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.
[ The central focus of my three-day learning segment is for the students to be able to identify the
main elements of a story while being able to retell the story. Being able to retell a story is the
key to a child’s development of comprehension skills. The students will be identifying the
characters, setting, and the plot using the book Franklin’s Valentines. The plot that the students
will be identifying is the problem that the character faces and the solution that is used to help fix
the problem. We all have different problems in our lives and finding a solution is the best way to
fix the problem. Being able to state the elements of a story also helps with the students’ ability to
retell the story because they have to know that they find the problem first and they have to
figure out how they solved the problem. The students’ will use their knowledge of elements of a
story to create their own story in the third learning segment. The students will also be using the
book The Day it Rained Hearts in the second learning segment to practice stating the elements
of the story. The students will be using math to group themselves in groups of who has bigger
hearts and who has smaller hearts and then who has red hearts and who has pink hearts. The
learning segments will build off of each other in a way that supports all learners and the learning
environment is one in which the students can learn in a hands-on way.]
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
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a
story.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.2
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.3
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or
several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they
occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.4
Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and
support, provide additional detail.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage
when writing or speaking.
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Early Childhood
[ According to the Illinois State Standards, students will be focusing on identifying characters,
settings, and major events in a story; they will be able to retell familiar stories using details; they
will be able to draw and narrate what happens in their story; they will be able to describe people,
places, things, and events with prompting and support; they will be able to use standard English
grammar when writing or speaking. All of these standards will be learned with teacher
assistance. All three of the learning segments will focus on a multitude of different subject areas
and will be focused on the students’ active learning. The central focus of identifying the
elements of the story while retelling can be practiced using these standards and by participating
in multiple activities. During the first learning experience, the students and teacher will create an
“Elements of a story” chart that the students will be able to use throughout the learning
segments. Then, the teacher will read the book Franklin’s Valentines and during the story the
students will be asked questions to help them recognize the elements of the story. During this
large group time, the students will be introduced to the vocabulary terms that will be used
throughout the learning segments. Also, during the first learning segment, the students will be
working on a story map worksheet as a class with the teacher modeling the worksheet along the
way. During the second learning segment the teacher will read the book The Day it Rained
Hearts and the students will be asked questions throughout for them to answer in related to the
elements of the story. In the story, the little girl catches different size hearts and creates projects
with them. The students will each be given an envelope with a heart and they will have to go
around the room to find who matches their heart. There are five of each heart so there will be
four groups. This activity gets the students moving around the room. The students will be using
their language skills to talk to each other to see who matches each other. Then, the students will
be using their imagination to create whatever they want with the supplies that they are given.
The last learning segment will be done as a small group activity. The students will roll a dice
three times. They then will match what they got on the dice to the dice on the paper to establish
which character, setting, and problem that they rolled. The students will be using the math
concept of subitizing to do this activity. Subitizing is when a child can say a number without
having to count the dots on a dice. The students will then create their own story with the parts of
the story that they rolled and draw a picture of their story. During this activity, the students will
be practicing using the correct sentence structure and grammar. All of these activities give the
students the chance to be actively involved and hands on in their learning.]
c. Explain how your plans build on each other to support children’s language and literacy
development through active and multimodal learning.
[ The lessons build off of each other to focus on the language and literacy of the students. Each
lesson makes the students think back to day one. Each lesson focuses on the vocabulary that is
imperative for the learning of the central focus. Having the lessons build off of each other is a
way that the students are able to hear the repetition of what is the most important in the learning
segments. During the first learning segment, the students are creating a chart with the teacher
to help determine the elements of a story by putting up pictures in the correct section of a chart,
then they are listening to the story, Franklin’s Valentines, to identify the elements of the story
using their language skills. During the second learning segment, the students will be listening to
another story, The Day it Rained Hearts, and they will be doing the same thing that they did on
day one; identifying the elements of the story while retelling the story orally. They will use the
chart they used on day one to help aide them in this task. During the third learning segment, the
students will be using their knowledge of elements of a story that they learned during learning
segment one, to create their own story using given prompts. Being able to do this, means they
are able to correctly identify the certain elements of a story to make sure that their story includes
the correct information. Having the learning segments build off of each other gives the students
a greater chance of learning the central focus and gives them a better chance of improving their
language and literacy skills.]
