Planning Commentary

This accompanies your lesson plans (all the segments tied to the central focus—i.e. text

comprehension--that you submit)

1. Central Focus

Describe the central focus and the essential literacy strategy for comprehending OR composing text you

will teach in the learning segment. Given the central focus describe how the standards and learning

objectives within your learning segment address the content, skills, or strategy you are teaching.

This is a literacy lesson focused on text comprehension: describe how the standards and learning

objectives within your learning segment and the skills, or strategy you are teaching so students can

meet those learning objectives.

I am focusing on building idea comprehension in the content area of science by developing reading and

writing based skills, including supporting ideas with evidence orally and writing summaries. I will also

support idea comprehension by building tier 2, or general-utility, vocabulary knowledge, which are the “most

instructionally significant” (Cecil et al., 2014, p. 93).

Standard for vocabulary:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.4

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to

a grade 5 topic or subject area.

This standard relates clearly to vocabulary in the content areas which I will be explicitly teaching and
assessing summatively in the children’s book and formatively in the fill in the blank and examples/non-

examples activity.

Standard for idea comprehension:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.7

Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a

question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

Students will be composing a children’s book using ideas from multiple digital sources, though primarily

from their selection from a text set. They will be showing idea comprehension by answering a question

quickly (what is climate change/why is it happening) and solving a problem efficiently (what can I do as a

kid to help). They will prepare to be successful in this by meeting the learning objectives of engaging in oral

discussion about the topic and misunderstandings and writing summaries to show they have grasped the main

idea.

I have selected text sets to suit students’ various reading levels. The “easy” text set uses simpler vocabulary,

has more text feature supports, and includes engaging images that help students understand the material. The

paragraphs are shorter and to the point. The “average” text set includes videos to support students but

includes a good amount of content-related vocabulary thus making it more challenging than the “easy” text.

It also includes an extension on how we know the climate is changing which can support many children’s

questions. Finally, the “advanced” text is not from a for-kids website, so it contains more challenging

vocabulary yet is still accessible due to its FAQ structure. It covers the topic further in depth, extending to

how much the United States is contributing to the problem and to social effects of climate change. There are

limited visual supports in this article.

Metacognition is important here and students must be able to determine if they do not understand the

material and select another text option or use resources to research particular terms. They should “strategize
how to resolve questions and confusions” (Cecil et al., 2014, p. 214). I have used the FLIP strategy to select

the texts based on their friendliness and language difficulty primarily. The links and images provide further

information to peak students’ interest and the options correspond to various levels of prior knowledge (Cecil

et al., 2014, p. 215).

2. CONTEXT: Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching

a. Prior academic learning and prerequisite skills related to the central focus—Cite evidence of what

students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning to do.

b. Personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focus—What do you know about

your students’ everyday experiences, cultural and language backgrounds and practices, and

interests? Describe the classroom community.

a)

Students are knowledgeable in how to use morphemic analysis and other strategies to determine word

meaning for vocabulary. They also have practiced writing summaries and know the difference between

what is interesting and what is important from previous minilessons though they are still improving this

skill. Content area-wise, they are familiar with climate change and particularly “greenhouse gas” and

“carbon dioxide” from grades 3 and 4 (see Earth and Human Activity NGSS science standard thread that links

instruction in this topic from grades 3-5). Students are also familiar with how to have effective group

discussions. They know to ask questions to probe their peers’ thinking and to defend their positions with

evidence and/or examples and thus show their reasoning. They have learned the writing process stages

but are still practicing them.

b)

This is a suburban Midwest classroom in a high-performing public school district composed of mainly

white and upper-middle class students. All students are reading at grade level or above; most are gifted

students. However, I have still selected text sets at three different levels to differentiate instruction as there

is variation within the class. A couple students, though reading at grade level, struggle more than others in

reading and writing. Likewise, a few students are reading far above others’ level or have significant domain

knowledge about the topic.

Students have different levels of oral language and confidence in speaking. There are no English Leaners

in the class but many students have an immigrant parent from Europe and so may have a different cultural

understanding of climate change; namely, that it is a fact-supported problem their government prioritizes.

3- Supporting Students’ Literacy Learning

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. Discuss accommodations for

students with disabilities, adaptations for ELLs, extensions for gifted learners, and other modifications to

support learning for all students. Describe common developmental approximations or common

misconceptions within your literacy central focus and how you will address them. In addition, use

principles from research and/or theory to support your justifications.

