Williams Task1 PC

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 the essential literacy strategy for comprehending OR
composing text you will teach in the learning segment.
[The central focus of this specific learning segment is to identify words and phrases in
stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. The students were given a
poem and story with four questions each as the pre-assessment for this segment. I gave
both to see if they were able to comprehend the story and poem and answer the questions
relating to the senses. The pre-assessment showed me the need for further instruction and
depth on the five senses, what they are, how we can describe them, and how to find clues in
a text. They have the ability to recall the senses each lesson to build upon them and deepen
their understanding as the lessons progress and they look at stories and poems. The
primary standard ELAGSE1RL4 reads as follows: identify words and phrases in stories or
poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. For instance, in the second lesson,
students are reading a story and finding the sensory words. They are doing this to find the
examples the author provides that appeal to the senses to better understand that story. A
supporting standard, ELAGSE1RI4, reads as follows: ask and answer questions to help
determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text. In the first lesson, we will
be completing a five senses book with an orange to better understand the senses, what
body parts are involved, and how they are able to use the sensory words to explain the
orange. These skills come from the selected supporting standards.]
b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within
your learning segment address
 the essential literacy strategy
 related skills that support use of the strategy
 reading/writing connections
[The essential literacy strategy requires students to read and comprehend stories or poems and
identify the key words or phrases that appeal to the senses. The essential literacy strategy
comes from the primary standard ELAGSE1RL4 which reads as follows: identify words and
phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. I am building my
students understanding through stories and poems by helping them imagine the parts they
would be able to see, feel, taste, hear, and smell. They will be able to make a connection
between reading and writing in that they will read what the author has written, highlight sensory
words or phrases, then identify examples that appeal to the senses. In lesson three, the
students are using the literacy strategy to connect the reading to the writing portion by writing
the examples that appeal to the senses from the story.]
c. Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections
between the essential literacy strategy to comprehend OR compose text and related
skills that support use of the strategy in meaningful contexts.
[The plans build upon each other, diving deeper into the essential literacy strategy towards
comprehending poems or stories and identifying the words or phrases that appeal to the
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senses. The primary standard ELAGSE1RL4 that reads as follows: identify words and phrases
in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses is the focus. With the first
lesson students are given an orange and asked to discuss how it feels, looks, etc before delving
into the five senses and body parts we use to support those senses, such as we use our eyes to
see that the orange is orange and we use our hands to feel that the orange is bumpy. The
second lesson we are taking what we know about the five senses as discussed the day before
and reading a story as a group then individually and highlighting the sensory words. The third
lesson students will take the story they read, reread it for comprehension, then fill out the
accompanying poem planning sheet by filing in the boxes about what you see, hear, taste,
smell, and feel.]
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 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.
[Based on the students’ pre-assessment results, they demonstrated they have a range of skills
that are in progress of comprehending a text and identifying key words or phrases that appeal to
the senses to support their answers. The students in this group were assessed on their ability to
comprehend the story or poem well enough to answer the accompanying questions. These
students were given both a poem and story with four questions each. When looking at their
scores for the poem the class average was 33.1 percent while the class average for the story
was 51.9 percent. The results showed me they need to work on comprehension and identifying
words and phrases that appeal to the senses.]
b. Personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focus—What do you
know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural and language
backgrounds and practices, and interests?
[The group I am working with consists of 14 students from my class. These will consist of two
smaller groups. Most of them come from economically disadvantaged homes in a rural setting.
Therefore, their everyday experiences will be different from those with higher socioeconomic
statuses. From my experiences teaching, observing, and interacting with these students, I have
learned a great deal about their interests, reading levels, and learning styles. I noticed that most
of them are kinesthetic, social, and visual learners. They also enjoy being able to describe
