EdTPA Planning Commentary SK

Secondary History/Social Studies
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.
[For this learning segment, my central focus will be: Determine the role interest groups, public
opinion, and the media have in American politics, and apply what you have learned by
participating in a simulation. This central focus will be implemented through the use of two Iowa
Common Core standards. Those standards are the SS.9-12.PSCL.1 standard and the SS.912.PSCL.3 standard. These standards cover a range of ideas, and since not all ideas will be
covered from each standard, this is broken down into subsects of these standards. Standard 1
will specifically look at the following statement: Understand the importance of becoming
knowledgeable about public affairs. And Standard 3 will primarily look at Understand the
necessity of politics and government. Government is one of the most relevant classes a student
could take. Politics are a major part of a persons life. The central focus will attempt to help
students understand the major role that these linkage institutions have on our country as a
whole, and help students see how this affects them as a citizen of America. The students will
begin this lesson segment by taking a large scope look at interest groups. After being given the
basic definition of interest groups, students will be given a worksheet that explains interest
groups in greater detail and gives examples of interest groups. This provides them with a good
insight into what an interest group does and how they are used in politics. Then the students will
begin to think about the larger role of interest groups when we discuss lobbying and the purpose
of lobbying. After students see the role of lobbyists, they can begin to formulate their own
opinions on the role of interests groups, as well as already seeing the current role they play. At
this point, students will begin to build an argument to support how they see the role of interest
groups. This will be done over the course of the lesson. ]
b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your
learning segment address
facts and concepts

inquiry, interpretation, or analysis skills
building and supporting arguments or conclusions
[In lesson 2, students will be shown pictures of major historical events. These are images that
show simple facts that have happened in our history as a country. One of the learning objectives
for the lesson is as follows; Students will be able to analyze the Mass Medias impact on major
events in the history of the United States, and how the media impacts the public and politicians.
The images are the simple facts. While discussing the images, students will be able to make
inquiries into how the media portrayed these events. One of the images is of the Vietnam War. I
will inform the students of how the media portrayed the Vietnam War to the public. But before I
give them that information, I will allow them to interpret the picture how they want. Once they
have formulated an opinion on the media, the students will get a chance to discuss how they
feel about the image. This allows students to inquire about the information I have presented
them with and begin to analyze what they see. An example would be when I say: The Vietnam
War sparked outrage in the United States Citizens. Who can tell me why? This prompts the
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students to inform me about why citizens were mad about the Vietnam War. Most students will
tell me the opinions of the public at the time; what they will fail to do is mention how they got this
information. My students have always lived in a time where any kind of war has been made
know to the public due to the media; Vietnam was the very first war that showed the many
things that were going on there. I will preface to students that similar things happened during
WWII. Why wasnt the public as outraged over WWII? Why do we celebrate WWII? Some of
my students are members of NJROTC and will argue with the general views that the media
portrayed of the war. This allows students to formulate opinions and then build an argument
based on what others around them discuss. ]
c. Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections
between facts, concepts, and inquiry, interpretation, or analysis skills to build and
support arguments or conclusions about historical events, a topic/theme, or a social
studies phenomenon.
[The specific unit I am teaching is titled Campaigns and Elections and every lesson taught so
far gives students a piece of the whole, much like all lessons do. Students will be looking at four
major concepts in this segment; Interest Groups, Public Opinion, Mass Media, and the Electoral
College. Once the topic has moved from interest groups to public opinion, I will start off by
asking students When I asked you to tell me what you thought about interest groups, what
were you telling me? I will get a mixed variety of answers but the one I will be looking for is an
opinion. If no student in my class can come up with that answer, Ill let them know that I was
looking for an opinion, and they gave me their opinions. The next question will be, Okay so now
that youve told me you were giving me an opinion, how do you form your own opinion? This
will prompt a short discussion on where a student gets their opinion from. This will lead directly
into the next topic which is public opinion. I will constantly question my students to prompt what
they just learned/what was just discussed. This is not only to build on the next lesson or the next
topic, but to prepare them for the simulation listed described in lesson 3. The two other major
concepts will follow the same structure where content is related back to previous lessons. The
simulation itself is a version of that; students will need to know all of the parts in order to
connect each dot the right way.]
2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching
For each of the prompts below (2ab), 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 language 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 focusCite
evidence of what students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning
to do.
[The first half of the central focus discusses interest groups, public opinion, Mass Media, and
the Electoral College. These are concepts that the class will be newly introduced to over the
learning segment. However, students will have previously discussed the ideas of citizen
participation, political ideologies, and political parties. Students will have a quiz over these three
ideas as well as interest groups on day 2 of the learning segment, so this will provide me with
an idea of what needs to be worked on or explained in more depth during the simulation. This
quiz is meant to cover information that we have spent a great deal of time on. However, I have
assessed the students learning in another way. After discussing with my mentor about possible
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ways to differentiate my lessons, he informed me that any reading assignment, whether it be

