Planning Commentary

Early Childhood
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 of the content you will teach in the learning
segment.
[ Students will demonstrate an understanding of the long /A/ sound through recognition, writing,
and identifying its sound. I believe that this is an essential and appropriate expectation for first-
grade students because they are learning to build their reading skills through word recognition
and fluency. By teaching the long /A/ sound in multiple ways, students are exposed to the sound
in various methods. The purpose of teaching the long /A/ sound is to provide students with the
tools required to read and write words independently. Young children benefit from this process
being broken down into manageable chunks so that they will be successful.]
b. Describe how the standards and learning objectives for your learning segment support
children’s
 active and multimodal learning
 language and literacy development in an interdisciplinary context
[ Each of the lessons in my learning segment have two or three standards and two learning
objectives. These objectives are closely related to the given standards. By combining literacy,
writing, exploration and art, students are engaged in each of the lessons. They have a hands-on
approach with each activity and can make their learning meaningful. Each day, they will work on
an activity stemming from the objectives that expands their knowledge but also builds on their
prior knowledge and experiences. Students are encouraged to use language in each lesson,
either by reading along with the book or communicating with their peers in the group. The
language being prompted from them relates to identifying the long /A/ sound and determining
what happened first, next, and last in a story. Since the learning segment is rooted in literacy,
the objectives for each lesson support literacy development.]
c. Explain how your plans build on each other to support children’s language and literacy
development through active and multimodal learning.
[ All of the lesson plans in my learning segment are based on literacy development and require
the children to use language throughout. My first lesson plan focuses on identifying the long /A/
sound in spoken words and the long /A/ chunk in written words. By beginning the lesson with a
book, students are introduced to the central focus of the learning segment with literacy. Instead
of sitting and learning about the letter sound on paper, the students are building words in an
active way. My second lesson plan focuses on writing long /A/ sound words and deciding which
words have a long /A/ sound. Incorporating activity and exploration with a scavenger hunt allows
the students to make their own decisions in the lesson and move around the room. They are
communicating with their classmates and learning from each other. My third lesson plan focuses
on writing sentences with long /A/ sound words and determining what happened first, next and
last in a story. By beginning the lesson with a story book, students are interested in what is
happening and can retell what they have heard. They have the opportunity to communicate
about what they have read, and then transition that understanding into their own writing. By
beginning the learning segment with identifying the long /A/ sound and moving through writing
long /A/ words in sentences, students are learning the material in smaller chunks. They learn
what the long /A/ sound is, what it looks like in words, how to write long /A/ sound words, and
how to build long /A/ sound words into sentences. They are also communicating their learning in
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Early Childhood
each stage with the group by sharing their words and their sentences. Reading books that are
focused on the long /A/ sound combines all of the ideas that the students are learning.]
d. Describe how the physical environment in which you are teaching supports the active
and multimodal nature of children’s learning. (If, in your view, the physical environment
in which you are teaching does not adequately support the active and multimodal nature
of children’s learning, please describe the changes you would make.)
[ The classroom that I am teaching in does support the active nature of child development, but
not the multimodal nature of child development. The space is very small, so there was a lot of
creativity going into the design of the space. The desks are in clusters in the center of the room
so that there is enough walking space and also space for reading centers. There is a big rug at
the front of the classroom so that students have space to take brain breaks and work as a whole
group. All of the materials and bulletin boards are literacy based, which do not support science,
social studies, or math. Science and social studies are also not taught at my school. I would
introduce more science into the curriculum. Even if the students focused on science for an hour
a week, it would increase their exploration skills and knowledge of the world around them.
There could also be more hands-on activities, which young children typically enjoy and learn the
most from.]
2. Knowledge of Children to Inform Teaching
For each of the prompts below (2a–c), describe what you know about the children in your
class/group with respect to the central focus of the learning segment.
Consider the variety of learners in your class/group who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, children
at different points in the developmental continuum, struggling readers, children who are
underperforming or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted children).
a. Children’s development—What do you know about their
 social and emotional development
 cognitive and physical development
 language development for communication
[ The majority of children in my class have low social and emotional development. They all
come from low income households with very limited resources. This impacts their overall
development, but some students struggle with this more than others. A few of my students are
very motivated to learn on their own, so they spend their time at home reading. Other students
are placed in front of a television for the night and do not interact with people very much outside
of school. Many of them do not know how to handle their emotions and do not understand social
cues. We experience multiple breakdowns from students because they do not get what they
want or they are not getting their basic needs met. Cognitively, about half of my students are
low in comparison to other students their age. Half of the class struggles with reading and
receives extra help during school. Two of my students have developmental delays, which
affects their cognitive development. They receive extra attention from literacy specialists twice
each day. When I teach my learning segment, these students will require more attention to
succeed. None of my students are behind in their physical development. My students who
struggle with reading are slightly behind in their language development. In respect to my central
focus, these students may have trouble pronouncing certain words correctly.]
Early Childhood
b. Personal, cultural, and community assets—What do you know about your children’s
