Edtpa-task 1 Prompts 3itd

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. [ In this segment, students will be continuing to work on finding the main point and ing details and summarizing a text. They have worked on this skill previously and have difficulty identifying ing details that fully relate to the main point and help the reader understand the text. By working in both small and large groups with new and familiar texts, students should be able to identify the main point more fully, and be able to use that information to summarize the text. ] b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your learning segment address

 an essential literacy strategy  requisite skills that use of the strategy  reading/writing connections [ The objective and standard included in my plans for this lesson segment are to have students find the main point and ing details of a text and be able to summarize the text using that information. The essential literacy skill encouraged in this segment is reading a text closely in order to differentiate between ing details and interesting facts in a text. The requisite skills students are practicing are built into the coding element, which is included in all lessons. The use of these code symbols encourage students to ask questions about the text, identify main points, and highlight aspects of the text that they didn’t know prior to the reading. The reading/writing connection in this is clear, as students are first asked to read a text and then write a summary based on the notes they make in each text used in the segment. ] 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. [ By having students start with a very short summary of the text, they are required to focus on only the most important details that are included. Students have had experience with summarizing in the past, but they tend to focus on interesting details instead of important facts that the main idea. With this short summary at the beginning of the segment, it encourages students to be look closer at the text and differentiate between which parts are interesting and which parts are important. Over time students are asked to elaborate more in their summaries while still focusing on the main idea. By using both new texts and familiar texts, students are able to have multiple opportunities to look for the most important details. ] 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, 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.

Elementary Education Task 1: Planning Commentary

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. [ Students read to self often during Daily 5, in small groups, and at various times during the day. Students also have experience with identifying the main idea, and non-fiction information in paragraphs. They also work in groups and participate in think-pair-shares on a regular basis. They still have difficulties differentiating between ing details of the main idea and interesting facts.] 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? [ Students in this group are of a middle to lower-class SES and have a comfortable home life. These students are identified as the “on-level” students but have trouble focusing during both small and large group settings, unless carefully grouped. The students have shown interest in non-fiction texts in the past and enjoy learning new information. They also have ample opportunity throughout the day to learn in a group setting and know class expectations. ] 3. ing Students’ Literacy Learning Respond to prompts 3a–c below. 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. [ This particular task has thoughtful grouping built in during the first learning segment. It groups students within the small group with students of various other levels in the large group, which hopefully will encourage students to stay on task and work together to create their summary of the first article. According to social learning theory, students thrive while working in groups and can build off others’ knowledge of a text in order to create new meaning and better understand a text. By including a text that they already have experience with students are also asked to draw on prior knowledge to locate information in the text that would constitute as a ing detail of the main idea. This connects to developmental learning theory because the text is developmentally appropriate for the students both because of the content and their reading level is being ed. Also, according to cognitive learning theory, basing instruction on background knowledge helps students to retain the information, and in this case, use the information in a new way that helps them to retain the skill being taught. ] 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.

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.

Elementary Education Task 1: Planning Commentary

[ The focus group in this particular lesson does not include any students who have specific learning difficulties as identified by an IEP or 504 plan, but many students in the small group do have trouble focusing during both small and large group instruction. By building in group work and discussion, students are encouraged to share their ideas during those times instead of during direct instruction. Also, the careful grouping of students ensures that students will have during the initial segment in that they are grouped with students who are high and low. By grouping them in this way it motivates those students to perform better and base their discussion in the task at hand. Because group work is built in to all parts of the overall segment, this allows students to be able to have focused conversation instead of distractions. ] c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within your literacy central focus and how you will address them. [ The main difficulty this group has is differentiating between ing details of the main point and interesting facts found in an article/text. By beginning the lesson with the 20 words or less summary, students are required to narrow their focus to the details that have the most relevance with what the article is addressing. By slowly building on the short summaries to where they start writing whole paragraphs and short essays about a topic, students will be able to easily determine important details first instead of focusing on interesting facts. Also, thoughtful questioning that causes dissatisfaction in prior misconceptions is important in any lesson. By asking questions that ask students to compare interesting facts to the main idea, students will realize which facts are important and which were included only to catch the reader’s attention. ] 4. ing 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

[ Differentiate. Students will need to differentiate between main points and interesting facts in non-fiction texts in this lesson segment. Students have shown struggles in this area, and have been using interesting facts that don’t necessarily the main point of a text. Using the coding strategy, students should have a better opportunity to evaluate a text and see the difference between main ideas and interesting facts. ] b. Identify a key learning task from your plans that provides students with opportunities to practice using the language function in ways that the essential strategy. Identify the lesson in which the learning task occurs. (Give lesson day/number.) [ In lesson one of the learning segment, students are asked to summarize an article in 20 words or less. As they go through the article students code the paper using code symbols that help them identify important details, questions they have, and new information. After each section of their reading, students are required to edit the summary they have to include any new or important details that they think would help an outside reader get the main idea of the text. They do this with a gradual release, starting with teacher modeling, then working in carefully chosen groups, and finally working by themselves. ] 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: 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.

Elementary Education Task 1: Planning Commentary

 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 demands—what do students already know, what are they struggling with, and/or what is new to them? [ Students needs to understand the main point, ing details, and summary. They have knowledge of these in past context but it is important to identify these at the beginning of the learning segment so students can be successful. Students also need to know the symbols used to code their text so that I could read their coding and understand what their thinking was while reading the text. Students should also know what a biography is, as in the last segment, we discuss what important facts you need in order to write a biography.] 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. [ Students have multiple graphic organizers and worksheets that they will use to organize the information they find in the selected texts. Each of these uses like “main idea”, “ing details”, “summary”, etc. in order to help students use those phrases in context of the learning segment. ] 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 one informal assessment I have during the lessons is making sure that all students are participating in the first lesson by means of a spreadsheet to help me keep track. This ensures that all students are participating and sharing ideas during that particular part of the learning segment, and the spreadsheet allows me to track individual participation as well as group sharing. The formal assessments in this lesson are in checklist format and ensure that all students are participating and completing all parts of the lessons that determine whether or not they understand the learning segment. All assessments allow students to work in group but show evidence of understanding on the individual level. They do this by first allowing students to discuss the information they found and coded and building off each other’s background knowledge(social learning theory), and then asking them to use the information to create a summary. This is consistent in each lesson and gives students ample opportunity to succeed. ] b. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning.

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.

Elementary Education Task 1: Planning Commentary

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. [ Within the small focus sgroup, all students should be able to meet the criteria for each segment’s checklist without little or no teacher intervention. Students in the class who have 504 plans or IEP’s would be able to complete these with some teacher intervention. Aids do come in throughout the day and would be able to help students with this part of the lesson. All students who are identified as ELL’s have experience writing in paragraphs including important details. By making sure not to include a criteria in any of the segments in regards to spelling or grammar gives these students the opportunity to succeed without worry of losing points. Also, during group time, students who are identified as ELL, or have an IEP or 504 plan are paired with students who do not need accommodations, ensuring that all students should succeed at that stage of the learning segment.]

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.