Latimer Task2 Ic

Elementary Education: Literacy with Mathematics Task 4
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 clips? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan
number.
[Video clips were selected from Lesson #2. The first clip (Clip 1) runs for seven minutes and
twenty seven seconds. Clip 2 runs for eight minutes and three seconds. Clip 1 begins at the end
of the academic language discussion (early on in Lesson 2) on what the term main idea means,
continuing into a discussion of prior academic learning about theme. The second half of the clip
involves me modeling for and involving students in the process of finding the subcategory using
the supporting details (academic language, strategy, and skills). I write notes on the board as
the discussion progresses, using the hand graphic organizer from Instructional Materials 1 & 2,
that was introduced in Lesson 1. Clip 2 occurs later on in Lesson 2: students were given
instructions for completing their assignment, as well as an overview for how they would be
assessed. Students are reading short paragraph texts (Instructional Materials for Lesson 2)
independently and in pairs, and are completing the assessment sheet (versions A, B, and C in
Assessments for Lesson 2). I am rotating around to different students and providing assistance
as needed. In this clip, some student conversation overlaps others; my commentary focuses on
the interactions between myself and students.]
2. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment
Refer to scenes in the video clips 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?
[Throughout the lessons and the clips, I consistently call students by their first names and use
positive tones in my interactions with this students. This facilitates a positive learning
environment amongst the students, and they interact in a positive and encouraging manner with
one another. I repeat students answers to show that I am listening to what they are saying, and
that I value their ideas. Following a question about determining the subcategory, students don’t
seem to be willing to volunteer answers. At Timestamp 2:52 in Clip 1, I say “now it’s okay to
voice your ideas because this is a learning process.” I chose to say this to show students that
it’s okay not to have the answer that’s 100% correct, what’s important is to be willing to voice
your concerns to continue the learning process. This promotes a positive learning environment.
Following this statement, Kimora asks at Timestamp 3:03 in Clip 1, “What is a subcategory?”
After repeating her question, I take this time to elaborate more to guide students toward the
meaning of subcategory. This demonstrates responsiveness to students with varied needs. I
saw that students needed more help to reach understanding, so I took the time to help bridge
them to that understanding. When I am questioning students about the subcategory for the
Elephants passage, Ameena asks the question at Timestamp 6:28 in Clip 1: “Does it have to be
one word?” I reply back at Timestamp 6:34 of Clip 1 and say “You make a very good point,
thank you for asking that question.” This student’s willingness to ask the question demonstrates
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our mutual respect and rapport, as well as my responsiveness to students with varied needs.
Clip 1 also demonstrates a challenging academic environment because students are needing
time to think about the answers to the questions I am posing (Timestamps 2:43 & 5:38).
During Clip 2, I demonstrated mutual respect for all students as I rotated around to different
students, providing assistance as needed. Students also demonstrated rapport by talking
through their assignment with the other student who had the same passage as them. I want to
highlight in particular the conversation taking place between Zariah and Kimora, seated closest
to the camera. Though their conversation sometimes interferes with understanding what other
students are saying, they have taken upon themselves a certain way of figuring out the answers
as a team. At Timestamp 4:00 in Clip 2, Zariah asks Kimora, “So, what’s the subcategory?”
Kimora replies at Timestamp 4:07 in Clip 2: “The subcategory is...how to take care of a puppy.” I
am immensely proud to see this mutual respect and teamwork in learning that they have
demonstrated. In a later conversation with these two students, they experience difficulty with
composing the main idea statement. They are working through it, guided by my questioning, but
I take some time to encourage and challenge them. At Timestamp 7:26 in Clip 2, I say: “I want
to challenge you to write your own main idea statement - cand you can do it because you’ve
come up wit han excellent subcategory; I love how you came up with a specific subcategory
which states how to take care of a puppy. So what I want you to do is reword that into a whole
sentence.” Not only does this build a positive learning environment, but it is also academically
challenging.]
3. Engaging Students in Learning
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing an essential literacy

strategy and related skills.
[Clip 1 demonstrates part of the modeling process for students to develop main idea statements.
