Robertson Planning Commentary

7/30/2019 Robertson Planning Commentary

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Brittany Robertson

12/5/12

Planning Commentary

1.Content Focus and Standards

The central focus for this learning segment is subtraction word problems. In this lesson the

students must read a word problem and create a number sentence using the information given to them in

the word problem. To be able to do that, the students must know what a word problem is. They must be

able to identify clue words in a word problem to tell them if they need to add or subtract by reading the

word problem. The students must also know what parts a number sentence should contain, and finally

they must know strategies for subtracting. The standard that relates to this lesson is the CDAS standard

C1.S/U3, which is to create a number sentence given a word problem.

2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching

For each of the categories listed below (a-d), describe what you know about your students prior

learning and experiences with respect to the central focus of the learning segment. What do they know,

what can they do and what are they are learning to do? Be very specific about how you have gained

knowledge about your students. What sources of data have informed you? What teaching experiences

have informed you?

a) Academic development (e.g., prior knowledge, prerequisite skills, ways of thinking in the subject

areas, developmental levels, special educational needs)

Prior to this lesson, students have been introduced to addition word problems and subtraction

strategies. They are familiar with what parts a number sentence should have, including the addends, a

sign of operation, an equal sign, the answer, called the sum or the difference, and a label for the answer. I

have taught the students a lesson about addition word problems, and based on the exit ticket I

administered for that lesson, I saw that all except two of my students understood the lesson and were able

to apply their knowledge about word problems to solve the addition word problem on the exit ticket.


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Many of the students forgot to label their answer, so in this lesson on subtraction word problems, I would

put an extra emphasis on labeling the final answer.

They have learned in a separate lesson that the strategy they should focus on for subtraction is to

Put the big number in your head and count back. Many of the students have been struggling with this

concept of counting back, because when they use their fingers to help them count back, sometimes they

count the number they start on. Other times, they write down the number that they subtracted. So, during

this lesson I would definitely review the subtraction strategy of counting backwards, possibly for the Do

Now.

For this lesson, and every lesson, I have to keep in mind that several of my students are very low,

according to their RIT score results from the MAP test. So, its extremely important that I am explicit in

my modeling of solving subtraction word problems, as well as providing several attempts at practice

during the We Do portion of my lesson. I will be sure to call on those students who I know struggle,

because I want to know if they really understand it before I send them to their seats for the You Do

portion of the lesson.

b) Academic Language development (e.g., students abilities to understand and produce the oral or

written language associated with the central focus and standards/objectives within the learning

segment)

My students are all relatively high functioning in the area of oral language development, but they

need more vocabulary development. For that reason, I am introducing five new vocabulary words that

relate to the subtraction word problems. They are all clue words, which the students must be able to read

and verbally identify, in order to know whether to subtract or add. To introduce those, I will have them

written on an anchor chart, titled Clue Words. I will point to those individually and have students repeat

them after me each time. During the We Do portion of the lesson, students will have multiple

opportunities to identify and verbally announce those vocabulary clue words.

I also have one student who is an English learner but is not in ESL because that is not a program

offered at our school. This student is not very confident in giving answers, so when I do call on him, it is


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common that he is unsure of what to say. I will prepare in advance to help him by repeating those clue

words as a whole group, and using No Opt Out to circle back to him, if hes not sure how to say the

words. I can also have him just point to the word, I will say it, and then he will repeat it back to me.

c) Family/community/cultural assets (e.g., relevant lived experiences, cultural expectations, and

student interests)

One thing that I have noticed about my students is that none of them are really familiar with

experiences outside of their urban surroundings. So, I had to remember that when creating my word

problems, because I didnt want students to be confused with problems about things they had never really

actually experienced. In order to ensure that I was making my word problems pertinent to things that they

knew about and had experience with, I choose stories about things that could happen at school. So, for

example a problem on the exit ticket was about collecting pencils, because that is something that we do in

our own classroom. That is relevant to their lives. I also used student names in the word problems,

because I have noticed that the students are much more excited and engaged when I personalize problems

or examples in that way.

d) Social and emotional development (e.g., ability to interact and express themselves in constructive

ways, ability to engage in collaborative learning, nature of contributions to a positive literacy

learning environment).

