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Instruction Commentary

Instruction Commentary Directions: Respond to the prompts below (no more than singlespaced 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. Which lesson or lessons are shown in the clip(s)? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan number. [Lesson 4 is shown in both clips. Lesson 4, Clip 1 shows the launch of Lesson 4. Lesson 4, Clip 2 shows the closure of lesson 4 when the students are sharing the Home poems they have written.] 2. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment Identify scenes in the video clip(s) where you provided a positive learning environment.

How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to
students with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in learning? [At the beginning of Lesson 4, Clip 1, I am expressing my pleasure with how hard the students worked and how many details that have included already in their graphic organizers. I am complementing them on how hard they have worked so far and then giving them examples of how they can further improve or add to their work. Later, when we are talking about pets, students are given the chance to share regardless of whether or not they have a pet. Some shared stories of animals they saw, some of their own pet while others asked me about mine. I made sure to make all students feel valued in their contribution and either repeat out something important that they said or respond to them in a positive fashion so they would feel encouraged to share the next time. Later, in Lesson 4, Clip 2, I reminded students of how we have to pay attention to each other when we are sharing and then continuously complemented students on their work and reminded others to continue to give the students who were sharing their best attention. I tried to maintain a positive learning environment the whole time working to compliment the students who were paying really good attention so that the students who were not would realize that they needed to. I think that the manner in which I interact with the students helps to promote a positive learning environment as well. I genuinely enjoy all of my students and want them to know that I am interested in them. I try to show this by encouraging them to participate, giving them various avenues to participate and then always finding a way to respond positively, no matter what they say.] 3. Engaging Students in Learning Refer to examples from the clip(s) in your explanations. a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing an essential literacy strategy and requisite skills. [Lesson 4 directly engaged students in developing my essential literacy strategy of using graphic organizers to aide in pre-writing. We had already completed a graphic organizer of our 5 senses using Uptown as a guide. In Clip 1, you see the graphic organizer that I created about my own home. I had created it the previous day to model for the students how to begin to create their own. In Clip 1, I have added a few more details to it specific to the needs I saw when I read over the students graphic organizers. Many lacked some details would say I feel my bed but that was all. So, I was trying to explicitly model how they could better explain that. I feel the soft fuzzy blanket on my bed, I feel how my bed is cold when I first get in it and then it gets warm. This was also working on my requisite skill of using descriptive language. I was guiding
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Instruction Commentary my students through the use of a graphic organizer to use more detailed descriptions about their homes. I also use the example of bright red cranberry juice to help them see how it allows the reader to have a more complete image in their mind than if we just state our favorite food. After working on developing more descriptive language, I move into explaining how we turn our graphic organizers into our Home poems. This is a direct use of my literacy strategy. I am modeling how to use the graphic organizer I created to help me write my Home is metaphors. To allow for greater student participation, I ask if some of the students will read my metaphors out loud. Some of my students are too shy to participate on their own but are willing to read something that is already written out loud. So, I like to give them the opportunity whenever possible. Once I modeled how to create a Home poem from a graphic organizer, I released my students to work on it on their own. I then circulated the room to help specific students that I knew would need greater one on one assistance.] b. Describe how your instruction linked students prior academic learning and personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning. [While the academic content goal of this lesson segment was to teach students how to read, write and understand metaphors as well as how to create a graphic organizer and use it as a pre-writing tool, the overarching goal was to provide an authentic avenue for students to incorporate part of their home culture into their school work. So often I think the assignments that are given to students to talk about their culture end up seeming forced. We know we are supposed to value it and are not entirely sure how to show that in the classroom. I felt that this lesson allowed the students to incorporate their home culture in a way that was very authentic and not at all forced. In order to be able to write the metaphors students needed to understand all the poetic devices we had learned earlier in the unit and even understanding idioms helped them a lot. Because of the academic background knowledge they had, they were able to write metaphors knowing that the metaphor was figurative and did not mean what it literally said. They were able to incorporate part of who they were and what culture they come from within the metaphors. It was really wonderful to see how the students incorporated phrases from their native languages, described foods their mom cooked from their home country and yet, since it was up to the child what they called home, you really get the feeling when you read the poems that this is what makes home for the child. The poems are not forced and each on is entirely unique to that child. In terms of new learning, I was thrilled to see students branch out within the poems. Some included similes in addition to metaphors; some used onomatopoeia to better express their point. It was really amazing to see what they were able to do when given a framework to work within and yet freedom to create sometime that was entirely their own.] 4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction Refer to examples from the clip(s) in your explanations. a. Explain how you elicited student responses to promote thinking and apply the literacy strategy using requisite skills to comprehend or compose text. [In clip 1, I elicite student responses when I am talking about my dog and how something I feel when I get home she and our other dog cover my hands with slobbery dog kisses. Students are then invited to respond with different ways that their pets greet them when they get home. When I started modeling how to create my Home poem from my graphic organizer, I had students help me read the lines I wrote. It allows for greater student engagement because a student is reading instead of me and they know if they pay good attention, they might get to read next. It also provides the space for students who do not redily participate on their own to join in. As I explained previously, some of my students feel more comfortable participating when they are reading something that is already written for them instead of having to express their own ideas in front of the group.
