Planning Commentary

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.
[Evaluate the change in the economy after Black Tuesday and how the Great Depression
changed the course of US history is my central focus. The standard that I am focusing on is HS
1 and it states that my students should Evaluate continuity and change over the course of world
and United States history. The purpose of this lesson is to show how things changed in relation
to the economy. Many of my students will have very little knowledge about the economy at all so
I want them to get a better understanding of that as well. I also want them to understand how
the economy changed when compare to the 1920s. The prosperity of the 1920s is very
prosperous and in 1929, there is a sharp decline. I want them to understand this change and
even make connection to the present with this unit. I also want them to understand how the life
of the American people changed in the 1930s. It changed a lot between those two decades, so
they will be able to make this connection to how life changed as well. This unit is mostly about
the economy and its changes between the 1920s and the 1930s, but it will also be focused on
the American people and the changes in American society.]
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
[Facts and concepts are at the focus point of my lesson and they will learn a lot about the
economy and the Great Depression. Black Tuesday is the going to be one of the easiest
concepts for them to grasp because it is a single date. The economy will be the hardest for them
to grasp since it is something that a lot of students struggle with. My learning objective for day
one is SWBAT show how the economy changed because of black Tuesday by explaining in our
individual conference and accurately answering questions and this when Black Tuesday and
the economy come in for the bulk of my unit. The second days learning objective is SWBAT
show how the great depression affected the life of the American people and this day is when
they will go over all the facts and concepts from the Great Depression that I will want to go over.
Both of these days go in depth in relation to facts and concepts. They are related to the
standard as well as HS. 1, Evaluate continuity and change over the course of world and United
States history, does a good job of talking about facts and concepts. The learning objective on
the third day, Students will be able to talk about the great depression and black Tuesday
followed by a summative assessment by writing three paragraphs and turning it in addresses
this standard too, but it is more of a summative learning objective since it is testing them of what
they learned the previous two days. These three learning objectives go over facts and concepts
quite well and align with the standard HS. 1.
All my students must interpret different events from the Great Depression and how life for the
American people changed because of that. The standard, Evaluate continuity and change over
the course of world and United States history goes well into the interpretation part of this since
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they will need to look at how life changed as a result of the Great Depression. This is shown in
the learning objectives as well and they align with the standard quite nicely. Especially the
learning objective from day three of the lesson. This learning objective is Students will be able
to talk about the great depression and black Tuesday followed by a summative assessment by
writing three paragraphs and turning it in This is when I will require them to make
interpretations and analysis about the Great Depression and Black Tuesday. They will also have
to make inquiry into how life for the American people changed because of these events. The
other two lessons will also have to make these connections on a daily basis. Lesson twos
learning objective states that SWBAT show how the great depression affected the life of the
American people. This shows that students will need to know how the Great Depression
affected the lives of the American people. Because of this, they will need to make inquirys and
analyst data that I have given them so they can answer questions at the end of class. This will
be challenging for them since I will require them to think at a higher level this day then the
previous lesson, but if it goes well they will be ready for the assessment on the following day.
Lesson one also talks about inquiry and analysis. Lesson ones learning objective is SWBAT
show how the economy changed because of black Tuesday by explaining in our individual
conference and accurately answering questions, which means that all of my students will need
to talk about the economy this day. What I am looking for is that my students should be able to
analysis the data and compare it to the previous decade. This will be a challenge since many of
them will not know much about the economy and how to analyze data. I must help them the
most this day since I am expecting this day to be the most challenging for them. I know that they
will be able to though, they will just need to have the lesson scaffolded for them so they can
analyze, interpret, and make inquiries about the Great Depression and economic theory.
All three of my lessons will require my students to build an argument and use factual data to
support it. We will work on this a little bit each day so they will be able to write about it on the
day of the assessment. This will be relatively straightforward with the standard I am focusing on,
which is Evaluate continuity and change over the course of world and United States history.