Second graders are making the transition from first grade, where they were constantly moving

and didnt have a lot of time sitting in their desks for extended periods of time, to second grade where

there is a lot more desk work. With this lesson, and every lesson, I try to break it up by spending the I do

and We Do sitting on the carpet, and then they move to their desks for the You Do and Exit ticket. This

breaks up the hour long lesson, and keeps them more focused when they are with me on the carpet.

Another thing I used in my lesson was the Think Pair Share. This gives my students time to

communicate with their peers, which outside of lunch and recess, they dont get a lot of time for in our

school. They are extremely capable of doing think pair shares, because we have practiced them and

modeled what it should look like several times.


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e) Learning strategies: what instructional and learning strategies have been effective for your

students? How do you know?

I am slowly learning what learning and instructional strategies are effective with my group of

students. One thing strategy that I immediately noticed worked well for my mentor teacher was call-and-

response teaching. So, I adopted this practice in my own teaching, because of how well the students

respond to it. I have my students repeat key words and phrases at key points throughout my lesson. I also

stop in mid-sentence and my students will finish the sentence. This shows me whether they truly

understand what I am talking about, and it also shows that they are being attentive. I absolutely love this

instructional strategy.

I have also noticed that my students prefer the learning strategy of drawing things out. Many of

my students prefer to draw a picture to show a subtraction problem, rather than use the counting back

strategy. Since that tells me that my students are more visual learners, I have been doing lots of modeling

of using that strategy by showing them on my fingers. That seems to work a lot better, so I will continue

to use that for this particular lesson.

3. Supporting Student Learning

Respond to prompts a-e below to explain how your plans support your students learning related to the

central focus of the learning segment. As needed, refer to the instructional materials you have included to

support your explanations. Cite research and theory to support your explanations.

a) Explain how your understanding of your students prior learning, experiences and development

guided your choice or adaptation of learning tasks and materials, to develop students' abilities to

successfully meet lesson segment outcomes.

I know that my students have backward number word sequence because during the lesson on

subtraction strategies they had no trouble counting backwards fluently and accurately. The importance of

this is stressed in a book called, Teaching Number in the Classroom with 4-8 year olds (Wright, 2006). As

I mentioned previous, our students have been introduced to addition word problems and subtraction

strategies. They are familiar with what parts a number sentence should have, including the addends, a


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sign of operation, an equal sign, the answer, called the sum or the difference, and a label for the answer. I

have taught the students a lesson about addition word problems, so they are familiar with the format that

this lesson will be in.

b) How are the plans for instruction sequenced in the learning segment to build connections between

students prior learning and experiences and new content skills and strategies?

This lesson comes after the students have already been exposed to several subtraction strategies,

such as drawing a picture to model the problem, using the number line, counting backwards, and using a

ten frame. Prior to this lesson, they have also been working with addition word problems. So, the

students have already built the schema for the components of a word problem. The lesson that I planning

is also scaffolded. I start off with an I Do, where I model the steps for solving a subtraction word

problem, then I give them a little more independence in the We Do, where I guide them through solving

two word problems as a whole group. Finally, they complete the You Do, at their seats with no support

from their peers, and very little support from me as I circulate through the room.

c) Explain how, throughout the learning segment, you will help students make connections between skills

and strategies in ways that support their abilities to deepen their content learning.

For the Do Now portion of the lesson, I will hang up an anchor chart that has an addition word

problem on it for the students to recall the steps for solving word problems. This will refresh their

memories, and get them thinking in the right direction. I will do a think-pair-share at that point, so that all

the students have an answer to share and they all experience recalling that information. I will also go

through the old anchor chart for word problems that I created that has the steps for solving word

problems. We will review the subtraction strategy of counting backwards, as well.

c) Describe common developmental approximations and misunderstandings within your content

focus and how you will address them.

Subtraction can be viewed as taking away items but it can also be viewed as difference.

I will need to provide word problem examples in my lesson that show case both ways to view

subtraction, because I dont want to provide a singular view of subtraction (Cotton, 2010.) So, for


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example, a take away problem might include wording such as: There were five apples but then I ate two.

How many apples are left now? A difference word problem could be: There were five boys and two girls.

