Balanced Literacy e-Unit

Planning Commentary Template

Your Name: Kendra Cooper
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The central focus of this unit is butterflies and supports early childhood emergent
readers. This unit contains various lessons and hands-on activities for students to
be engaged in to help them develop into strong readers. The standard that the
entire unit focuses on is the New Jersey Student Learning Standard for Reading
1. Central Focus #2 which states that students will be able to “determine central ideas or themes of
a text and analyze their development and summarize the key supporting details
and ideas.” The core literacy strategy that students will focus on is comparing and
contrasting similar stories and students will achieve this with the combination of
shared reading and guided reading activities.
The shared reading plan involves constructivist activities that aim to help
strengthen young readers. This plan is developed around the shared reading book,
Gotta Go Gotta Go by Sam Swope. In early childhood, students are building the
foundation of their education. This plan helps to build and develop their alphabet
knowledge through a sensory activity with shaving cream, improve phonological
awareness with a muffin tin syllable game, commit sight words into memory
through games such as go fish, learn how to decode and encode words with a
gross motor water balloon activity, and students will learn phonics with a simple
puppet exercise. These activities can be completed as a whole class, in small
2. Rationale groups, or individually and together work to develop the students into strong
readers, as well as strengthening fine and gross motor skills and social emotional
Justify Your Support
development.
for Student Learning
The guided reading plan details how students will develop the core literacy
strategy of comparing and contrasting. The small group of students will read
Hurry and the Monarch by Antoine O. Flatharta. The plot in this story is similar
to Gotta Go Gotta Go and students will display their understanding of this
through the creation of a Venn Diagram. In doing so, students will learn how to
use supporting details to find the main idea. Additionally, rereading activities will
help students to improve reading fluency as well as their reading expression.
 As educators we want our students to be engaged in creative and critical thinking.
For them to achieve these essential learning outcomes, teachers need to be able to
demonstrate these skills as well. This balanced literacy unit will help all students
can achieve these outcomes. A strong component of critical thinking in teaching
entails the teacher getting to know their students. Getting to know the students
and using that knowledge to enhance strengths and to support weaknesses will
strongly support students' engagement in learning. Additionally, this critical
3. Knowledge of information will work to help develop a unit in which the students are truly
interested in. This also allows for the teacher to make any accommodations or
Students to Inform
modifications regarding the differing needs of each student. Creative thinking
Instruction
contributes to the methods and styles of the lessons within the unit. These lessons
and activities must be engaging to keep the students focused and on task. They
should employ student participation and motivate them to dig deeper.
Additionally, creative thinking is necessary when developing differentiated
assignments for students who are at varying levels of ability. There is no one size
fits all when it comes to education. Using creative and critical thinking allows
teachers to effectively meet the needs and interests of all students to ensure their
success and motivation for learning. When the practices of critical and creative
thinking are employed, the classroom becomes a place where each student is
recognized as unique and valued for who they are.
To help students develop and understand content, the guided reading plan helps
students with the reading comprehension of both Gotta Go Gotta Go and Hurry
and the Monarch. To do so, students will perform the function (job) of comparing
and contrasting. By comparing the different books with similar concepts, students
will strengthen their comprehension of the reading and will be able to distinguish
key details within each book. Students will also use language to explain the
4. Academic structure (syntax) of the story by completing a Venn Diagram (written discourse)
Language that compares Hurry and the Monarch and Gotta Go! Gotta Go! by focusing on
the key details about the journey of Monarch Butterflies. Additionally, students
will be engaged in a small group discussion (oral discourse) to share their Venn
Diagram findings. Finally, the vocabulary students will be exposed to within this
guided reading are Tier 2 words. These words which include fascinated,
extraordinary, infuriatingly, mysterious, and astonishing. Students will be
introduced to these words in context to help them better comprehend the story.
 Students will be assessed consistently throughout the implementation of the
Butterfly Unit. The students will be closely monitored and duly observed during
the shared reading activities, as well as the guided reading activities. These
observations will help the teacher gauge student progress. Students will
demonstrate mastery of all the intended concepts through the creation of their
own butterfly book. This book will be completed throughout the literacy unit and
students will build upon their knowledge from other books within the unit.
5. Assessment Plan Students will work on brainstorming and planning before they begin their story.
They will write and illustrate their story in small increments throughout the unit.
Once they have completed writing and drawing, each student will get a chance to
read their book to the class throughout the final week of the butterfly unit. By
allowing students to create their own book, they apply the content knowledge
they learned about butterflies and learn about the elements that go into making a
book as well. This project connects reading to students’ own writing and drawing
and they get the opportunity to showcase their work to their peers.