everyday experiences, cultural and language backgrounds and practices, and
interests?
[ The majority of my students live in homes that do not support literacy. Three out of my
seventeen students go to a day care after school where literacy and communication are
encouraged. Almost all of them come from an African American culture and background. Many
of their parents speak African-American Vernacular English, so those children speak a little
differently than the Caucasian students. Most of my students enjoy reading and writing while
they are in school, but many have expressed that they do not continue practicing at home.
Since many are not supported academically at home, they are eager to learn to read better.
This benefits my central focus for my learning segment because those students will be more
willing to take their time and learn the lessons that I am teaching.]
c. Prior learning and prerequisite skills related to language and literacy development—
What can they do and what are they learning to do related to language and literacy
development? Cite evidence from your knowledge of this class/group of children.
[ My students have almost completed recognizing all of their sight words. This helps to improve
their reading fluency and writing. They have learned some blends and vowel teams, such as
“wh”, “sn”, “oa”, “ch”, “kn”, “ay”, “sh”, “ld”, “th”, “nk”, “ck”, and “A” with the silent “E” at the end.
They are learning a new phonics topic to improve their reading each week. Any words that they
do not know how to read or write, they are expected to sound out or look in their word book for.
They must do this before they ask how to spell a word. They know the name and sound that
each letter makes and how to write them. Whenever we are reading a phonics book in class, the
students get a copy of the book so that they can work on improving their fluency skills. At this
point in the year, they should be able to read thirty-nine words in a minute. After they hear how
the book should sound, they read the book as a class. This helps with their literacy
communication skills and their tracking for fluency.]
3. Supporting Children’s Development and Learning
Respond to prompts 3a–c below. To support your justifications, refer to the plans and
materials you included as part of Planning Task 1. In addition, use principles from
research and/or developmental theory to support your justifications.
a. Justify how your planned learning experiences and materials align with your
understanding of the children’s development, prior learning, and personal, cultural, and
community assets (from prompts 2a–c above). Be explicit about these connections and
support your justification with research/developmental theory.
[ All of my lesson plans have been designed to be hands-on, activity based, and
multidisciplinary. Since learning about Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, I know
that children learn best when they are exposed to learning material in different ways. Gardner’s
theory explains that children learn in various ways. For example, some children learn best if
they see the information visually, while others need to physically work with the information to
understand it (Gardner, 1983). All of my lessons combine verbal communication with either
writing, reading, or exploration. They also reconnect students with concepts they have
previously learned, following Jerome Bruner’s theory of a spiral curriculum. His theory explains
that children need to be exposed to the content that they are learning multiple times. If students
learn a concept and then never revisit it, the concept will not be maintained in their memory
(Bruner, 1960). Knowing that my students focused on sounding out words and learning letter
blends, I decided to incorporate these concepts into my learning segment. This way, students
are revisiting a topic that that already know so that they can expand on it and feel confident that
Early Childhood
they will succeed in the lesson. Finally, I have built into my lessons where I believe students will
need more scaffolding. Lev Vygotsky’s theory on scaffolding revolved around adjusting how
much support the teacher gives the students so that they can learn to do the skill on their own
(Vygotsky, 1978). In my first lesson, students receive more support since they have just been
introduced to the letter sound. As the days progress, students will have more knowledge and
will be able to work more independently.]
b. Describe and justify how you plan to support the varied learning needs of all the
children in your class/group, including individuals with specific learning needs.
strategies/support (e.g., children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
children at different points in the developmental continuum, struggling readers, and/or
gifted children).
[ I plan to support my students following a scaffolding method. Knowing that my lessons focus
on a topic that is new to the students, I will need to give more explanation at the beginning. My
students are not new to learning letter blend sounds and vowel team sounds, but they are
learning to recognize, write, and identify letter combinations slowly. The students with
developmental delays require more literacy support than the other students. They do well with
more prompting once they are introduced to a concept, so I will scaffold how much support they
need based on how they respond to the lessons. The students who are struggling readers will
benefit from combining multiple senses into the lessons. Jean Piaget’s theory on constructivism
focused on students learning better by actually doing what they are learning (Piaget, 1959). For
my learning segments, all of the students have the opportunity to do hands-on activities to
maximize their learning potential. Students that require more support will learn more by doing
activities than by doing worksheets.]
c. Describe common developmental approximations 1 or misunderstandings that pertain to
the learning experiences you are planning for the children and how you plan to address
them.
[ When my students are learning a new word sound, many of them will add extra letters into the
word. If they do not understand how the letters in the word work together, they will move the
sounds around and change the word. For example, if they were trying to read the word “pail”, a
student may read the word as “paint”. This comes from not looking at the word closely and
thinking of the sounds that the letters make. By encouraging my students to track the words with
their fingers, they are more likely to look at the whole word. This also keeps them focused on
each individual word that they read. If I am reading along with my students, I am setting a pace
for my students to follow when they read. This keeps them at a slow enough rate that they can
look at the whole word.]
4. Supporting Children’s Vocabulary Development
Respond to prompts 4a–c below by referring to children’s range of vocabulary development
related to the learning segment—What do they know, what are they struggling with,
and/or what is new to them?
1 For example, common beginning or transitional language errors or other attempts to use skills or processes just beyond a
child’s current level/capability.
Early Childhood
a. Identify the key vocabulary2 (i.e., developmentally appropriate sounds, words,