How many more boys were there than girls. So, when I ask students in the Do Now what subtraction is,

or what subtracting means, when they say taking away, I would point out that it could also be to find

the difference between two numbers.

d) Describe any instructional strategies planned to support students with specific learning needs.

This will vary based on what you know about your students, but may include students with IEPs,

English learners, or gifted students needing greater support or challenge.

To support my student who has a speech problem and my student who is learning English, I will

ask questions that require deeper thinking, but short, simple responses, because it is very difficult for him

to explain things, especially when it requires a great deal of explanation. I will also provide my students

who are lower more support as I am circulating during the independent activity.

4.Supporting Student Understanding and Use of Academic Language

Respond to the prompts below to explain how your plans support your students academic language

development.

a) Identify the key academic language demandand explain why it is integral to the central focus

for the segment and appropriate to students academic language development. Considerlanguage

functionsand language forms, essential vocabulary, and/or phrases for the concepts and skills

being taught, and instructional language necessary for students to understand or produce oral

and/or written language within learning tasks and activities.

The key academic language demand is focused around subtraction and word problems. The students

must first have a working definition of a word problem and a number sentence. To explain a word

problem, I will say that it is, A story with words and numbers that has a problem that needs solved. The

students need to know that a number sentence includes addends, an operation sign, an equal sign, and a

sum/difference. Finally, students must be introduced to clue words that they can look for in story

problems to decide whether they need to add or subtract. Those clue words they need to identify are


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difference, less than, minus, take away, left, and how many more. There are other words and nuances that

could clue students in to whether they are adding or subtracting; however, I chose the most common

words and only a few because the students are just beginning to work with word problems, and it needs to

be scaffolded. To help the students understand and use the vocabulary, I will use call-and-response in my

teaching. I will repeat the key words and phrases several times during the lesson, and I will have the

students repeat them, as well.

b) Explain how planned instructional supports will assist students to understand academic language

related to the key language demand to express and develop their content learning. Describe how

planned supports vary for students at different levels of academic language development.

To help the students understand and use the vocabulary, I will use call-and-response in my

teaching. I will repeat the key words and phrases several times during the lesson, and I will have the

students repeat them, as well. This may look different for students at different levels of academic

language development. For example, my English learner will benefit from seeing the vocabulary on the

anchor chart, hearing the words, and repeating them back. I will choose higher level students to locate

those clue words in example word problems, by raising their hand and voicing them verbally. For my

student who has a speech impairment, I would have him point to the clue words in the story problem.

5. Monitoring Student Learning

a) Explain how the informal and formal assessments you select and/or designed will provide evidence you

will use to monitor student progress toward the standards/objectives. Consider how the assessments will

provide evidence of students use of content specific skills and strategies to promote rigorous learning.

I am using the informal checks for understanding throughout my lesson. For example, during the

We Do portion, I will be calling on students to help guide us through the steps for solving a subtraction

word problem. I will purposely be calling on struggling students, because I know that my higher level

students will understand. I will need to know if I need to spend more time modeling, before I send my

students to work on their independent practice sheet at their desks. I will also do the informal assessment

of circulating through the classroom and stopping to assist students who are struggling. I will also be


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asking deeper level questions to students who are achieving on the independent practice. Finally, I will

have a formal assessment of an exit ticket. The exit ticket is one subtraction word problem. There is

space for the student to do any work they need to on paper. There is also a blank where the student will

create their own number sentence. I chose this type of assessment it really shows me that students can

create their own number sentence. It shows me that they understand how to structure a number sentence.

c) Describe any modifications or accommodations to the planned assessment tools or procedures

that allow students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning.

I will accommodate my lower-level students by giving them more time to complete the

assessment. I will also give my lower-level students more chances to answer during the guided practice

on the rug with me, because thats where I can really see where they are struggling with the problems.

Planning Commentary Part II

A. Analyzing Student Learning:

1. Summarize student performance in narrative and/or graphic form (e.g., table or

chart).

