Early Childhood

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. List the learning experience(s) you have selected for the 2 video clips you are
submitting. Identify the learning experience(s) by plan day/number.
[For video clips 1 and 2, I have selected from learning experience 3 on sorting author’s purpose.
The standards are CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RL.1.8, to identify the reasons an author gives to
support points in a text and L.1.5a, to sort words into categories to gain a sense of the concepts
the categories represent. Video Clip 1 is a ten-minute video that shows whole class or large
group instruction. The large group instruction is focusing on the process of knowing how to
determine and be able to sort between the three different reasons for writing, or author’s
purpose. At the beginning of the video I am reviewing author’s purpose, going over what the
definition is and what the three different reasons for writing, or three different author’s purposes,
are. Then the students help me write examples of each author’s purpose in the correct category.
Video 2 is a five-minute video that shows a small-group instruction with four students, two of
them being the focus students I have chosen on opposites ends of the line. We play an
interactive sorting game in order to review author’s purpose in a more individualized setting.]
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
children with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge children to engage in
learning?
[In video clip 1, right from the beginning I am asking questions throughout the learning
experience to review author’s purpose from the previous learning experiences. I made sure to
call on students of varied needs and developmental levels in order to ensure that everyone
understood the reading strategy, author’s purpose. The questions that I ask are to review
author’s purpose. The answers to my questions are all written on the board from previous
learning experiences for students to have as a reference for the week. By allowing students to
use the board to answer questions ensures that every student is receiving the information in
their own way if they cannot remember from the previous learning experience. The students
have the opportunity to repeat the author’s purposes back to me in order to help them better
retain each purpose or reason for writing. This was the second day that I went over each
author’s purpose to ensure that all the students knew how to correctly pronounce each of the
vocabulary words and knew what each word meant. By writing the information being taught on
the board, the students have a concrete example to be able to read and review throughout the
week. I wrote the three different reasons for writing, persuade, inform, and entertain, on the
board in columns for the students to help me sort genres. The genres that we sorted are from
learning experience 2. I wanted to review them in a slightly different setting and be able to talk
as a whole class about why each genre corresponds with the author’s purpose that is does. In
video clip 2, the students are split into stations of developmental reading skill levels. I worked
with students of the middle skill level on the reading strategy of author’s purpose. I wanted to
work with individual students to be able to focus on them to see how well they were
understanding author’s purpose. To differentiate the instruction and to keep students actively
involved in their learning, we sorted book titles into the correct author’s purpose, three

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 Early Childhood
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

categories: persuade, inform, and entertain. I asked my small-group questions along the way to
ensure they are understanding author’s purpose as we do the interactive book title sort. They
put a thumb up when they thought the book title should go into the category I asked them. I
made sure they were facing the board for them to use the definitions, genres, and yes or no
questions to ask themselves as a reference to be able to see if they can determine the purpose.
If they can say yes to the questions written on the board, then they know it belongs in that
category. For example, if the story was about Tell Me a Story, their new story for the week, the
students could look on the board and read under each letter, p for persuade, i for inform and e
for entertain. They would come to the e and ask the question, “Is the writing telling you a story?”
They would be able to answer yes to this question which means the author’s purpose is to
entertain. I have them read each book title for them to receive more practice with reading and to
show me where they stand on their reading development.]
3. Engaging Children in Learning
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.

a. Explain how your instruction engaged children in

 language and literacy development, AND
 active, multimodal learning
[In order to engage children in language and literacy development, I focus on prompting
students with questions to encourage their comprehension skills. The previous learning
experience I introduced author’s purpose and we practiced sorting genres into the three author’s
purposes. In video clip 1, learning experience 3 was used to review author’s purpose and
sorting them into the correct categories. Students were also engaged in their language and
literacy development by reinforcing the key academic vocabulary words: persuade, inform,
entertain, and purpose. I asked the students questions to help them come to the right answer or
conclusion and in order to expand their thinking and to see who retained the information
previously taught from the author’s purpose. I asked comprehension questions throughout the
entire learning segment in order for students to participate and stay actively engaged in their
learning rather than just sitting there listening to me tell them the answers. The whole point in
reviewing is for the students to have time to refine their skill of understanding the reading
strategy. The students were able to give me examples of inform genres and entertain genres. I
wanted to give students a chance to use their voices and practice communicate skills. We
discussed author’s purpose in multiple ways, engaging them in active, multimodal learning. I
gave the students information on author’s purpose by speaking to them and wrote information
down on the board so they could get the information across a second way.]
b. Describe how your instruction linked children’s development, prior learning, and
personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[The 1st grade students have an open space to move around to develop their academic skills
either as a large group, independently or in a small-group setting. My instruction on author’s
purpose was linked to them previously learning reading strategies to be able to read and
understand text more effectively. Author’s purpose was set to be the next reading strategy to
follow the school’s curriculum. My class enjoys being able to raise their hand and be called on to
give an answer. They love to feel independent and be right about anything so giving them the
opportunity to feel good about themselves is always necessary. When they are called on and
are not correct or forget what they wanted to say they get embarrassed and start shutting down
which results in less paying attention. I try to ensure that I have an uplifted voice and give them
a response to alleviate the embarrassment.]
4. Deepening Children’s Learning during Instruction

