Elementary Education

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 6 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by
typing your responses within the brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts.
Commentary pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored. You may insert no more than 2
additional pages of supporting documentation at the end of this file. These pages may include
graphics, texts, or images that are not clearly visible in the video or a transcript for occasionally
inaudible portions. These pages do not count toward your page total.

1. Which lesson or lessons are shown in the video clip(s)? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan
number.
[ The featured lessons are; Lesson 1 - SHARED WRITING EXPERIENCE (Morning) and
Lesson 2 - WORKSTATIONS (Morning).
Clip 1: DAY 3 Shared Writing Schema Activation 8:44 mins
Clip 2: Workstations Re-engagment Cows (Emerging Group) 6:20 12 mins / 5:30
mins ]
2. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment
Refer to scenes in the video clip(s) where you provided a positive learning environment.

a. 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?
[
I demonstrate respect for students in clip 1 at 6:56 mins : I remind a student to wait
their turn in talking, to raise their hand with the phrase stepping on words. I often use the
phrase as a reminder to respectfully wait their turn to speak. I used that term several times
throughout this clip. At this particular moment though I was referring particularly to a student that
is often disruptive/blurts out responses (as can be seen throughout this clip, I give him several
reminders). Finally I calmly give him an option I need you to put your head down, unless you
know how to join us because you are stepping on ___'s words, and you are really distracting us.
You have really good input but you are distracting us today. Thank you. As the commentary
shows I praise him for his input, which is often straight on, however he often does it in a
disruptive way. I am not only reminding him of and guiding him towards patience, I also model
respectful patience in my addressing him. I am showing him personal respect in how I am
addressing him, as well as respect for and acknowledgment of his good input even if it's done in
not the greatest way.
I demonstrate rapport with students in clip 2 at 6:20 mins : Opening in this clip I am
attempting to reel student 1's attention back by using silly exaggerations and the count-down.
You can hear student 2 joining the count-down. This is a cue I often use to alert the students it's
time to focus and follow directions quickly, which student 1 does. At 6:32 mins you can hear
how I exaggerate my words jokingly a BIG list. Following this, you hear student 2 freely
expressing his concerns Um I think, I think it's going to get, take a long time, and to assure him
I tell him, it's OK because we are still learning. Following that Student 1 says just look closer
dude jokingly however his attention flows towards the work following this.
This free flow of conversation both fun/silly and serious I believe demonstrates rapport
between my students and I because the free flow shows comfort in our communication.
I demonstrate responsiveness to students in clip 1 at 5:50 6:35 mins : The
student I responded to has a varied need/background. He often needs more stimulation to hold
his engagement. When he becomes disengaged or needs some stimulation he stimulates
himself with lots of movement. This movement is disruptive for his learning (it distracts him from
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Elementary Education
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

the lesson) and to his classmate. When I saw his cues of needing stimulation (sitting atop his
work board and box) I attempted to reel his attention back in with including him in the
discussion. I referenced his own descriptive verbiage from the previous day's workstation
rotation. He compared a wild thing to an airplane because it makes a really loud noise...and it
hurts your ears.
At 7:25 mins my responsiveness is really a lack of responsiveness. In the class there is
a red chair that he can rock in for stimulation. He knows when he needs it, this is where he can
go for stimulation, which in this clip he eventually does. This way he gets his stimulation in a
more appropriate way, getting the vestibular stimulation through rocking, to maintain attention
and not distract the other students' attention, as opposed to distracting himself and others with
searching for other means of stimulation. My lack of responding to him leaving the carpet, letting
him dictate his needs avoids lesson disruption.
I demonstrate challenging students in clip 1 at 4:10 5:50 mins : At 4:10 mins I
challenged them to first pull out a descriptive word from the passage (terrible), by asking what
is a descriptive word you heard, and then to build on this descriptive word with creative
descriptive words/phrasings. From the authors descriptive word they must think of their own
creative descriptive words/phrases for things that sound terrible. At 4:35 mins I ask the students
what is a terrible sound you can think of. Some responses were screaming, loud, a
lawnmower. Later in the clip student responses included a horn (6:56 mins) , a truck (7:23)
a bell (7:29 mins). a monster truck (7:50 mins).
I also demonstrate challenging students in clip 2 at 9:10 mins 11:35 : At 9:26 mins
I challenge them into focusing on the letters they hear. These student are still emerging in
listening, reading and writing with letter sound correspondence (they are in the emerging group,
they both are pulled-out for EIP daily). They are challenged to at least find/use the initial lettersound of the word. Student 1 wants to write super dangerous monsters. The student has used
invented spelling and I want to engage his focus and challenge him to move beyond this, and
really listen for letter sounds. ]
3. Engaging Students in Learning
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your responses to the prompts.