something they can physically hold in their hand which is why I implanted using oranges to
complete the “my five senses” book. The oranges are tangible and give the students something
to actively do while we work on the book.]
3. Supporting Students’ Literacy Learning
Respond to prompts 3a–c below. To support your justifications, refer to the instructional
materials and lesson plans you have included as part of Literacy Planning Task 1. In
addition, use principles from research and/or theory to support your justifications.
a. Justify how your understanding of your students’ prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and 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, their assets, and
research/theory.
[According to the pre-assessment results, the students in my selected groups, which are the
students that are pulled for Early Intervention Program, are still learning how to identify words or
phrases that appeal to the senses in a story or poem. The Georgia Department of Education
website states that the Early Intervention Program (EIP) is designed to serve students who are
at risk of not reaching or maintaining academic grade level. The purpose is to provide additional
instructional resources to help students who are performing below grade level obtain the
necessary academic skills to reach grade level performance in the shortest possible time.
Throughout the learning segment I utilized a multitude of teaching approaches that I found to
best work with my students. I used a collaborative approach which incorporated group work and
group discussion as well as a direct teaching approach to demonstrate how to identify words
that appeal to the senses. I also utilized the whole child approach, where the learning process
itself takes into account not only academic needs of learners, but also their emotional, creative,
psychological, spiritual, and developmental needs. Sensory words are used in everyday
language and my students need to learn how to better express what appeals to their senses
and what they dislike.]
b. Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are
appropriate for the whole class, individuals, and/or groups of students with specific
learning needs.
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (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).
[Throughout the time I have spent in my classroom, both interacting and observing my students,
I have gotten to know each individual better. I implemented a few personality and learning
activities to discover ways to better help my students. One of the implementations was the
Howard Gardner theory of multiple intelligences. According to Gardner (1991), this theory
emerged from cognitive research and “documents the extent to which students possess
different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different
ways”. Gardner identified seven distinct intelligences or learning styles: visual-spatial, auditory-
musical, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. In
this particular group of students, the students’ have demonstrated the ways they learn best are
visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, and interpersonal. To appeal to the visual-spatial learners I
incorporated models of the booklet and story and graphics on anchor charts that relate to the
senses. To appeal to the bodily-kinesthetic learners I utilized oranges, a real object, to teach
through a hands-on way. Finally, I taught through group activities and discussions to appeal to
the interpersonal learners. In lesson three, I will scaffold (Wood, Bruner and Ross) for student
success after explaining and modeling the first example of how to fill out the graphic organizer.
The graphic organizer is the activity provided by me, the educator, to support the student as
they are led through the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky).]
c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within
your literacy central focus and how you will address them.
[There are a few common misconceptions I came across when researching the senses. Some
examples of misconceptions are that people who lose one sense have enhanced use of their
other senses, that there are only five senses, there are only four tastes (sweet, salty, sour, and
bitter), and you only use your hands for the sense of touch. There is no proof that the other
senses someone has after losing one will become enhanced. Although we have five basic
senses, scientists have determined there are between nine and twenty different human senses,
such as the sense of thirst and sensation of pain. I utilized anchor charts that showed the five
basic senses and which body part is mainly correlated with that sense, such as you use your
hands to touch and nose to smell. My students need to learn and understand the basic senses
before we go into deeper discussion about the senses, different tastes, etc. If the question
arises, I will answer to let the students know there are five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and
savory. If a student asks about tastes I will talk about how different foods produce different
tastes and give specific examples like potato chips are salty and air heads are sour.]
4. Supporting Literacy Development Through Language
As you respond to prompts 4a–d, consider the range of students’ language assets and
needs—what do students already know, what are they struggling with, and/or what is new to
them?
a. Language Function. Using information about your students’ language assets and
needs, 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 Explain
Interpret Predict Question Retell Summarize

