Task 2B Instruction Commentary

Secondary Mathematics
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 clip(s)? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan
number.
[Whole class discussion Lesson 2 is shown in Clip 1, Lesson 4 warmup student tutor activity]
2. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment
Refer to scenes in the video clip(s) 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?
[Clip 1 To engage students I use context outside of math that students may find intriguing. At
0:02, interesting buildings are included in my lesson to both share interesting architecture of
famous buildings and to transition into presenting a local building the students may be familiar
with. The purpose of this is to connect with students’ sense of awe and familiarity in asking the
question “How tall is the building?” At 1:15 I propose a guessing activity in which all students
simply try to guess the height of a building. This activity’s serves as a low barrier of entry into
engaging with the mathematics the classroom conducts later. This allows students who struggle
with math an easy way to participate without having to do much math, which creates a buy in to
doing math and encourages them to participate when more math is involved. Many times
throughout Clip 1, you can see students making jokes. Humor is encouraged in my class as it
allows for a more relaxed environment when doing math. For example at 1:18 or 3:39, a student
jokes about their guess for the height of the building saying “Like 1 centimeter,” and “1
millimeter.” I simply respond, “It has to be reasonable,” showing I accept their quips, but also
need to redirect the focus to the work. I allow students to be openly humorous, because I want
there to be a light-hearted atmosphere and I trust them to do the work that is required of them
when I expect them to be a bit more serious. Additionally, I trust my students to respect me in
leading the classroom. At 3:04, I transition into adding information simply by adding what I have
to say and students take the time to listen before returning back to their work.
In Clip 2, I similarly show rapport with my students in listening intently to their explanations at
0:00 and 4:48. The students show trust in me and the direction of the activity by participating in
helping other students at 1:34 and 5:20. This activity in particular allows students with specific
needs to receive the help that they need. For example at 5:20, I direct the student who I know is
competent in math and a Spanish speaker to assist the other student who is an ELL student.]
3. Engaging Students in Learning
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your responses to the prompts.
a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing

