TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY - Marist College

Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

TASK 1: PLANNING COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 9 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the
brackets. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored.

1. Central Focus

a. Describe the central focus and purpose for the content you will teach in the learning
segment.

[There are two major purposes to this learning segment. The first is to fulfill the district and state
requirements for the content being covered. The central focus of this unit is on the causes and
effects of the American Revolution. The purpose of teaching the causes is to have students
understand the reasons why the British colonies went to war for independence. This learning
segment follows both district and state requirements for all eleventh grade students, which
includes having students examine the British attempt to increase their power in the colonies
leading to a negative reaction by the colonists, which in turn led to the American Revolution.
The state also requires students to examine the purpose of the Declaration of Independence
and the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. This aligns with the first purpose because
this learning segment’s focus will help set up the knowledge necessary for students to
understand the Framers’ mindset for the Constitution, which is the basis for the United States
government. This learning segment is a key first step to understanding where our government
began and will be the necessary prior knowledge for students later in the course. The second
purpose for this learning segment is to give students the ability to become more familiar with
interpreting primary source documents. Students will build on their abilities to read primary
sources by interpreting the sources into their own words. Each lesson will build upon each
other and increase in difficulty; this will start off by first having students put secondary sources
into their own words and ending with students reading the Declaration of Independence.]

b. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your
learning segment address

! facts and concepts

! interpretation or analysis skills

! building and supporting arguments

[The state social studies standards all cover the major facts and concepts that will be part of this
learning segment. The standards require the examination of colonial and British relations
leading up to the Revolutionary War as well as the analysis of the Declaration of Independence
and the Articles of Confederation. This learning segment meets these standards with facts and
concepts related to the causes of the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence,
and the Articles of Confederation. The central focus also has the students analyzing and
interpreting both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, which
combines both state and Common Core standards by having students look at primary sources.
Students will also look at the causes of the Revolutionary War with the purpose of gathering
evidence to support an argument for the colonists to go to war with Britain and build a case for
the colonists’ support for independence. The concepts in this learning segment include cause
and effect, war, independence, change, and government. All of these concepts relate directly to
the standards as outlined in the curriculum of the state social studies standards and are directly
measured in the learning segments through the use of documents, graphic organizers,
discussions, and questions. The Common Core Standards in reading and writing used in this
learning segment include analyzing the central ideas of primary or secondary sources and citing

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Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

evidence from the documents. This learning segment is comprised of many documents being
analyzed and interpreted to determine the major purposes of the Declaration of Independence,
the Articles of Confederation and other documents related to the American Revolutionary War.]

c. Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections
between facts, concepts, and interpretations or analyses, to build and support
arguments about historical events, a topic/theme or a social studies phenomenon.

[All of the lessons in this learning segment will build on the same concepts and facts. These
include cause and effect, war, independence, change, and government. In social studies it is
easy to scaffold lessons based on the chronological order in which events occurred, which
makes it easier for students to make the connections to the previous lessons and predict future
events. For this learning segment, lessons will build on one another based on time so that
students can see the sequences of events that led to the Revolution, what happened during,
and the results of the war. The first lesson covers the causes and major events of the American
Revolution, which builds on the concepts and ideas of independence and the reasons why
some felt it was important to break free from British rule. This lesson builds off of facts and
concepts from the prior learning segment where students learned about how the British mainly
left the colonists alone until the French and Indian War. This will help students to build and
support arguments about historical events by seeing how colonists viewed the change. This
lesson also introduces the students to the use of a primary source, which students will view,
discuss, and analyze the impact of that source. Students will also fill in a graphic organizer
based on multiple sources that will be covered during the day’s lesson that will help them later
to answer an essay question. The second lesson covers the Declaration of independence, tying
directly to the previous lesson in that it connects to the causes of the American Revolution as
well as has students focus on a primary source. Students will need to understand the causes of
the war to understand why not only the war began, but why the Declaration was written.
Recalling background knowledge from previous lessons will be essential and creating
connections between the facts and concepts will help students to better understand the content.
Students will be split into groups to view different parts of this document where they will first
interpret their section into their own words then discuss what each section means. Each group
will then report back to the class as a whole so that by the end of the lesson each student will
have the meaning and purpose of the Declaration as a whole. Groups will be selected by the
teacher and be differentiated based on student abilities so that all students have the opportunity
to participate and contribute equally to the overall class discussion. The final lesson will have
students view excerpts from the Articles of Confederation as well as a secondary source on the
actual Revolutionary War. Students will answer guiding questions that will help them to
participate in a class discussion as well as encourage them to cite information from their
sources to be used in the discussion. All of these lessons build upon each other toward the final
formal assessment which consists of students organizing and writing their own essays as well
as interpreting a line from the Declaration of Independence and putting it into their own words.]

