Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 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 3-day learning segment is to expose students to a few different
reading strategies that can help them build reading comprehension. The goal is to have
students focus in on inferring, synthesizing and making text-to-self connections. Reading
will become more meaningful to the students if they understand what they are reading.
Reading is beyond the skill of being able to read every word in a text, because if you
dont remember what you read then you didnt really learn anything.
The essential literacy strategy being used in this learning segment will be I do, we do, you
do. During lesson one, teacher will provide prompting questions to help guide student
thinking. Teacher will model how to make inferences during reading by looking at the
picture. Teacher will take the lead on filling out an anchor chart. For lesson two, teacher
will introduce synthesizing, try it together as a class and later reflect on how we did. The
last lesson asks students to use their knowledge from past lessons to help them
comprehend the story being read. Then students will make connections through a
response to literature writing piece. Each lesson builds upon the previous.
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 standards and learning objectives address the essential literacy strategy by scaffolding
the learning process that is required to develop reading comprehension in young readers.
Some students struggle to remember key events that happen in a story therefore they did
not understand or comprehend what was being read. Each lesson focuses on one small
chunk that guides students towards comprehension.
The standards and learning objectives address related skills that support use of the strategy
by breaking comprehension skills into parts. The ability to infer, to synthesize and to make
connections to a text, are parts that build upon each other in order to acquire good
comprehensive reading skills.
The standards and learning objectives address reading/writing connections by having
students focus on identifying important details of a story. In the last lesson, students are
asked to do a response to literature writing piece that will guide them to connect events in
their life to events that occurred in 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.
In lesson1, students will focus on making inferences about a story, where the pictures
are really helpful to the storyline. I want students to understand that the pictures can provide
hints to what may be happening because sometimes the text doesnt tell everything. Inferring is
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Task 1: Planning Commentary

a newly introduce skill therefore teacher will provide a lot of prompting questions and model
shared thinking to help guide the students learning process. In lesson 2, the focus will be on the
thought process of a good reader as we synthesize the events that are happening in the story.
Students will use their inferences to help guide their thinking throughout the story and provide
evidence from the story to back up their thinking. In lesson 3, students will be expected to share
their inferences and thoughts as we read a different story. The final task will be to have students
identify the central message of the story and provide evidence from the story to explain how
they came to that conclusion. They will also respond to how they wouldve handled the
characters situation differently. Students must dig a little deeper to think back to a time when
they were in a similar situation. Finding connections to the story supports student
comprehension ability.
2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching
For each of the prompts below (2ab), 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 focusCite
evidence of what students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning
to do.
Students are capable of identifying character, setting, major events, problem and solution
within a story. They know how to look at the facial expressions of a character to conclude
feelings felt from that character.
Students enjoy pointing out things that they notice in a story. They use their schema to make
connections to previously learned concepts.
Students are still learning to identify the central message of a story. They are familiar with
the process of synthesizing but havent quite mastered it yet.
b. Personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focusWhat do you
know about your students everyday experiences, cultural and language
backgrounds and practices, and interests?
Within my class I have several students that are capable of reading all the words in a book
but when they are asked questions about what they just read, these students are unable to
retell facts or important details that they just read about. On the other side of the spectrum
there are students that struggle to read one sentence. These students have a hard time
identifying cite words (words that you just need to know). They are too focused on reading
one word at a time that they dont connect to see the sentence as a whole. This too, refrains
them of comprehension.
I have also learned that this community does not provide a lot of parental support at home.
These students are not read to at home therefore they are most fond of being read to in
school. It is a great challenge for them to progress at an ideal rate due to the fact that most
parents may not be around to push them to succeed.
The good thing about this community is that the students have a drive to learn. They enjoy
coming to school and they all get along considerably well. They feed off of one anothers
energy and they channel that energy into excitement about learning.
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Task 1: Planning Commentary

3. Supporting Students Literacy Learning

Respond to prompts 3ac below. To support your justifications, refer to the instructional
materials and lesson plans you have included as part of 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 2ab 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.
For each lesson there is a clear connection the learning task and students prior academic
knowledge because each lesson takes what students already know and build off of that. For
example in the first lesson I am using what I already know about my students to take the
next step. I know that the students like to predict whats going to happen next in the story, so
now I will incorporate inferring into the lesson and have students use evidence from the
story to explain their thoughts. To just predict is just a guess with no right or wrong answer,
but to infer is to explain why the reader made that guess. This will build comprehension of
events/ details in the story.
I took what I knew about how my students learn best to create a learning environment that
will support higher chances of success. For example I know that students may be too
focused on reading the words to remember to comprehend the events in the story, therefore
that is why I will read the stories to them, to allow them to practice comprehending the
important details of the story.
According to Case Technologies to Enhance Literacy Learning for comprehension
instruction it states, Instructional activities that develop childrens abilities and strategies for
comprehending written language enhance reading achievement
(http://ctell.uconn.edu/12_principles.htm). If students develop reading strategies for
comprehending, they are more likely to become successful readers. I created the learning
tasks/activities to help guide students step-by-step towards building a stronger
comprehensive skill foundation.
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).
My instructional strategy for whole group is to keep the content short and to the point. I also
provide students with sentence prompts to expose them to the use of new
topics/information/vocabulary that they may not be familiar with. The more they hear it
being used the more comfortable they will be to use it themselves. Students are also
provided with opportunities to participate in whole group discussion. it is important to
create a safe learning environment to make students feel comfortable to share their
thoughts.

