Planning Commentary Template - Ms. Staples' Teaching …
Planning Commentary Directions: Respond to the prompts below (no more than 9 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts; both the prompts and your responses are included in the total page count allowed. Refer to the evidence chart in the handbook to ensure that this document complies with all format specifications. 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 this learning segment.
[ The purpose of this learning segment is on summarizing. The learning goal is for students to identify two or more main ideas, supporting details, and create a summary from these. When summarizing, it is important for students to know that their summary should be focused on the main idea. ]
b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your learning segment address
← an essential literacy strategy
← requisite skills
← reading/writing connections
[ This is an essential literacy strategy because students must first know how to identify the main ideas in their reading. This is essential for comprehension of many subject areas. After they have distinguished the main idea, it is important for them to know how to identify supporting details. From all of this, students should be able to construct a summary in their own words.
Summarizing is a requisite, or necessary, skill because students will be asked to do this throughout their educational careers. Students must be able to know how to read a passage, identify the main idea, whether implicit or explicit, and summarize the passage in their own words using pertinent information.
Summarizing has connections to reading because students must first read a passage before they can summarize it. However, it is not enough to read the passage. Students must also comprehend what they are reading in order to answer questions and make meaning of what they read. Summarizing is connected to writing because students formulate their response to text in written form. ]
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.
[ To teach this literacy unit, I use a gradual release model on the first day. I introduced the concept of summarizing. I let students know that we would be practicing in our small groups throughout the week, and that we would be working with summarizing fiction and nonfiction. The first lesson was a whole group lesson where I introduced strategies to help students find the main ideas needed to create a summary. After the lesson, I will read through a sample passage, highlight important information, and use that information to create a summary. I will show students how I used those facts to create my summary. Students will then have an opportunity to practice with their peers before working individually.
My plans build on each other in that I began with fictional text, because that is often easier for students to work with. We will use strategies learned to summarize these types of passages, then we will move to summarizing nonfictional text. We will spend an extra day on this because nonfiction contains more facts for students to sort through in order to identify the main idea.]
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/support (e.g., students with IEPs, 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—What do students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do?
[ I know that many of my students need extra assistance when completing assignments. I have 2 ELL students that often need things read to them. I also have 2 students that are on a third grade reading level and this will definitely impact the types of passages I select for them. However, in spite of this, I know that these students are capable of summarizing a passage if given the correct tools.
On a previous unit, we worked with identifying the theme in a passage, and after repeated practice, students were able to identify themes, even when they weren’t explicitly stated. Finding the theme of a passage very closely resembles finding the main idea (to summarize). So, students do have a little practice on identifying pertinent information in the text. Students can use this procedural knowledge to help them find the main ideas to summarize. ]
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?
[I have a very diverse group of students. Their ethnic backgrounds include White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Gypsy, and Muslim. Each of these students brings a difference experience to the classroom, as well as a well-developed knowledge base of cultural values. I do know that many of my students have siblings, some are the oldest and others are in the middle. Many of them seem to listen to the same types of music, because they get excited about it if it is referenced in a lesson. They also like a lot of the same shows such as Ant Farm and Adventure Time. About 6 of my students come from families where another language is spoken at home. ]
3. Supporting Students’ Literacy Learning
Respond to prompts 3a–c below. As needed, refer to the instructional materials and lesson plans you have included to support your explanations. Use principles from research and/or theory to support your explanations, where appropriate.
a. Explain 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.
[As far as using students prior academic learning, I looked at pacing guides to see what students should have already learned in previous grades. However, I kept my expectation of students retaining a lot of information from previous grades and lessons to minimum because they have shown me that they have trouble remembering a lot of the concepts that were taught. A lot of this has to do with the group of students that I have. My 12 transition students often need help on lessons taught. Many times, I end up working with those students individually. Because of all of this, even though I planned on students bringing some knowledge to the table, I also planned to go over some of the prerequisite knowledge I expected students to have.
I took into account their cultural backgrounds and interest by incorporating a lot of times where students are able to interact with peers. Students are also given choices as to what passages they would like read, rather than me giving them an assigned topic. ]
b. Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are appropriate for the whole class and students with similar or specific learning needs.
Consider students with IEPs, English language learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students.
[ I incorporated a lot of small groups into my plans because my students desperately need this. This is appropriate for the whole class because students are able to receive reinforcement of the ideas that were covered in the lesson. This greatly benefits my students with specific learning needs because I am able to provide more tailored instruction to meet their needs. It provides a smaller scale of instruction so that students will feel they are in a safe environment to receive help and feedback in their work. From the small group, I am also able to pinpoint who will need extensive support and in what area. ]
c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within your literacy central focus and how you will address them.
[ One common misconception students may have is that the main idea is stated in the first paragraph of a passage. On the contrary, because 5th grade reading is more complex, the main idea is often stated elsewhere in the passage or is implicitly stated. I will address this by simply telling students about the difference and them showing them examples of this. I will suggest that students take notes on the key details from the readings and use that information to figure out the main idea of the passage in order to create a summary. ]
4. Supporting Literacy Development Through Language
a. Language Demand: Language Function. Identify one language function essential for students to learn 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 |Explain |
|Interpret |Predict |Question |Retell |Summarize | |
[Students are expected to read a passage, identify main ideas and supporting ideas in order to create a summary. ]
b. Identify a key learning task from your plans that provides students with opportunities to practice using the language function. In which lesson does the learning task occur? (Give lesson/day number.)
[In my reading lesson from day 2, students have an opportunity to practice summarizing a fictional passage. This provides an opportunity to practice using the language function. However, students will have numerous chances to practice, as we are going to be practicing writing summaries from passages for the whole week. ]
c. Additional Language Demands. Given the language function and 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 demands—what do students already know, what are they struggling with, and/or what is new to them?
[ Students must use vocabulary that pertains to the lesson such as main idea, implicit, explicit, summary, supporting detail, and keywords. Students must also be mindful of syntax, or sentence structure, when completing their summaries.
Students already know that many passages have a main idea. They struggle with distinguishing a supporting detail from a main detail. They also struggle with the concept that there can be more than one main idea. There is no new content, students have been working with main ideas and summarizing for the past two years in school. ]
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 identified in prompts 4a–c.
[ Students have the support of their peers when completing the practice passages. They can glean ideas from one another. Students are also given different reading passages according to their reading level, which offers support as well. The largest support function that students have in this lesson is the small group model. For each group, I am able to tailor my instruction to help students learn strategies to correctly write summaries. ]
5. Monitoring Student Learning
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 literacy strategy and requisite skills to comprehend or compose text throughout the learning segment.
[ Informal observations will show me what students may need individual help. They will also help me to formulate my small groups for lessons. The formative assessments show me student growth over the course of the unit. I will know whether they can use they strategies taught for summarizing when I use my rubric to grade. ]
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, English language learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students.
[They are able to demonstrate their learning that same that the other students are able to. They will also work to create summaries from passages. However, there are different support systems in place for them so that they are successful. First, I meet with these struggling leaners in an effort to help them understand the importance of the strategy for creating a summary. Secondly, there are different reading leveled passages for students so that they are reading at a comfortable pace, and will be able to comprehend the text better. And lastly, students’ peers offer support in helping them create their summaries. ]
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