The bulk of the clip walks students through the determination of the subcategory, an essential
piece of writing a main idea statement (strategy). I didn’t just model for them; instead, I engaged
students in the development of their essential literacy strategy by asking them questions
throughout the process. I start off at Timestamp 2:43 (Clip 1) asking “What do you think
subcategory means?” As students are struggling to make meaning of this, I go into more depth
and ask at Timestamp 3:11 (Clip 1): Basically think of your topic as your main category, do you
know what a category is?” We discuss what a category is by using examples, and then go back
to the basic building blocks of a subcategory by using a passage that we read the previous day.
At Timestamp 4:21 (Clip 1), I say in reference to this passage, “Let’s remind ourselves...what
are those supporting details?” Students then individually respond one at a time with a
supporting detail from the passage about elephants. Not only is this process supporting their
development of the essential literacy strategy (main idea statements), but it also promotes the
related skills of paraphrasing and referring to details and examples in the text when making
inferences. The students are making inferences by taking what the author’s supporting details
are and inferring (bridging their knowledge and what the author is saying) what the subcategory
is. I ask several more open-ended questions about the subcategory of the example passage,
concluding with this question at Timestamp 6:20 (Clip 1): “We said numbers and we said weight,
so what can we call our subcategory then?” Following one more student question, we finally
arrive at the subcategory for the example passage, which we will then use in our creation of the
main idea statement (not shown).
During Clip 2, students are working with the topic and subcategory to form main idea statements
(the essential literacy strategy) for the short passages they are reading. Students are also
practicing related skills by paraphrasing (explained in Prompt 3b) and referring to specific
examples in the text to support the author’s topic sentences. I promote the development of the
literacy strategy and related skills through questioning. For example, at Timestamp 0:36 (Clip 2),
I say “Do all the rest of the sentences in that paragraph support that topic sentence?” Here, I am
requiring that students be able to differentiate between the topic sentence and the supporting
details by asking if those supporting details all relate back to what they chose as the topic
sentence in some way. Again, at Timestamp 4:40 (Clip 2), in response to Nevaeh (middle right)
wondering if a particular sentence is the topic sentence, I reply: “it could be...do the rest of the
sentences in that paragraph support that topic sentence?” Nevaeh replies with a detail from the
text, and I respond at Timestamp 4:59 (Clip 2): “So that’s supporting that topic sentence isn’t it?”
In every instance, I am encouraging every student to think about why they are choosing
particular sentences as topic sentences and supporting details by asking them for their
reasoning.]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students’ prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[At Timestamp 0:27 in Clip 1, after writing a definition for the main idea statement (the author’s
main point or message), I encouraged students to think about how this related to prior academic
learning by asking: “now this sounds an awful lot like something we learned about a couple
weeks ago.” After eliciting student responses, I reminded students of our study on theme. I
asked students to tell me what theme is, and I explained at Timestamp 2:00 (Clip 1) the
difference between theme and main idea. This is a crucial thing for students to understand in
order to be successful with main idea statements. Furthermore, I relate my questioning to
student interests, just as I did for the topics of the passages. As I am using questioning
strategies to deepen student understanding of subcategory, I refer to students’ personal assets
by relating to their interests. After asking students if they know what a category is, I ask at
Timestamp 3:17 in Clip 1: “So if I say mammals, what’s a subcategory of mammals?” In this
way, I am relating a foreign academic concept to something that they understand, allowing
students to build their schema of the concept (as supported by schema theory by Bartlett,
Piaget, and Anderson).
The students have previously learned about paraphrasing other authors’ work to avoid copying
their ideas. So, at Timestamp 5:09 in Clip 2, I ask the students: “Now what are we doing with
our supporting details? Are we writing them word for word?” Ozyion replies at Timestamp 5:22
(Clip 2): “paraphrasing.” I follow this answer up with “And what does paraphrasing mean,
Ozyion?” (Timestamp 5:24, Clip 2). He replies “putting them in your own words” (Timestamp
5:26, Clip 2). These comments and questions were made to remind students of the important
skill of paraphrasing, which they need to do for everything except the topic sentence in this
learning segment.]
4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction
Refer to examples from the video clips in your explanations.
a. Explain how you elicited and built on student responses to promote thinking and
apply the essential literacy strategy using related skills to comprehend OR compose text.
