Early Childhood Task 2: Instruction Commentary

Early Childhood
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. List the learning experience(s) you have selected for the 2 video clips you are
submitting. Identify the learning experience(s) by plan day/number.
[ Day 1; Lesson Plan 1: large group instruction
Day 3; Lesson Plan 3: small group instruction ]
2. Promoting a Positive Learning Environment
Refer 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
children with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge children to engage in
learning?
[ There are multiple ways in which I demonstrate responsiveness to children with specific needs
throughout my lessons. There are four times during this large group video that I call a specific
student’s name and ask them a question to refocus their attention. This same student starts to
get distracted by the peer sitting next to him at 3:42. In this moment, I got up from my spot
quickly and retrieved the fidget toy that I anticipated using in my planning segment. I put the
blue lava jar in this student’s hands to keep them busy rather than distracting his friend. This
action satisfied this particular student’s need in the moment. Another need that I met was when
a student hit his head against the bookshelf. This student started crying immediately, which we
see at 5:40. To handle this situation, I acknowledged the student’s feelings and allowed him to
get up and sit with the TA while he calmed down. I later checked in and asked how he was
feeling when I handed him his center tag at minute 10:01. There is also a moment at the
beginning of the clip in minute 0:15 when I demonstrated rapport with students. This occurs
when a student feels comfortable enough to raise her hand and tell me a personal story about
how the book reminds her of her dance class. I took this moment to connect to the student’s
comment and talk about it as a class. In the small group video clip, it was easier to make
personal connections. The rapport I have with my students can be seen when one student gets
distracted by talking about her dog, and I asked a few questions about her dog. This happens at
0:09. Then, the other student begins to talk about his dog. I simply redirected their attention to
spelling out their dogs’ names on their tracing paper in minute 0:27. In minute 2:27 I challenged
a gifted student to find the lowercase “h” because he was quick to identify uppercase letter
names. The student could not find the lowercase “h.” However, I took this moment to introduce
patterns in the alphabet, rather than simply pointing out where the lowercase letter was. The
student was able to identify the letter when prompted with the pattern. ]
3. Engaging Children in Learning
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. Explain how your instruction engaged children in