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 Early Childhood
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

Refer to examples from the video clips in your explanations.

a. Explain how you elicited and built on children’s responses to promote children’s
language and literacy development through active learning.
[In video clip 1, I ask students questions in order to provoke responses. At 2:28 I asked what the
p stands for in “easy as p.i.e.” and a student gave me the definition. Rather than lingering on the
wrong answer I will ask another question to produce the correct answer. At 6:25 I ask if the
students remember what a billboard is because it is a genre in the persuade category and we
discussed in the day before. One student responded with “yes”, to which I asked another
question in order to communicate with the student and hear her response. She had an answer
that was an example of a something that goes on a billboard rather that what a billboard. I
always try to point out the positive and correct part of the answer before either asking another
question or giving the correct answer. I start a lot of my questions with “who remembers”. At 7: I
ask for an example of the author informing the reader. A student gave the example of comics
which would be under the entertain category. I made sure to address why that would not be the
right answer in order for them to be able to understand why something is wrong in order to be
able to get to the correct answer next time. One last thing I do, like at 9:02, is to say “thank you”
to the students so they can understand that I appreciate them participating and so they know it
was also the correct answer. Students are more likely to want to raise their hand when the
teacher is complimenting them or saying something in a positive manner to them. In video clip
2, I continue to ask the students questions in order to provoke responses. At 1:12 I ask the
students was persuade means to review once again the three reasons for writing or the three
author’s purposes. A student has the opportunity to read the definition from the board in order to
give her response. This is the purpose for writing on the whiteboard, so the students have a
reference to look back on throughout the week. I often say something along the lines of
“awesome” or “yes, thank you” and repeat back what the student has said to reemphasize
something and so everyone can hear and then I will move onto another question. We move on
to sorting book titles into the correct category at 3:15. The students had the opportunity to
respond with the thumb up assessment on what they believe the author’s purpose of the book
is. At 5:20 they responded with the incorrect category so I will explain to them the correct
category and why it belongs where it does and why it does not belong where they thought it
belonged.]
b. Explain how you made interdisciplinary connections in ways that deepen children’s
development of language and literacy.
[I used language and reading in my learning experience 2 to provide the students with
interdisciplinary connections. I started video clip 1 with a large group instruction where students
were using their language skills to listen and discuss on author’s purpose. I moved on to have
them sort genres into correct categories to be able to use real-life examples they could
understand. In video clip 2 I worked with a small group to further their understanding on author’s
purpose in a more thrilling way. The students responded with excitement on the sorting game
and enjoyed the process of talking about books they may have even read in the past.]
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 to better support children’s learning
related to the central focus? Be sure to address the needs of all children, including those
who need greater support or challenge.

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 Early Childhood
Task 2: Instruction Commentary

Consider the variety of learners in your class/group who may require different
strategies/supports (such as children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
children at different points in the developmental continuum, and/or gifted children).
[The central focus of my learning segment is that 1st grade students will apply inquiry and
literacy skills to discover the author’s purpose through the exploration of text. To better support
children’s learning related to the central focus, I would want to try to make it more inquiry based
and hands-on to allow the students to be able to explore and analyze the author’s purpose of
different texts. I only touched on one complete story that we read and if I were to do it differently
I would use different stories at the beginning of the experience to lead into author’s purpose
each day. This way I could be using guided comprehension questions throughout my entire
learning segment and the students would have a lot of practice their communication skills by
answering questions about key details in a text. Another way I could have done it is have groups
work together to read a story and then figure out what the author’s purpose is with the help of
their classmates. I would simply want the students to be up and moving around more. By using
a more hands-on inquiry-based lesson, I could have incorporated different subjects such as
science and made it so that each book was like an investigation and we had to answer these
questions in a scientific way to figure out. I would consider also adding on a lesson to continue
reviewing author’s purpose and make sure every student understands what the strategy is.
During stations, I could have taken more time to read the leveled books already provided by the
school to ask guided comprehension questions on. The students are used to doing this in their
group reading books and also during reading stations when working with the teacher so I could
have asked questions to help get to the correct author’s purpose. The questions will help me to
stay on task of the topic of author’s purpose and guide the students to find the correct author’s
purpose of the story we will read. Another station that the students could complete on their own
is to sort sentences from texts into the correct author’s purpose.]
b. Explain why you think these changes would improve children’s learning. Support your
explanation with evidence of children’s learning AND principles from developmental
theory and/or research.
[I believe these changes would improve children’s learning because they are going outside the
“box” of learning and using more hands-on materials and moving around more than they were.
In the videos you can tell students are getting distracted too easily so something to pull their
attention needed to happen. Author’s purpose is a language and literacy lesson but I believe
that incorporating more subjects with reading students will be able to grasp the concepts easier
because they were explained in a variety of ways. Spending more time learning about author’s
purpose would improve the student’s learning because by the end of the learning segment not
every student understood what it meant by “author’s purpose” or what the three reasons for
writing are. Showing them multiple different ways to figure out author’s purpose would be
helpful.]

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