, most students are aware of how to identify
the main character in the story. Many of my students are also able to identify specific emotions
to situations within a story. However, this skill does not appear to be fully developed yet, for
several students were only able to correctly identify two out of three emotions within the story
used in the pre-assessment. Very few students were able to justify why the character responded
to specific situations. Although many students could identify emotions, they could not justify
them.]
b. Personal/cultural/community assets related to the central focusWhat do you know
about your students everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices,
and interests?
[From interest inventories, I have discovered many of my students enjoy outside activities,
because they are able to roam around. All of my students enjoy playing games that involve
strategic planning and construction, such as Minecraft, I have witnessed all of my students
involved in role-playing activities where they work together in their own imagined situations.
From data I have gathered through sociograms, I have discovered that my students are a fairly
collaborative group. Most students are comfortable working with other classmates. Although
there are some outliers in my class, there are few major disruptions in the class that are caused
by students not getting along. Through data gathered during a True Colors personality
assessment, I have found that I have many students that enjoy the arts, as well as activities that
allow them to work in groups. Very few students in my class do not enjoy working in groups.
This provides a potential for students to work in a readers workshop more effectively and
collaboratively.]
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

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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

adaptation of learning tasks and materials. Be explicit about the connections between
the learning tasks and students prior academic learning, assets, and research/theory.
[Based on pre-assessment data, I will provide the students who struggle with basic
comprehension skills will be provided with early guidance within the Readers Workshop that will
allow me to guide these students through these basic comprehension skills before building on to
the deeper comprehension skills. These students will first be exposed to finding ways to identify
the main character and key details within the story. This will allow these students to know about
their story before further studying the characters emotions within the story.
Based on Vygotskys theory of students requiring social interaction, I have provided a plan that
enables students to collaborate through social interaction. The students will both build upon
their social skills, as well as build upon each others ideas to create a successful group project.]
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.

[The instructional strategies for this unit will be appropriate for the whole class, because there
are various reading strategies that the students are required to apply based on state-standards
and learning goals of students. For my students that struggle in reading and writing, I will
provide more support within their reading groups. These students will be grouped together and
supplied with books that are within their reading level. For the above level readers, I will provide
them with books that are more appropriate for their reading level. These students will be
encouraged to think deeply on their character study, and they will be allowed to work as a semiindependent group. All groups will be provided with the opportunity to find their own way to
express their characters within their study and Readers Theatre. Students are not limited to
what resources they wish to use when developing the analysis of their characters, and they will
be allowed to present their character in the way they find to be best for them.]
c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within
your literacy central focus and how you will address them.
[One common misconception that the students have throughout text is to assume all the
information in a book can be discovered through the illustrations. From my pre-assessment
data, I found that some students would answer questions based upon the pictures associated
with the text. I plan to clear this up while modeling character study strategies to the students.
While modeling, I will explain to students the importance of reading the text. I will stress the
importance of illustrations in text as a support for literature, whereas the true details are found
within the text.]
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

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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

[Students will analyze the feelings of characters when they are reading a story. Through their
analysis, they will explain how a character feels in different situations and why the character has
reacted this way. The students will analyze and connect what they learn about their own
feelings, and they will apply this knowledge to their character studies. The students will describe
the situation their classmates in their presentations. The students will be asked to retell what
their classmates have told them about their story within the presentation. This allows the
students to apply the character study across different stories.]
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.)
[Lessons three and four will allow the groups of students to analyze their characters within the
childrens literature. These lessons will provide the students with a workshop that can help them
describe how the character is feeling. However, the students do not truly have the opportunity to
present these skills they have developed throughout this learning segment until lesson five. The
students will have built on all knowledge of this unit to ultimately reach this final day. The
students will be able to analyze and explain their characters throughout the presentation. They
will be able to retell what they have learned from the story, and they will have the opportunity to
summarize what they have learned about their characters emotional responses to specific
situations. This presentation will provide a thorough opportunity for students to justify all they
have learned about their characters and describing the feelings of those both within a story and
in reality. The students will be applying all the previous skills to this one large group
presentation.]
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
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?