phrases, sentences, and paragraphs) essential for children to use during the learning
segment.
[ Throughout my learning segment, my students will focus on learning the long /A/ sound, words
containing the “ai” vowel team, and sequencing words such as first, next, and last. Some words
that they will learn with the long /A/ sound include pail, snail, brain, chair, nail, and paint. These
words, along with the sequencing words, will encourage their oral communication and improve
their writing.]
b. Identify the learning experience that provides children with opportunities to develop,
practice, and/or use the key vocabulary identified in prompt 4a. (Identify the plan
day/number.)
[ Students will develop the long /A/ sound in lesson plans 1,2, and 3. They will hear and say
words containing the “ai” vowel team in lesson plans 1,2, and 3. They will learn sequencing
words such as first, next, and last in lesson plan 3. This is when they will also write using
sequencing words. As the lessons progress, students will build more independence with using
the vocabulary. Many of the long /A/ words that we used in lesson 1 are also used in lesson 2
and 3 to gain familiarity.]
c. Describe how you plan to support the children (during and/or prior to the learning
experience) to develop and use the key vocabulary identified in prompt 4a.
[ The children will listen to two books during the learning experiences that contain the long /A/
vocabulary words that we are focusing on. They also listen to and watch a video that introduces
long /A/ vocabulary words and then incorporates those words into a story. These methods
provide multiple opportunities for the students to see and hear the long /A/ sound. On the third
day when students are introduced to sequencing words, we will read a book and discuss what
happened first, next, and last as a group. Then, students will write their own stories following the
same sequencing format. By including long /A/ words into their stories, they are thinking about
what words contain the long /A/ sound, how those words are spelled, and how the words fit into
sentences.]
5. Monitoring Children’s Learning
In response to the prompts below, refer to the assessments you will submit as part of the
materials for Planning Task 1.
a. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments provide direct evidence to
monitor children’s multimodal learning throughout the learning segment.
[ All of my lesson plans use checklists to assess the students. With my group of students,
informal assessments would be the most accurate. These assessments allow me to monitor my
students throughout the lessons so that they are engaged with the activity the whole time. A
checklist allows me to watch and listen in to the students to see and hear if they met what I was
looking for or if they need more prompting. This method also allows me to be engaged with a
large group of students and track their progress as it is met. Students who struggle later in the
lesson still have the opportunity to show growth at the beginning of the lesson. I can also use
the checklist to see where exactly students began to struggle more.]
2 Developmentally appropriate sounds, words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that you want children to use or create to
engage in the learning experience.
Early Childhood
b. Explain how your design or adaptation of planned assessments allows children with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.
strategies/support (e.g., all children along the continuum of development, including
children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, struggling readers, and/or
gifted children).
[ Using a checklist allows me to assess my students based on what goals and objectives they
can meet. Each of my students are capable of reaching success with these assessments since
they can be adjusted based on the student’s needs. My students who are struggling readers will
be successful on their assessments because there are multiple ways that the students are
exposed to the long /A/ sound. My students with development delays will also benefit from this
and from an increase in prompting. All of these students will receive the necessary
accommodations to increase their chance of success. Since I am using a checklist for each of
the learning experiences, none of the assessments need to be adjusted to fit the needs of the
students with special needs. I will observe my students with special needs more closely to
ensure they are receiving the assistance they need, and that they do not fall behind on the
assessments.]
Planning Commentary References:

Bruner, J. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic
Books.
Piaget, J. (1959). The language and thought of the child (Vol. 5). Psychology Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Learning Experience 1:
A. (n.d.). Free Phonics Books. Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-phonics-books/
English Language Arts Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/
Nail clipart black and white. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
http://moziru.com/explore/Nail%20clipart%20black%20and%20white/
Oak Tree Clipart - Image #24918. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
http://clipartsign.com/image/24918/
PNG Snail Black And White. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://pluspng.com/png-
snail-black-and-white-4964.html
Simple Train Cliparts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://clipart-
library.com/simple-train-cliparts.html
Vector brain icon. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://www.stockphotos.ro/vector-
brain-icon-image6421863.html
(n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/star-clip-art-
black-and-white
Early Childhood
Bed black and white bed black and white clip art images download. (n.d.). Retrieved February
11, 2018, from http://wikiclipart.com/bed-clipart-black-and-white_36477/
K. (2015, April 10). Ai | Fun Phonics | How to Read | Made by Kids vs Phonics. Retrieved
February 11, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uyC7jweYj4
Nail clipart black and white. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
http://moziru.com/explore/Nail%20clipart%20black%20and%20white/
Oak Tree Clipart - Image #24918. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
http://clipartsign.com/image/24918/
PNG Snail Black And White. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://pluspng.com/png-
snail-black-and-white-4964.html
Simple Train Cliparts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://clipart-
library.com/simple-train-cliparts.html
Vector brain icon. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://www.stockphotos.ro/vector-
brain-icon-image6421863.html
Weather Storm Rain clip art. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
http://www.clker.com/clipart-weather-storm-rain.html
White Bucket 1 clip art. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://www.clker.com/clipart-
white-bucket-1-1.html
(n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2018, from http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/star-clip-art-
black-and-white
Donaldson, J., & Scheffler, A. (2017). The snail and the whale. New York, NY: The Penguin
Group.

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Early Childhood

Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

a. Identify the key vocabulary2 (i.e., developmentally appropriate sounds, words,

Planning Commentary References:

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