homework or an in-class activity, should be at the 6th grade reading level. This is a clear
example of something that a large majority of my students struggle with. Not to mention that I
have ELL students who are at an even lower reading level. This limited my ideas on reading
assignments, but its an obstacle that I can help the students cross with the proper planning and
instruction.
Students in my class are really great at discussions. Generally, discussion stems from about 9
students. They are the ones that will constantly raise their hand or respond to another student
during discussion. However, I corporate the other students in as much as possible, and once I
get one student talking; I will generally hear them talk again. My students are also very good at
working in partners or groups of three. Often times, there will be in-class work that is allowed to
be done in partners. These students tend to discuss a few things outside of the class; as is
natural with teenagers, but they are on topic for 90% of individual/group work. The students can
take notes as long as what they need to write is laid out for them specifically.
My students are still working on a few key areas. One of these is working in groups of four to
six. Students have proven their ability to work in groups of two or three. They have also proven
their ability to work in a split classroom during a debate. However, it seems that groups of four to
six allow too much talking about issues outside of class. Another area they struggle in is
contributing to discussions. There are various reasons for this, some students dont want to
answer unless they know the answer or their opinion is close to correct, some dont want to
answer because their language skills make it difficult, and others generally dont care about
anything going on. Im working on figuring out ways to get them to be more active in classroom
discussions. Also they have issues with focusing. If they are stood in front of a talked at the
whole time, nothing will get done. Their attention span is pretty low so the key is keeping them
engaged in a subject that some students dislike.]
b. Personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focusWhat do you
know about your students everyday experiences, cultural and language
backgrounds and practices, and interests?
[One way Im attempting to get my students to participate more in discussion is by really getting
to learn about them. I have many female students that are members of our schools Rugby team.
I have others that work at local grocery stores. I know that some participate in the schools
marching band. I have a member of the football team in my class as well as members of the
musical in my class. Some of them come from nice family backgrounds and they live in nicer
areas that have both a mother and a father that care about their childs education. I have
students that have guardians that are related in some way, but arent their parents. There are
four students who are English Language Learners, and two that have IEPs. I have a girl that is
from Bosnia and I try to get her to talk as much as possible because women are considered to
be unequal to men in the Bosnian society. I have two girls from different Asian cultures that
always spend time with one another, and while their cultures have differences, they ultimately
reside in each other and help each other when one doesnt understand. I feel that because of
my involvement with the class and the activities we had done during the first week of class to
learn more about one another, I have had a great opportunity to become closer with my class
and I feel that every day during our discussions, I find out new information about them. My
students are also very liberal. There are a few students who have conservative views as well.]
3. Supporting Students History/Social Studies Learning
Respond to prompts below (3ac). To support your justifications, refer to the instructional
materials and lesson plans you have included as part of Planning
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Task 1. In addition, use principles from research and/or theory to support your
justifications.
a. Justify how your understanding of your students prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets (from prompts 2ab above) guided your choice or
adaptation of learning tasks and materials. Be explicit about the connections between
the learning tasks and students prior academic learning, their assets, and
research/theory.
[When I came into this student teaching position, I had a fixated image of how I wanted to teach.
After observing my students for a week, I realized that I would have to modify the image I saw.
The first thing I noticed was the students attention capabilities. My mentor teacher did a great
job with keeping them engaged and it kept students interested in what was going on. I realized
at that point that I would have to do the same; this meant that I would need to use many
teaching strategies to keep them interested. In lesson 1 over public opinion, I bring up George
W. Bushs approval ratings. The slide is set up so that one date of his approval ratings is shown
at a time. I randomly select two students to guess his approval rating out of 100%. These dates
are set up to be days prior to and after 9/11. This man was president during the students
childhood and a majority of my students are liberal. This provides them with reason to believe
that Bushs approval rating went down after 9/11. However, as the slide shows, his approval
rating went up by a lot. Im hoping to draw a reaction from students that will be upset or shocked
by this information. The goal is to let them discuss why they are upset. That is when I will play
devils advocate and promote the side that Bush kept us safe. This is all part of keeping
students in the loop of current events. While W. might not be the most current event, he is a
figure head that students can connect with because of their age. For students that dont have
any connection to George W. Bush, I will use a similar tactic while talking about public opinion.
In this example, during the second lesson, I will present students with social media icons and
ask how these formats influence their public opinion. I will listen to students answers and move
with them accordingly. However, if students are reluctant to answer, I will lead them in a line of
questioning to develop their thoughts on public opinion. Ill make reference to parody accounts
that most schools have and ask how that changes their opinion. This is all to relate the
information back to them and it connects back to the learning objective; Students will be able to
infer how public opinion is formed through lecture material and discussion. This is an important
format across the unit. I want to show them an idea, I want to give them thoughts on an idea,
and I want them to formulate their own opinion through analysis. This is directly related to
Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development; he essentially believes that children learn through a
role model. When that role model simulates how to do something, or does something with the
child, that child learns better from their interaction. This is primarily how I plan to teach this
lesson segment; I will have given the students pieces of the puzzle, and at times I will help them
connect those pieces. The simulation will be the final piece of their puzzle. This is similarly
related to Pearson and Gallaghers idea of Gradual Release of Responsibility; I will have
gradually allowed my students to take control of the class during their simulation in order to
solidify the students ideas. ]
b. Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are
appropriate for the whole class, individuals, and/or groups of students with specific
learning needs.
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students).

