Brandon Kinnaird

TPA Task 2

IUTPA: Task 2
Brandon Kinnaird

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Brandon Kinnaird

TPA Task 2

Table of Contents
Detailed Narrative

Instruction Commentary

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TPA Task 2

Detailed Narrative
1. Identify the number of the lesson among the plans in the learning segment
which contain the focus lesson.

Day 1

2. Provide a detailed narrative description of the focus lesson. Include a

specific description of what you and your students did during the focus
lesson, providing sufficient content for your reader to understand your
subsequent analysis.

This focus lesson took place during the first day of the unit on weather.
This day is the most important due to it being the first time the
students are seeing the new material. With students of this age group,
the first time with the material can be the most crucial because that is
when they decide whether it is going to be hard or not.

Starting the day with a typical routine, popsicle sticks were pulled out
of a cup that has the students names on it. Questions were asked to
students in Spanish using vocabulary and phrases that they already
know. It is important for students to continue practicing and speaking
in Spanish, even for just a little bit, every day because learning a new
language requires constant practice and use or else it will be forgotten.

These questions went very well. A couple of students struggled when

asked about the time but the other questions garnered quick responses
from all that were asked. For the students who struggled with the time,
scaffolding was used by giving the clarification on the format of telling
time in Spanish and then by helping them to reach their goal by asking
them the hour and then the minute of the current time. Then they were
asked to give me the time in a complete sentence in Spanish.

Next, teaching began with the new vocabulary based on weather. The
first thing that was done was reading through the vocabulary words in
Spanish together as a class so that the students would be able to hear
the correct pronunciation of each word. Complete class participation
was held during this phase. The correct English translation of each
vocabulary word was given to the students after giving them the
opportunity to guess what each word meant.

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The students began asking questions related to Hace in their

vocabulary words for phrases such as Hace calor (It is hot) because
they have learned that Es means It is but in the case of
weather, we use Hace. The students were asking logical questions
and were told that in this case, we use the box 3 form of Hacer (to
do/to make) because, in short, that is how it is done in Spanish and it is
something that simply needs to be memorized.

They were also told that some think that the reason we use Hace is
because Spain is a very religious country and it could be believed that
they use Hace to say that God makes the weather. For example,
Hace viento directly translates to It makes wind but is also in the
form of He makes wind. This could be seen as religious to some
people.

The weather PowerPoint was then pulled up in order to teach the

students mucho with weather and to give them practice with
matching weather to pictures. The students picked up on the concept
of mucho (very/a lot) fairly quickly. The concept is very
straightforward and came easy to them. The second part of the
PowerPoint contained pictures that asked the students the question
Qu tiempo hace? (What is the weather?).

This gave students practice matching their new vocabulary with visuals
and by seeing/hearing how to ask someone what the weather is like.
Students responded very well to this activity. It started off with only
around half of the class responding to each slide but after 4-5 slides,
the whole class was participating.

Some students were then asked individually what the weather was
based on the pictures on the slides. At the end of the activity, the class
was asked to show, on their hands, in a scale of 1-5 how they feel with
their new vocabulary. Mostly 3s with a few 2s and a few 4s were
received.

The final activity of the class was a Kahoot based on their new weather
vocabulary. The activity was prefaced by telling the students that it is
not expected of them to be able to correctly answer all of the questions
during the Kahoot due to this being their first day with the new
vocabulary.

The students understood and were still excited to see if they knew
more than their peers. The Kahoot went very well with the top scorer
only missing 3 questions out of 16. This is very impressive for the little
amount of practice that the students have had with the vocabulary.
The only issue that could be found was the students slow response

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time to each question. This would normally be a cause for alarm but
too much thought was not into it because of how little time they have
spent with the new vocabulary.

