Lawson mt3 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.
[Applications of Quadratic Functions Day 1. My 15-minute section starts at 58:00.]
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?
[ This group of students frequently asks when they will use the math they are learning and
many students are interested in science. After interviewing one of my students, I designed a
lesson that would engage him because he vies math as the foundation of science. This lesson
was designed around the physics of a rocket to engage students.
In addition, I have 5 or 6 students that need confirmation to keep pushing through. One
student needed a confirmation that the way they were thinking about the task was correct
(09:30). I reached out to 2 students that seemed confused and they shared that they did not
understand the problem (09:40). I re-explained the problem and described where the equation.
One student said she could not do it and I told her I had faith because I wanted to challenge her
to engage in the learning. Later, I listened to their conversation and gave her a thumbs up when
she had a great idea (14:00). Confirming her idea supported her interactions with her partner
because it gave them the confidence to keep pushing and to ask each other questions.
When Mrs. VanNewkirk and I switched sides of the room, some students were off topic. I
asked them how things were going and they said they did not know what was going on (30:45),
so I explained the task and helped them get started. Shortly after, I had a student ask me about
the Starbucks closing on Math 29th (31:45). I decided to have the short conversation with them
because I wanted them to know that I thought Starbucks’ decision to close to train on racial bias
was great. I wanted my students to know that prejudice and discrimination were such important
topics that I would take the time to chat with them about these issues.
Lastly, throughout the entire discussion, I encouraged students to share multiple
viewpoints. Each student was given the opportunity to share their reasoning and disagree with
each other. I wanted students to hear various ideas throughout the lesson, to share their
reasoning, and create a shared understanding with their classmate. Examples of these varied
perspectives can be seen at 46:45, 54:30, 1:00:45. ]
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
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 mathematical reasoning and/or problem-solving skills.

[ The task helped students engage in mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills
because the task was designed to be open. Students were asked to prove Homer’s innocence
using specific questions about the graph and the equation. Questions about when the rocket
would be traveling faster, when the rocket would start falling, and how long the rocket would be
in the air required reasoning and conceptual understanding of parabolas in context. Students
had to use what they knew about functions and equations to find the height at various times, to
find a rate of change, and to determine where the turning point was. Students used multiple
representations such as the graph, table, and equation to accomplish these tasks and
determine which representation would be most useful for certain questions. Students were also
encouraged to build from their understanding of rockets and to change the perceptions they had
about speed based on their findings. Lastly, students were expected to engage in procedures
using technology such as finding the roots of an equation or finding the maximum.
Students shared that they thought the rocket was going up, it hit a turning point, and
then it would fall down which they thought would make it go faster. More students were
encouraged to use their understanding of rockets, but this often led them to incorrect ideas. One
student shared that they thought that the rocket would not be at its maximum speed right after it
was launched, so he knew it had to be faster at 9 to 10 seconds (54:52). Students were pulling
from their understanding of rockets to make conjectures and then prove them with the data in
front of them (20:50). Other students joined in the discussion and used the graph to help him
with his reasoning.
When we began the group discussion, we discussed what the equation for our rocket
height with respect to time meant. Students initially struggled with this conceptual
understanding, but they knew the procedures for working with equations. They were unclear
how to generalize their descriptions to contexts (40:25). I explained the equation and where it
came from so students could reason about how this quadratic equation was similar and different
from their previous learning about quadratics. A student asked why the result was not in feet per
seconds, so I was able to explain why their procedure for plugging in a quantity for a variable
works. (44:45). Students knew this procedure but were unsure as to why the output was height
when the input was seconds (41:00). By the end of this explanation, students were able to
understand conceptually that the equation mapped time to the corresponding height.
When we discussed the maximum point for the rocket, I asked students to explain what
each value in this coordinate pair meant in context and where the x-value of this point was
located along the x-axis to help students reason about the connections between the vertex and
the line of symmetry (55:45). Through my guided discussion and supporting students in using
informal proofs, students were able to see that if we can find the line of symmetry then we can
use this to help us identify where our graph is increasing and decreasing. This helped build a
conceptual understanding of how these features of quadratic functions would be useful in
reasoning about the equation. ]
b. Describe how your instruction linked students’ prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and/or community assets with new learning.