2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching

For each of the prompts below (2a–b), describe what you know about your students with
respect to the central focus of the learning segment.

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).

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Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

a. Prior academic learning and prerequisite skills related to the central focus—Cite
evidence of what students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning
to do.

[Students were given a pretest on the central focus of the learning segment, the Revolutionary
War. This pretest found that many students had difficulty recalling details that would be covered
during this learning segment. The pretest also revealed that many students had difficulty
recalling important events from the war. The students were, however, able to recall certain
causes of the American Revolution, but it was unclear if they were able to make the connections
between the events to see that they were interconnected and were causes of the war. Most
students were also found to not know the main purpose of the Declaration of Independence and
that the Articles of Confederation was the first form of government. Due to the fact that this is
the beginning of the school year and only the second learning segment, students have not yet
worked with primary sources in this course. Students have, however, informed the teacher
verbally that they have worked with primary sources in their previous social studies courses in
global history. Many students have expressed their difficulty with primary sources due to
difficulties reading different styles of English and vocabulary that they are not used to seeing on
a daily basis. Students were shown a primary source in the previous learning segment and
were able to explain what a primary source is and their importance in studying historical events.
This will eliminate the need to explain why historians use primary sources in this learning
segment and will give the students more time and opportunity to focus on the their ability to read
and interpret the meaning of primary sources. This learning segment comes just after the first
segment on the British colonization of North America, which focused on the thirteen colonies
that would become the United States. In that segment students learned about the formation of
the colonies and their relations with their British rulers across the ocean. There was a focus on
the geography, economy, and government of the colonies, which helped to explain them and
create a thriving economic society, which mostly governed themselves with little intervention
from British rule. Students already understand the basic concepts and facts about the colonies
from their middle school American History classes in previous years, but most were unable to
remember specific details such as government policy and economic activities. This leads one to
believe that in this learning segment students will remember the main facts. For example, during
the pre-assessment, students recalled that colonists threw tea into Boston Harbor and it was
called the Boston Tea Party, but they may not be able to recall important details such as the
reason the colonists did this, which is necessary to make the connection to why colonists went
to war with Britain. From the pre-assessment given, students do not know many of the key
aspects that are covered in this learning segment. These topics include the causes of and the
events leading to the American Revolution and how they connect to one another. They also
struggled to state the purpose of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation,
and main events and effects of the Revolution. Many students understand that the United States
was once a British colony and that we gained independence, but most students struggle to
explain the reasons why and how it actually occurred.]

b. Personal/cultural/community assets related to the central focus—What do you know
about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices,
and interests?

[This particular class has very few things in common with each other and shows the large
diversity that the school has as a whole. Students come from a large variety of areas in the
district that ranges from mostly urban to small rural farms on the edge of the suburbs. The
majority of this class comes from suburban areas just outside of the main urban section of the
district, although three students live inside the urban area and two live in a more rural area
either on or around farmland. This affects many of the everyday experiences for the students