Again, I have included differentiated content of text sets to adjust to students’ reading levels or differing

subject-area knowledge. The vocabulary selection is appropriate for the whole class as I have selected

sophisticated tier 2 words that all students should know. I have included extra terms for advanced students to

further their learning and provide a challenge. Advanced students also are supported by a more rigorous fill

in the blank activity with greater language demands.

Reading sophisticated texts in the content areas is appropriate for the whole class because in this way

“students build a foundation of knowledge in these fields that will also give them the background to be better

readers in all content areas… Students also acquire the habits of reading independently and closely, which

are essential to their future success” (Cecil et al., 2014, p. 210). Students will enhance their understanding of

expository text as a whole class by writing summaries in preparation for writing their children’s books and

will discuss this with peers to aid in comprehension. These summaries can be shorter in length, providing an

opportunity for students struggling with writing and/or reading to still be successful. Students will also

practice using expository text features such as headings and defining/bolding key vocabulary as they produce

their children’s books. This task is further supported by the use of graphic organizers (Cecil et al., 2014).

I have activated background knowledge using various modalities by including visual support in the

examples/non-examples activity. These are two key research-supported methods (Cecil et al., 2014). Visual

support is also provided via wall charts to remind students of what we learned in previous minilessons.

The summative assessment, framed as a book to kids by kids, should be engaging as it requires students to

think about and explain what they can currently do as children to combat climate change. In this way,

students’ “experiences are meaningful and purposeful to them, learning is optimal” (p. 10).
4. Describe the ACADEMIC LANGUAGE demands (written or oral) students need to understand

and/or use: Describe the formal language of instruction, considering vocabulary, syntax, and discourse.

How will you ensure that your students understand the academic language that you are using, as well as

learn to use the academic language appropriate for the discipline? Vocabulary or key phrases/symbols

Students should understand the following academic language to be successful in this lesson:

Explain
Information

Summary

Statement

Evidence from text

Sentence or phrase

Support

Linked/caused

Main idea

Text features (bold print, punctuation, subtitles and headings, italics)

Essential

Fact

Word bank

Compose

Reduce

Release

Cause/problem

Vocabulary

Brainstorm

Cover/images/illustrate

Organized/presented

Instructions

Effectively
Students are encouraged during the lesson to use their Chromebooks to understand new discipline-related or

other vocabulary they do not understand. I will also orally provide support by explaining words above in a

simpler way, for example, I will say, “Now you will compose a children’s book. That means we are writing

books.”

We have used several of the terms before in class, but I will need to make sure students understand them or

they will not be able to interact with the lesson content meaningfully (Hundley, n.d.). I also have wall

charts on classroom walls to aid with the newer language of summary, main idea, etc.

5- Monitoring Student Learning

Refer to the assessments you will submit as part of the materials. Describe how your planned formal and

informal assessments will provide direct evidence that students can use the essential literacy strategy to

comprehend OR compose text AND related skills throughout the learning segment. Explain how the design

or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning.

There are many informal assessments built into the lesson so that students can be successful in the formal,

summative one. I will check vocabulary comprehension during the examples activity and focus on words that

need more direct instruction based on those results. I will also scaffold discussions during the anticipation

guide oracy activities to check vocabulary use and idea comprehension, highlighting any misconceptions.

The summaries are a useful formative assessment in that I can quickly check text comprehension and see

how students are interpreting the main idea to provide correction prior to formal assessment. Students can

write these summaries in a shorter format or work in groups/pairs which will mean more students can

succeed as I am differentiating the process and product (Madly Learning, 2017).

The content itself is differentiated as well as students are reading different texts based on their reading levels.

This means all students can access challenging content-area texts and successfully grasp the main ideas and
determine how to solve problems. Advanced students have further been provided with more vocabulary to

use in their books and so can more independently challenge themselves to produce more complex content.

All students have choices built in to the assessment as well and can select vocabulary words they want to use

from a list and determine their own best ways to action climate change. Furthermore, students can use word

processing software to aid in their writing so that the final assessment is more accessible via a different

response method (Vaughn et al., 2014). Students are also supported via a rubric and checklist relating to the

summative assessment so they can organize themselves and better understand what I am assessing.