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[This lesson segment has a handful of instructional strategies at my students disposal. On the
fourth day of the segment we will be discussing the Electoral College. I currently have it planned
so that students will be directly taught about the EC and they will receive a handout that
provides readers with general information. This gives students who have IEPs or are ELL
students and ability to slow down the content and attempt to understand it in another way.
Whenever students are assigned readings, I continually check on students with IEPs and those
that are ELLs to see how they are doing. If an ELL student seems lost with the English, I
encourage them to use their dictionaries to help sort out some of the more difficult words in
government. This benefits all types of learning by allowing students to refocus on another task.
It allows them to search for more information, and allows students the privacy individually. The
discussion format of our class, as previously described, allows students to interact with the
entire class. As stated above, sometimes discussion is dominated by certain students, and as
the facilitator, it is my job to get the other students involved with the discussion. This makes it so
that every single student has a voice in the class. Instructionally, I will have to ask students
higher order thinking questions to get more information out of them. For an example, during the
simulation, I will pretend to be the press at one point and will ask all of the candidates where
they stand on certain issues. I will then ask them why they chose that stance for an issue. This
immediately puts them on the spot for the rest of the class as they try to quickly think of why
they chose that stance, but it also gets the rest of the class to think which side they would pick if
they were the candidates. This allows their to be a whole class activity, while still allowing
students to be reserved if they dont like to talk in a whole class setting. Lastly, I will provide
graphic organizers for a majority of the facts or concepts of a lesson. As an example, students
will receive a blank pie chart with the title political socialization. Students will open their
textbooks to the page that political socialization is discussed, and begin reading about the ages
and ways people are politically socialized. When they are handed the graphic organizer, I will
explain that I also want students to decide which of these factors impacted them the most on
how they were socialized politically. I will then instruct students to discuss with their partner their
answer to my instructions. This will allow students who enjoy participating in class the ability to
discuss with someone, and it also allows students that dont enjoy talking in a large group to
only talk with their partners. This also allows ELL students to work with other ELL students to
collaborate and get a better understanding, as well as someone they may spend more time with.
Students with IEPs will be given an extra set of eyes for the assignment and will give them a
better understanding of the assignment. ]
c. Describe key misconceptions within your central focus and how you will address them.
[There are two major areas where students will have a misconception about the content. One
will be during the first lesson where interest groups are discussed. I also intend to discuss PACs
with them; the problem here is that the students will mix up interest groups and PACs. Now
some PACs can be made up of interest groups, and the students will be shown this, but not all
PACs are interest groups. The National Rifle Association differs from the Home Depot PAC. Its
my intent to describe to students that PACs are different than interest groups, even though a
PAC can be made up of interest groups. I will explain that when PACs are formed, usually there
are many different interests trying to get through with a PAC and an interest group generally
focuses on one broad issue. This will be explained during the lecture part of the lesson. The
other major problem I foresee is students getting very confused during the simulation due to
what they believe they will have to do vs. what their handout will tell them. This will simply be
another ZPD situation; I will give an example of all parts of the simulation in order for students to
understand what they should be doing. This should solve my misconceptions. ]
4. Supporting History/Social Studies Development Through Language

