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 this learning segment is to make a claim and support it with reasons and
evidence in order to write an effective argumentative letter. Students must support their
argument using facts and reasoning. ]
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
[ The standards and learning objectives aligns with the central focus of making a claim and
supporting it with reasons and evidence to demonstrate understanding of how to construct a
argumentative writing piece. The related skills that support the use of the strategy is annotating
the text, paraphrasing, in order to understand the given text. Other relating skills includes
elaborating and restating an argument in the conclusion paragraph. ]
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.
[ The essential literacy strategy is students being able to create a claim and support it with
evidence and reasoning. Students will then create a claim stating a position or opinion about a
topic. In order to support their argument, students will research facts and include sources to
prove with evidence. This will help students learn how to choose credible sources that relates to
their argument in order to back up their claim. After choosing three to four evidences, students
will be able to explain it further by analyzing the information to tell why that evidence is
important to better support their claim. ]
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.
[ Prior academic learning that the students experienced were learning the definitions of claim
and argument. In the last unit, students had to write numerous free writes that included writing a
topic sentence, which is similar to a claim and is a related skill to the essential literacy strategy.
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 Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

They know how to give reasons to back up what they think, however they still need to learn
what makes a good reason to use and analyzing it to support their opinion on a topic. Students
also have problems applying a good amount of reasons that relate to what they think. ]
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?
[ The ratio of teacher to student is 20:1 due to the size of the whole elementary school. The
schools diversity, from greatest to least are Asian, Hispanic, Hawaiian, White, Black, two or
more races, and pacific islanders. The school also consists of military families. With that being
said, in my classroom I have 28 students with mixed ethnicities. They have a variety of interests
and backgrounds, which includes sports, such as basketball, football, gymnastics, judo; Others
play instruments, like to draw, play video games, board games, and play on their phones or
ipads. We have a couple ELLs, struggling readers, gifted students and a few with IEPs or 504
plans. Students in my classroom have strong personalities. I feel that when they learn how to
write a claim and support it with evidence and reasoning, it will help strengthen their arguments
in which they can use in real life. ]
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.
[ The unit before, students were exposed to topic sentences and this prior academic learning
guided myself to merge into lesson 2 of how to write an effective claim. In lesson 2 I would
introduce students about claims using a powerpoint. As shown in the instructional materials,
those are the 3 main components of how to write a claim and made sure students remembered
that. To provide guided practice, the students will go into their SpringBoard textbook in order to
identify claims in an argument. In this lesson, I will start the texts with a guided reading amongst
the whole class. I will then demonstrate how to use the reading strategies to help them
understand the text. Some strategies are marking up the text, chunking the text, paraphrasing it,
and asking questions along the way in order check if students are comprehending what they are
reading. These strategies are already taught and is imbedded in all subjects when reading.
Guided reading is effective in students reading comprehension, it increases the quantity of
independent reading, provides explicit instructions in fluency, vocabulary, writing, and
conversations. This resource goes more in depth about guided reading:
http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1194&context=reading_horizons
For lesson 3 students are going to learn more in depth about evidence and reasoning. They
already know they need evidence to support an argument as proof, so the next steps in this
lesson is to elaborate on how those evidences connect to an argument. What about it thats
important? I will continue to ask probing questions to help them expand their knowledge. This
resource talks more about teaching elaboration: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/few/685
As a whole class students will be guided in creating an argument and providing evidence and
reasoning after watching a video. The teacher will model how to write it on chart paper and have
students do an example on their own. The learning tasks in this lesson will help students move

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 Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

on to the next step of their writing in order to make it stronger.

]
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 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).
[ These instructional strategies in lesson two help the whole class, individuals, and/or groups of
students with specific learning needs because guided reading is an explicit instruction to help
struggling, on level readers to use efficient literacy strategies independently and creatively. The
students not only know what they read, but they can apply these strategies to help them when
they read on their own. When they know how to use these strategies through demonstrations,
the more they can do it individually and is capable of their own learning. When I know they are
good at writing claims, the students will be sent at the back of the room to find editorials or news
article from the stacks of newspaper. They will then chunk up the writing, paraphrase them, and
turn it into an argument along with finding evidence to support their position.That way they can
relate this lesson to real world situations. I will pay close attention to my lower students as to
where they stand when writing a claim, understanding the texts in order to make sense along
with marking up the text and answering the follow up questions. When students are doing the
last activity/reading, I will group these kids in the front of the room and guide them through the
activity to help further their understanding. By supporting students understanding of claims, I
will find more examples from editorials to practice writing claims. Show them the structure of
how to write claims from the powerpoint to help them visualize what to do. In lesson 3, the
instructional strategies are appropriate as well because it is a step by step process that shows
how to do what is expected. Sometimes students dont know what to do because they do not
know how to start. Modeling how to write evidences and reasoning while saying out loud about
what you think will start up a conference with the whole class and it will be beneficial to all
students. In order to adapt instructions to meet the needs of high level learners, after completing
the assessment in lesson 3, students will group together according to their claim and will make
a visual representation (powerpoint) explaining their argument. It needs to include a claim,
evidence, reasoning and pictures to try and convince others that their argument can be proven.
It will then be shared to the whole class so the students will practice speaking and listening skills
in a structured way both orally and in writing. The students that I know need more help to go
more in depth of the lesson will be grouped together so I can work with them using the activities
everyone else is using and providing more support.
]
c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within
your literacy central focus and how you will address them.
[ During the guided practices of writing a claim and providing evidences and reasoning, students
might not provide the specific details to show that the evidences connect to their claim. For
example, students might just explain the details of the evidence but not really explain how it
connects to their argument. While walking around the room and looking to see if students are
missing the point or hesitant to do the next step, I would invite myself to conference the
evidence with them one at a time. I would refer back to the chart we used as a whole class to
help guide him on what to do next. ]