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Task 1: Planning Commentary

For individual learners this learning segment will challenge their thinking to think on their
own in new ways. Students will be expected to decipher story events to conclude
whether it is important information to the storyline or not. Each student has their own
opinion on how they choose to interpret a story therefore everyone is expected to think
for himself or herself.
For groups of students with specific learning needs I am sure to accommodate language by
having students create pictures to go along with what they share. When anchor charts
and posters are being created, there will be illustration to help the visual learners in my
class. I understand that it would be hard to recall information back from a chart that has
ONLY words on it.
c. Describe common developmental approximations or common misconceptions within
your literacy central focus and how you will address them.
The most general misconception that may occur is the mix-up between the meaning of the
words infer, predict and imply. These are all words that are similar in meaning and may
cause confusion to young students. The best way to avoid confusion is to make it very clear
what inferring is, by providing many examples of how to model making an inference. If
needed the teacher can briefly go over prediction and imply just so that students can grasp
an idea of what they are not supposed to do.
Another hardship that I would deal with when teaching, is working with their newly acquired
ability to synthesize a story. Synthesis is something very new to my class and therefore may
not go along as planned. I feel that with the right guiding questions, students can be
effectively lead toward the end result intended. It is best to be prepared with questions that
will ignite deeper level thinking.
4. Supporting Literacy Development Through Language
As you respond to prompts 4ad, consider the range of students language assets and
needswhat 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

Interpret

Predict

Question

Retell

Describe

Explain

Summarize Infer/ Imply

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.)
In lesson 1 students are first introduced to the word infer and then provided with examples
of how to effectively make an inferences within a story. Inferences refer to the unspoken
language of a story. This may be why the concept would be a little harder for students to
grasp and apply on their own. This is an essential language function because it helps good
readers become aware of the pictures in the story or how the meaning of words in a text can
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Task 1: Planning Commentary

be interpreted differently if read carefully. Progressively throughout all three lessons,

students will gain a better understanding of why inferring the meaning of a story may help
them with comprehension of the story. This learning segment allows students to focus on
recognizing helpful clues that they may not have seen if they were too focused on reading
the words.
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

-

Inference
Evidence
Synthesis
Text-to-self connections

Plus at least one of the following:

Syntax: Students making inferences will state their opinion first, followed
by a sufficient explanation to back up their thinking. This order of sentence
formation reflects the appropriate way to build upon synthesizing within a text.

Discourse: The discourse that will be implemented in this lesson will

provide students with sentence starter that will foster their thought process. A few
examples would be, I infer because in the text it says At first I was
thinking but now Im thinking or The central message is I learned

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 language
demands (function, vocabulary or key phrases, discourse, or syntax).
At the beginning of lesson 1 and 2 I will introduce the lesson by using a vocabulary poster of
the words inference and synthesis (one for each lesson). These vocabulary cards provide a
student friendly definition of each word along with pictures to help visual learners.
Both anchor charts that I will be composing together with the students will incorporate time
aside to include illustrations drawn by student volunteers. By doing this it offers more
meaningful learning experiences for the students because it helps them to make
connections back to the information learned during that lesson. Anchor charts will be used to
record down student responses to encourage participation during whole group instruction.
5. Monitoring Student 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 will provide direct
evidence that students can use the essential literacy strategy to comprehend OR
compose text AND related skills throughout the learning segment.
Lesson 1 and 2 informally assesses students ability to ask and/or answer questions about
the story. If they are unable to share their thoughts/answers then this will provide direct
evidence if a student can use the essential literacy strategy of being able to comprehend the
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Task 1: Planning Commentary

story. The questions being asked are formulated to encourage students to think deeper
about how the events in the story are connected. The task will be focused on stating
inferences and student acquired skill to think about the quality of their thinking as we are
reading.
In lesson 3, students are asked to complete a writing task that has students state the central
message of a story and provide text-to-self connections. If they are able to think of a
connection to a time that they were in a similar situation as the character then that will
provide direct evidence that the student can use the essential literacy strategy of
comprehension. This assessment will tell me whether or not a student has found inferring
and synthesizing as effective strategies to build reading comprehension.
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).
In this learning segment, students are provided with numerous informal assessment
opportunities to demonstrate their understanding through various oral prompting activities.
For many students, explaining their thoughts orally is much easier than trying to write it
down on paper. This is the best time for the Multilanguage learners to speak up and
demonstrate their knowledge. Whole group discussion is also a great opportunity to for
students to pick up on sentence syntax and discourse by hearing it being modeled by
teacher and peers.
The formal assessment asks students to identify the central message. As a class we will
discuss the central message of a story to allow the gifted students to share their knowledge with
others. It is a win-win situation when your accelerated learners are working together with the
struggling learners to make sure everyone is on the same page. I have learned that studentcentered learning fosters the attempt to close the academic gap. When gifted students explicitly
explain their understanding of the essential learning strategy, it guides struggling students
towards the same understanding. This places the responsibility of learning in the hands of the
students.

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