Early Childhood
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.)
[ In this classroom environment, the students are learning in an active and multimodal nature.
Most of the activities in the learning segment will be done on the main rug. The rug has five
different color rows with eight columns each. This carpet is large enough for each student to
have their own square. Having each student have their own square helps make transitions
easier and makes sure they have their space while sitting on the carpet. There is a large space
in the front of the room for the students to be active during their learning. The tables are in two
rows and have plenty of space for the students to not be on top of each other. During play time,
the students take their materials to wherever they want in the room so they have plenty of space
without bumping into each other. Small groups is done at a half moon table near the front of the
room. The students have their backs to the other students during small group time so they are
not distracted while they are trying to work.]
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
[Every child in the classroom learns at different rates and they also learn in different ways. In
this classroom, there is one student who has a speech delay, one student who is low on the
autism scale and has behavior problems with an IEP, and then there are also two English
Language Learners. All of the students work hard every day to get their work done and they try
with their best effort. The students are the ages of five or six. If they are having a tough time
with behavior or emotions, the teacher sends them to the safe seat. This is a place for them to
reflect and think about why they are mad to help them make the right decision on what to do
when they get out of the safe seat. The students can be fidgety at the carpet during whole group
time, but if they are not disturbing the whole class than the teacher lets it slide. If they are
disturbing the class, then the teacher just says their name and they know what they need to do.
The students are placed among the carpet with the students who need more reminders up front
and the students who don’t need reminders to sit still towards the back. During the first lesson,
the teacher begins by having a few students come up to the board and put the picture of an
element of a story up where it belongs on the chart. This will get the students up and moving
during the lesson. If the student is not quite sure on where to put the picture, they will be able to
pick a buddy to go up with them to help them figure out where it is to be placed. Then, during
the story the teacher will ask comprehension questions during the story to keep their attention.
At the end of the book, the students will do a think, pair, share to discuss the elements of the
story. After this the students will be doing a fill in the blank worksheet. The gifted students can
write the words in the blanks, and if a student can’t figure out how to write the word then they
Early Childhood
can just draw a picture. The child with an IEP will have the words dotted for him to trace so that
is avoids conflict. The next day, the students will be up and moving while they are finding their
groups. They will find their groups by whoever has the same size and color heart as someone
else. In each group, they will be given a bag of supplies to use to create something that has to
do with hearts. This project lets the students be free to use their imagination and do what they
wish without having specific rules. This is especially helpful for the student with slight autism
because he will be able to do whatever he wants and doesn’t have to worry about being wrong.
The last day will be in small groups. The groups will be made up of two gifted students, and two
students who need assistance. They will be rolling a story. The gifted students will roll the dice
three times and the first number they get is the character, the second number is the setting, and
the third number is the problem. The gifted students will have a paper that only has blanks so
that they are challenged. On the roll a story chart, they will circle the element that they roll so
that they know which one to write, but there will also be a one above character, a two above
problem, and a three above setting so the students know that their first sentence starts with the
character, then they write the problem, then they say where it is taking place. They will also try
to think of a solution themselves to the problem. The students who need a little bit more help will
only roll the character. They will then put the character into the story. On their paper they will
already have the setting and problem. Then they will fill in the beginning with the character and
then they will write the last sentence on how they will help their character out. There will be
cards at the table that will have example solutions for the students who cannot think of
something. The gifted students will also be there to help the other students and the chart of the
elements of the story will be nearby for if they need to reference it during their story. The gifted
students will not do the work for them but help them brainstorm ideas of possible solutions to
their problems. During each learning segment, it is important for the teacher to take in account
the learning styles of each student and to accommodate for them. The emphasis on the
vocabulary will be important, and so the teacher will discuss the vocabulary words as much as
possible.]
b. Personal, cultural, and community assets—What do you know about your children’s
everyday experiences, cultural and language backgrounds and practices, and
interests?
[ Being able to retell a story is one of the major keys in being able to comprehend a story. If a
student cannot comprehend a story, then they are not understanding what they are reading or
why it is written. Part of retelling a story is being able to discuss the elements of the story
because those are the key details that one needs to explain to someone who hasn’t read the
text to understand where the speaker is coming from. Every time the students participate in a
read aloud, their retelling skills are practiced to make sure that they are understanding what the
teacher just read. There are two students who are pulled out for English as a Second Language
services. A person would never know that these two students are English Language Learners.