 language and literacy development, AND
 active, multimodal learning
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Early Childhood
[ In the large group video clip, my students were engaged in active learning when I read them
the ABC Yoga book. During this time students saw the yoga pose, the letter it correlated with,
and the animal or object that started with that letter on each page. Seeing all of these things
together and doing the yoga pose helped them make the connection between letters, print and
movement. This would promote my students’ language and literacy development. Rather than
sitting down and simply reading them the book, my students had the opportunity to engage in
the text and become part of the story, creating an active learning experience. In doing so, most
were able to stay engaged throughout circle time. Throughout the entire book, there are three
students who remain entirely engaged to my left. They were excited and proactive in doing all of
the poses. For example, in minute 1:09, the student goes immediately into the yoga pose to
model for his peers. In the small group video clip, the two students I was working with were
engaged throughout the learning process as well. It was explained previously what to do in
these centers, and by choosing their own color and tracing the letters, these two students were
engaged for the entire 10 minutes of the center. This video clip portrays active learning because
students are actively tracing letters the entire time. The activity of tracing letters also promotes
literacy and language development. ]
b. Describe how your instruction linked children’s development, prior learning, and
personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning.
[ This lesson was developmentally appropriate and linked to prior knowledge. In the beginning
of this lesson at minute 0:01 I use a song to gather the students on the carpet. This song is
sung every day before circle time. I sung this song in my lesson so that it would feel familiar and
be consistent with every other day of teaching. At 0:45 I mentioned to the class that we had read
the book Good Morning Yoga in class multiple times before, and this book called ABC Yoga was
very similar. Allowing students to exercise and practice their gross motor skills in doing alphabet
yoga is a developmentally appropriate skill. My students’ prior knowledge of the alphabet is
limited. They can sing the alphabet song, however they struggle to make the connection
between the written letter and the spoken word. This is common for preschoolers – to
misunderstand the connection between words and print. The book I presented would help them
make the connection between words and print. My students’ have also not been challenged with
the goal of writing or tracing letters. For this reason, I chose to do a small group instructional
time on tracing letters. Every morning, they write their name, however they are not used to
forming letters that are not in their name. This activity would feel somewhat familiar because
they will be writing letters, however they will be challenged by the added objective of tracing
letters that are not in their name. My students’ are still working on penmanship and writing skills,
this activity would help them develop more defined, perfected skills. I also want to highlight the
fact that the alphabet is tightly intertwined with sequencing. In this way, I have helped my
students learn the alphabet through utilizing their math skills. For example, the letters of the
alphabet always occur in the same order, therefore introducing it to them in a plethora of ways
will help them realize this consistency. I introduced the alphabet through an ABC song, a book
that I read, multiple group activities and then the small group activity in the video by having them
write it. One way that I utilized sequencing was in the small group instruction video. I helped
challenge my gifted student to think through sequencing and the connection between uppercase
and lowercase letters. I used the letters before and after the uppercase letter for him to identify
the correct, corresponding lowercase letter. This lesson was also interdisciplinary in terms of the
yoga that was being taught. Not only was the yoga helping students develop gross motor skills,
it was also making a connection to science skills. The letters we were making yoga poses for
correlated with the first letter of animal names. When we practiced the letter, the letter
represented an animal. If a student did not know what this animal looked like or how it moved,
they got an introduction to these concepts through the yoga pose. In preschool, this introduction
to animals and animal movements is a developmentally appropriate science practice. My
Early Childhood
students like to move around, and with it being so cold outside, we have not gotten to go outside
and let them run around in weeks. Because my students love being active, I thought I would
introduce yoga into my lesson. Yoga is a cultural practice that started in the Eastern Asia
culture. Introducing my students to this practice would introduce them to culture around the
world and help them connect themselves to culture around the world. Most of my students come
from low income families and do not travel far to see culture around the world. In the classroom
I want to provide them with a culturally rich experience. By introducing yoga, I have given them
one more cultural experience that they maybe wouldn’t get outside of the classroom. Through
these experiences and connections I am introducing them to an emerging understanding of the
alphabet. ]
4. Deepening Children’s Learning during Instruction
Refer to examples from the video clips in your explanations.
a. Explain how you elicited and built on children’s responses to promote children’s
language and literacy development through active learning.
[ At 1:40 a student makes a connection between the book’s yoga pose and an activity that she
did in her dance class. When the student mentions this connection, I inquired about her
experience and the whole class was able to “flutter the wings” like butterflies as she did in her
class, which helped us practice gross motor skills. There were also multiple moments during
small group time that I was able to foster a learning environment that built on children’s
responses to my instruction. At minute 0:09 one student mentions having a dog. I took this
moment to ask questions about her dog and get excited about it with her. Then, the other
student gets excited about his dog. At this time, I took the opportunity to ask what his dog’s
name was and spell it out with him, tracing each letter. I asked the other student what her dog’s
name was, however she told me that her dog didn’t have a name. This made it difficult for me to
spell out her dog’s name, because it did not have one. Another way that I built on student’s
responses occurred outside of what you are able to see in the video. At the beginning of this
