UCLA Center X TEP UCLA Center X TEP

ELEMENTARY UNIT/ LESSON PLANNING COMMENTARY

Your Name: Sarah Patterson
Date: 3/12/14
Unit/Lesson Title: Science and Expository Writing/ Water Conservation Revise, Edit, Publish
Grade Level and Content Area: Grade 5, writing
Number of Students: 30
Total Amount of Time: 40 minutes
1. Learning Goals/Standards: What concepts, essential questions or key skills will be your focus? What
do you want your students to know at the end of this unit/lesson?
The key concept is to give students another opportunity to try expository writing, this time bringing in
facts from the research they have done in class and the science demonstration I did showing how much
fresh water there is on earth. We will focus on writing factually and in the third person, while we
continue working on introductory sentences and the revision/editing processes. By the end of the lesson,
students will understand how to write expository essays in the third person using facts rather than
persuasion or opinion.
2. Rationale: Why is this content important for your students to learn and how does it promote social
justice?
This lesson is helping to give students an authoritative voice in their writing, which will be important
during future writing proects after elementary school. !xpository writing is the main mode of writing
for middle school, high school, and college, and so far, my students have very little experience with it.
They tend to rely on first person writing, which is not authoritative, and I hope that this lesson will make
their writing voice stronger and more authoritative.
3. Identifying and supporting language needs: What are the language demands of the unit/lesson? How
do you plan to support students in meeting their English language development needs including
academic language!?
Students will need to use academic language in this paper that we have been discussing in class:
freshwater, drought, renewable, non-renewable, resource, and water conservation. I have had students
write these key terms down in their writing notebook so that they can refer to them as they are writing
their essays. I will also recommend students use these words during their revisions, and have peers look
for spots where writers can use these words in their essay. All of my class except two is redesignated, so
really my differentiation aims at English-only learners rather than past ELLs.
4. Accessing prior knowledge and building upon students backgrounds, interests and needs: How
do your choices of instructional strategies, materials and sequence of learning tasks connect with your
students" backgrounds, interests, and needs?
We began this learning segment by doing a science demonstration about water that sparked student
interest in talking and learning about water. This lesson is particularly timely to my students" learning
as it is taking place as we are going through a drought in #alifornia, and I have brought news clips and
articles in to make their learning relevant and helpful as we move through this drought.
#$ Accommodations: What accommodations or support will you use for all students including English
%anguage %earners and students with special educational needs, i$e$ &'(E students and students with
)E*"s!? E+plain how these features of your learning and assessment tasks will provide all students
access to the curriculum and allow them to demonstrate their learning$
2013-2014
While I expect all students to complete the rubric, I ask students to focus on different aspects of the
rubric that are most important to their writing. $or gifted learners, I will encourage them to pull more
facts from the research and news articles I have given them and implement academic vocabulary we
have talked about. $or some of my struggling writers, I will instead focus on the essentials of expository
writing% that their essay be organi&ed and based on facts. 'ome of the students have struggled to
decipher fact from opinion, and this key strategy is more important now than having those students
write in the third person.
. !"eor#: Which theories support your unit/lesson plan? e+plain the connections!
This unit is supported by sociocultural learning theory, as students will be given opportunities
throughout the process to discuss with and learn from peers. In this lesson in particular, students will
do peer editing with their partner, first flagging areas of concern and then discussing them to show their
partner why they flagged them. $or students who struggled to edit their own papers last week, this
process was very helpful. I will be interested to see if their peers" suggestions help them know better
what to look for during this week"s peer editing session.
7. Reflection: (answer the following questions after the teaching of this unit/lesson) What do you feel was
successful in your lesson and why? If you could go back and teach this learning segment again to the same
group of students, what would you do differently in relation to planning, instruction, and assessment? How
could the changes improve the learning of students with different needs and characteristics?
**COMMENTARY IS REQUIRED FOR ALL UCLA ELEMENTARY FORMAL OBSERVATIONS **
2013-2014