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As you respond to prompts 4ad, consider the range of students language assets and
needswhat do students already know, what are they struggling with, and/or what is new to
them?
a. Language Function. Using information about your students language assets and
needs, identify one language function essential for students to learn the history/social
studies content within your central focus. Listed below are some sample language
functions. You may choose one of these or another more appropriate for your learning
segment.
Analyze
Compare/contrast
Construct
Describe
Evaluate
Examine
Identify
Interpret
Justify
Locate
[Analyze will be the one language function that is essential to my learning segment. This is
greatly due to the fact that students have to apply all of their learning in the campaign simulation
and they will have to analyze their role in the simulation during a reflection.]
b. Identify a key learning task from your plans that provides students with opportunities to
practice using the language function identified above. Identify the lesson in which the
learning task occurs. (Give lesson day/number.)
[Lessons 3 & 4 are the days of the campaign simulation. This simulation will include tasks from
students previous lessons, as well as the lessons in this learning segment. Students will be
required to engage in their role during the simulation. In order to do this, students will have to
have knowledge of what their role is and what the purpose of their role is in the simulation.
These are the very basic requirements for the student to participate during the simulation.
However, they need to react and analyze what is actually happening during the simulation in
order to make it successful. Students will have reached this point by having the ability to
analyze certain words or ideas before we get to the simulation. This will run in the following
format; the idea is brought up to the class, I give or ask for an example of this idea, I question
the purpose of this idea to the class and ask certain students to share what they believe the
purpose is or what that purpose does for other areas in politics, and finally, I ask them to think if
this idea is needed for our political arena. This gives students the ability to think about the
question before they have to apply it to their learning. They can hear students answer the
question and can gather or create more ideas based on another students answer.]
c. Additional Language Demands. Given the language function and learning task
identified above, describe the following associated language demands (written or oral)
students need to understand and/or use:
Vocabulary/symbols
Plus at least one of the following:
Discourse
Syntax
[During the learning segment, students will be able to apply our new vocab words. These
vocabs words are directly related to what each lesson is about. Our major vocab words for the
learning segment are; interest groups, lobbying, public opinion the Electoral College, and the
mass media. Informal assessments will ask the students to describe their opinions on certain
vocabulary words which will determine if a student fully understands the vocabulary words. This
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is done during both quick writes in which students have to show their understanding of the
vocabulary word by analyzing a small part of that word. After that, students will need to use our
content language (discourse) in their oral skills. Students need use discourse in our classroom
discussions by relating the topics to the specific questions. Saying vague they or them will
confuse the listeners, and students need to use proper oral communication skills in order to
improve their speaking skills. ]
d. Language Supports. Refer to your lesson plans and instructional materials as needed in
your response to the prompt.
Identify and describe the planned instructional supports (during and/or prior to the
learning task) to help students understand, develop, and use the identified language
demands (function, vocabulary/symbols, discourse, or syntax).
[The major way this will be done is through classroom discussion. While explaining an answer to
a question, students often times say they. I will often interrupt their discussion and say who is
they? This allows students to determine who they are talking about, and I will say something
along the lines of Thank you for explain, that was a little confusing, my goal is for students to
see that their answers in class need to be more specific. Too many they or them sentences
makes it difficult for me to gauge their understanding.]
