Early Childhood

Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 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 purpose of the content you will teach in the learning
segment.
[ The central focus of this learning segment is that students will be able to use and identify
describing words properly as well as use comparing words. Students will learn about and
discuss how the mother penguin and father penguin work together to keep the egg warm until it
hatches as well as what happens after it hatches. While doing this, students will also learn how
to use describing words to describe the penguins and how to use comparing words with the
suffixes -er and -est appropriately to make comparisons when talking about penguins and their
environments. In this segment students will also learn the rules for adding the suffixes -ing and
-ly to the end of a word and how it changes that words meaning. Lastly, during this segment the
students will also discuss fact and fiction and how it pertains to our weekly story. Students will
participate in a writing assignment where they will use their knowledge of describing words and
suffixes to write sentences about the penguins as well as participate in a science activity after
listening to a book about different kinds of penguins, their environments, and how they stay
warm and dry. The purpose of the writing activity is to provide additional practice using
describing and comparing words. The science activity is to provide students with a concrete
example of how penguins are able to stay dry and warm.]
b. Describe how the standards and learning objectives for your learning segment support
childrens

active and multimodal learning

language and literacy development in an interdisciplinary context
[ The standards and objectives within my learning segment promote childrens active and
multimodal nature of learning by not being only one type of learning objective; but instead the
standards and objectives vary in type just how students vary in how they learn most. The
language and literacy development in an interdisciplinary context is supported by focusing on
more than one subject at a time. Not only do the activities in this segment focus on language
and literacy but they also incorporate science and art as well; and instead of only doing
workbook or textbook activities I make sure to keep the students moving and doing more
interactive activities. The activities that are done during this segment incorporate their prior
knowledge of how to write a complete sentence and how to use some describing words with
new skills by expanding on the types of describing words they know and how to use some of
these words to make comparisons. For example, they know how to use words that tell how big
and how many, they will learn how to take those words and put them into sentences to compare
by writing statements such as The father penguin is bigger than the mother penguin. These
segments provide active and multimodal learning because each segment consist of a different
activity to add variety. One lesson consists of a comprehension review through playing Who
Wants to be a Millionaire at the meeting area whereas another lesson consist of a hands on
activity where students actually experience what it feels like to be an ice cold water with and
without the blubber that penguins have. By having students move around and participate in a
variety of activities, there is more of a chance that they will stay engaged longer instead of
losing interest after repeatedly doing workbook pages and worksheets.]

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Early Childhood
Task 1: Planning Commentary

c. Explain how your plans build on each other to support childrens language and literacy
development through active and multimodal learning.
[ The plans are designed to build on each other in a way that they are not only learning new
information, but as they learn new information they are also reviewing and using the old
information as well. For example, in the first learning experience we read a book about different
types of penguins and where they live. This connected to the next activity because we used that
information to put different words and phrases that described the different penguins and their
environments on the whiteboard. We then will use those thoughts to create different sentences
about the penguins; this activity will carry over to the penguin art activity that we will do later in
the week which will end with the sentences that they constructed being stapled to the penguins
that they make. Each of the lessons in this segment connects in a similar manner, any
information that they receive will be used to complete the following lesson. For example, the
information that is learned when reading the story and going over vocabulary and phonics will
be used when the students complete the sentences that they will be paring with their penguin
art.]
d. Describe how the physical environment in which you are teaching supports the active
and multimodal nature of childrens learning. (If, in your view, the physical environment in
which you are teaching does not adequately support the active and multimodal nature of
childrens learning, please describe the changes you would make.)
[ The physical environment in which I am teaching supports the active and multimodal nature of
childrens learning by allowing an environment where students desk are grouped in a way that
allows them to work individually as well as in small groups. The environment also allows for
enough room so that the entire class can move to the meeting area and participate in whole
group discussion or to better see the SMARTboard or Elmo projector at a more intimate level
opposed to everyone being spaced out at their desk. From students desk they are generally
able to see every area of the room such as the white board, the SMARTboard, and the mobile
easel without an inconvenience, This makes it much easier to teach while moving around the
room instead of standing in one spot the entire time and it makes it so that when the teacher is
doing a lot of moving the students are not having to constantly move. In the back of the
classroom there is also a table for students to work at in small groups or for the teacher to work
at a small group with the students. There is a bookshelf in the classroom that is strategically
placed so that if students are looking for a new book they are not distracting to the other
students that may still be working. Against one of the side walls in the classroom there is a table
that always has three Chromebooks out for students to use, if more than three students need to
use Chromebooks then they can receive one from a cart stored in the classroom that has twenty
other Chromebooks stored in it. Overall, I feel as though the physical environment along with
the classroom rules and procedures makes the physical environment appropriate and
convenient for my teaching. ]
2. Knowledge of Children to Inform Teaching
For each of the prompts below (2ac), describe what you know about the children in your
class/group with respect to the central focus of the learning segment.
Consider the variety of learners in your class/group who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, children
at different points in the developmental continuum, struggling readers, children who are
underperforming or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted children).
a. Childrens developmentWhat do you know about their