a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing an essential literacy

strategy and requisite skills.
[
I demonstrate engaging students with developing an essential literacy in clip 2 at
9:10 10:50 mins : The essential literacy strategy is using letter-sound correspondence to read
and write. At 9:26 mins, I am engage them into focusing on the letters they hear. These student
are still emerging in listening, reading and writing with letter sound correspondence (they are in
the emerging group, they both are pulled-out for EIP daily). Student 1 wants to write super
dangerous monsters. The student has used invented spelling and I want to engage his focus
and challenge him to move beyond this and find/use the initial letter-sound of the words.
At 10:00 mins I respond what did we say makes the 'duh' sound? A goes 'ah', B goes
'buh', C goes 'kuh', D goes 'duh'. 'Duh', 'duh', 'dangerous'. Put your D down for dangerous. I am
using a song we have previously learned and frequently use to engage them; they both begin
singing/chanting with me.
I demonstrate engaging students with developing a requisite skill in clip 2 at 9:45
mins : One requisite skill to writing is foundational knowledge of right-to-left flow. I have to
remind this student as he is inserting his descriptive phrase. Also at 10:00 mins I engage the
students with using the requisite skill of identifying letter-sound correspondence, by singing the
letter-sound song. Both students begin to sing/chant along with me to find the the letter-sound.
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Elementary Education
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

Before they can use the essential literacy strategy is using letter-sound correspondence to read
and write they must be able to identify letter-sound correspondence ]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[
I demonstrate linking prior academic knowledge in clip 2 at 10:00 mins : I engage
the students with using their knowledge of letter-sound correspondence, by linking prior
knowledge to singing the letter-sound song (which we previously learned and frequently
engaged in as a class). Both students begin to sing/chant along with me to find the the lettersounds.
I demonstrate linking personal assets in clip 2 at 6:47 mins : I tell these students
that we will circle our sight words. This is the emerging group (they are pulled-out for EIP daily).
The first student frequently expressed excitement and focus on sight words. He had been
seeing sightwords everywhere. So I took this positive and new found excitement to include in
our lesson task to circle all the sightwords they could find. I supported this with a larger
sighword list to compare and search with. ]
4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your explanations.
a. Explain how you elicited and built on student responses to promote thinking and
apply the essential literacy strategy using requisite skills to comprehend OR compose
text.
[
I demonstrate eliciting and building on responses to compose text in clip 1 at 3:40
8:44 mins : At 3:59 mins a student says All of those are descriptive. They're telling us what
they are doing. He has comprehended from the passage that the author is describing the wild
things, but he is not quite where I need him to be because he has stated the passage tells us
what the wild things are doing. I respond Well, you know, its giving us actions about what they
were doing but it also describes...what is a descriptive word you heard?. I am attempting to
elicit responses from that focus on creatively describing how the wilds things wild things look,
sound, smell and feel, not just on their actions, for our shared writing experience.
With my response we had several student responses. At 4:20 mins a student responded
gnash. I explained that this was a action. At 4:27 mins I respond how about their teeth, what
word was described for their teeth, from this explaining and probing another student responded
terrible. From this I probed further at 4:37 mins wait how about their roars? Their roars are
terrible....what is a terrible sound you can think of?. I did further scaffolding with use your
imagination to think about what a terrible roar would remind you of. Some responses were
screaming (5:10mins), loud (5:25 mins), a lawnmower (5:35 mins). I asked the student why
is a lawnmower a terrible sound, and she responds because it's so loud
Other responses were a horn (6:56 mins) , a truck (7:23) a bell (7:29 mins). From
the bell response I acknowledged that a bell dinging could hurt my ears if it was really loud. The
student added, It hurts my ears like a horn. Another student response wasa monster truck
(7:50 mins). I responded the wild things are kind of monstrous aren't they. That is a good
descriptive word for a sound they make. The last student response was a car because when
you beep the horn, the horn is so loud. From all their creative comparisons, the ultimate
conclusive descriptive word was loud. ]
b. Explain how you modeled the essential literacy strategy and supported students as they
practiced and applied the strategy in a meaning-based context.
[
I demonstrate modeling and supporting the essential literacy strategy in clip 2 at
10:00 10:50 mins : The essential literacy strategy is using letter-sound correspondence to
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Elementary Education
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