5. Monitoring Student Learning
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 the planned formal and informal assessments provide direct evidence of
how students learn and use facts, concepts, and inquiry, interpretation, or analysis skills
to build and support arguments or conclusions about historical events, a topic/theme, or
a social studies phenomenon throughout the learning segment.
[There will be two informal assessments and two formal assessments. The two informal
assessments are a quick write and a reflection. The formal assessments will be a quiz over
information in the learning segment, as well as information from prior lessons, and a writing
assignment asking about the system of the Electoral College. The quick write is addressed in
the first lesson plan. The lesson will discuss interest groups in great detail. Then the lesson
moves into public opinion. Before the lesson switches into public opinion, students will be asked
to take out a half sheet of paper and that this half sheet will be turned in. They will be asked the
question What do you believe/think the American public believes/thinks about interest groups?
I will repeat the question multiple times so all students can hear the question. This question is
meant to gauge the understanding of interest groups. Students should be writing if they think
that Americans like/trust interest groups, or if they believe that Americans dont like/distrust
interest groups. There should be some discussion of fairness if students are saying the
American public trusts interest groups, if not they should bring up problems with money if they
distrust them. This allows students to express what they think the American public thinks; which
really is a way to determine what they think of interest groups themselves. This will be able to
show if students truly understand the main concepts of interest groups. The reflection will
provide students with a way to write about their role. It will be about the simulation and how they
felt it went, as well as how their role played a part in the simulation. This allows students to
reflect one last time on all the concepts of the unit before their unit test. Their first formal
assessment, or their quiz, will be able to determine all prior information learned, which for this
learning segment, is interest groups. There are three questions on interest groups included on
this quiz. As well as checking to see how well they have understood the previous lessons, I will
look closely at these three questions to determine the understanding for the learning segment
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on interest groups. The writing assignment will call students to question the position of the
Electoral College and if it should still exist. Background information will be given to students and
they will have a question to answer. This answer will be their writing assignment.]
b. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students).
[Students with specific needs have multiple means to receive information that will present itself
in these assessments. There will be graphic organizers, articles, a layout of what will be on the
quiz, and time during independent activities that allows me to check on these different students.
This allows me to see if the supports are working, and it allows me to determine if they need to
come into class for additional support or explanation. I dont expect any student to have the
perfect answer for some of these assessments; I expect to see a reflection of what they have
learned. This allows me to reevaluate my lessons and the supports that I have in case they
dont seem to be working; if I cannot see these reflections. Not only that, but if I feel students
didnt have enough time with an exit slip or one of the other informal assessments, I can allow
them additional time with the question, just like they would be offered for any formal testing.]

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Secondary History/Social Studies

Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

facts and concepts

Secondary History/Social Studies

Secondary History/Social Studies

ways to differentiate my lessons, he informed me that any reading assignment, whether it be

Secondary History/Social Studies

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

Secondary History/Social Studies

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

Secondary History/Social Studies

Secondary History/Social Studies

Secondary History/Social Studies

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

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