social and emotional development

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Early Childhood
Task 1: Planning Commentary

cognitive and physical development

language development for communication
[
In my class we have nineteen students and four of them have IEPs for reading, these
students receive additional help in and out of the classroom from the special ed teacher. These
for students would be considered to be below level, there are also students in the class who
would be considered to be at or above level as well. A majority of the students in my class are
on target for social and emotional development. None of the students are loners or stay
completely to themselves, they all have at least two other students in the classroom that they
have positive relationships with and when they go out for recess that number increases because
there are other classes present. Ive never seen any students being bullied or bullying any other
students, however, if there is an issue where a student feels as though another student is being
mean instead of trying to handle things themselves they do the right thing and report it to the
teacher. For example, student A informed me that student B punched them, instead of student A
retaliating they informed me and I was able to take care of the situation. I was able to find out
that student B didnt punch student A out of anger but instead was trying to play with student A
and didnt realize that student A no longer wanted to play. All of the students are able to say how
they feel and control their emotions, they are also aware of how their actions affect them as well
as their peers, even when they dont always make the best decisions.
In the area of cognitive development most of the students are able to tell time on a clock that
isnt digital and can do mental math in their heads, although some students use still use the
number line on their desk. The four students with IEPs have a slightly harder time processing
and remembering information, when this happens I sometime rephrase the question so that the
prompt helps them to able to better come up with an answer. For example, I may ask some of
the students questions about how or why whereas the students who are more developmentally
delayed questions that ask who or what. Physically students are on track, they can all do things
such as run, skip, jump, ant catch. When students seem to either be overly tired or restless I
have stand up and stretch or do jumping jacks. Because we are focusing on penguins for this
segment I plan on incorporating that by having students waddle like a penguin when they seem
tired or on their way to the meeting area.
In the area of language development for communication most of the students are able to
correctly answer questions about the stories that we read as well as follow oral and written
instructions in a sequence. When students are speaking most of them are easily understood,
some of the students speak extremely low and have to be reminded to speak up when talking.
One of the students sees a speech pathologist, however I dont have a hard time understanding
him. Another student sounds like he has a speech disorder, however he does not see a speech
pathologist. Students can answer simple yes or no questions, generally stay on topic, take
turns, give directions, and clarify and explain ideas. When reading students are working on
mastering using phonics to sound out words that they dont know. They know how to identify
how many syllables are in a word. Students also show that they know how to use their own
experience and prior knowledge to predict and justify what will happen in a story. They can also
explain key elements such as the main characters and the main idea of a story. Students are
able to read silently and aloud. Some students have a harder time focusing and following along,
for those students when we read out loud as a class I make sure to spontaneously call on them
to read to make sure that they are following along. Students have also shown that they are able
to re-read the text for information to answer questions. When students take their time they are
able to write legibly in print, they are currently working on cursive. Although they dont always
remember to use it, students know how to properly use capitalization and punctuation marks
and they know what needs to be included to make a sentence a complete sentence. Students
know how to correctly recognize and spell frequently used words and know how to use the
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Early Childhood
Task 1: Planning Commentary

