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ELEMENTARY UNIT/ LESSON PLANNING COMMENTARY

Your Name: Jason Kawana
Date: 5/12/14
Unit/Lesson Title: Metropolitan Museum of Art-National Landmarks
Grade Level and Content Area: 3
rd
Grade. Social Sciences.
Number of Students: 27
Total Amount of Time: 60min
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? Students should be able to identify
what national landmarks are and gain knowledge of a few of the national landmarks in the
United States.
2. Rationale: Why is this content important for your students to learn and how does it promote social justice?
Students should learn about national landmarks as it shows the triumphs of indiiduals as well
as important part of U.S. !istory. Some of the landmarks hae signifi"ant ties to pea"e and arts.
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!? Some of the language demands of the lesson in"lude knowledge of museums as well as national
landmarks. Students will be proided with a o"abulary wall that "an help them identify and find the
definitions of unfamiliar words. Students will also be able to listen to other students read the prompts as
well.
#. $""essing prior knowledge and building upon students% ba"kgrounds& interests and needs: How do
your choices of instructional strategies, materials and sequence of learning tasks connect with your students"
backgrounds, interests, and needs? Students will be asked what their past e'perien"es are with regards to
museums and will be asked also what their past knowledge is regarding what they know about national
landmarks.
(. $""ommodations: What accommodations or support will you use for all students including English
#anguage #earners and students with special educational needs, i$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$ )o"abulary
poster with pi"tures will present material will help *LLs be able to a""ess the material.
Students will also be able to listen to other students read the material. Students will also be
able to talk in groups about their thinking and learning in order to really demonstrate use of
the language demands and o"abulary.
+. ,heory: Which theories support your unit/lesson plan? e*plain the connections! -arbara Rogoff%s
"ommunity of learners helps guide my lesson be"ause students are responsible for the
reprodu"tion of knowledge. ,he tea"her is not the only one with knowledge. .onstru"tiist
theory also "omes into the lesson where students "an dis"uss information and build off ea"h other
in the groups around the art pie"es.
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
2013-2014
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?
I think that the overall lesson went really well. The timing was a little but off so the students couldnt
complete all the rotations but I had already somewhat anticipated this. I know that this was due to the
amount of scaffolding I needed to do so that my students could be get through this first time smoothly.
When I do this lesson again I dont have to go over the museums in detail because weve already gone
over them as well as they know the expectations and how to rotate and everything. I think that I might
change the lesson next time by differentiating the groups more so that students at different levels could
get different levels of reading the same materials.
**COMMENTARY IS REQUIRED FOR ALL UCLA ELEMENTARY FORMAL OBSERVATIONS **
2013-2014