After grading and analyzing the data from this assessment, I found that 8 out of our 20 students or

40% remembered to label their answer on all three number sentences. On the first story problem 14 out of

20 or 70% students formatted their subtraction sentence correctly and got the correct answer. On the

second subtraction story problem only 9 out of 20 students or 45% formatted their subtraction sentence

correctly with a correct answer. On the third subtraction story problem, only 7 out of 20 or 35% of

students had their number sentence formatted correctly with a correct answer. They had the right

numbers, but the wrong operation sign. So, for example on the third story problem, several students

wrote 10 + 18 = 18 instead of 10 8 = 2. This had to do with the clue words I used in each story

problem. The first story problem had the clue words, How many are left and the second and third

story problems had the clue words, How many more so students thought they had to add instead of

subtract.


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2. Discuss what students appear to understand well and where they continue to

struggle, including any misunderstandings, developmental approximations,

confusions, or needs (including a need for greater challenge).

This assessment revealed to me that the vast majority of the students in my second grade

classroom understand and can apply their knowledge of how to structure a number sentence. With the

exception of only one student, all of my students wrote out the two numbers being subtracted, the

operation signs, the equal sign, and an answer. The assessment also pointed out areas where the students

need to be retaught more explicitly. For example, I saw that only a handful of my students remembered to

label their answer in their number sentences. We discussed this during whole group instruction; however,

I did not explicitly write out in the directions that they should label their answers. Students are continuing

to struggle with forward and backward number sequence. We used the strategy of counting back for the

subtraction problems, but students who are still struggling with counting forwards and backwards would

skip numbers and end up with the wrong answers. The other thing that students need more practice and


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reinforcement in is determining which clue words indicate addition will be needed and which ones

indicate that students must subtract.

3. Consider common patterns across the class as well as groups of students with

similar strengths or needs. Cite evidence to support your analysis from the 3 student

work samples you selected.

A common strength that I noticed among my students was that, with the exception of one student,

they all remembered how to structure a number sentence. A common error that I saw my students making

was that they forgot to do the last step when solving subtraction word problems. The last step is to label

your final answer. Several students got the right numbers in their answer, but I had to deduct a point for

leaving off their label. For example, on Johnika, Venus, and Camerons assessments, they forgot to label

every single problem. I noticed that even my higher level student struggled with identifying that she

needed to subtract on problems 2 and 3. This helped me identify that the wording is what the students

were struggling with on those two problems. In both problems I used the clue words how many

more Those words lead even my high students to believe that they should be adding, even though we

had only been working with subtraction word problems during this lesson.

One thing I would definitely work on my lower group with is on backward number sequence. As

shown on Johnikas work, she has trouble with not only backward number sequence, but one-to-one

correspondence in counting, as well. For example, on her first story problem, she drew a picture, which is

a great strategy that I encouraged her to use, but she only drew 11 birds to begin with, instead of 12,

causing her to get the wrong answer in the end. This is something that 2 of my other lowest students also

struggle with.

4. Refer to your learning progression analysis you created from your student work

samples. Describe individual learning strengths and weaknesses of your high

performing and your low performing student.

My high performing students strengths were that she can structure her number sentence

correctly. She also has backward and forward number sequence which helped her arrive at an answer that


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would make sense on number 1. Her struggle on this assessment was using the clue words to help her

determine whether to add or subtract on each word problem.

My low performing students strengths were that she also had all the components of a number

sentence, excluding labels, which is something all students struggled with remembering. Another

strength Johnika has is that she is using the strategy for subtraction problems of drawing a picture to

solve. She knows the concept that subtracting is taking away, because she was crossing out objects in

each picture she drew. Where she struggles is in knowing that her number sentence should start with the

big number, then take away the smaller number to find the final answer. She was writing her final answer

first, and then subtracting the small number. She also needs a lot of practice with her backward number

sequence and one-to-one counting correspondence.

5. If applicable, describe evidence from the student work samples that demonstrate the

extent to which students are able to understand and/or use the language associated

with the identified language demand (vocabulary, function/form, and instructional

language) in ways that develop literacy skills and strategies.

For this lesson, I was very focused on providing explicit instruction to my ESL student, Jose. He

is an English learner, and he struggles with his language development in English. I included his work

sample, because he was one of the few students who remembered to included labels in his work, and he

earned a 94% on this assessment. I could see in his work that he clearly understood which clue words he

was to be looking for, because he underlined them in his work. During the instruction, I used many

opportunities to involve Jose in the discussion, including the strategy of No-Opt-Out. His work reflects

that he was able to understand the identified language demand for this lesson.