sounds of letters to sound out words they dont know how to spell. Students also know the parts
of a letter such as a heading, the body, a signature, etc. ]
b. Personal, cultural, and community assetsWhat do you know about your childrens
everyday experiences, cultural and language backgrounds and practices, and
interests?
[ Most of the students arrive at least thirty minutes before school starts, at the latest students
arrive ten minutes before students are dismissed to their classrooms. Out of the nineteen
students in my class fifteen usually take the bus either home or to a daycare where their parents
pick them up. The students who dont take the bus either go to tutoring or are considered parent
pick-up. Some of the students are a part of programs not connected to the school such as Girl
Scouts and Cub Scouts, some are even in the same troop as other students in their class. All of
the students speak English and at least two students come from bi-racial families. Although not
all of the students live with their parents all of the students have someone who either helps them
with their homework or checks it for them. Each student has a Friday folder that they take home
that contains what it is they have to do for homework, their homework, and any note that need
to go to the parent or guardian. Students are to bring these folders back every day with a
signature that shows that the parent or guardian checked that the student did their homework.
Students also take home a poem along with a sheet labeled lucky listeners, students are
supposed to fluently read the poem to five people who signature to show that the poem was
read to them. This is another way to make sure that a parent or guardian is involved in what the
students bring home as well as a way to also make sure that students are practicing fluency
when reading.]
c. Prior learning and prerequisite skills related to language and literacy development
What can they do and what are they learning to do related to language and literacy
development? Cite evidence from your knowledge of this class/group of children.
[ Students know how to print legibly and know that to write a complete sentence they need to
use a capital letter, a naming part, a telling part, and a punctuation mark. They also know how
define a noun. They have recently started working with describing words that tell what color,
what kind, how big, how many, and what color. Students will start working on how to use these
describing words to construct sentences to describe a noun. During this segment, students will
also learn how to se comparing words that have the suffixes -er and -est and when to properly
use them when making a comparison. Students will also begin practicing adding the suffix -ly
and -ing to the end of words and recognizing that adding these suffixes change the meaning of
the word.]
3. Supporting Childrens Development and Learning
Respond to prompts 3ac below. To support your justifications, refer to the plans and
materials you included as part of Planning Task 1. In addition, use principles from
research and/or developmental theory to support your justifications.
a. Justify how your planned learning experiences and materials align with your
understanding of the childrens development, prior learning, and personal, cultural, and
community assets (from prompts 2ac above). Be explicit about these connections and
support your justification with research/developmental theory.
[Theorist John Dewey supports that children learn through doing, this is something that I agree
with. In lesson 1, the students participate in a science activity where they use hands on learning.
By actually being able to stick their hands into the ice water with and without the blubber,
students are able to experience what the ice cold water feels like to better elicit describing and
comparing words from their vocabulary. This allow students to easily be able to come up with
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Early Childhood
Task 1: Planning Commentary

sentences where they can properly use their vocabulary. This also connects to their prior
knowledge because some of the words they use to describe what they feel are words that they
already know such as cold or warmer. By asking follow-up questions such as what do we as
humans do to stay warm gives us a chance to see through their answers connections to their
culture and community assets, If aa student were to say put on a coat or a blanket, we know
they come from a culture where they have been cold before and know what to do. If a student
were to mention that their house is always cold, we may be able to tell that this student might
come from a lower income neighborhood. Depending on the type of clothes a student describes
we may be able to tell if they come from a place that usually gets more or less cold.]
b. Describe and justify how you plan to support the varied learning needs of all the
children in your class/group, including individuals with specific learning needs.
Consider the variety of learners in your class/group who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
children at different points in the developmental continuum, struggling readers, and/or
gifted children).
[ None of the lessons are completely identical, each one has a different component in some
way. With knowing that all children dont learn the same way it is important to have a variety of
methods and strategies. Some students learn better by doing, to support this some lessons,
such as lesson 1 include doing hands on work. Other lessons include doing through practicing
after the skill and the end goal have first been modeled to the students so that they are aware of
what needs to happen. Some students learn more by listening. Because of this, some lessons
include working together as a class as we read through the instructions and questions together
as well as reading the classroom story out loud. To make sure students are understanding and
paying attention to what is going on students are asked guided questions as we work. Oher
strategies in my lessons include utilizing the special ed teacher and having her to assist
students with IEPs as we work together in a whole group setting followed by her removing the
students for part of the lesson so that they can receive extra help and work in a more intimate
environment where there arent fifteen other students to be concerned with. Students with IEPs
are often allowed additionally work time to accommodate the fact they do need extra help and
because of that it takes longer to finish their work.]
c. Describe common developmental approximations1 or misunderstandings that pertain to
the learning experiences you are planning for the children and how you plan to address
them.
[Common developmental approximations that can be seen throughout my lessons are always
reviewing before completing independent practice. Before working on a practice sheet together
or independently students will always have the opportunity to review the skill or information that
will be needed to complete the practice pages. A common misunderstanding that may be seen
throughout the lesson is the improper use of a new skill. For example, when students are
learning to use comparing words ending with -er or -est, they may improperly use a word to fill in
a sentence. Instead of saying a dog is bigger than a cat, they may first say the dog is biggest
than the cat. I plan to address misunderstandings such as these by reminding students that they
must not only take their time but if a question provides answer choices to make sure they read
each option in the sentence so that they can hear which n sounds like it makes the most sense.]
4. Supporting Childrens Vocabulary Development

For example, common beginning or transitional language errors or other attempts to use skills or processes just beyond a

childs current level/capability.

