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ELEMENTARY UNIT/ LESSON PLANNING COMMENTARY

Your Name: Jason Kawana
Date: 4/30/14
Unit/Lesson Title: Unit 8 Lesson 18
Grade Level and Content Area: 3
rd
Grade Mathematics
Number of Students: 28
Total Amount of Time: 40min
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? I want my students to be able to
understand which measurement they would need to use for specific objects as they need to know
for their standards for
rd
grade math. Students will need to be able to !isuali"e the objects in
their mind in order to create an accurate assumption about how to measure the different objects.
#. $ationale: Why is this content important for your students to learn and how does it promote social justice?
It is important for students to learn this lesson because they need to be able to demonstrate this
information lea!ing the third grade. I would find this information useful when con!erting
measurements from e!erything to chemistry to baking in large doses.
3. Identifying and supporting language needs: What are the language demands of the unit/lesson? How do
you plan to support students in meeting their English language development needs including academic
language!? Students need to be able to remember the !ocabulary and which measurement is for solid and
which measurement is for li%uid. Students also need to be able to differentiate the different
measurements from the !ocabulary but will be able to reference their notes to work on their problems
which allows them to check for their own understanding.
&. 'ccessing prior knowledge and building upon students( backgrounds) interests and needs: How do
your choices of instructional strategies, materials and sequence of learning tasks connect with your students"
backgrounds, interests, and needs? *y producing real objects students can gain a deeper understanding of
how to differentiate between the measurements.
+. 'ccommodations: What accommodations or support will you use for all students including English
#anguage #earners and students with special educational needs, i$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$ Students from all
le!els will be able to learn because they will ha!e opportunities to discuss their answers as
well as work with a partner or their groups in order to practice orally what they ha!e been
writing also so they can gain confidence to speak in front of the whole class.
2013-2014
,. -heory: Which theories support your unit/lesson plan? e*plain the connections! *arbara $ogoff(s article
about .ommunity of Learners supports many opportunities in my lesson. /In a community0of0
learners classroom) organi"ation changes from dyadic relationships between teachers responsible
for filling students up with knowledge and students who are supposed to be willing receptacles to
comple1 group relations among class members who learn to take responsibility for their
contribution to their own learning and to the group2s functioning.3 Students can take
responsibility for creating their own learning and are sources of knowledge in the classroom as
well. -herefore students are learning not only from the teacher but also from each other as well.
-his theory can be linked to my lesson when students are sharing their answers with the tables
and their elbow partners. Students can help one another if there are any %uestions regarding any
of the answers.
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?
The lesson went really. By the end of the lesson students had a firm understanding of the content that was
being taught to them. There was also an impromptu discussion about the importance of relevance and
explanations. There was a moment when two students answered the same question differently but
because they were able to justify their answers with explanations they were both technically right but the
question was very open to interpretation. Students were both correct but I further explained with
drawings and explanations where both of the students answers came from. Neither student felt wrong
but we came to an understanding as a class of the importance of discussing the reasoning for answers.
**COMMENTARY IS REQUIRED FOR ALL UCLA ELEMENTARY FORMAL OBSERVATIONS **
2013-2014