Revised XB9YPkkz EdTPA EAL Instruction Commentary

English as an Additional Language
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.
[Monday March 9th is clip #1 and Tuesday March 10th is clip #2]
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?
[
My first video clip demonstrates an activity that we do each Monday before diving into the
content of the week. In this activity students are telling me how they feel, from a zero being a
bad day to a five being the best day ever and why. The students also write how they are feeling
using describing words listed on the board. Students are practicing reading and writing and
vocabulary use in the task. The task allows me to see how students are feeling and what
mindset they are coming into the classroom with. In the video you can see that I walk around
the room looking over the students shoulders. I glance at what the students are writing. If I see
something concerning like they are having a zero day I make sure to ask why. If appropriate I
conference with the student on how we can have a better day. If not I make sure to talk to the
student one on one on the way back to the classroom. If I see the student is having a great day I
find out more about the event or thing that made their day great. This allows the students to see
that I care about them. It shows that I want to know about their lives outside of the classroom.
Also, it helps me gauge what negative behaviors I may be presented with due to a student
having a bad day. In this specific video clip I first conference with Alani (the girl with black hair at
the far right table). She wrote that she was feeling a four because over the weekend it was her
birthday. I also made sure to talk to Fransico the boy in the red shirt on the far left table since he
wrote down he was feeling a zero. After talking with him and the help of Mrs. Blanco the
bilingual outreach worker we discovered he was very tired and didnt get a lot of sleep the night
before.
At the carpet I make a comment that a lot of students are feeling tired today. After I say
this Fatna raises her hand and tells me how she was so tired. When I ask why she informs me
that she had to wake up and get her little sister ready for school. She also had to let her uncle
into the apartment so he could make her breakfast and take her and her sister to school. Just
from this short conversation I have gained more insight into Fatnas life. She has had to take on
a lot of responsibility as the oldest child. Her widowed mother works long hours to support the
four kids. To add on to their unique situation they are refugees whose house in Des Moines
burnt down last year. Thus they really have started from the bottom and Fatna has to balance
being a third grader and being a caretaker.
Before class started on Tuesday Inari approached me saying that he learned in his
homeroom class a couple of facts about Locusts. After he shared the facts with me I asked if he
would share with the class what he learned. Allowing him to teach the class the facts boosts his
self confidence. It also allowed me to show him that I valued his opinion and contributions to the
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class. Many times students comprehend information better when their peers deliver it. Thus
giving Inari the opportunity to share not only benefited our teacher student relationship but also
helped his peers. ]
3. Engaging Students in Communication in English as an Additional Language
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing English language
proficiency within content-based instruction with a focus on at least one modality
(speaking, listening, reading, or writing) and at least one competency (grammatical,
pragmatic, discourse, or metalinguistic).
[Video one shows that students were given the opportunity to practice their writing skills. The
task of writing how they felt allowed them to work on their grammatical competence. The
students had to use the appropriate feeling vocabulary words that fit their current mood. The
students have been working on these words for the past couple weeks. These words were also
displayed on the board as a scaffold. Also not shown in the video but heard in the audio of the
second video students are engaged in reading and speaking. They are finishing reading a
section about grasshoppers and locusts. Thus students are again being exposed to vocabulary
words specific to migration. In regards to speaking, students had to share with their partner the
facts they wrote about either grasshoppers or locusts based on the section they were assigned
to read. In the audio you can hear me reminding students of the appropriate way to speak and