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Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

because one student may have to wake up and walk five blocks to school while another has to
wake up an hour earlier to take the bus. This is not the only difference that comes from living in
multiple settings around the district. Many students come from a variety of cultural backgrounds
and practices, which makes it difficult to relate events and concepts to students in cultural ways.
In order to relate ideas to students, one has to find something that they all share, which would
be the culture of the actual school. This does not mean that one cannot make specific cultural
references to help students individually, but when planning a lesson it becomes easier to relate
the content to shared experiences. In a previous lesson on the preamble to the Constitution,
which was the lesson for Constitution Day, it was easy to see the difference in the students’
cultural backgrounds and experiences when the question of domestic tranquility and how safe
the students feel at home was discussed. The majority of students expressed their feeling that
they felt safe and secure because of local police, while students from the urban area expressed
their issues with the city police and a lack of safety when walking around their neighborhood.
This was not one of the things that was predicted before the lesson and was eye-opening as the
teacher and this has been taken into consideration since that early lesson. The difference in the
population also leads to many different interests, from dirt bikes, to field hockey, to hip hop
music, all of which becomes difficult to incorporate into lessons on the founding of the United
States. Finding common interest and cultural experiences, however, is not impossible and
making connections to the rules of the school and class helps to relate the content of the
learning segment to the students. Further explanation would be given to students that require
additional help to understand concepts and events by relating material directly to their own
personal experiences and cultural backgrounds. Only having been in the district for a short time
has created issues of understanding the culture of the school and the surrounding areas just
due to a lack of time and understanding of the area. With more time and in the future,
experience in the area and understanding of the different populations in the district would make
it easier to help relate information to students, which is hard to demonstrate in less than an
eight-week period. For this reason the focus will be on known shared experiences that comes
from the culture of the school as a whole and the students’ shared experiences of being
teenagers. One other focus will be on their shared experience as U.S. citizens and being an
American. In regard to the central focus of this learning segment, the students are all U.S.
citizens and therefore have the common experience of being Americans. The learning segment
focuses on how thirteen colonies came together as one nation despite its diversity and different
interests. This will be useful in helping all students to see that now, just as back then, a group
can come together to accomplish great feats. This will be one way to help unite the class as
one and another way to try to engage students in the content using the central focus.]

3. Supporting Students’ History/Social Studies Learning

Respond to prompts below (3a–c). To support your justifications, refer to the instructional
materials and lesson plans you have included as part of Task 1. In addition, use principles
from research and/or theory to support your explanations.

a. Justify how your understanding of your students’ prior academic learning and
personal/cultural/community assets (from prompts 2a–b above) guided your choice or
adaptation of learning tasks and materials. Be explicit about the connections between
the learning tasks and students’ prior academic learning, assets, and research/theory.

[My class is a very diverse group of students, all coming from a variety of cultures. They have
different personal experiences and come from a range of communities, with the school being
one of the few similar communities they are all involved in. Each student comes to class with
different background knowledge from the seventh grade curriculum as well as different life
experiences. One thing that they have in common is that they each passed the seventh grade
class, which focuses on American history from the Native Americans to the Civil War and

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Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

therefore covers the learning segment’s central focus of the American Revolution. This is only
the second learning segment of the year and so far it has been hard to see the prior knowledge,
skills, and other assets that each student brings with them to class. I asked students questions
about what they already know in the form of a pretest that they took before the first day of the
learning segment. The pretest showed how much students had retained from their seventh
grade course in U.S. history, which was mostly facts and a few concepts, but did not include
details required by both the state and district standards. Throughout the learning segment I will
ask students review questions at the start and end of each lesson that will activate prior
knowledge. Students also had difficulty in the first learning segment of the year with interpreting
primary sources. This will be a focus of this learning segment so that they can then continue to
learn how to analyze primary sources after they feel more comfortable with interpreting them
and comprehending what they read. Primary source documents allow for students to use critical
thinking in a way that models what is required for participation in democracy (Shiveley and
VanFossen, 2001). The Common Core Standards and the state social studies standards
require the use of primary source documents. This helps students to determine the larger
causes and effects of major events in history.]

b. Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are
appropriate for the whole class, individuals, and/or groups of students with specific
learning needs.

Consider students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, struggling readers,
underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted
students.

