Secondary History/Social Studies 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 central focus for the content I will be teaching in this learning segment, is the foundations of the legislative branch and the branch’s primary job of creating laws. My purpose through this segment is for the students to not only understand the legislative branch but to be able to know the information well enough so that they are able to apply it to their lives. The central focus and end goal will be to have students create a law of their own. By doing this, students will gain an understanding of how the legislative branch of government completes its primary job.] b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your learning segment address
facts and concepts interpretation or analysis skills building and ing arguments [On the first day of my learning segment, my learning objective requires students to examine aspects of a congressman’s day. Through this examination students can become introduced to the congressman’s position and what it entails. They will be able to visualize what the congress building looks like along with being introduced to concepts such as a constituent through the short video. The next objective entails students comparing and contrasting the Virginia and New Jersey Plans during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and discussing how it leads to the Great Compromise of 1787. The following day, in order to work towards the central focus of students having the knowledge of how our congress works and how laws are made, they will need to identify and examine the powers of congress. They will do this in order to accomplish this they will look at Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which outlines the powers of Congress. Through this analysis, students are to make an argument as to why a law may be constitutionally sound, based on the laws expressed in the Constitution. In order to accomplish this objective, students will need to understand concepts such as expressed and implied powers, along with exactly what the legislative branch is. The final objective in this segment will be for students to understand the facts as to how an idea goes from being a bill to becoming a law.] c. Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections between facts, concepts, and interpretations or analyses, to build and arguments about historical events, a topic/theme or a social studies phenomenon. [My plan begins by giving an overview of congress by having students watch a video about a congressman’s average day. This builds off the previous unit (Foundations of the American Government) because I now start to teach about a specific branch of government. At this point, students know very vague and general ideas about what each branch does. The next day I then take a few steps backward to examine how congress was developed, so that the connections can be made back to the video. For example, when Congress was created there were two houses established, both of which are addressed briefly in the movie. When teaching about the Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 1 of 5 | 9 pages maximum All rights reserved. V3_0914 The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is permitted only pursuant to the of a written license agreement.
Secondary History/Social Studies Task 1: Planning Commentary
powers of congress that are outlined in the Constitution, the students will read Article 1, Section 8. They have already examined parts of the Constitution (even this article briefly) so they will go back to the articles to read them closer and build off of information they had previously learned. I also will be teaching students about the expressed and implied powers of congress. In the previous unit, students learned about the expressed and implied powers of the national government so they will be able to take their general knowledge of these facts and connect them to powers specifically related to the legislative branch.] 2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching For each of the prompts below (2a–b), 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/ (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 focus—Cite evidence of what students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning to do. [Thus far in their academic careers, students are able to create opinions with , however their is not always organized in the most effective way. This was seen in the last unit as students were asked to have an opinion regarding the Declaration of Independence and if the colonists went about Independence in the best way. Students were able to their decision, but not in a way that was always coherent. Also, students are still learning to their ideas in writing. They know their ideas and are able to state them, but they do not see the importance or meaning behind expanding upon those basic ideas.] b. Personal/cultural/community assets related to the central focus—What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests? [My students are very into their daily social lives and discussing them with each other and me. Many of my students are also involved in extracurricular activities such as band, cheerleading, dance team, football and golf which is a part of their daily activity. Anything that affects them in their lives or could affect them they have an opinion on. I plan to be able to tie some of these things that influence them into the central focus by having students take something that they experience and use that to think about how it could be legally changed as they see fit.] 3. ing Students’ History/Social Studies Learning Respond to prompts below (3a–c). To 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 your explanations. a. Justify how your understanding of your students’ prior academic learning and personal/cultural/community assets (from prompts 2a–b 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, assets, and research/theory. [Due to the lack of description found in previous work the students have turned in, I will need to clearly state that students need to explain their thinking thoroughly, instead of answering in brief, one sentence responses. I will do this verbally by repeating multiple times that students need to be explicit in their explanations. I will also read the prompted responses that students submitted, Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 2 of 5 | 9 pages maximum All rights reserved. V3_0914 The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is permitted only pursuant to the of a written license agreement.