[ Many students have seen October Sky and I was able to use their interest in this movie
to get them engaged in the lesson. I showed the clip for students that have not seen the movie
(02:22). This movie was a great background because Homer was from a rural area in West
Virginia and my students are from a rural area. Many students in this class love science or
history, so the focus on the space race was intriguing for them. Additionally, they were able to
relate to the scenario because they are in high school, they grew up with the knowledge of
space travel, and they have seen rocket launches on TV. After a student interview, I discovered
that one student really loves science and sees math as the foundation of science. I was able to
focus on his love of applications and physics to engage him.
I knew that students made the connection a week earlier that they could write the
solutions for an equation as coordinate pairs. I used this understanding to write different
coordinate pairs for the solutions to the equation to make the connection that the graph of this
equation is the solution set for the rocket’s height at various times (43:15). After a student
shared why she thought that graphing would be helpful to find the turning point, I reminded
students of their activity the previous day to find the vertex, maximum, minimum, x-intercepts, y-
intercepts, and other features on the graph of a quadratic function. I shared that we can use
those same methods from the previous day to find the features of the quadratic function (50:40).
Later students brought up the Polygraph Parabola Desmos activity from Monday (1:00:00). I
helped students clear up a misconception from that task. Many of the graphs did not center the
window on the axis of symmetry, so the graphs did not look even. However, symmetry is a
property of quadratics and students were able to prove to themselves why the conceptualization
that the vertex was not always in the middle was incorrect. Lastly, my cooperating teacher was
able to help students connect back to many of the activities they had used before (1:07:00). She
asked them to consider the tables they used when describing a quadratic equation. Students
remembered that when we square 1 and -1, both are equal to 1 and they used this to reason
that a parabola is always symmetric, so the vertex always lays on the axis of symmetry. ]
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.
[ At the beginning the lesson I encouraged several students to work together and believe
in the abilities of themselves and their partners. I discussed with Alex and Sara where the
equation came from and the physics involved. Later, I encouraged Alex to ask his partner when
he had questions instead of just me (09:00). I also encouraged my two students who were
working independently to talk to each other. They started to compare their solutions and explain
their thinking after they asked me a few questions (19:34). They were explaining their reasoning
with each other and shared their graphs with each other to explain their ideas.
Many students thought that the rocket would start falling after or at 10 seconds because
“after 18 seconds it was lower” (46:45). Students shared whether they agreed or disagreed with
this idea. One said the rocket would begin falling after 18 seconds because the rocket was
lower at 18 seconds than 10 seconds. Another said that the rocket would start falling
somewhere between 10 seconds and 18 seconds because the rocket was going up at 10
seconds and then the rocket was further down at 18 seconds. He reasoned that somewhere in
the middle the rocket should start falling. Sharing his idea let other students adjust their own
reasoning about the problem. We were able to delve into his idea to find a specific time the
rocket would begin falling.
I was about to bring other students into the conversation and use their idea about the
“turning point” to help students conceptualize about how we know when the rocket starts falling
(48:45). This pair of students shared their ideas about how to find the turning point and shared
their idea to graph the equation to find the vertex (49:00). Another student did not understand
why they used a graph, so I asked the students to explain their reasoning. They were able to
teach their peer that by graphing, they could see the turning point on the graph.
Later, students were able to discuss where they thought the rocket was traveling faster
(54:30). Many students used their understanding about rockets, but this reasoning led them to
incorrectly conclude that it would be traveling faster after more time. I opened the floor up to
students so that they could disagree with each other and provide their justification. I encouraged
students who had initially claimed that from 9 to 10 seconds it was moving faster and then
changed their mind, to explain their reasoning and why they changed their mind (55:20). One
student explained that after they graphed the equation they saw that from 0 to 1 seconds the
rocket traveled more than from 9 to 10 seconds. I asked another pair of students to share how
they determined the rocket was traveling faster from 0 to 1. They explained that they used the
table to compare the time intervals. They saw that in the first interval there was about a 400-foot
change, but in the second interval there was a 100-foot change in 1 second. This helped
students to reason about the rocket’s height with respect to time and build a conceptual
understanding using multiple representations. This also helped students solidify their
procedures for finding rates of change and that this may not always meet their expectations.