 conceptual understanding,
 procedural fluency, AND
 mathematical reasoning and/or problem-solving skills.
Copyright © 2018 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 1 of 5 | 6 pages maximum
All rights reserved. V06
The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is
permitted only pursuant to the terms of a written license agreement.
[In Clip 1, I start my lesson with a guessing activity at 1:15. The purpose of this activity is to
allow students to engage with mathematics. While guessing does not have direct relevance to
the content goals of that day, it provides an easy activity with a low barrier of entry for students
to begin engaging with math. The main instruction begins at 4:15 in which I present the question
we are trying to solve which is “How tall is this building.” I do not simply provide numbers for
them to use to calculate however. At 4:32 I ask them “What do we need to figure out how tall is
this building.” Students must then use problem-solving skills to engage with me in order to find
out which information they need. This also requires students to engage in a deeper depth of
conceptual understanding in knowing how trig ratios work, specifically how to use them for an
applied problem such as the one presented. Students provide me various elements of a
situation they believe are necessary to solve the problem. For example at 4:36 a student says
we need measurements, at 4:42, a student says we need an angle, at 5:58 a student says a 90
degree angle, and at 6:26 a student says we need distance. Each time I do not simply affirm
whether they are correct or not, but I push them to be more specific with what they mean. For
example I respond at 4:38, “I heard measurements. Does anybody have anything more specific”
or at 4:44, “What angle? What do you mean by angle?”
In Clip 2, students engage in math by personally solving problems first as seen by the students
at 4:10 trying to solve the problems presented. At 0:08, the student states the problem of using
3 methods to solve for an unknown x value. This also challenges both procedural fluency in self-
solving problems and conceptual knowledge in using a variety of ways to solve a problem. I
then assess some students who finish earlier. At 0:00 and 4:48 I approach students who
finished earlier to explain their answers to me. This challenges the rigor of students’ conceptual
knowledge because they have to show me they can not only finish the work, but also explain it.
For example at 0:40, the student begins a thorough explanation of the algebraic process,
showing how the activity engaged his knowledge of procedural fluency. Furthermore at 1:45 and
5:20 the students explain their work to other students which further challenges their procedural
fluency and conceptual knowledge. Additionally, if the other student lacks an understanding,
they also have to engage in mathematical reasoning to help the other student troubleshoot what
they are doing wrong.]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students’ prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and/or community assets with new learning.
[In Clip 1 I relate to a community asset by referring to a building in across the street from the
school. At 0:27, I introduce the Gaylord building, which is an apartment building that has a bright
green sign that is very noticeable at night. This allows students to work with something familiar
and to personalize the question of “How do you find the height of a building?” In addition, I
transition into introducing this building by appealing to the students’ sense of awe. At 0:00 I
finish sharing the tallest buildings in the world and share with them other impressive feats of
architecture that aren’t necessarily the tallest. Introducing the Gaylord building not only serves
as something familiar from the community but also allows for a humorous transition from
buildings that inspire awe, into a building that breeds familiarity.
The activity of finding the building’s height specifically relates to an activity the students have
done before in which they find heights of building. Around 4:20, a student mentions the activity
as they ask, “Are we going on a field trip again?” The previous activity required students to go
into the school courtyard and measure various objects there. While this problem, does not
require students to wander outside, it relates to previous learning in they have to perform the
same task. However, student’s build upon their knowledge this time because they have to recall
what information they had to find for themselves last time before I provide them with this data. I
ask at 4:32 “What do we need to figure out how tall is this building?” This takes a previously
performed activity and adds an extra dimension of using knowledge of how the math works to
ask for the information they need to figure it out instead of finding the information themselves
with tools.]
4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) in your explanations.
a. Explain how you elicited and built on student responses to promote thinking and
develop conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, AND mathematical reasoning
and/or problem-solving skills.
[In Clip 1, mathematics is mainly conducted in the Socratic questioning I conduct to help them
build up the information needed to solve the problem. At 4:32 I ask “What do we need to figure
out how tall the building is?” This challenges students’ conceptual knowledge in understanding
the elements that make a trig function work and also their problem solving skills in using that
knowledge to ask for the correct information. Throughout the conversation, I continually build
on their responses and ask them to be more specific. Students say we need measurements and
at 4:38 “Measurements? I heard measurements.” Does anybody have anything more specific?”
At 4:42 they say we need “Angle, the angle.” I respond “What angle? What do you mean by
angle?” I press once again at 5:06 because I want to emphasize what they are correct about
needing an angle, but have to be specific about what they mean. At 5:58 a student says, “A 90
degree angle.” I again demand specificity to build upon their response and at 6:10 I ask, “What
do you mean by 90 degree angle?” Once again, I do confirm that they are correct, for example
at 6:23, I say, “We do need a 90 degree angle somewhere.” A student also says we need a
distance around 6:30 and I respond, “Distance to where?” The student builds upon this by
saying, “From you to the building.” To be successful in this activity, students must have a strong
conceptual understanding of what elements of a situation are needed to perform the trig
operations as well as a strong ability in reasoning to specify the information they need. By the
end of the questioning around 7:30, I provide students with measurements familiar to them from
a previous activity. Students are expected to use the information I provide them to continue onto
procedural fluency of solving for the height of the building. Although I provide the information, I
do not provide their relevance to trigonometry and do not tell mention if that is sufficient
information. This open ended process requires students to continue their thinking in reasoning
what information they may or may not be missing.
In Clip 2, mathematics is mainly conducted in self-solving, and explaining to other students. Part
of the activity is for students who finish early to explain the math back to me. At 0:03, I say to
the student, “Alright, so explain to me how you did the first problem.” This elicits the student
from 0:16-0:30 to explain a conceptual understanding of the problem and 0:40-1:30 to explain
their Algebraic procedural fluency. Then, I further challenge the student at 1:31 by telling them
“Now I want you to be the teacher.” For this builds upon what they told me and challenges them
to have to explain their knowledge to someone who might struggle with the math. At 4:45, I
approach another student and conduct the same teacher moves. For this student I also build
upon their reasoning by asking them “Why do you use cosine.” This prepares them for the next