B. Feedback to Guide Further Learning:

1. How did the feedback you provided to each of the 2 focus students address the individual

students needs and learning objectives? Reference specific evidence of submitted feedback

to support your explanation.


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For my high performing student, I gave her checkmarks for each correct component of the

number sentence she had. So, the points possible for each problem came out to 6 points each. For the

parts that she didnt include, I did not put a check, I simply wrote in what she should have there. She also

forgot that the clue words How many more indicate that we should be subtracting. So, my feedback to

her was underlining the clue words, and writing underneath, Remember, you are subtracting!

On my lower performing students assessment, I also included checkmarks to show her that she

had some parts of the number sentence correct, such as the operation sign and the equal sign. I wrote out

what the problem should actually be, along with the correct answer, as well. Over the picture that she

drew, where she miscounted, I wrote, Count the birds againWoops! I did that instead of just writing

the answer, because I wanted her to know specifically why she got it wrong. I also wrote on the second

subtraction word problem, Your answer is what the number sentence equals. I did that because she was

writing her answer before she wrote her number sentence, which in turn made her number sentence

incorrect.

2. What opportunities were or will be provided for students to apply the feedback to

improve their work, either within the learning segment or at a later time?

I gave these back to students the next day as a Do Now during math. My mentor teacher was

teaching a lesson on subtraction word problems again the next day, so I told her what I had noticed after

looking over the assessments, and we decided that she would make it very explicit that the clue words,

How many more mean that we are subtracting. She also made it very clear that our answers should

always include labels.

3. (Optional) Using evidence, how well did your language supports or scaffolding promote

academic language for students with varied language levels?

As I mentioned previously, during this lesson, I had focused on my ESL student and using no-

opt-out to check for understanding with him. His assessment showed me that the strategy I was using was

in fact providing him with the language supports that he needs. He is one of my lower students, but on


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this assessment he performed better than more than half of his classmates! This was evidence in his

identification of the subtraction clue words and how he included labels in all of his answers.

C. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction

1. Based on your analysis of student performance in the assessment, describe next steps for

instruction for the whole class.

My next steps for instruction for the whole class, based on student performance on this

assessment, were to meet with my mentor and decide where the next lesson on subtraction word problems

should pick up and what should be retaught the next day. I recommended that there be a heavy focus on

the tricky clue words that are semi-contradictory, such as How many more I hadnt really anticipated

that students would struggle so much with those clue words, especially since they were posted on our

anchor chart. I also recommended that she remind them that all answers have to have labels, since almost

all of the students forgot to label their answers.

2. Describe any individualized next steps for the 2 focus students.

For my high performing student, I met with her one-on-one and reminded her that she needed

My next step with my high-performing student was to meet with her one-on-one and remind her

that she needed to take her time and read assignments carefully. She rushed through this assessment. I

could tell because she normally reads the directions carefully. The directions specifically said to label the

answers, so I knew that she didnt read them carefully. I also explained that the clue words, How many

more tell us we need to subtract.

For my low-performing student, I worked one-on-one with her using manipulatives to practice

one-to-one correspondence and backward number sequence. She does better in a one-on-one situation, in

general, so it is hard to say whether this will help her complete the work independently later.

3. Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of the student performances.

The next steps I described above will help those students master the objective I had for this learning

segment. I wanted my students to be able to solve subtraction word problems and write a number

sentence for the problems. I noticed through the assessment that the top areas where students were


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struggling were remembering to label their answer, and deciding whether the clue words were telling

them to add or subtract. The next steps I mentioned would help students be successful in both of those

areas.


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References

Cotton, T. (2010). Understanding and Teaching Primary Mathematics. Retrieved from

ftp://ftp.pearsoned-ema.com/HPE_Samples/SampleChapters/9781405899505.pdf

Wright, R.J., Stanger, G., Stafford, A.K., & Martland, J. (2006). Teaching Number in the Classroom with

4-8 year-olds. Sage: London, England.
ftp://ftp.pearsoned-ema.com/HPE_Samples/SampleChapters/9781405899505.pdfftp://ftp.pearsoned-ema.com/HPE_Samples/SampleChapters/9781405899505.pdf

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Robertson Planning Commentary