read and write. At this point of the clip, I am supporting the 1st student who is still emerging
with his letter sound correspondence in listening for and writing (they are from the emerging
group, they both are pulled-out for EIP daily) at least the initial letter-sound in the word
dangerous. I respond what did we say makes the 'duh' sound? A goes 'ah', B goes 'buh', C
goes 'kuh', D goes 'duh'. 'Duh', 'duh', 'dangerous'. Put your D down for dangerous. I am using a
song we have previously and frequently learned to support him in using initial letter-sound
correspondence. ]
5. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your responses to the prompts.

a. What changes would you make to your instructionfor the whole class and/or for
students who need greater support or challengeto better support student learning of
the central focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/support,
such as students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, struggling readers,
underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students.

[
Clip 1: DAY 3 Shared Writing Activating Schema at 4:02 mins :
Though the student that was blurting responses was distracting, he was making good
connections. I could have acknowledged these connections better, and built upon them.
Clip 2: Workstations Re-engagment Cows (Emerging Group) at 10:00 10:50
mins : I modeled and supported using the essential literacy strategy using letter-sound
correspondence to write the initial letter-sound in the word 'dangerous with a song we have
previously learned and frequently used. However I could have better supported their learning
with a visual aid to correspond with singing the song (a sheet with the alphabet and pictures and
to support the letter-sound). ]
b. 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.
[
Clip 1: DAY 3 Shared Writing Activating Schema at 4:02 mins : The student that had
been blurting out responses stated they got sharp claws. I had alerted the class to listen for
descriptive words. The word terrible was used in the passage to describe the wild things'
claws. He used this passage and illustrations to describe how the wild thing's claws looked. I
could have built upon this because it was a good connection, and to the point of what I was
attempting to elicit out of the class for the shared writing experience. The book reading was
schema activation for the shared writing experience, creatively describing the wilds things by
how they looked, sounded, smelled, and felt. His comment could have been built upon to elicit
conversation about how the wild things looked. Instead I built upon the other students blurted
out comment to elicit responses about how the wild things sound. This was good discussion, but
I could have further validated the other student's response since he had made several good
connections.
Clip 2: Workstations Re-engagment Cows (Emerging Group) at 10:00 10:50
mins : I could have better supported their learning with a visual aid to correspond with singing
the song (a sheet with the alphabet and pictures and to support the letter-sound). In the clip it
shows I had to write the letter D for the student. The visual aid could have solidified the
connection with the the letter-sound song. Also, this could have supported the students to use
the strategies on their own; with the visual right there they could have found the letter and lettersound independently, in conjunction with the song. ]

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