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Instruction Commentary In clip 2, students are invited to share their Home poems. This had a dual purpose. First, it allowed students to exhibit the work that they did - to share with their classmates what they wrote about their homes and second, it gave students who were not finished or who might need extra help to hear what their classmates wrote. It provided the opportunity for examples to come from the children themselves, not from me.] b. Explain how you supported students to apply the literacy strategy in a meaning-based context. [During lesson 4, I supported students to apply the literacy strategy in a meaning-based context by effectively modeling for them how to turn their graphic organizers into their home poem. We had talked extensively previously about what we might put in our graphic organizers and a few students still needed to add some details. So, I reviewed again with more specific examples tailored to the students who needed it what I might include. For example, how a bed might be soft with a fuzzy blanket on it. Opposed to just being a bed. I then moved on to modeling how I would use the information I included in my graphic organizer to create my home poem. I explicitly told them that each line needed to start with Home is but then they were allowed to pick whatever detail they wanted to create the metaphor about their home. The lesson was meaning based because the content of the poems were based in the childrens lives. The graphic organizer I filled out and the beginning of the poem I wrote were based on my life and included details that they students knew about me so they felt familiar with them. I also included some new details as the students are always asking me about my life and I like to be able to share aspects of it with them when I get a chance. I think it helps them to better understand who I am and allows for me to make a greater connection. I am asking them to share about their lives and in return I am sharing about mine. Although it does not show in my two video clips, once the students were released to work on their Home poems individually, I circulated to help students where needed. I knew that certain students would need more individualized help that I was not going to be able to provide them in a whole group setting. Some students needed to tell me orally about what they were thinking and have me help them craft the sentences, some knew what they wanted to write but were stumped by a word they could not spell. Thus, by circulating, I was able to address the varied needs of my students.] 5. Analyzing Teaching Refer to examples from the clip(s) in your explanations. a. How did your instruction support learning for the whole class and students who need greater support or challenge? 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). [My instruction supported learning for the whole class because my lesson was oral, visual and interactive. I made sure that I had anchor charts for whatever I was talking about so that the students could see a visual example of what I was saying. I had my own five senses graphic organizer which served as a starting point to guide students. It also gave me a place to begin to explain what we were doing and allowed students to follow along. By beginning my Home poem below my graphic organizer it also allowed for a visual representation for what I was explaining. This helps students who learn in different ways. And it helps students who might be struggling because they are able to access the information even after I have finished explaining it. They can just look up at the anchor chart and it will help serve as a reminder of what I said. I tried to put detailed examples in my anchor chart so that students who were struggling and who were
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Instruction Commentary gifted could see an ideal example. By having each line start with Home is I was setting all my students up for success. They did not have to come up with the metaphor completely on their own. It was already set up for them in the structure of the sentence. As long as they began their sentence with Home is and then finished it with a detail about their home, they would have written a metaphor. Because I was able to circulate after I delivered my whole group instruction, I was able to work with students individually. I was able to help students flesh out ideas, remind them to start each line with Home is or help them spell words when needed. Some students needed assistance in deciding what details to use from their graphic organizer. To help them decided we would read through each column and pick out their favorite detail. Then use it to create the metaphor. This way they ended up with a metaphor about their home including one of each of their five senses.] b. What changes would you make to your instruction to better support student learning of the central focus (e.g., missed opportunities)? [I think that if I were to do this lesson again, I would make room for my student engagement. I would write maybe two lines of my poem and then have the students write the other three with me. I had intended to do this with at least one of the lines as is written in my lesson plan but when I actually taught the lesson I was in a hurry to let students begin working on their own and forgot this step. So, in the future I would make sure to let them help