Secondary History/Social Studies Task 1: Planning Commentary
each night and respond to them the next day in order to clarify responses and to explain how to better justify an answer.] b. Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned s 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. [One instructional strategy found in this segment will include a discussion-based lecture. I will ask students questions based on a topic, whether it is regarding a definition to a key term or an opinion aspect to the lesson. During this strategy students will be expected to take relevant notes. In order to help my students with IEPs, I will have mostly completed worksheets so they are able to focus more on the discussion as opposed to worrying about getting every bit of information written down. For my students who are more developed, I will be asking them to share a bit more after the other students have given the basic ideas. Through having them share later they will be able to add deeper ideas, therefore not giving the opportunity to do the basic work of giving simple explanations. I will also use an activity-based strategy. Students will separate into groups for the powers of congress in day three. Here students will be asked to work in groups in order to justify their thoughts. This will follow the needs of all my students, as students who are at different learning speeds will be able to converse with one another in order to organize their ideas and come to a common agreement of their thoughts.] c. Describe key misconceptions within your central focus and how you will address them. [One key misconception found with my central focus is that the legislative branch is more powerful than the other two branches. I plan to address this when I introduce how congress was formed by once again highlighting that the branches are in a system where they have to check one another in order to function to their greatest potential.] 4. ing History/Social Studies Development Through Language a. Language Function. Identify one language function essential for students to learn the history/social studies content 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
Compare/contrast
Construct
Describe
Evaluate
Examine
Identify
Interpret
Justify
Locate
[One essential language function for my central focus is construct. I feel that this is an appropriate function of language, as it will enhance the information that the students will be gaining in the classroom. Plus this function will allow for a bit of individual learning, which will help students become more individually aware.] b. Identify a key-learning task from your plans that provides students with opportunities to practice using the language function identified above. Identify the lesson in which the learning task occurs. (Give lesson day/number.) [In lesson five, students will be constructing a law that they believe is an important issue. They will strengthen this language function by creating a bill, and constructing an opinion, along with relevant research in order to convince their fellow students their bill should become a law.] Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 3 of 5 | 9 pages maximum All rights reserved. V3_0914 The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is permitted only pursuant to the of a written license agreement.
Secondary History/Social Studies Task 1: Planning Commentary
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 and key phrases Plus at least one of the following:
Syntax
Discourse
Consider the range of students’ understandings of the language function and other language demands—what do students already know, what are they struggling with, and/or what is new to them? [In order to accomplish my central focus, students will need to understand what a bill, law, committee, veto, and floor debate is. Students will do this through demonstrating discourse. My students already know how to write on a topic, but it appears to be at a basic level. By asking them to include detail and for their bills, they will be asked to show great understanding in both a written form and through verbal presentation.] d. Language s. Refer to your lesson plans and instructional materials as needed in your response to the prompt.
Describe the instructional s (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 4a–c. [During lessons, I will explain my reasoning with different examples and logic. For example, when explaining my reasoning of why the Virginia Plan would have failed I explain it in of study hall groups in the school and how they would make decisions in a student council type setting. I find this to be helpful as students are able to further grasp concepts such as that. I will also continue to ask them the question of why to continue their development of ideas. While this question does annoy them, I have found it useful so far as it has resulted in students explaining themselves more than they were at the beginning of the year. Therefore during a learning task, I will try and gain verbal discourse of their ideas. Prior to a learning task, I will ask them to construct an answer to the final question of class.] 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 the planned formal and informal assessments provide direct evidence of how students learn and use facts, concepts, and interpretations or analyses to build and arguments about historical events, a topic/theme, or a social studies phenomenon throughout the learning segment. [Each day I will require an exit slip as a way for me to track progress and learning from the students. The first day as they are introduced to the legislative branch, I will require them to write down some questions they have about congress, along with something they know. This way I am able to adjust my lesson plans to make them more basic or more in depth. The next day I will have them answer a question regarding which of the two plans from the constitutional convention they think would have been more effective, had one of them been chosen. Through Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 4 of 5 | 9 pages maximum All rights reserved. V3_0914 The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is permitted only pursuant to the of a written license agreement.
Secondary History/Social Studies Task 1: Planning Commentary
asking this question it will require them to think about the two plans that were presented and analyze which may have been more effective if the Great Compromise had not occurred. By doing this they will also be looking at the facts surrounding the founding of our nations congress again before they leave for the day. The last informal assessment will ask them to reflect on the challenge of determining if a law is constitutional through an implied power from the Constitution. This will require student to reexamine what they know about implied powers and what they had examined in the Constitution. The final assessment will ask students to construct a law of their choosing. Through participating in this assessment, students will need to take facts that they know about the legislative branch’s powers in order to justify their law and prove that it could be a law. Students will also need to go through each step of the process of law making therefore experiencing the how the system works, themselves.] 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. [The design of my planned assessment allows all students needs to be met as it is not specific for each student at the beginning stages. As students progress I will monitor them and have individual meetings or group meetings with students. Through these encounters, I will be able to either adjust it to a more basic level or to a more advanced level to fit the students’ needs. For example, for many students I will expect them to have multiple s for their bill (3-5 pieces of evidence). For some of my students who may struggle more to only have 2-3 s for their bill. For my students who are more advanced than their classmates, I will have them construct a bill, and then explain in their reflection how they would propose their bill to a member of congress if given the opportunity.]
Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 5 of 5 | 9 pages maximum All rights reserved. V3_0914 The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is permitted only pursuant to the of a written license agreement.