part of the activity, which is to explain to another student how to do the problem at 5:20. By
listening to these students explain to me and engaging with their explanations, I challenge the
rigor of their conceptual understanding and also prepare them to explain their mathematical
reasoning to another student in the next part of the activity.]
b. Explain how you used representations to support students’ understanding and use of
mathematical concepts and procedures.
[I use a variety of representations to provide students with different perspectives of what doing
math is about. In Clip 1 I initially many pictures of a variety of buildings and at 0:45 I share a
picture of a nearby building. This introduction is to pique students’ curiosity so students can
understand that curiosity is often the spark that invites the use of mathematics. At 4:32, I ask
students, “What do you need to figure out how tall is the building?” By framing the problem by
asking this question, I show students that math is a process of problem solving by figuring out
what you need to reach the objective at hand. Along the way, at 5:06, I ask a student to “draw
me a picture.” By asking students to provide me a representation of the situation, I exemplify to
the students that modeling with simple diagrams and figures, is also a part of math. Although
the class does not explicitly perform the activity of using tools, I briefly mention its use and
connect it back to a previous activity at 4:20 in which the students familiarized themselves with
the tools in doing math. At 7:35 I provide them with the measurements I had gotten from using
tools and provide photos of the tools that they had themselves previously used: a clinometer to
find the rising angle of an object and google maps to find the distance between two points.
Overall, this lesson was meant to represent math as a multi-faceted process.
In Clip 2, I highlight math as more a process of solving problems and discussing it among
others. The students had to first individually solve problems seen by students working at 4:10
you can see students working individually. Some, students then had to explain their work to me,
the teacher, such as at 0:03 and 4:48, demonstrating to the students that understanding math is
not just an individual process, but requires rigor in explaining it to another. I further push the
idea of what it means to understand math at 1:45 and 5:20 by having these students then
explain math to another student. This pushes them to adopt understanding as understanding
what is correct and what might be incorrect through a communication process.]
5. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from the video clip(s) 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).
[In Clip 1 at 4:32, I jump right into the problem of “What do you need to figure how tall is the
building?” with a whole class discussion. To engage more students, and facilitate more
discussion, I would make the change of having small groups discuss their ideas before coming
back to the entire class. This allows students who might be confused on the problem to engage
with students who have a better idea of what I am looking for. Additionally, it would allow IEP
and ELL students a chance to better understand the problem and situation with given discussion
with people who could help explain or translate for them. I also could have used popsicle sticks
to call on students if few people were volunteering. Although I usually use popsicle sticks to
select students for a differentiated classroom in other activities, I wanted an open class
discussion for this activity. However, very few participated and I wasn’t able to assess the
students’ understanding overall very well. In addition, at 8:15, I tell the students they should
have everything they might need for the problem. Although I might’ve provided the students with
everything they actually need, it might have been more beneficial to not do so unless they
specified in detail. For example, I could’ve asked more students to come up to the board to draw
out what they were thinking like I did at 5:06. This would have challenged students to be more
specific in asking for information they need and would also make the problem solving task of
figuring out information more difficult. It would further make sense to include these changes
because, in hindsight, the pacing of my lesson was way ahead of my lesson planning. I had a lot
of time to allow students to think about the problem and discuss their thoughts with students and
to make a few mistakes.
In Clip 2, I was rather lenient with my rigor of checking the students who showed understanding.
For the first student, at 0:10, there were three methods of solving the problem they were given
and I only checked for one method. Additionally, at 0:15 they say they use the Pythagorean
theorem, and I could have asked the student why it would work. At 0:29 the student does not
explain why it doesn’t matter the order of a squared and b squared and I do not ask them to
further explain why. At 0:58 the student says they “move the 400 to the other side,” but I also do
not challenge them what they mean by “moving” a number. With the other student at 4:52, I
could’ve similarly been more rigorous. While I do ask them why they use cosine and they
respond appropriately by pointing it out, their explanation could have been more thorough and I
could have pursued a literal response instead of being lenient with the given response. While I
did not directly observe the students teaching other students such as at 1:45 and 5:20, in
watching the video, I could see that the method of assistance varied. To account for this, I could
have provided clearer instructions beforehand on what I want them to do when teaching and
assessing other students’ understandings. This would include paying attention to how I go about
asking them so they can apply the same rigorous approach for helping other students.]
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.
[By allowing more discussion with the changes discussed in Clip 1, I would have encouraged
more student participation and empowered students to contribute in making knowledge. This
goes according to Rogoff, how it is important to create a Community of Learners, in which
students can look up to other students as valuable sources of knowledge. By allowing more
discussion and student participation, other students have a chance to feel a part of the
classroom and to better engage with the material. This would also have touched upon what
Gibbons calls message abundancy, in which the same information is provided not only by me
but by other students, leading to an increased comprehensibility for all students, especially ELL
students. By allowing students to be mediating discussion, I also use ideas from Vygotsky’s
social development theory. Because as a teacher I cannot always be the one who helps
students, I cannot always be the one to bridge a student’s current understanding to where I
want them to be. Using other students via discussion to facilitate this knowledge, allows me to
redirect my attention more generously to other aspects of teaching beyond one-on-one
instruction.
As for the changes in Clip 2, my attention to rigor in listening goes along Gibbons idea of
learning to ask for clarification. Many times, I should’ve asked for clarification in what a student
meant in order to further push their understanding. Additionally, according to the National
Research Council’s, How People Learn, feedback is critical and progress needs to be monitored
in order for students to evaluate their own understanding. By applying more rigor to my
questioning, students can better assess the depth of their understanding and then further
consider this depth when sharing their knowledge with other students.]

Task 2B Instruction Commentary

Încărcat de

Informații document

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Task 2B Instruction Commentary

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Secondary Mathematics

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing

S-ar putea să vă placă și