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Early Childhood
Task 1: Planning Commentary

Respond to prompts 4ac below by referring to childrens range of vocabulary development

related to the learning segmentWhat do they know, what are they struggling with,
and/or what is new to them?
a. Identify the key vocabulary2 (i.e., developmentally appropriate sounds, words,
phrases, sentences, and paragraphs) essential for children to use during the learning
segment.
[ Key vocabulary for this segment include the words: flippers, hatch, miserable, slippery,
waddled, and horizon. Students will also be working on changing the meaning of a word by
adding the suffixes -ly and -ing as well as learning when to appropriately use comparing words
that end in -er or -est. Students have a spelling list that consist of fifteen words, five of which
end in -ly and five that end in -ing which supplies them with extra practice working with these
suffixes. Students already know the difference between fact and fiction, which they will need to
know to when we talk about the genre of the story as well as the facts and details in the story. In
order to talk about the genre of the story students will also need to know what genres are and
what types of genre there are, which they already know. Although we refer to adjectives as
describing words in class, students will need to know the different categories for adjectives such
as color, size, and how many and how to identify them in sentences. During this segment,
students will also be learning how to use the inflections -s and -es when changing a word such
as baby to its plural form.]
b. Identify the learning experience that provides children with opportunities to develop,
practice, and/or use the key vocabulary identified in prompt 4a. (Identify the plan
day/number.)
[ In lessons 1 and 3, students are provided with the opportunity to practice and use the key
vocabulary. In lesson 1, students a provided with the opportunity to practice and use the key
vocabulary verbally when they are encouraged to use describing and comparing words to
express verbally what they experienced through the science activity. In lesson 3, students are
provided with another opportunity to practice and use key vocabulary when we learn about
penguins through reading a book and have a follow-up writing activity. In this writing activity they
are to write three or 4 sentences where they properly use describing and comparing words to
show what it is they have learned about penguins.]
c. Describe how you plan to support the children (during and/or prior to the learning
experience) to develop and use the key vocabulary identified in prompt 4a.
[ I plan on supporting children through during prior learning by building off of their prior
knowledge. I will first ask students what they know to make sure I am spending the most time on
the areas that the students seem to struggle with the most. During the learning experience I
plan on supporting the children by assisting them when needed but also making sure I
challenge them to first solve their problem with little help. I also plan on supporting students by
walking around as students work and letting them know when they are either doing something
well or when they are doing something wrong. By doing this, students will be provided with
feedback that will not only motivate them to keep working well, but it will also give them a
chance to fix their errors opposed to waiting until the end and having to go back to make
changed to their work.]
5. Monitoring Childrens Learning

Developmentally appropriate sounds, words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that you want children to use or create to

engage in the learning experience.

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Early Childhood
Task 1: Planning Commentary

In response to the prompts below, refer to the assessments you will submit as part of the
materials for Planning Task 1.
a. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments provide direct evidence to
monitor childrens multimodal learning throughout the learning segment.
[ When deciding on how I would assess the childrens learning I decided that I wanted the
informal assessments to feel very natural and to vary in style. For example, for the first activity
we will do students will be assessed based on if they were able to correctly write sentences that
included describing words and comparing words properly. One of the sentences a student wrote
was that Penguins live in the coldest place on Earth. This showed me that this student
understood how to properly add -est to the world cold to make this comparison. A lot of the
informal assessment done in my class is done through me asking students questions and falling
up with questions such as how did/ do you know that? or Why did you say that that is what I
need to do?, this way students provide evidence for why they chose their answer and I am bale
to seen whether thy genuinely understand. Students will also be informally assessed through
playing the comprehension question version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The last informal
assessment don in this segment is students participating in a whole group discussion after
completing the science activity. By comparing their prior knowledge to the knowledge they now
have from participating in the science activity will show me if they have a better idea on how to
use adjectives and comparing words as well as if they understand the information they received
about how penguins stay warm. The formal assessments are done through the pages that they
complete on their own in their reading workbook.]
b. Explain how your design or adaptation of planned assessments allows children with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.
Consider the variety of learners in your class/group who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., all children along the continuum of development, including
children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, struggling readers, and/or
gifted children).
[ Because I dont have any students with major exceptionalities the adaptions for this segment
are minor. The struggling readers in this class are also the students who have IEPs, the
adaptions made for them include having the special ed. teacher work with them in a small group
environment as well as having her walk around and help them with their reading for the duration
of the time she stays in the classroom. In addition to supplying them with one on one help these
students also receive longer work time than the others. In some instances, where the students
are instructed to work individually, the students with IEPs will work with the teacher at a round
table so that they are able to have the questions read to them. A majority of the rest of the
students are at level, however, for those students who do work above level the way adaptions
are made are by challenging them to look at their problem a different way before walking them
through the problem step by step. For example, a struggling reader may ask what a word is and
if it is a more complex word will either be told what it is r they will receive help to sound out each
part of the word. For a student who is above level, instead of giving them the word or walking
them through each sound, I would encourage them to use context clues and challenge them to
sound the word out themselves. When we get into small groups for reading students are
generally put into groups with students at a similar level to them so that students who are at or
above level arent reading the books that are below level and may be too easy for them.]

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