share with their partner sitting next to them. Sharing their facts with a partner was another way
students were given another opportunity to use the vocabulary of migration. In the second video
I start introducing comparing and contrasting based on the facts they provided from the reading.
This helps provide support for students to use the vocabulary of compare and contrast. It helps
support the students to apply the terms compare and contrast to the locusts and grasshoppers. ]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students prior academic learning and linguistic,
personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[The video clip from Monday was the first time I was bell to bell teaching with this group of
students. I wanted to review the classroom rules, SLANT, enabling students to see the link
between my expectations and Mrs. Pulliams. Establishing this link would assist students learn
the new information throughout the lesson. I had students start off by sharing with a partner
what they remembered about the classroom SLANT rules. This gave students the chance to
practice their speaking skills. It benefited students because they could gather their thoughts and
practice articulating them in English before sharing them with myself and all their peers. It
reduced their affective filter.
On Tuesday I started out my lesson connecting to Mondays lesson. I had students review
what we had been learning about yesterday, grasshoppers and locusts. We went over what we
learned just based off looking at the physical features of the grasshopper and locust.
Afterwards the students went to finish the activity of collecting more information about the
similarities and differences of the two insects. The students then had to share their facts and as
a class we sorted them by locust or grasshopper. I made sure on the chart to have the pictures
we looked at yesterday next to the insect name. This could help students make the connection
between the visual of a grasshopper and or locust and the English word. The vocabulary activity
was something the students had never done in class. It had a lot of rules and directions. To help
students better visualize and comprehend how to play the activity, I started out by asking if any
student had played the game two truths and a lie. I had students use total physical response to
answer this question. This not only allowed every student to participate, but gave me a better
idea of students background knowledge. Jovanny used his previous learning to explain how to
play two truths and a lie. I was then able to build off of Jovannys response and connect the
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vocabulary games rules to two truths and a lie. Lastly, when explaining the procedure of the
game I made sure to use hand motions to walk through how to play the game. This allowed
students to visualize how the game would be played. ]
4. Deepening Students English Language Proficiency 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
develop students English language proficiency within content-based instruction.
[One of the first things I did in order to elicit student responses was to make a safe learning
environment in the classroom. I remind students before playing the vocabulary game that it is ok
to guess on the meaning of the vocabulary words. I remind them that they are just learning this
information and I want to see what they already know. Having set this from the start students
were more willing to share what they thought the different vocabulary words meant. It helped
reduce their affective filter. Another way I helped engage responses from all students was
through total physical response. I had students give quick thumbs up, thumbs to the side or
thumbs down to respond to my questions. This definitely helped students such as Fransico who
is a new comer and not always comfortable sharing his thoughts in English. After Inari shared
his facts about locusts and grasshoppers with the class, I had students share about what other
connections or information they learned from their classroom journeys story. This prompt built
off of Inaris thoughts and helped other students connect to the content.
In the first video clip before I had students share what they remembered about the classroom
SLANT rules I had them talk with a partner. This allowed me to walk around and hear what they
had to say and prompt them if needed. It also allowed students to build off of each others
responses and learn from each other.]
b. Explain how you supported your students development of English language proficiency
in a meaningful academic context with respect to
at least one modality