[Clip 1 shows students in the middle of the process of learning the essential literacy strategy: we
are discussing the subcategory, which is a building block for the determination of a main idea
statement. In order to promote student thinking and understanding, I elicited student responses
by asking questions, and then made comments and asked further questions to build on student
responses. After we reviewed the supporting details for the example passage in Clip 1, I asked
at Timestamp 5:19 - “What’s a pattern that we see across all these supporting details?” Kimora
replies at Timestamp 5:27 (Clip 1) - “numbers.” All of the supporting details had some kind of
number in them, but I wanted to challenge her and get her to see what the numbers were
representing. So I asked at Timestamp 5:30 (Clip 1) - “What are those numbers talking
about...what kind of measurements are we talking about?” Zariah replies at Timestamp 5:34
(Clip 1) - “The weight”. She is referring to the weight of the elephants. I continue this line of
questioning, asking at Timestamp 5:38 (Clip 1) - “So what do you think our subcategory would
be...for this if we’re talking about numbers and eight of elephants, what is our subcategory
based on our supporting details?” I added more details to my question to provide scaffolding to
my students, to help guide them toward composing the subcategory, which they will later use to
write the main idea statement.
In Clip 2, I continued the process of eliciting and building on student responses to promote
thinking. At Timestamp 2:21 in Clip 2, I asked Ameena (back, right) - Alright, how’s it going over
here?” This truly open ended question allows her to speak to me about what’s going well, what’s
a problem she’s having, or simply explain her thought process. She explains to me that at first
she thought the topic sentence was one particular thing (inaudible), but then [her passage]
“talks about all these types of mammals” (Timestamp 2:46, Clip 2), and she changed what she
thought the topic sentence was. I repeated what she said at Timestamp 2:52 (Clip 2), and then
commented on her reasoning (Timestamp 2:56, Clip 2): “I can really see your thought process…
you changed your topic sentence because you found out more information about your passage.
Not only is she effectively utilizing the building blocks for the essential literacy strategy, but she
is able to explain her reasoning and make use of related skills, including using specific
examples to support the author’s main point in the text.]
b. Explain how you modeled the essential literacy strategy AND supported students as they
practiced or applied the strategy to comprehend OR compose text in a meaningful
context.
[After engaging students in a discussion about academic language (not shown), students were
invited into the modeling process. Students previously learned (in Lesson 1) about the topic and
supporting details, which they are going to now use in Lesson 2 to formulate the subcategory
(shown in Clip 1) and the main idea statement (practiced in Clip 2). I am modeling a building
block of the essential literacy strategy in Clip 1. I utilize questioning strategies to engage my
students in the learning as I model the process for them. I started off with a question at
Timestamp 2:43 (Clip 1) - “If I say that all these supporting details have to go with a
subcategory, what do you think subcategory means?” I encourage students to voice their
thoughts, and when that elicits a student question rather than answer, I change my questioning
to meet their needs. I ask a question referring to a category of something that they know about
(mammals, Timestamp 3:17, Clip 1), and then refer back to the example passage that we
started with in Lesson 1 (about Elephants). I walk with students through each step of the
process: “What are the supporting details?” (Timestamp 4:21, Clip 1), “What’s a pattern that we
see across all these supporting details?” (Timestamp 5:19, Clip 1), and then finally “So we said
numbers and we said weight, so what can we call our subcategory then?” (Timestamp 5:38, Clip
1). Finally, after all of these steps, we finally reach a subcategory, which we can then use in
composing our main idea statement, which is the essential literacy strategy.
In Clip 2, I am supporting students as they are practicing the essential literacy strategy by
rotating and asking students questions. As previously stated, Kimora and Zariah were truly
engaged in working on the essential literacy strategy. During the second half of Clip 2, I ask
them some questions to support them in this process as they experience some difficulty putting
the subcategory and the topic together in one main idea statement. At Timestamp 5:42 (Clip 2),
Kimora says: “The main idea statement is...can we like take one of the supporting details?” I
then reference the subcategory that they created. Zariah asks another question, and I respond
at Timestamp 6:04 (Clip 2): “Okay, it talks about puppies...and you have your subcategory,
what’s your subcategory, Kimora?” She replies with their subcategory, and then I reply at
Timestamp 6:15 (Clip 2): “How can you change that into a full sentence?” This back and forth
questioning goes on a little longer, and the students progress further in creating the main idea
statement. Zariah eventually says (Timestamp 7:08, Clip 2) “The main idea statement is puppies
need special care because you have to do a lot of work for the puppy.” Though this is still not
precisely what I’m looking for, they have truly progressed a lot as a result of the questioning
process that supports them as they are practicing the essential literacy strategy.]
5. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. What changes would you make to your instruction—for the whole class and/or for
students who need greater support or challenge—to 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.
[When I was teaching this unit, I got sick after my first two lessons, so the third lesson was
taught nearly a week later, as opposed to the day after as I had planned. First, I will address
some small things I noticed from the clips. Then, I will address a method in which I could better
support student learning across the learning segment. In Clip 1, I noticed that my feedback is
not at the level that it should be. Though I am eliciting and building on student responses, my
feedback is generally vague and nonspecific, such as “very good, Zariah” (Timestamp 4:35, Clip
1). I would change this by making my feedback more frequent, focusing on what students are
doing right and wrong, so they’ll know exactly where to proceed from that point forward.
Secondly, while most of my questions are open ended, there is one instance in which I ask “Do
you know what a category is?” (Timestamp 3:13, Clip 1). To improve this dialogue, I would ask
students, “What is a category?” Then, I can truly assess whether or not students have an
understanding of this concept by gauging their responses to this open ended question. I also
missed another opportunity for open ended thought provoking questions at Timestamp 4:34,
Clip 2, when I said “that sounds like a supporting detail.” I should have taken the opportunity to
ask “how would this detail support the topic/topic sentence?” This would have deepened student
thinking and promoted use of the related skill of referring to specific examples that support
particular points in a text.
While I believe that students were beginning to understand this particular process of developing
a main idea statement, I believe that if students were asked to develop their understandings of
topics, topic sentences, details, subcategories, and main ideas in an inquiry based fashion, they
would internalize the process and better understand the importance of the main idea and
supporting details. I say this because students asked a lot of questions, even as I was providing
facilitative guidance (i.e. Timestamp 3:03 in Clip 1, when a student asked “What is a
subcategory?”). To create an inquiry based learning segment, I would ask students to explore
various sentences to construct a paragraph, and then explain what the paragraph is mostly
about. I would ask, is there any one sentence that supports the rest of these sentences?
Furthermore, students would develop their own terms for things like the topic, subcategory, and
main idea. While it would be important for students to know terms like topic sentence and main
idea, discovering these concepts on their own would make them much more meaningful and
thus internalize the process of finding them more easily.]
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.
[Students begin the process of learning when it begins at a level that they can reach. Students
were able to answer the question, “What were the supporting details?” (Timestamp 4:21, Clip 1).
This was an example of scaffolding to help students answer more thought provoking questions,
such as how to reach the subcategory and form the main idea statement. Students will be able
to learn more as they are scaffolded and given feedback. Scaffolding helps students reach the
zone of proximal development, where they can complete tasks with assistance, and then
eventually do those same things independently (Vygotsky). Furthermore, research has proven
that the more specific feedback is (what students are specifically doing right and wrong), the
greater gains will be made in student learning (Timperley and Hattie, 2007). Giving more
specific feedback more frequently will increase student learning. It was evidenced throughout
Clip 1 that open ended questions promoted student thinking and learning (i.e. Timestamp 5:19 -
“What’s a pattern that we see across all these supporting details?”), so this pattern should be
continued, rather than limiting student learning by asking closed questions (i.e. Timestamp 3:13,
Clip 1: “Do you know what a category is?”).
If I had this learning segment to teach over again, I would seek to make it more inquiry based.
While students asked plenty of questions to obtain better understanding of the material (i.e.
Timestamp 5:42, Clip 2: student question “Can we like take one of the supporting details” [for
the main idea statement]?), students would learn at a deeper and more meaningful level if the
learning segment was based on the inquiry model. Within the inquiry model, either the teacher
proposes questions for students to explore on their own, or students ask their own questions
throughout the process of creating understanding. This method, also known as discovery
learning (Bruner) allows students to discover facts and relationships for themselves. If students
look at multiple paragraphs and complete investigations on the types of sentences involved in
each paragraph, then they would gain a better, more in depth understanding of what topic
sentences, topics, supporting details, subcategories (perhaps under a different name that
makes more sense to them), and main idea statements are. And once students are able to
analyze paragraphs for this information, then they will then be able to write better paragraphs
and longer works of their own as writers.]

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Elementary Education: Literacy with Mathematics Task 4

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

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

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