[It is important to use instructional strategies and supports that are appropriate to not only the
whole class, but also to each individual, especially for students with specific learning needs. As
far as this class goes, I only have two students with 504 plans, both of which are for ADHD and I
have no students with IEPS in this section or any section that I teach. One strategy that will help
and is appropriate for the whole class is using the universal design for learning strategy (UDL).
Lesson plans will have students read, see images, hear information, and have them write down
the information all in a variety of ways. I will use multiple sources to deliver content information
to the students including videos, short secondary readings, primary sources, class discussions,
and PowerPoint presentations with pictures. I will be using UDL because I have many different
types of learners including visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. For example, one student informed
me through the use of a survey that she learns best by taking notes so each lesson she will be
given the opportunity to take notes and be given a piece of paper to do so. By using a UDL
approach in this learning segment I hope to give each student equal access to the content of the
central focus in a way that they learn best. Another instructional strategy that will help the
majority of my students is cooperative learning (Slavin, 1994). This will help the majority,
although I have one student who suffers from social anxiety and for which I will modify the use
of this strategy for this student. One modification will be to make sure that the student does not
have to speak unless he or she feels comfortable doing so. This will be done in the hope that
the student will participate, but will not feel that they are being forced to, which will be explained
to them before the lesson begins. This will help all of the students by having them teach each
other and share ideas and their thought processes in interpreting primary sources.]

c. Describe key misconceptions within your central focus and how you will address them.

[Students often have many misconceptions when it comes to social studies. In this learning
segment, with the central focus of the Revolution, students may have difficulty with certain
misconceptions. Students may not fully understand how the United States came to be and the
full reasons for the Declaration of Independence. Students might also not fully realize the

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Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

importance of the Declaration of Independence or its main purpose. Students may not realize
that the Articles of Confederation was our government before the Constitution created our
current form of government. These misconceptions were seen in the pretest; other
misconceptions may arise and will be focused on during the learning segment. Students also
have difficulty comprehending primary sources; this was seen during the first learning segment.
This may also cause misconceptions and for this reason a main focus of this learning segment
will be on student ability to interpret primary sources so that in the next learning segment
students can focus on analyzing the sources, which is required by both the state and the
Common Core Standards.]

4. Supporting History/Social Studies Development Through Language

a. Language Function. Identify one language function essential for students to learn the
history/social studies content within your central focus. Listed below are some sample
language functions. You may choose one of these or another more appropriate for your
learning segment.

Analyze Compare/contrast Construct Describe Evaluate

Examine Identify Interpret Justify Locate

[I have chosen interpret as my language function. Students will be required to interpret both
primary source documents and secondary sources in this learning segment. Interpreting
primary sources is the first step that is necessary for students to begin the process of analyzing
sources. The analyses of the primary sources will be done only after the students learn how to
interpret the sources and it will be done as a class during this learning segment so that they will
focus on analyzing in the next learning segment. This is a required skill in the state social
studies standards as well as the Common Core Standards for Social Studies; students need to
know how to analyze primary and secondary sources to determine the main ideas and
implications of the concepts in the time period.]

b. Identify a key learning task from your plans that provides students with opportunities to

practice using the language function identified above. Identify the lesson in which the
learning task occurs. (Give lesson day/number.)

[In lesson plan 2, on day 2, students will be required to interpret an excerpt from the Declaration
of Independence (1776). Students will be given the document as a whole with sections
highlighted as well as a version that has the lines separated out so that it is easier to see each
line and break it down for meaning. Students will be asked to interpret each line of their
sections into their own words and then summarize the section as a whole in their own words.
This process will be modeled for the students to make sure that each student understands what
is being asked of them. This will be done in small groups with each group being assigned a
different section. Each group will be selected based on ability and will focus on one section,
which they will share with the class. Each group will then break up and form a new group with a
member of each section being represented so that they may each report on what their section
found. This will be done in an attempt to have each student learn and teach each other. The
Declaration of Independence will be interpreted this way in class because many of the students
may have difficulty reading an older style of English and certain vocabulary that it contains. This
lesson shows students how to break up a document into smaller pieces and focuses on
interpreting the document into their own words. We will then analyze the document as a class
so that each student learns the process of analyzing and so that they each are on the same
page when it comes to the importance and purpose of the Declaration.]