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Instruction Commentary
1. Engaging and Deepening Students in Learning
Refer to examples from your description of the focus lesson in your explanations.
a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing a
deeper understanding of content-related concepts. Cite specific
examples of what happened in your classroom to support your
explanation.
a. Students gained a deeper understanding of content-related
concepts through the use of a variety of teaching methods
that they are very familiar and comfortable with. I decided
to use and emphasize multiple types of activities that have
proved effective in the past in order to obtain the deepest
understanding on the first day of new content that I could.
The most obvious of these is the visual section of the
PowerPoint. While PowerPoints are typically not very
engaging for students, I made it engaging by using
gestures and trying to get the class into the activity. The
students showed an interest in the content and it showed
during the following Kahoot quiz due to their
excitement/disappointment when answering questions
correctly/incorrectly.
b. Describe how your instruction linked students prior academic
learning and personal, cultural, and community assets with new
learning.
a. One situation that I used to link students prior knowledge
with what they are learning is through my use of
connecting Spanishs use of Hace to the possibility of this
being having religious origins. I emphasized that Spain is a
very religious country, which the students already knew
because we had already studied Spain at this point, and
that this may be why they use Hace (It/He makes). The
students were very interested in this due to it being related
to something that they had already studied earlier in the 9weeks.
b. I also put a lot of emphasis on prior knowledge during the
question warm-up at the beginning of class. I ask a
question to each student based on content that they have
previously learned and the students have been doing a
very good job of responding quickly and correctly.
c. Explain how you elicited student responses during the focus
lesson to promote thinking and deepen students understanding
of content area material. Consider ways you have facilitated
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interactions among students so they learned from one anothers

thinking and/or evaluated their own abilities to build conceptual
understanding, fluency of procedural skills, and/or problem
solving.
a. One thing that I tried to do during the initial learning of the
new vocabulary was to give students opportunities to
guess what the words meant before I told them.
This required them to look at the Spanish words and use
prior knowledge to discover what the new words meant. I
would call on individual students at random to ask them for
their thoughts. If they did not have even the smallest
guess, I would point out specific words in the phrase or try
to compare the word to a word that they know in English.
Most students were able to figure out the meanings
through this method. I also asked other students for help if
a student could not see a connection. This would usually
help that student because he/she would be able to hear
the concept from a peer and not just me, the teacher.
d. Explain how you deepened students understanding of content
area material by using content specific concepts, skills, and
procedures. (Follow-up instruction/questions/adjustments/etc.)
a. I tried to scaffold students to their goals by using a variety
of methods. The first, and most prominent, was the use of
visuals when asking students about new words and
phrases. I asked students about the weather by showing
them pictures and then asking them Qu tiempo hace?
The students struggled more when asked individually so I added
my own gestures in an attempt to scaffold them to their goal.
For example, if the word was Hace fro then I would shiver in
order to show the students that I was cold and that they are
looking for the English word It is cold.

2. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from your description of the focus lesson (prompt 1 above) in your
explanations.
a. How did your instruction support learning for the whole class
AND students who need greater support or challenge? For
example, consider the variety of learners in your class who may
require different strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs,
English language learners, struggling readers, underperforming
students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or
gifted students).
i. One way that I supported all types of learners in this lesson
was through my use of different teach methods and
activities. During the PowerPoint activity, I provided a lot of
visuals and gestures for the students that are more visual
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learners. I also asked students questions in Spanish for the
more aural learners. The logical learners received
instruction during the section of the class where I asked
students to think of what the words meant in English based
on what they already know in Spanish and English. This
required them to use both logic and reasoning to obtain
the correct answer.

I also tried to put more emphasis into the underperforming

students. I asked them questions based on areas that I
know they are struggling in and I kept a tight eye on them
when we were learning the new material in order to see
their reactions and participation during the instruction.
b. What changes would you make to your instruction to better
support student learning of the central focus (e.g., missed
opportunities)? Refer to specific information you have gained
from the assessments utilized during this lesson.
i. One thing that I would change about my instruction would
be to place a larger emphasis on the fact that Nieva and
Llueve do not have Hace at the beginning.
I got a lot of questions during the following days about why
this is the case and if the words also have It is in
English in their translations. This could have been avoided
if I had spent some extra time talking about the two words
and the specifics of why they are like this and do not
contain Hace.
ii. Another thing that I would change would be to include an
activity that involved the students getting up and moving
around. An example of this could be the students walking
around, asking each other questions about the weather in
certain seasons/months.
The lessons in the following days contain activities of this
nature but I felt that I wanted to make sure they
comprehended the material before I started doing more
extensive activities.
c. 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 as
appropriate.
i. These words were some of the most missed on the quiz
and I feel that if I would have emphasized these more
during the initial day, the students would have gotten more
of these correct. There would have been fewer students
coming to class with questions and I could have spent
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more time deepening their understanding of the content
instead of trying to explain why these words are the way
that they are. This also took time away from the students
that did understand the words and therefore my deeper
explanation at the beginning would have improved their
learning in the long run by giving them more time to
practice instead of listening to the same explanation over
and over.
ii. An activity that involves movement is important for
students at this age because they become antsy in their
seats and need time to move around. Giving them the time
to stand up and talk in Spanish both helps to encourage
the thought that the classroom is not solely focused on the
teacher talking to the students and also allows the
students to talk to each other in Spanish.

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