[The language function essential for students to learn the literacy strategy within my central
focus is identify. This language function was established directly from the associated, primary
standard ELAGSE1RL4 which reads as follows: identify words and phrases in stories or poems
that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. Students’ are tackling reading more difficult texts,
decoding words, and sounding out the unknown.]
b. Identify a key learning task from your plans that provides students with opportunities to
practice using the language function in ways that support the essential literacy strategy.
Identify the lesson in which the learning task occurs. (Give lesson day/number.)
[The key learning task from lesson plan two that allows the students to have opportunities to
practice the identified language function is circling or highlighting the sensory words in the story
we read together. Then they will utilize that learning task into lesson three where they take the
information from the story and input in the graphic organizer.]
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 or key phrases
 Plus at least one of the following:
 Syntax
 Discourse
[Vocabulary includes any words the student should be able to define in order to comprehend
the content of the lesson. These words may be specific to the discipline or subject or just
general words used in school. The key vocabulary throughout the lessons are appeal,
senses, hear, see, feel, taste, touch, and feelings. The students will be utilizing syntax
through reading the story on the chart paper and their individual sheet. They will be using
the vocabulary that is introduced through discourse as we discuss our five senses and key
phrases that relate to the senses. There will be discourse throughout all the lessons as we
discuss the five senses and the selected activities to teach the central focus.]
d. Language Supports. Refer to your lesson plans and instructional materials as needed
in your response to the prompt.
 Identify and describe the planned instructional supports (during and/or prior to the
learning task) to help students understand, develop, and use the identified language
demands (function, vocabulary or key phrases, discourse, or syntax).
[The instructional supports that will be used during the lesson to help students understand and
successfully use the language function, vocabulary, and discourse or syntax demands will be
mini anchor charts about each of the five senses that have words which relate to each sense, a
picture pointing to the parts that each sense is (such as hands to feel), the story written on chart
paper as well as the story in each students’ hands. All of these language supports will allow
students to be more successful in understanding how to identify words or phrases that appeal to
the senses because they are in depth with the senses and sensory terminology.]
5. Monitoring Student Learning
In response to the prompts below, refer to the assessments you will submit as part of the
materials for Literacy Planning Task 1.
a. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments will provide direct
evidence that students can use the essential literacy strategy to comprehend OR
compose text AND related skills throughout the learning segment.
[The planned informal assessments will demonstrate students’ understanding of the vocabulary
and ability to discuss their thoughts about the activities we are using in each lesson. Students
will be assessed informally through discussion. The planned formal assessments will be the
work collected from students at the end of each lesson. In the first lesson, we will discuss what
the five senses are and which body part correlates before we go into relating the senses to an
orange and completing the ‘My Five Senses” booklet, which I will collect for an assessment on
comprehension of what the five senses are. In the second lesson, we will review the five senses
and provide examples utilizing them. Then we will read a story together while highlighting the
sensory words, which I will collect to see if they are able to determine sensory words in a story.
In the third lesson, students will be utilizing the examples and the sensory words in the story
from the previous lesson to complete the graphic organizer. Students will find the sensory word
then write the example of what the author sees, hears, tastes, feels, and smells. Completing the
story and graphic organizer are formal assessments to better help me see which students are
able to comprehend the essential literacy strategy and relate the skills throughout the learning
segment.]
b. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (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).
[The students that I am working with are part of the Early Intervention Program (EIP), whose
purpose is to provide additional instructional resources to help students who are performing
below grade level obtain the necessary academic skills to reach grade level performance.
These students are lower in many aspects such as reading levels, sight word recognition, math
skills, etc. I adapted my planned assessments to allow students to better demonstrate their
learning. With the booklet in lesson one they are able to show me they understand the sensory
vocabulary and are able to relate it to an orange by filling out the booklet and drawing pictures.
In the second lesson, we read the story as a whole and separately before they highlight the
sensory words. In the third lesson, the students are to find the highlighted sensory words to
correlate the examples and words with the graphic organizer. By highlighting the sensory words,
they are able to quickly find the one they are looking for.]

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Elementary Education

Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

Analyze Argue Categorize Compare/contrast Describe Explain

Interpret Predict Question Retell Summarize

struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic

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