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Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

c. Additional Language Demands. Given the language function and learning task
identified above, describe the following associated language demands (written or oral)
students need to understand and/or use:

! Vocabulary and key phrases

! Plus at least one of the following:

! Syntax

! Discourse

Consider the range of students’ understandings of the language function and other
language demands—what do students already know, what are they struggling with,
and/or what is new to them?

[Content-specific vocabulary that students should understand by this lesson include
independence, cause, effect, interpret, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Declaratory Act, Townshend Acts
1767, Boston Massacre, Tea Act, Boston Tea Party, and Coercive or Intolerable Acts. All of
these vocabulary words were given to students in the previous lesson and students will be
reminded when needed. Students should also understand what summarize and analyze mean,
as they are required to do this in class. Any new vocabulary and key phrases that are presented
in the documents will be discussed as a class so students are not required to have background
knowledge. This learning segment will also contain historical discourse of cause and effect.
Students will be asked to explain the importance of the Revolutionary War using the concept of
cause and effect. Cause and effect will have been mentioned before in the first learning
segment, but it will be explained in detail and how historians use the concept of cause and
effect to explain events will also be explained. Students will learn that events are connected to
other events and are rarely a singular event. Events are often influenced by an idea or another
event or the event will influences another event. In this learning segment students will focus on
how the events that led up to the Revolutionary War built upon one another to create a situation
where colonists felt that it was necessary to go to war for independence, and how the
independence has affected the world since.]

d. Language Supports. Refer to your lesson plans and instructional materials as needed
in your response to the prompt.

! Describe the instructional supports (during and/or prior to the learning task) that help

students understand and successfully use the language function and additional
language demands identified in prompts 4a–c.

[In a prior lesson students had to interpret a varied group of events and acts into their own
words and fill in a graphic organizer. They have not had the opportunity to read and interpret
primary sources, but they will be given the support of their peers and the teacher. In the first
learning segment of the year, students had to read a few excerpts from primary sources and
answer questions based on their interpretation and analysis of the documents that were then
reviewed as a class. The state social studies and Common Core Standards both require the
answering of questions based on primary and secondary sources to fully understand what is
being addressed in the documents. Although students may still have difficulties with what the
text is saying, most should understand the basic idea of interpreting sources into their own
words. The vocabulary required for this learning segment will be given to the students at the
beginning of the unit as a homework assignment. By the start of this learning segment, students
should fully understand the vocabulary words that will be addressed, but any time that these are
used in class the words will be redefined to ensure the students fully understand the concepts.

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Secondary History/Social Studies
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The use of historical discourse will be supported in class lessons through the use of constant
use of cause and effect to help students become familiar with the concept. Students must use
the terms cause and effect to explain the connections between events. Throughout the learning
segment students will be reminded of the connection between events and how one caused

another to build up to the Revolution.]

5. Monitoring Student Learning

In response to the prompts below, refer to the assessments you will submit as part of the
materials for Task 1.

a. Describe how the planned formal and informal assessments provide direct evidence of
how students learn and use facts, concepts, and interpretations or analyses to build and
support arguments about historical events, a topic/theme, or a social studies
phenomenon throughout the learning segment.