With this standard, they will need to build an argument around how the United States changed
because of the Great Depression. This is built into my standard, learning objectives, and central
focus since I am asking them to make an argument at the end of the unit. The first lessons
learning objective is designed to help with this. It is SWBAT show how the economy changed
because of black Tuesday by explaining in our individual conference and accurately answering
questions. This is designed to help them build and support an argument about the economy
and make sure they understand what is going on at this time. The same is true for the second
days learning objective. It is SWBAT show how the great depression affected the life of the
American people and is all about making sure they can make an argument about what life was
like during the Great Depression. They will, by the end of the day, be able to make an argument
about how peoples life was affected as a result of the Great Depression. Day three on the other
hand is a review session and the actual assessment, so it is all about making sure they can
make the argument and then write it out. The learning objective shows this as well, since it
states Students will be able to talk about the great depression and black Tuesday followed by a
summative assessment by writing three paragraphs and turning it in. The first part of this
learning objective has to do with reviewing to make sure they can make the argument and are
ready to write the assessment. The second part is all about them writing the argument and
turning it in. This whole unit has building and argument centered around it.]
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.
[For this entire unit, my students will need to be able to make connections between all of the
sections, like facts, concepts, inquiry, interpretation, analysis skills, and making an argument.
This will be key since in the end, they will write me a few paragraphs about the 1930s to
demonstrate what they know. They will not be able to do this without making a few connections.
All of my lesson plans also build on each other so they will be able to do this when they goto
write this assessment. For example, they will be required to use what facts they learned in the
first two lessons to talk about their review on the third day. The same goes for the concepts, the
Great Depression, Black Tuesday, and Trickle-Down Economics, since they will have to be
ready for this on the day of the third lesson. The second lesson will also be a continuation of the
first lesson, since the first lesson is about Black Tuesday and the second lesson is about the
Great Depression. They will be able to build on this concept because Black Tuesday is the start
of the Great Depression. The whole unit, they will be making connection abut historical event,
the analysis about these events and themes during the 1930s.]
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.
[Students have spent a majority of the year discussing difficulties in American society. A majority
of the first semester, they talked about the gilded age and how it was a relatively negative time
for America. The second major unit they had is all about the roaring 20s and how it was a
prosperous time in American society, which means they have a good understanding of when
things were good in America. The whole year in a way has gone over good and bad times in US
society so now that we are going into a bad time, they will be able to understand how we are
going into a depression. ELLs, which make up a majority of my class, have this understanding
as well. When teaching, I build in sheltered instruction strategies to help them understand what
is going on. My mentor teacher has done this as well so it really helps them know what has
gone on the entire year. IEP students have been able to get as much help as they need when
learning. We have an aid that comes in to work with them so that they will learn what we are
going over that day. This aid is ready to help them and work with any IEP student who is
struggling, so making sure they have the information is relatively simple. This has been in place
the entire year, so we know that they can do the work. They just need some help occasionally.
We have no 504 Students in my class. When it comes to students who struggle with reading,
they can go at their own pace and take notes how they see fit. When my students are done,
they come and show us what they have done and we check off what is finished. The main way
we make sure they know everything and that they are ready for the next unit, is that we talk to
them. We make them meet with us every day so that we can see if they learned, and if they
have any gaps in knowledge. All of this in connected with the central focus, Evaluate the
change in the economy after Black Tuesday and how the Great Depression changed the course
of US history and they will learn all of this. The prior knowledge they need will have to do with
the economy, like GDP, and we will have to frontload this to make sure they do not get lost. All of
my students will need this and we will go over it to make sure we do not lose a single student
while I teach. ]
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?
[The central focus that I am teaching for this unit is Evaluate the change in the economy after
Black Tuesday and how the Great Depression changed the course of US history and it revolves
around my students being able to how the economy and culture of the US change during the
1930s and as a result of the Great Depression. My students will be able to make connections to
their own life, particularly my migrant and ELL students, because they will know what it is like to