lesson, we started our time together singing the alphabet. After we sang the alphabet, one of my
students spoke aloud and said, “my name starts with L, and L is in the alphabet!” When my
student said this, I validated her comment and told her that she was right her name did start with
that letter. Then to build on her response, I asked the class, “who else’s name starts with the
letter L?” When I posed this question, my students had to think about it, but eventually the
student whose name started with the letter L was able to identify themselves. This higher level
thinking question got my other students thinking about the letters in their name as well because
several after that pointed out the first letter of their own name. After we were finished talking
about our names, I got the class’s attention and we did yoga together for them to further explore
the letters in the alphabet. ]
b. Explain how you made interdisciplinary connections in ways that deepen children’s
development of language and literacy.
[ At the end of my learning segment, I passed out the center time popsicle sticks. My students
use these to mark which learning center they are in. As I passed out the sticks, I asked the class
to count with me how many were left, working math into our conversation. The main way that I
created interdisciplinary connections to deepen my students’ development was through
practicing yoga. The yoga poses that we were connecting to the alphabet worked muscles in
our backs, stomachs, legs and arms. While we were reading, we were simultaneously working
Early Childhood
on our physical education, which was helpful due to the fact that we could not run around
outside that day. Getting students up and moving is vital to their physical development,
especially at such a young age. Not shown in the footage I collected was another
interdisciplinary moment at the very beginning of my instruction. I gathered my students on the
rug and highlighted our vocabulary words first and last. I said, “today in circle time we are going
to do three things. First, we will learn an ABC yoga song and do yoga poses to match the letters
in the alphabet. Second, we will read an ABC yoga book. Last, we will pass out our center time
sticks.” After I introduced these words I asked my students, “What are we going to do first?” and
allowed time for my students to respond. After they responded, I asked, “What are we going to
do second?” and “What are we going to do last?” allowing them time to respond. The words
first, second, third, etc. are a connection to our key vocabulary as well as mathematic concepts.
]
5. Analyzing Teaching
Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.
a. What changes would you make to your instruction to better support children’s learning
related to the central focus? Be sure to address the needs of all children, including those
who need greater support or challenge.
Consider the variety of learners in your class/group who may require different
strategies/supports (such as children with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,
children at different points in the developmental continuum, and/or gifted children).
[ If I were to do this large group lesson again, I would perform it in a larger space. My
student who has spina bifida would have benefitted from being able to perform yoga in a
larger space. If I had a larger space, I would have been able to multitask and perform
the yoga poses along with the students more efficiently. Another change I would have
made would have been placing my student’s fidget toy closer to me when I was
instructing. I was able to hand it to the student who needed it, however I had to get up
from my spot in the front of the classroom, which might have affected other students’
engagement to the lesson being taught. ]
b. Explain why you think these changes would improve children’s learning. Support your
explanation with evidence of children’s learning AND principles from developmental
theory and/or research.
[ If this learning experience were completed in a larger space, I would have been able to model
the yoga poses for my students. I had the intention of implementing Piaget’s theory of
Constructivism when I created this lesson. The theory of Constructivism says that students learn
through doing rather than being told. I let this theory play out during my read-aloud when
students were performing yoga poses as well as the small group activity when the students
were forming letters. It would have been easier for them to practice the poses if I would have
had space to practice them with my students, so that they had a three-dimensional
representation of what they were supposed to be doing, rather than simply the picture on the
page. There were multiple needs that could have been better met throughout my learning
segments. One of these needs includes the need for interdisciplinary instruction. I have many
modalities to present my information, however I struggled to connect this information to other
subject areas in the moment. I needed to vocalize the interdisciplinary concepts I had. They
were good concepts, however I did not implement them well. I also felt as though I could have
Early Childhood
developed them more. There was room for interdisciplinary math instruction and I began to
introduce it, however I should have taken this further. In order to do so, I should have had the
students count on multiple occasions and maybe even practice simple addition. I also did not
have a conducive environment to build on my students’ comments. There was not much
conversation throughout my lesson, mostly my students were up and moving and listening.
Being in a preschool classroom, it was difficult to help my students evaluate their own learning. I
could have done this more efficiently by asking more guided questions as they were performing
yoga or doing their work. Overall, I struggled to gain attention of my students. I anticipated this
happening, therefore I planned very interactive lessons. However, the activities I planned were
so interactive, it was hard for me to gain the confidence to instruct despite my students’
business in their activity. Moving forward, I think I would plan more specific questions to help
guide students’ learning. I would also think more critically about how to deliberately incorporate
interdisciplinary activities. I incorporated research theory in my lesson, however it was not
developed and integrated well. Instead, I needed to really embed the theory rather than just
touching on it in a superficial way. I did not anticipate this happening, my lesson was well
thought out. However, planning and instructing are two very different things, and watching my
videos I realized that my lessons did not go as planned. ]

Early Childhood Task 2: Instruction Commentary

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Early Childhood

Task 2: Instruction Commentary

TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY

a. Explain how your instruction engaged children in

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