Lastly, a student asked if the vertex always lays on the line of symmetry (1:00:45). I
turned the question back to the class and had them prove it to themselves as a class. Anytime a
student gave an answer I requested that they explain their thinking. One student said the vertex
did not always lie on the line of symmetry because the line of symmetry was always in the
middle. To help students critique their reasoning, I asked where the vertex was located. She
explained that the vertex might not always lay in the middle. I used Desmos to help students
reason about this misconception. Many students plotted the vertex and line of symmetry for
multiple parabolas to see if they were always in the middle (1:03:58). One student was still
concerned because the parabolas in the Desmos polygraph activity asymmetrical because of
the window for the graph. I pushed the class to consider if we could actually construct an
asymmetrical parabola and then built on his idea by explaining that if we expanded the window
in the Desmos activity, then we would see that the parabolas were symmetrical. We pushed to
consider why a parabola is symmetric (1:08:00) and many students explained that it was
because of the equation. We probed the student to explain what about the equation and the
tables of quadratic equations made parabolas symmetrical. The students explained that 1 and -
1 squared were both equal to 1, which caused quadratics to be symmetric. ]
b. Explain how you used representations to support students’ understanding and use of
mathematical concepts and procedures.
[ We spent time making connections about how the symbolic equation represented our
scenario (40:25). Students were able to understand that the equation came from studies in
physics and that we can use our knowledge of quadratic functions to delve deeper into this
equation. Students were able to understand that the reason their output of the equation was feet
was because of the input of time in relation to the other units in the equation (44:45).
Referencing their previous learning that the graph of the equation is the solution set, students
were able to understand that plugging in these variables makes the equation true (43:15), but
that their method of plugging in numbers also works because the correct units will simplify out.
Students were able to ask questions and compare their understanding of the equation to the
discussion with the whole class. This helped them build a conceptual understanding for why this
procedure works.
Students used the graph of the equation to support their ideas. This graphical
representation helped students to understand what their equation was describing (44:45). They
could see the relationship between the rocket’s height with respect to time. The graph helped
students see where the maximum, or turning point, for the rocket’s height with respect to time
occurred (48:45). This representation also helped students to reason about when the rocket
would be traveling fastest by considering the amount of change in the two one-second intervals
because they could see the rate of change (54:30). I encouraged students with different
approaches to share their methods and understanding so that students could compare and
make connections between multiple representations including the graph, table, and equation. I
asked one pair of students to share their method with the table to reason about the rate of
change from 0 to 1 and 9 to 10 seconds (56:18). Students could compare the actual change in
height during each time interval not only with the graph but also with the table.
Lastly, when students were grappling with a conjecture about whether or not the vertex
always lays on the line of symmetry, students were able to use graphs once again with Desmos.
Students identified the vertex and line of symmetry at the board to see that the vertex would lie
on the line of symmetry (1:03:48). We were able to discuss their previous activity with the
Desmos polygraph parabola and to consider what the parabola would look like if we could
zoomed out. Students were also able to make connections back to the tables of quadratic
functions and the equation by considering what about the inputs and outputs of a quadratic
function made quadratics symmetric (1:17:53). These multiple representations and connections
between the graph, table, and input and outputs of the equation helped students to build a
conceptual understanding that the vertex always lies on the axis of symmetry because quadratic
equations are symmetric. ]
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).