live with very little and even what it is like to suffer like the people during the Great Depression.
Because of the trauma they have gone through; they will be able to make connections to what
has happened in their own life. However, because of this, I will have to be careful about how I
present the information. The wounds they experienced may be fresh and I will not want to open
any of them back up. I will be able to connect it back to these students easily, but I will have to
be careful how I achieve this.
I will also connect this to popular culture so they can make some connections to life today. All of
my students talk about popular culture in some way, so I will be able to connect to their prior
knowledge about this subject and bring up what they know before talking about what I want
them to learn. This is related to the central focus, Evaluate the change in the economy after
Black Tuesday and how the Great Depression changed the course of US history because they
will see how popular culture changed between the 1920s and the 1930s. This will also make a
connection to their life today, so it will help them a lot while I work with them. Particular when we
went over celebrities of the 1920s, they really took a shine to this unit, so I will want to continue
with this to the best of my ability. This works well with my SPED students as well. Since they can
make this connection to their real life, they can know the material better and understand what is
going on in the unit. ]
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
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 it comes to designing learning tasks and materials, I have to plan everything to make
sure that they are able to learn. One thing that I have to use to design my learning tasks is to
look at the state standards to see what I need to teach. Because of this, I need to make explicit
reference to these standards when I am writing my lesson plans. This goes with my materials as
well, since I need to pick readings and videos that all of my students will be able to use, but also
align with my standard, HS. 1. Lesson ones learning task has to do with the economy and how
my students will learn about Black Tuesday and Trickle-Down Economics. This will reflect in the
materials I choose since they need to align with these concepts, but also are applicable to
where my students are in there prior knowledge. This also how they will be learning in an
explicit way (Ellis) and make sure they can do what I ask of them. As a whole, my entire lesson
is centered on what my students will be able to do to learn and scaffolding what they already
know in order to build up their knowledge. I have also centered my learning task on what they
studied previously. This builds on their background knowledge because they need to be able to
use the information they know from previous units. I have designed it this way so that they have
something to build off rather than just starting off with nothing.]
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).
[The strategies I have selected fall mostly in the sheltered instruction (Krashen) category and
are designed to make sure that all of my students can learn. For example, during the first two
days of my lessons incorporate a frayer model and a graphic organizer. These are designed to
help my students make connections and learn how to use the language that I am presenting to
them. These will be used throughout the entire lessons I have planned, except for lesson three.
These are affective for my ELLs, which make up a majority of my class, and help them learn.
Sheltered instruction is one of the best ways to get ELLs to learn according to Krashen, as well
as helping my entire class learn and thus is a great way to design my lesson around. They also
must talk to me every day so that I can see where they are growing as well as where I need to
go back to cover. I will learn what needs to be gone with each conversation that I have and I will
design my closer around that. These conversations help all students since they can tell me what
they are struggling with without having to be embarrassed in front of the whole class. I will also
have something planned for the end, but I will change it based on how these conversations go. I
will also use behaviorist theory in my lessons, since when they fill out the graphic organizer and
frayer model, they will have been conditioned to do so for the previous weeks. This is helpful
with my SPED students since they like to have consistency and predictability in their work.
Sheltered instruction, consistency, and individual conversations are the focus of my lessons.]
c. Describe key misconceptions within your central focus and how you will address them.
[Within my lessons, there are a few misconception that arise and that I have thought about
when writing my lessons. One is the idea of Black Tuesday. This may be difficult for them to
grasp right away since they will confuse it with Black Friday, but they will understand what it
means by the end of the lesson. Another misconception about Black Tuesday is that many
people committed suicide right after because of the money loss. While there were a few cases,
many of what people think about these events is that a lot of people killed themselves, when in
reality it was about two. I am sure they will focus on this when we go over Black Tuesday, so I
will want to go over this in the end of the lesson. Black Tuesday is when I see the biggest
misconceptions arising in my lesson, so I will have to be careful when going over these
concepts.]
4. Supporting History/Social Studies Development Through Language
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

