edtpa instruction commentary sk

Secondary History/Social StudiesTask 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARYRespond 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 clips? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan number.

[Lesson number 2, titled Public Opinion and the Media is one of the clips featured in this commentary as well as Lesson number 4, titled Electoral College Lesson Plan. The clips from these lessons will be the major focus moving forward for this commentary.]

2. Promoting a Positive Learning EnvironmentRefer to scenes in the video clips where you provided a positive learning environment.

a. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to students with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in learning?

[Beginning at 33 seconds and ending at roughly 2:05 of Lesson 2, we are about to have our discussion on how social media impacts our public opinion. I wanted to set the tone first and really connect with them as teenagers. I simply asked “How many of you have/use social media?” I wanted to be able to relate with them. After this we discussed social media for the rest of the clip. In this clip, it’s easy to see that the students and I have a mutual respect; the classroom is not out of hand when I brought up social media. They clearly enjoy the discussion and at times are laughing during our discussion. I have good rapport with them; all of us are discussing the same things as a class and we constantly bring up different viewpoints; we show that we all care about one another’s viewpoint on an issue. Finally, the video shows my responsiveness to students questions on the discussion, and you can also see how effectively I call on a student to respond and follow up with good praise and respect for their contribution for discussion. This clip also shows how I keep my students engaged. At 6:41, I begin to talk about the Rolling Stone cover of George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. This conversation transitions into a conversation on the Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and his Rolling Stone cover. During this entire discussion/lecture, students are fully engaged in what’s being discussed. That was the point of this lesson. Government, at times, can be a hard subject for students to get engaged with, but by putting things out there that’s relevant to the lives of students makes the even more engaged, and because my school is in an urban setting, and my students were old enough to remember both instances, I put this piece in the discussion with hopes that they would be engaged; and I was right.]

3. Engaging Students in LearningRefer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.

a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in

developing the skills of inquiry, interpretation, or analysis in relation to sources or accounts of historical events or a social studies phenomenon

building and supporting arguments or conclusions

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[Going from the beginning of the video to around 1:20 in Lesson 4, I’m asking students to explain to me how each state gets their electoral votes for the Electoral College. My students have just read how this is done in the background information sheet. I re-cover it because I want to deepen my students thinking. They were asked at the beginning of the lesson the following question: “should the Electoral College be abolished? Why or why not?” This is the overarching question for this lesson. At 4:06, I tell students about a question another student asked in another class; “what happens if both candidates get 270 electoral votes?” I give them the example of the 2000 election between Bush and Gore. George W. Bush was our winner, as they all knew, but I discuss how Florida was the last state to turn in their ballots and that Bush only won the presidency by 571 votes. All this background information truly prompts the students to inquire if the Electoral College should be abolished or not. They can only read about so much of it, which prompted me to go more in depth with them about the basics in order for them to eventually make up their mind and decide whether or not the Electoral College should be abolished. The background information not only allows students the room to inquire about the Electoral College, it also helps build and support a students’ argument or conclusion. The very basic information is what is needed to begin building an argument. After our discussion, students partnered up and one of the students was handed a pro argument and one was handed a con argument for the Electoral College. They eventually had to provide their partner with the other side (pro or con) so they had both. These building blocks then let students have concrete reasoning for supporting one side or another. ]

b. Describe how your instruction linked students’ prior academic learning and personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning.

[During the clip of lesson 2, students are learning about public opinion. We go through a large classroom analysis of media images in order to discuss the public opinion of said images. In the past unit, student’s had did a lesson on the 1st amendment. This obviously discusses freedom of speech. In the recorded lesson, students were able to see free speech displaying something they may generally dislike or be uncomfortable with. This lesson was also building into the campaign simulation that would incorporate the media. On a personal level, I got to know my students even better because of the information in this lesson; it is often times easy to learn of a students’ political ideology when teaching government. This public opinion lessons allows me to see more clearly into their political ideologies based on their reactions to the images that can cause public or political outrage. This gives students a chance to express their outrage or agreement with certain issues which also allows me to understand where they come from as individuals. Students love to talk and this activity let them talk and discusses things that are closely related to their life. ]

4. Deepening Student Learning during InstructionRefer to examples from the video clips in your explanations.

a. Explain how you elicited and built on student responses that supported students’ ability to form inquiries, interpretations, or analyses of history/social studies sources or accounts AND build, support, and communicate arguments or conclusions.

[Starting at 30 seconds during lesson 2, and lasting till 3:44, I provide a line of questioning for students about social media. The very basic question is “Who uses social media?” In this day and age, it’s a pretty easy question to get a majority of students to respond with the answer ‘yes’. This allows me to build on our conversation about how social media can shape a person’s public opinion. I keep feeding them questions in order to provide them with an answer that they could later use to interpret how social media is used to shape public opinion. I asked students if they have friends who post controversial articles or pictures on Facebook and if they read the conversation that unfolds on that post. There is a general chuckle because everyone has seen



this. I have one student comment that they like to get involved in the arguments. The question begins around 2:33. They briefly discuss while I lead the conversation about Facebook posts. Then I ask them if this shapes how they view either a. the person that posted whatever that was, or b. what the post was about. I continue to lead them in this discussion to the major point; who you follow on social media shapes your public opinion. We were able to get to this conclusion because of their responses to my questions. ]

b. Describe and cite examples from the video clips of how you supported students in using evidence from one or more sources to support interpretations or analyses and arguments or conclusions about historical events or a social studies phenomenon.