[ The greatest change in my instruction needs to occur in the task launch. Students were
confused when I explained where the equation came from during the launch (04:20). Many
students did not understand where the equation came from, so I explained the equation again
many times (09:00, 09:40, 30:45). I need to focus more on the explanation of the context so that
students fully understand the key contextual features of a rocket launch (Jackson, 2014). In the
future, I would begin by explaining the equation as a I did with the whole group discussion
where I explained this was a general equation physicists found to describe the relationship
between height and time for a projectile (40:25). I would also help students find the connection
that this is a quadratic equation before they begin working so they would reference their
previous learning about quadratics.
Since this is a lengthy explanation, I would have the description on the Google slides so
students can reference this information as they work on the task. I would be intentional to use
color, sound, or moving clip art to help students draw the connections between gravity, velocity,
and a starting height to help them remember what the equation represents (Armstrong, 1999). I
would let my student who is interested in science and has ADHD know about the focus on
physics so he would be excited to learn the material.
Additionally, I want students to help students make connections to their community or
personal experiences with this task. Based on student comments and misunderstanding about
the rocket’s speed, it would be helpful to base the task off a real rocket launch. I would either
have students do a rocket launch at the school so we could map the height to time relationship
or I would look for a fireworks event in the community to reference. This would encourage
students to reference a specific experience and to consider the difference between what they
expected to happen with the rocket or fireworks and what we found happened using data
collection (Hanson, 2008; Armstrong, 1999; Leach, 2009). ]
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.
[ The changes to the launch of the task described above would not reduce the cognitive
demand of the task because students would be exploring the function itself and finding its key
features; but they would be less focused on their confusion around where the equation came
from (Jackson, 2014). Additionally, helping students recognize that this is a quadratic function
would help students recognize the key mathematical ideas (Jackson, 2014). This would
encourage students to use everything they have been studying about quadratic functions to
reason about the task (Jackson, 2014). These changes would be successful because student
discussion improved after they fully understood the equation and they were able to ask deeper
questions. For example, one student was able to ask questions about the units of the output
quantity (44:45), other students were able to reason about the rate of change of the rocket
based on their knowledge of the height with respect to time (55:20), and students were able to
reason about how they could use the equation to support their understanding of the scenario
(09:40). Explaining the context would support English Language Learners to build an
understanding of the context based on their previous experiences and past learning (Hanson,
2008). Sharing that this lesson focuses on a real-life application builds on the research that
emphasizes the importance of designing an engaging lesson for students with ADHD
(Armstrong, 1999). This would be effective because it is noticeable throughout this lesson that
the student is engaged because he asked questions (09:00, 1:00:45) and created multiple
solutions with his partner (56:15).
Placing the explanation of where the equation came from on the board would support my
student with ADHD because if his mind does wander during my explanation, he can still find the
information later (Armstrong, 1999). Adding color and movement based on the definition and
importance of the words, would help students remember this description as they moved
throughout the task supporting my student with ADHD and all students (Armstrong, 1999).
Additionally, this would draw attention to important contextual vocabulary and terminology to
support my student that is an English Language Learner (Hanson, 2008).
Lastly, connecting to community experiences or actually completing a rocket launch
where students could track the height with respect to time would support all students, but
especially students with ADHD, English Language Learners, and students with Autism. This
would ensure that the lesson is engaging to keep students with ADHD active in the lesson and
would give students with Autism a chance to be engaged, to move physically, and to make
multiple connections to keep them interacting with the content (Armstrong, 1999; Leach, 2009).
Furthermore, it would help students build a common experience to reference throughout the rest
of the applications unit so that they could build on their experience which would particularly
support English Language Learners (Hanson, 2008). ]
References
Armstrong, T. (1999). ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/199273/chapters/Strategies-to-
Empower,-Not-Control,-Kids-Labeled-ADD~ADHD.aspx
Hanson, C., & Filibert, C. (2008). Teaching English Language Learners: What the research
does – and does not – say. Pacific Educator, 12-15. Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=e
sed5234-master
Leach, D., & Duffy, M. L. (2009). Supporting students with Autism Spectrum Disorders in
inclusive settings. Intervention in School and Clinic, 45(1), 31-37.

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Secondary Mathematics

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing

 mathematical reasoning and/or problem-solving skills.

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