at least one competency
[Throughout the lessons captured in the videos students are using a variety of modalities. In
video one, students are given the task of writing how they feel. They were provided with the
scaffolding sentence frames of I am _____. I feel _____. Students practiced writing in complete
sentences. They had to use capital letters and proper punctuation. This task also helped
students implement vocabulary of feeling words. They ultimately had to communicate through
writing how they felt at the start of the class. This activity gave me the opportunity to gain
insight about the students and help me predict different behaviors that may occur in the lesson
due to how the students are feeling.
In the second video I helped students develop their speaking and listening skills. Students had
to listen to multistep directions on how to play the vocabulary game. Not only did they have to
listen to the directions but be able to comprehend them and put them into action. Having
students do the activity gave me the chance to assess their listening skills by who was able to
successfully follow directions of the game. Students also practiced their listening skills by
hearing their partner share the facts they found about either locusts or grasshoppers from the
reading. Students had to orally articulate their facts about locusts or grasshopper to their partner
too.

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c. Explain how your instruction promotes comparisons and connections between students
prior academic learning, their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and their experiences
and the demands of the content being taught.
[One connection I helped students create was between their prior experiences and the demand
of the vocabulary content being taught. The instruction for learning the vocabulary words and
their definition was through a game. In order to have students be successful learning the
vocabulary via the game they had to understand the rules of the game. Thus I asked the
students the question has anyone played two truths and a lie. This simple ice breaker had
been played by many students in and outside of the classroom. The two truths and a lie game
was a comparison to the rules of the vocabulary game. Another comparison that was made
during the instruction seen in the videos was from their prior learning experiences. In their
general education classrooms students are reading the journeys book chapter about migration.
Thus having students share what they had learned in their general education classroom about
locust migration not only benefits them, but it helps me provide further instruction. Having Inari
share the fact he learned in his general education classroom about how locusts are a type of
grasshopper is helpful. This small comment tells me that in their general education classroom
they have started comparing and contrasting grasshoppers too. When other students start
commenting that they learned that too it tells me that I dont have to spend too much more time
on background knowledge of grasshoppers and locusts. I can provide further instruction about
migration and refer back to the facts they learned from my class and their general education
class. During the group instruction Fatna states that she shared with her general education
class what she learned yesterday (Monday) in group. She told her class what a locust and
grasshopper looked like. Thus she made the connection from the prior group learning to
learning about migration in her general education classroom. ]
5. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. What changes would you make to your instructionfor the whole class and/or for
students who need greater support or challengeto better support student development
of English language proficiency (e.g., missed opportunities)?
Consider the variety of English language learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support, such as students with IEPs or 504 plans, Students with Interrupted
Formal Education (SIFE), readers who struggle in their first language, students at
varying levels of English language proficiency, underperforming students or those with
gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students.
[After implementing my lessons and reviewing the video clips there are many aspects that could
be altered in order to better support student development of English language proficiency. In
order to better support the students during the vocabulary game on Tuesday I would change
how I presented the directions. I would not only verbally give the directions but have the
directions written on the board. The written directions would have pictures to help students
visualize how the game is going to go. It would also provide me with something concrete for
students to refer back to when they get confused on what they should be doing at any point of
the game. I also could have extended the use of the chart to have students choral read the
directions after I had gone over it once. Previous to the vocabulary game I had students place
their facts about grasshoppers and locusts on the chart for the whole class to see. I then read
the facts from the students post its. Looking back on it I wish I had the students share with class
their facts. It would have been good speaking practice for the students. Also since students had
written the facts and already verbally shared them with a partner sharing with the whole class
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wouldnt be such a daunting task. It would also give students like Fransisco a chance to practice
speaking in front of others in a safe setting. A missed opportunity was when we were reviewing
the facts that they read about grasshoppers and locusts. I know that students in second grade
do a study about different environments, one of them being a desert. I could have connected the
locusts habitat to the desert environment they learned about last year. This could have sparked
students memory and have had them make more connections to the locusts from last year.
Given my first video if I were to redo that lesson I would have spent more time on the students
writing in their journals. Spending more time would allow me to circulate and talk to every
student about how they are feeling. Not just glance over some of the students shoulders. I
would also try to have better wait time when going over the slant rules with the students. I think
we could have had a better discussion about the rules if I allowed them more time to talk with
their partners and before sharing with the whole class.]
b. Why do you think these changes would improve student development of English
language proficiency? Support your explanation with evidence of student learning AND
principles from theory and/or research relevant to ELL education.
[These changes would benefit students in many ways. Having students read the facts they
found in the reading would allow students to practice their speaking skills. It can also be looked
at as having the students be the experts. Since the students are sharing the facts they are
learning from their peers. This aligns with Vygotsskys theory of the more knowledgeable other.
These changes would allow students to be more engaged throughout the whole group
instruction. The visual and written instructions would allow students the task of reading (words
and pictures) along with listening to my verbal directions. Piaget talks about schema in his
cognitive theory. Students already had the knowledge of environments in their schema. If I
referenced their second grade unit students could assimilate the new information about locusts
and other migrating animals with their schema about desert environments. Lastly, increasing the
time spent on the activity where students wrote about how they felt would be beneficial.
Maslows hierarchy of needs speaks that the basic needs must be met first before higher levels
of thinking and behavior can happen. Thus, checking in and having a dialogue with each
student would fulfill students need of safety and belongingness on the Maslow triangle.
Therefore students would be able to engage fully in learning because they felt safe and were
emotionally stable for the period. ]

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A picture of the T chart comparing locust and grasshoppers. This chart was used during
Tuesdays lesson viewed on video #2

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Revised XB9YPkkz EdTPA EAL Instruction Commentary

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English as an Additional Language

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

English as an Additional Language

English as an Additional Language

at least one modality

Copyright 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

English as an Additional Language

English as an Additional Language

Copyright 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

English as an Additional Language

Copyright 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

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