[This learning segment will have students look at many different documents, including two main
primary sources that each student had to interpret into their own words. This skill will be tested
in their formal summative assessment to hold students accountable for being able to read a
primary source and interpret the source into their own words. This learning segment will have
students learning to interpret sources into their own words while learning the content required by
the state, district, and my cooperating teacher. Each lesson will consist of formal and informal
assessments. Informal assessments are done constantly in this classroom, monitoring which
students are actively engaged in the material, asking questions that are on topic and well
thought-out, and answering questions with valid and thought out responses. The formative
assessments in this learning segment will be used to check student understanding and help
build the base that is needed for a summative test and essay for this learning segment. The
first lesson focuses on the causes of the Revolutionary War. Students will complete a graphic
organizer as an informal assessment that will be used to check for student understanding of the
content. Students will gather the information required to fill in the graphic organizer from a
number of sources, including a video on the subject, a class discussion, and a PowerPoint
presentation, which they will then have to interpret and summarize each cause in their own
words and write it on the graphic organizer. Students will also be required to answer closure
questions to a formal assessment to review the day’s information and to hold them accountable
for the information from the day’s lesson. The graphic organizer and the information the
students will gather will help students to start to learn how to interpret sources as well as give
them the foundation for the summative essay that they will have to write. The second lesson
will have students working with a primary source, the Declaration of Independence, for which
they will be required to work in a group to read a section, rewrite the section in their own words,
and then summarize the section in their own words. Students will share this information with
each other using a jigsaw method and their notes will be collected and reviewed as an informal
assessment. Students will also have a class discussion in which they will analyze the main
purpose for the Declaration and the reason that it was written, which will also be used as an
informal assessment. The students will be assigned the last section of the Declaration for
homework to continue practicing the process of interpreting the source and summarizing the
section into their own words; this will count as a formal assessment. The last lesson will have
students read both a primary - an excerpt from the Articles of Confederation - and secondary
source - a reading on the Revolutionary War. Students will be required to read a secondary
source on the Revolution and answer question from a reading guide, which will be collected and
graded as a formal assessment. The students will also have a discussion on the questions after
it has been collected that will also serve as an informal assessment. Students will also have to
read an excerpt from the Articles of Confederation, in which they will have to interpret the

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Secondary History/Social Studies
Task 1: Planning Commentary

source into their own words and summarize the excerpt. They will use their summarization to
start a discussion of the weaknesses of the Articles and this discussion will be used as another
informal assessment. The final assessment will be a summative test that will include multiple-
choice questions that cover the content of the learning segment. The questions will have
students interpret a section of a primary source into their own words and write an essay on the
causes of the War. The formative assessments that will be used prior to this lesson will help
students to prepare for the test and essay. Students will be asked to demonstrate their
understanding of the colonists’ reasons for going to war with Britain and declaring
independence. Students must demonstrate their understanding of at least five causes and how
they are related to one another and how they built upon each other leading to war and support
their statements with concepts and facts that they have learned in the learning segment.
Student work will be graded with the use of a rubric.]

b. Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments allows students with
specific needs to demonstrate their learning.

Consider all students, including students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language
learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students.

[This class does not have any students with IEPs, but does have two students with 504 plans.
This class does not have any students that are English language learners, gifted students, or
students with gaps in academic knowledge. The one student that has recently joined the class
has come from a similar U.S. history and government class, which was at the same point in the
content, if not a lesson ahead, as this class, but she is now at the same point as the rest of the
class. One student has a social anxiety issue that makes it difficult for them to work in groups
with other people. For the lesson in which students are working in groups I will make sure that
this student does not have to speak to participate in the group. Each group will have a task in
which each member will have to report to other groups and for this activity the student with
social anxiety will not be required to report to other students to reduce the possibility of added
stress from the social interaction. I will also allow the student with social anxiety to use tape or
Band-Aids as a way to relieve stress, which the student has found to be useful in social
situations. For my two students with ADHD I will use a UDL approach to lessons in the hope
that they remain engaged. I will closely monitor both students to make sure that they remain on
task and so that they participate. For my two underperforming students I will do my best to try
and engage them in each lesson and activity. Both students will be asked questions and closely
monitored to insure that they are participating, which has been observed as one of the main
causes of their underperformance. Having the students work in groups without friends as well
as giving them a task that they are responsible for will be done in the hopes that it will help them
to stay on task. For my student that struggles with the mechanics of writing I will not take off for
penmanship and will allow him to read his answer to me on all assessments if they are not
legible. If possible I will make a computer accessible for the summative assessments essay.
For my restless student I will allow him the freedom to move around during the lesson and
during activities as long as he does not disrupt his or the classes learning environment.]

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