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 Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

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/contra Describe Explain

st

Interpret Predict Question Retell Summariz

e
[ The language function for this learning segment is to argue a position from a topic and provide
it will evidence and reasoning. This is essential for students to learn and compose a text within
the literacy strategy and central focus. ]
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.)
[ In lesson 3, one of the assessments asks students to read the text Slip or Trip while
annotating to comprehend what they are reading. In the end they need to argue a position of
whether it was a murder or an accident. With that argument they need to provide evidences to
support it and elaborate on those reasons to relate it more with their claim. Students are using
this language function to argue because they are giving their opinion and giving evidence to
show proof of their argument. ]
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
[ From lesson 3s assessment, students need to understand how to create an argument, make a
claim, and give evidence from text to support their argument. They would also need to know the
vocabulary words such as convince, evidence, and elaboration. In lesson 2 students needs to
use these vocabulary words such as claim, reasons, and argument. With these associated
language demands it will help all students in the classroom because it is academic language
that students are exposed to. Struggling readers or ELLs have different levels of language
learning, however, the learning tasks will help them understand the words better. ]
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
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 Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

prior to the learning task) to help students understand, develop, and use the
identified language demands (function, vocabulary or key phrases, discourse, or
syntax).
[ From lesson 2 students will be exposed to the word claim. I will teach this lesson with a made
powerpoint of how to write a claim that includes various examples to help them see and know
what to do as I am modeling each one. Students are going to be taking notes in their notebooks
as well so they will be more exposed to the vocabulary words like claim, reasons, and
argument. The first slide from the powerpoint asks students to write an opinion statement of one
of the following topics provided. This is kind of like a Do Now which introduces the lesson to
the students as they learn more about claim. After teaching what claim is and how to write an
effective claim, students will go back to their Do Now activity and apply the skill and
vocabulary word to re create a new claim. This supports students understanding of claims
because they are able to create an argument and write it using what they learned. One slide
from the powerpoint is provided in the instructional materials and students needed to take note
on them so they can go back and use them for future references. Before learning about
evidences and reasoning in the next lesson, I will explain to the whole class about their exit
ticket from the last lesson and tell what they understood and what they did not understand as a
whole class. After saying that, I will introduce the next step, which is to have great evidences
and elaborate on those to make their argument strong. This will transition students from creating
an argument to backing it up with evidences and elaboration. ]
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.
[ During instructions, the teacher will be performing guided reading with the whole class. It is
mainly to instruct reading strategies (paraphrasing, annotating, marking up the text) to increase
reading comprehension. The teacher will demonstrate how to use these strategies so students
can perform it on their own. At this time teachers can ask questions about what they just read
using the reading strategies. The teacher can also bring up students on the board to try and use
the strategies with guidance from teacher and other students. This is a formative assessment
because the teacher will be giving feedback right away even to those who need help the most.
Guided reading in the lessons will help student identify the claims and reasons in each text. The
exit ticket will be turned in at the end of the lesson assessing on what they learned. I will know
what they mastered on that days lesson and where to start on for the next lesson. I can identify
each students strengths and weaknesses and adapt to student needs. I can also differentiate
the lesson based on student needs and group them according to their level based on the exit
tickets in the following lessons. During the lessons of claim, I will ask questions before, during,
and after the instructions to assess students understanding of the lesson. The students will read
two texts and I will guide them and ask questions to see if they comprehend the texts. Also, I will
ask questions about claims and if they understand what are claims? How do we use it? Why do
we need it? And check to see if they know claims must be debatable. The last activity at the end
of the lesson requires students to paraphrase a part of the text that matches their position on
the penny text and write a claim for it. I will assess students ability to write a claim by checking
their claims for the text about the penny. This will meet the learning objectives because the
student is able to demonstrate what they understood about claims and able to construct one
from a text. A rubric will help me assess. The description of claim in the rubric connects to the
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 Elementary Education
Task 1: Planning Commentary

instruction and notes the students took. So, it lets me know what the students understand and
what they do not understand. These assessments show that students are able to compose a
claim and I will support their learning needs. ]
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 the assessments allow students with specific needs to demonstrate their
learning because we will be learning as a whole class and students will need to ask and answer
questions within the lesson to understand the literacy strategy better. I will constantly be walking
around the room and out of my seat to help the needs of other learners. The assessments are
there to help students and I will see whether they need more support after these assessments. ]

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