[The easiest place to see this take shape is in lesson 2 around the 6 minute marker. I provide students with a lot of controversial media images and a tweet. This is meant to stir the pot and show students things they might disagree with. We discuss the media images as a whole for the rest of the clip and how these images have promoted people to hold public outrage over what was printed. This will eventually provide them with examples to use for their unit test. It gives students sources of what has happened or how something was portrayed in the real world, which allows them to use that as an example during a prompt on a test or during future discussions. The biggest focus for them here should be from an analytical point of view; this then allows them to make an argument, or draw a conclusion. With these images, students should have been able to question the ethics of the media, and if certain controversial topics should be out there for the world to see, and then come to a conclusion based on their opinion, which can also be seen as public opinion. This was one of the goals of the lesson. ]

5. Analyzing TeachingRefer to examples from the video clips 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 (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).

[There are two major areas I would want to change from my original lesson plans. In lesson 2, during our discussion of controversial images, which starts at 6 minutes even, I would take more time on discussing these images and hearing more students’ opinions on them. I would also include a quick write or a verbal small group discussion on a question about the ethics of the media outlets by releasing these controversial images. I was disappointed that I planned a lesson like this on the same day as a quiz, but I needed to make sure we stayed on track with our timeframe. Having our discussion go more in depth would have impacted the central focus by giving students more time to analyze how public opinion and the media impact the political arena. The platform for determining how much the students know is hidden in simple tasks like a partner response or a quick write. Those show true student learning. I really missed a great opportunity here because of how engaged they were during this activity that I could have gotten a great deal of information out of them. This also gives me multiple ways to assess a student who is an ELL or has a 504 or an IEP. By randomly calling on them to share their thoughts on certain issues I gain the knowledge of what they know verbally. This gives me a better insight into the verbal expresser. But a quick write or a partner response gives me a look into the students that can express their thoughts in writing better and gives both of these types of learners a better chance to understand the central focus in new ways.



Originally, I had not planned on the Electoral College being such a large part of our lesson. After writing the planning commentary, my mentor teacher informed me that the students needed to be given a writing assessment from the district. It was at this point that I realized one of the prompts was based on the Electoral College; the only prompt we hadn’t yet discussed. I had to restructure my lesson in order to incorporate this assignment and assessment. In doing so I planned a lesson very lecture and reading based, which is not my preferred style of teaching. After watching the video I noticed the lack of focus in a rather important concept. In lesson 4 at roughly 1:31, I begin to use the smart board to explain Electoral College. One reason I believe there was a lack of focus during the lesson was the minimal interaction students had that day. As soon as I had explained the basics of the Electoral College, I should have invited students up to participate with the board. This would have allowed more engagement for visual learners and would have provided them a chance to incorporate their own visual learning. In turn, this would have provided ELL students as well as student with IEPs or 504 to express their knowledge in a way they feel comfortable. My students were sitting and listening and reading for the entirety of the lesson. Having students get out of their seats and use the smart board would have allowed them to have a mental break from the lesson that day. I see now that the students would have benefitted from a more active engagement which would have led to an increase in retention of the material as well as a greater ability to engage more with our central focus.

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.

[These changes provide two major ways of improving student learning. In the first example during lesson 2, giving students more time allows them to grasp the concept more fully. In other words, the more time we spend on our discussion, and the more opinions I get from students, the greater the chance of students retaining their knowledge. Not only that, but the discussion shows a good model for the students to base their writing off of for assessment. Vygotsky believed that the role model was the best way for a child to learn; in this clip, I failed to do that by not diving into the deep thoughts of what the students thought about the images. If I had done so, it would have shown students that I cared for multiple people’s opinions on the matter, and would have eventually resulted in the students listening to my lessons because of the care that I showed for them. This also relates to the Gradual Release of Responsibility; I should have given my students more of an active role for control of the classroom during our discussion. That is something that I would like to improve on.

Similarly related in theory, my improvements to lesson 4 would have given students a more interactive role in the classroom that day. This once again places the responsibility of the class in the students’ hands. This allows the students to move freely in the room; it allows them to express questions they have in a way they might not have been able to verbally put forward. In my classroom, students have reacted better to having more of an ‘adult’ role in the classroom. In other words, I treat them like adults and they seem to enjoy that, as would most 17 and 18 year olds. The goal here is to collaborate with them during lessons and be their role model for their learning. Once the mutual respect is created, which it has been in my classroom, students will be more willing to work on their assignments, as well as take a deeper interest into your class. ]


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