They are very high with their reading and their writing. There is no language barrier with them.
Knowing that the students don’t like to just sit around, it is important to include multiple activities
that help aide the students with their learning. According to John Dewey, it is important to
facilitate learning through multiple activities instead of the traditional teacher methods. As
teachers, we need to put the learners in focus and not the teachers.]
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.
[ The students listen to a story every day. They are listening to the teacher during a read aloud
and each day they are reading a sight word book as a class. Then, they discuss the story and
retell it as a class. The story goes along with the weeks theme and has activities or projects that
Early Childhood
go along with it. Doing this everyday has the students practicing their comprehension skills. All
of the students can read. They all read at different levels; for example, one student is reading at
a second-grade level and multiple students are reading at second semester first grade level. To
know if they are comprehending what they are reading, they do an app on the IPad that is called
RAZ Kids. This is a reading comprehension app that the students are read a story and then they
read it and then they take a quiz. Taking the short five question quiz helps them with their
comprehension skills and if they understood what they just read. The students practice their
sight words every day and their writing skills every day. Some students are better than others
with writing but they are focusing a lot on if they are using capital letters, punctuation, and if they
have spaces in their writing. Their centers everyday are either math or language. They do a
math worksheet and then they have a language activity. Some of their activities are blending
words, rhyming words, reviewing sight words, or write the room where they go around the room
and read a word and then write it down. Every student in the class can do all of this, but the boy
with slight autism just needs a few reminders through the activities to keep him on task.]
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.
[ After talking with my CT, we figured out that the students should work on the elements of the
story and how to retell a story. Being able to comprehend a story is key to being able to fully be
able to read. It took about a week to be able to get a feel for the classroom and for the children.
To be able to plan the lesson segments I had to take in account all of the students’ different
abilities and developmental levels and then I had to figure out what they found exciting and what
they loved to do. Howard Gardner viewed students as having different intelligences that help
aide them in their learning. He says that there are different ways in which the children learn and
that, as teachers we need to provide the students with a multitude of different ways of teaching
a subject. In the three learning segments, the students will be using bodily-kinesthetic learning,
interpersonal and intrapersonal learning, linguistic, and visual-spatial. The three learning
segments support these styles with pictures, words, movement activities, and differentiation.
When the students are taught in different ways it creates a mindset that they can meet their end
goal of meeting the given objective. Throughout the learning segments the teacher will be
repeating and building off the lessons beforehand. This is shown with Vygotsky’s theory of
scaffolding.]
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).
[Within any classroom there are multiple learning needs between all of the students. To make a
successful classroom means to make sure that each of the students are learning in a way that
helps them meet their goals and make them successful. The lesson segments consist of large
group and small group activities with one small group being teacher instruction. The student
Early Childhood
with the speech delay does not need any specific instruction, but the teacher will make sure that
he is fully understating the instructions. The student with the slight autism and behavioral
problem sits up front on the carpet. He also has a one on one aide who sits by him during work
time to make sure he is doing his work and giving him a break if he needs it. The teacher will not
force him to do the work and even ask him to do at least half if he doesn’t believe that he can do
all of it. The teacher needs to make sure that his behavior is stopped before it even begins and
that is by giving him choices or differentiated work. In learning segment three, the gifted
students will be given a worksheet that is completely blank and that they have to write by
themselves. The students who need more assistance will have a paper that is fill in the blank so
that they do not have to think of their sentences completely by themselves. The gifted students
will also be leaders during learning segment two because they will help their group members
think of ideas for their heart craft. Having someone help the students think of ideas helps the
student because it stops them from getting frustrated for not knowing what to do.]
c. Describe common developmental approximations1 or misunderstandings that pertain to
the learning experiences you are planning for the children and how you plan to address
them.