[The main vocabulary for this learning segment will include: drama, justification, emotion,
feelings, and expressions. The students will learn the definition of these by studying the
application of these vocabulary words. The students will be applying these vocabulary words as
they are exposed to them in their Readers Workshop.
Students will be provided with opportunities to express themselves through writing and creating
visual aids for their presentations. The students will write about their discoveries of their
characters as a cohesive group. Although one person may be assigned as the scribe for the
group, all students must contribute to the writing portion of the assignment.
Students will also be required to discuss their findings as a group. The students must discuss
their ideas as a group to determine what the character is feeling at certain points within the story
and why the character has responded in this manner.
From pre-assessment data, a majority of my students are aware of the definition of feelings.
They are able to identify what emotions are, but they do not appear to be aware of justifying
these answers. Thus, my students may identify emotions accurately, but they require an
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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

extension that allows them to justify their reasoning. This justification may be presented through
dramatic interpretations.]
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.
[As an introduction to allow students to apply what they know about feelings and emotions, I will
ask students to first relate specific scenarios to their own emotional reactions. They will reflect
on this and provide justification for their feelings about the situation. This will allow the students
to connect future text to their own feelings to explain why a character would have specific
responses to situations. As an instructional support, I will model what the students should do for
their Readers Theatre. For this day, I will conduct a Think-Aloud to the students. The students
will be provided with additional information and guidelines on how they will conduct their
character study and Readers Theatre. Throughout the Readers Workshop, the students will be
provided with opportunities to practice their skills and apply what they have learned throughout
this learning segment. The students will also be provided with various childrens literature in
order to provide additional strategies that allow them to apply what they have learned about
within this unit and apply this study to the book they will have within their Readers Workshop.
This will provide the students with an opportunity to build on this comprehension so that they
may apply these skills to books they will read in the future. On the final day of the learning
segment, the students will be able to present all their findings to the class. Throughout the
presentation, the students are provided with the opportunity to express what they have learned
from their characters. Each group will be teaching the class about their character. This allows
students to further apply their comprehension skills by seeing how the different characters in
books may respond to scenarios, just as their characters responded in their own way. The
students will have ways to connect skills back to their own characters, as well as their personal
experiences.]
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 assessments I have planned for this unit allows students to apply all knowledge they
should gain from the strategies applied to the content area. For the introductory lesson, I will
assess students based on how they justified their emotional responses to different scenarios.
This will provide evidence that students have the basic skill to justify their own feelings.
Throughout lesson two, students will be assessed on how they are able to recall what they have
learned to do from this model. The students will be checked off for comprehending the content
area by their responses concerning how they think they will present their future characters.
Throughout lessons two and three, students will be assessed on their teamwork. As a group, I
will check for student understanding by listening to group discussions. I will talk to students
individually to discover what the students have covered throughout this workshop. The students
will be provided with feedback in regards to how I will expect the students to continue working.
As a final assessment, I will check students on comprehension of the text they were asked to
read. Students will also be checked for logical emotional responses from their characters and
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Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

justify their reasoning for believing their claimed emotion is accurate. This will apply the literacy
strategies within the lesson by specifically testing students on the emotions of other characters.]
b. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.
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.

[Although there are no IEP, 504, or ELL students in my class, I plan to meet the needs of all the
students. For struggling readers, I will read the questions to them and provide support when
completing any assignments. If students struggle with writing, then I will provide those students
with additional assistance. These students may need additional time to write and work. Because
the students are allowed to work in groups, they will have some peer assistance. A large portion
of the students presentations will not require the students to write, so these struggling writers
may not have too many writing requirements.
For the above level readers, I will ask the students to apply their knowledge and create an indepth analysis of the characters they are studying. They will be provided with opportunities to
work without much additional aid. They will be allowed to work as semi-independent groups,
and they will be provided with books that are at the appropriate reading level.]

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