Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY Respond to the prompts below (no more than COMMENTS \* MERGEFORMAT 9 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the brackets. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored. 1.Central Focus a.Describe the central focus and the essential literacy strategy for comprehending OR composing text you will teach in the learning segment. The core of this learning area is the development of the ability to find the major idea and supporting details about informational texts in students. The critical literacy plan is to teach students how to recap important points by differentiating between important and insignificant information, which helps overall reading comprehension. b.Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your learning segment address the essential literacy strategy related skills that support use of the strategy reading/writing connections The standards and objectives cover the key literacy strategy that presupposes that students analyze the primary idea and the supporting details in grade-level texts. Comprehension is supported by related skills, e.g., prediction, context clues, and sequence of events. Connection points in reading and writing are developed by using written summaries and graphic organizers, and in both cases the students share their understanding of the text in their own words. c.Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections between the essential literacy strategy to comprehend OR compose text and related skills that support use of the strategy in meaningful contexts. The lessons will be developed through modeling how one may find the main ideas in short passages, guided practice with supporting details, and independent summarizing of longer texts. All steps establish bridges between the key strategy and the corresponding skills so that students could engage comprehension in the meaningful context, i.e. in group discussions, written answers, and even in texts. 2.Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching For each of the prompts below (2a–b), describe what you know about your students with respect to the central focus of the learning segment. Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, English learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students). a.Prior academic learning and prerequisite skills related to the central focus—Cite evidence of what students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning to do. The vast majority of students are able to recognize the essential elements of a story and can remember the important details of a text. They are learning to differentiate between the essential and unessential details, yet they hardly ever know how to relate details to a definite key point. Jay, and four other students reading below grade level, are able to recognize individual facts but they need scaffolds to construct passage level understanding. b.Personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focus—What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural and language backgrounds and practices, and interests? The students belong to a high-poverty, African American urban community with strong family attachment to culture. A large number of them have strong oral narrative and are interested in music, sports, and community activities that can be utilized to relate texts to their lives. Engagement and familiarity with digital learning are also supported through the use of technology via IXL and Reading A-Z. 3.Supporting Students’ Literacy Learning Respond to prompts 3a–c below. To support your justifications, refer to the inst...