me. I think seeing how I created the metaphors was an important step for some of the students. I was able to explain it to them one on one but I think it would have been better if I had done so in the whole group as well. I struggled some with student engagement in this lesson because I wanted the introduction to be short so that the students could begin working on their own pieces. It wasnt until I watched my video that I realized I could have made room for more student participation. I could have had students look at their graphic organizers and give an example of a metaphor they could make. We could have written a couple student examples on the board, which would have allowed the students to take greater ownership of the beginning of the lesson. However, outside of the lack of student participation, I think that I effectively taught to my central focus. The students had created graphic organizers with lots of details and used them to write their Home poems. It allowed for greater structure and helped students who have trouble categorizing and structuring their ideas. Also, for students who have trouble beginning to write, it did not seem as overwhelming. The ideas were already written down and all they had to do was pick out their favorite ones and finish the Home is... metaphor. In the future, I would also write on the board what I was asking the students to do. I gave the directions orally that students needed to write at least five Home is metaphors. But as I was circulating I found that a lot of students had missed that direction and were confused as to home many they needed to write. I also think it would have helped if I had color-coded the words. If I had written, Home is... in one color and then written the remainder of my metaphor in another color I think it would have modeled where the parts of the sentence came from.] c. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation with evidence of student learning and principles from theory and/or research as appropriate. [I think that the changes I described above would improve student learning because once I was circulating, I found that some students were confused as to how I got from my graphic organizer to my home poem. I think if they had helped me write some of my home poem, they would have been able to see how I took the idea straight out of my graphic organizer and just made it the end of the Home is.. sentence frame. I also found that a number of students ended up writing metaphors and similes. At first I was a little distressed but as I began to question them about if each of their lines were a metaphor or a simile I found that they were able to identify the difference so I stopped worried that they had included both and figured that it actually exhibited
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Instruction Commentary what they had learned better than had they only used metaphors. However, since my initial goal was to have the Home poem comprised solely of metaphors, I think that if I had had students come up with some to share and we had written them on the board, it would have given us the space to discuss if what they were coming up with were metaphors or similes. We could have made the changes as a group to turn them from similes into metaphors. This would have helped to solidify the concept of writing metaphors for some of my students. I think that writing the directions on the board would have specifically helped my visual learners, but also served as a aide to all my students. They would have known exactly what I expected of them without having to ask me again. Color-coding the Home is... and the remainder of my metaphor would also have helped my more visual students. I would have helped them see where the words and ideas were coming from and how they too could construct their metaphors. I could have even had them color code their first draft to help them. ] Audio Commentary for Video Clip II Video Clip II Audio Commentary Transcript of childrens voices as they read their home poems. I did not write a transcript for when I speak because it comes through clearly on the video. Home is like spaghetti Home is rice and milk Home is, home is my family Home is as tasty as jellybeans Home is hearing songs Home is pretty as a flower Home is sweet cake Home is hearing clocks Home is tasking chicken sweet Home is seeing birds singing My home is like a big playground with children. Im so glad to have a home. My home is like street music. My home tastes, I mean smells great And, my home is like a banquet My home Home is chicken nuggets Home is soup called, dont make fun of it, called eba Home is a kitchen full of water Home is a favorite TV show. Home is mom, dad talking How was school? Home is smelling Mexican food Home is my kindle fire, playing it all day Home is hearing my brother, sister playing Home is a fun house
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Instruction Commentary Can I share my three poems? Home is my baby brother Home is chicken nuggets Home is my sister yelling Home is hugs Home is soup I like to drink soup My baby brother crying My sister yelling Hi, you are home Oh, soup My baby brother Eating chicken nuggets? What word was it? The acrostic word was home Can I start now? Home is like sweet tacos Home is my dad snoring Home is comfortable like my bed Home is seeing my brothers Home is sweet mole!

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