[ There are a lot of different ways that students have common developmental approximations
and it is important to plan how we will address the problems before they happen. In the first
learning segment the students will be doing an elements of the story worksheet. We will be
doing it as a class so that the students have help. Students have the option to write what the
answers are, but if they cannot do that than they are able to draw pictures of the answers. Doing
this as a class keeps the students focused and it will help the teacher see who is following
directions. Also, during the first learning segment, students’ names will be drawn to go up to the
board to put the pictures in the correct element box. If a student is not sure where it goes, then
they will be able to ask a partner to come up to help. The second learning segment the students
will be creating a heart project that relates to one of the projects that the little girl in the story
makes. The teacher will have an example on the board for students who seem to need a little bit
more help. Since the students might get loud during this project, they will be reminded to use
inside voices while they create their art work. The third learning segment is done in a small
group. The students will be rolling a dice to create a story. The students who need a little bit
more help will only roll the character whereas the gifted students will roll the dice to find their
character, setting, and problem. The lower students will have a fill in the blank paper and the
gifted students will have a paper where they do it themselves. There will be a teacher model of
what the finished product should look like. There will also be cards at the table to help the
students think of a solution to the problem that their character is facing.]
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?
a. Identify the key vocabulary2 (i.e., developmentally appropriate sounds, words,
phrases, sentences, and paragraphs) essential for children to use during the learning
segment.
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.
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
[ There are many vocabulary words used throughout this learning segment. The central focus of
this lesson is elements of a story and retelling. The vocabulary words that will be focused on will
be character, setting, plot, problem, and solution. By using these vocabulary words the students
will better understand what the teacher is asking of them to do.]
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.)
[ All three of the learning segments provides the children with the opportunities to develop,
practice, and use the key vocabulary. Each day they will be doing an activity that they have to
identify the character, setting, and plot of each story. Having repetition will help the students
fully understand the concept at hand.]
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 students will be using the vocabulary every day and will have an ample amount of
chances to use the vocabulary words. Most of the students will have prior knowledge of the
vocabulary words, and only a select few will not. It is important for the students to help complete
the chart before we read the story so that they have something to refer to during the story.
Before each lesson, the class will refer back to the chart to refresh their memories from the day
before. Having the words and the pictures on the board will help all the students with all their
different levels of learning. The adaptations show differentiation because it reaches all students’
development levels and will help aide them in their language and literacy development.]
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.
[In the first learning segment the teacher will be using observation to assess which students are
understanding what is going on and which students look confused. When the students are
asked to come to the board to put the pictures up, the teacher will observe on if they are able to
do it or if they need help. The teacher will keep an eye on the other students as well to see their
reactions to if the student is correct or not. Also, during the first learning segment the teacher
will be using a checklist to assess which students were able to retell the story when asked and if
they were able to complete the worksheet. The checklist will have each students’ name on it
and at the top will be written “worksheet correct” and “rubric score”. The checklist will be used
for learning segment one and learning segment three. During learning segment two, the
students will be informally assessed with observation on if they are able to retell the story when
they are asked. The third learning segment will be assessed with a rubric. The rubric will be
used to assess the story that they created by rolling the dice. On the rubric the students will be
graded on if they used two sentences, used uppercase and lowercase letters, used punctuation,
used spaces correctly, and included the four major elements of the story.]
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).
Early Childhood
[ During learning segment one, the teacher will be doing the worksheet with them. This will help
the children with specific needs follow along. The students who are gifted will be told to write the
words with the pictures instead of just drawing the pictures. This way they are showing their
talents through their writing. The next learning segment does not have much of an adaptation
because the lesson focuses on the students’ own abilities and they can make their valentine
card with whatever materials they want to use. They can challenge themselves to their own
level. During the third learning segment, the gifted students will be rolling all parts of their story
and coming up with their solution by themselves. They will be challenged because they will write
two full sentences using all four elements of the story. There will also be an adapted worksheet
of the students who need it. This worksheet will have the setting and the problem already
include and the student will just need to roll the character. They will then put the character into
the story and think of their solution. There will also be solution cards next to them to help them if
they are not able to come up with a solution. The poster that we created in the first learning
segment will be handing up during all three learning segments for the students to look at when
needed.]
Early Childhood
Learning Experience 1 Citations:

Bourgeois, Paulette, and Brenda Clark. Franklin’s Valentines. New York, Scholastic, 1998.

Bond, Felicia. The Day it Rained Hearts. New York, HarperCollins, 1983.

Roll a Valentine Story. New York, Little Learner Toolbox, 2017.

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