[The central focus that I have written for my unit is Evaluate the change in the economy after
Black Tuesday and how the Great Depression changed the course of US history. The language
function that they will go with this central focus is evaluate. This will be a challenge for my
students, but it is not out of reach for them. I have worked with them for a number of weeks, so I
have a good understanding that they will all be able to evaluate. They will just have to have
some modeling to understand what is going on and how to do this. ]
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.)
[Lesson three is where they will demonstrate how they are using the evaluate language
function. This lesson is learning task takes place on February 27, 2017 and it the final lesson in
my three-day unit. The learning task it Students will be able to talk about the great depression
and black Tuesday followed by a summative assessment by writing three paragraphs and
turning it in and will test their skills at evaluating what they have learned over the past few days.
They will need to evaluate how life changed in the 1930s and during the Great Depression as a
whole.]
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
[When it comes to making sure my students can evaluate historic events, they will need to be
able to use different kinds of vocabulary to do this. They will need to use vocabulary like Black
Tuesday, the Great Depression, Trickle-Down Economics, GDP, and unemployment. All of these
vocabulary words will be needed to be understood to write about their evaluation of the Great
Depression and how it affected the people of the 1930s. These fit nicely into evaluate since they
will need to think critically about these facts in order to write about it. I will have to model and
scaffold this though, since they will find this evaluate learning objective to be quite difficult. I will
also require them to use discourse in order to use the evaluate language function. Every day,
they will be required to talk to me about what they learned as well as in-group discussion at the
end of the day. Oral discourse will be the focus for the first two lessons since there is no written
evaluation on these days. This will give them practice using these vocabulary words before they
are evaluated themselves on day three of the lesson. Day three will also have them practice
their discourse. In the beginning of the lesson, they will participate in an oral review of the
information that we went over in the previous two days. After this, they will complete an exit
ticket that will be turned in before they leave my class. This is when I will evaluate their written
discourse and how much they know individually. This lesson will focus heavily on vocabulary
education and both written and oral discourse. ]
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).
[There are various support strategies that I will put in place to help support all of my students.
One way that I will support them is to give them a Chromebook in order to do all of their work
online. Because of this, they will have access to everything that they will need to learn whenever
they need to. Because they have all of this information readily available, they will be able to use
whatever information they need and what I provide. If they go elsewhere to find the information,
I am fine with this since they will still get the same information. Another strategy that I will use is
to model what I expect them to do. For example, on the third day the review session will be
them coming up to the board, picking a question, answering it, and then picking the next person
to answer a question. I will model this by answering the first question and then calling on the
next person to come up. I will pick the first person carefully to make sure that this goes
smoothly. Both of these will help my students use the language that I am asking them to use as
well as practice using the discourse. This will be key to making sure they understand the historic
events I am asking of them as well as making sure they can use the evaluate language function.
Other strategies that I have planned for them is that they will complete frayer models and
graphic organizers in order for them to understand the events, vocabulary, and how to use it in
relation to the language function.]
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.
[Many of the informal assessments will be something that is not turned in, but are in the form of
a discussion. For example, every day I will talk to students to see where they are. This is the
most powerful informal assessment since it is an actual conversation. This will give me an idea
of where each student is without having him or her write something down. It also lets me make
corrections about their work without having to raise their affective filter very high. Informal
evaluations also happen when I am doing the group discussion at the end of the lesson. This
lets them talk to each other and build new ideas that they may not have any other way. I have
them think-pair-share with their partner or, if they like, they can turn and talk to their entire
group. Following this, each group must come up with something to say in order to get credit for
the day. This will let me see if they need help with facts, concepts, interpretation, or any other
social science skills that are required of them.
The formal assessment will take place on the third day and let me see how they evaluate
historic events in a formal setting. I will let them use the notes they acquired over the previous
few days if they wish so they can write as much as possible. This will be their individual
assessment that I will grade for their main assessment. In this assessment, they will talk about
the Great Depression and how the economy changed. They will also talk about how the
American peoples lives change when compared to the roaring 20s. Because of this, they will
need to compare how the two decades were different. The main thing that I am looking for
though is if they can evaluate what the 1930s were like and what they think about it. I want them
to use as many facts as possible about the 1930s and take as much time as they want to do
this. They will need to be able to draw a conclusion, analyze historic events, and draw
conclusions so that they can truly understand the 1930s.]
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).
[One way that I will help my students with different needs is to have aids in my class to help
ELLs and SPED students. My ELLs, which make up 25 out of 33 students, will need specific
help with my formative assessment. I have an aid that comes in to help with this every day,
though she cannot be guaranteed every day. There is also a SPED aid that comes in to help the
fie students in the class that are part of SPED. Both of these aids will come in to help as many
students as possible. For my ELLs, there will also be sentence frames in order to get all of my
students to learn the best they can. These how I plan to adapt my lesson for ELLs and SPED
students. This would work for 504s as well, though there are no 504 students in my classroom.
Gaps in academic knowledge will be addressed during lesson one and two of my unit. For
example, since I am talking to every student every day, they will have the opportunity to ask me
questions. I will also help them based on what I notice and go over what I need to do. Some of
my students have big gaps in knowledge so I will focus on what they are doing, what they know
in order to make sure that they are learning, and that their gaps are closed. I will change my
lesson as much as possible in order for them to learn.
When it comes to gifted and TAG students, I will give them more difficult questions to answer
during my discussion with them every day. This will give them an opportunity to grow without
having to wait for the other students to catch up. I will also help them in the formative
assessment by wanting them to grow their answers as much as possible so I can help them
more than previously done.

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Secondary History/Social Studies

Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

inquiry, interpretation, or analysis skills

building and supporting arguments or conclusions

Analyze Compare/contrast Construct Describe Evaluate

Examine Identify Interpret Justify Locate

Plus at least one of the following:

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