Portfolio: Tiffany Izzo - Teaching and Learning Using ...tizzoteaching.weebly.com/.../edtpa_combined.pdf · Portfolio: Tiffany Izzo My edTPA portfolio submitted to Pearson for certification

Portfolio: Tiffany Izzo

My edTPA portfolio submitted to Pearson for certification can be found on the following pages. It includes a unit on Media Literacy that was taught in a 12th grade Participation in Government class. These are the contents: I. Lesson Plans (16 pages)

-This section includes 4 formal lesson plans used in the learning segment.

II. Task 1: Planning Commentary (9 pages) -This section lays out planning decisions and research behind strategy choices.

III. Task 2: Instruction Commentary (6 pages) -This section refers to video recordings of the lessons. IV. Task 3: Assessment Commentary (9 pages)

-This section refers to student work for an assessment as well data analysis of result Additional Materials

V. Lesson Plan Materials and Handouts (13 pages) -This section includes some materials used in the lesson. VI. Task 1: Context for Learning (4 pages) -This section provides background information on the class. VII. Student Sample Work (6 pages)

-This section contains the assessment used from 3 focus students.

Student Teaching

Media Literacy: Day 1

Name: Tiffany Izzo

Class: Participation in Government

Pre-planning information:

Students have been working with the Constitution and public issues in recent units. Prior content and

knowledge will lay the foundation for this unit. They have participated in class-wide discussions about

these issues and demonstrated an understanding of the First Amendment in application. They have also

discussed Supreme Court cases related to First Amendment rights. A culminating project had students

conduct research about an issue and submit proposals for a “28th Amendment.”

Students have also been participating in a blog on a weekly basis in which they critique articles on

current events. They also respond to other students’ comments as part of this assignment.

The background knowledge for students in this class varies greatly in degree. A pre-assessment was

given regarding rhetoric (ethos, pathos, logos) and logical fallacies (ad hominem, ad populum/band

wagon, slippery slope, red herring, etc.) used in political rhetoric. The pre-assessment showed that most

students had none or little familiarity with this vocabulary. A group of students who are taking Advanced

Placement English did show significant background knowledge with the terms. After speaking with them,

I learned it was mostly from the AP English class and/or prior honors English classes. This means that

they have not yet applied them to content in Social Studies. Acknowledging that the background

knowledge is low, I chose not to focus on vocabulary as much as the concepts behind them and on

application. This also fits within Shift #1 for the New York State Framework for Social Studies, which is

an instructional shit to a “Focus on Conceptual Understanding.”

As there is a variety of levels of background knowledge, I will have to plan on providing scaffolding.

As this class and this lesson are largely discussion based, I will design the lesson and guide conversation

in a manner that is inclusive of many students. In addition, I supplement students’ ability to participate in

class discussion by allowing them to post in a weekly class blog. This allows students who are less likely

to voice their opinions in class to participate in another way.

Content information:

This lesson is introducing a unit on media literacy. This lesson will ask students to consider the

effect of mass media on public opinion. Students will look at where they get their news from and how this

might affect their participation in our government. The students have just completed a unit on the United

States Constitution in which they studied its application to current issues. During this unit, they also

looked at the Bill of Rights and issues brought before the Supreme Court. This helped build an

understanding of the First Amendment, which is important background knowledge to a unit on media

literacy. In this lesson, students will look at how the free press provided by the First Amendment relates

to how our democracy works. Specifically, this lesson will explore the affect that mass media and social

media can have on public opinion. This lays the foundation for introducing the critical skills needed to

effectively monitor and evaluate sources of information. Further knowledge to develop these skills will be

introduced in subsequent lessons and students will apply these skills during the unit. This fits within New

York State’s framework for Participation in Government and Civics and applies skills found in the

Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening.

Common Core Learning Standard(s) Addressed:

Comprehension and Collaboration:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1

Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and

teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and

expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7

Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g.,

visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

NY State Framework for Participation in Government:

12G2f. Freedom of the press is an essential element of a democratic system, and allows for a citizen to

receive and interpret information representing different points of view. Freedom of the press has limits,

which are intended to protect the rights of individuals and other entities. The degree to which the press is

free and impartial in practice is a source of ongoing debate.

12.G5. PUBLIC POLICY: All levels of government—local, state, and federal—are involved in shaping

public policy and responding to public policy issues, all of which influence our lives beyond what appears

in the Constitution. Engaged citizens understand how to find, monitor, evaluate, and respond to

information on public policy issues.

12.G5d Active and engaged citizens must be effective media consumers in order to be able to

find, monitor, and evaluate information on political issues. The media have different venues,

which have particular strengths and serve distinct and shared purposes. Knowing how to critically

evaluate a media source is fundamental to being an informed citizen.

Objectives:

Students will identify their sources of news.

Students will interpret and discuss two graphs that examine the relationship between social media

as a source of news and political polarization.

Students will discuss the effect of mass media on our democracy.

Students will judge one perspective on the effect of media on an informed citizenry.

Language information: Students will be required to identify a variety of news sources and discuss the value of some of

these sources including social media. Students must be able to understand the language and purpose of the

First Amendment and apply it to a discussion about mass media in American democracy. Students will

use key concepts to engage in discussion including: mass media, free press, political polarization and

public opinion. Students will interpret and discuss political cartoons about mass media. Students will

make a judgement of one perspective on mass media provided in a video clip.

Orientation/Engagement/Motivation:

I will inform the students at the start of the class what we will be looking at during this lesson. I

will remind them how we have seen the importance of the First Amendment in our democracy

and explain, “Today, we will be looking closely at the effect of media on public opinion.”

In prior lessons, I have used the concept of a “Think Now” to open the class that asks the students

to think about an idea or problem that relates to their lives. The “Think Now” for this lesson will

ask students to identify where they, their parents, and their friends go to find news. This activates

background knowledge and engages students in the topic of the lesson. It also connects what they

are learning to prior experiences and to their lives. The “Think Now” will also be written on an

index card, which will be collected at the end of the period.

Presentation/Explicit Instruction:

This lesson will be largely discussion based. Students have much of the background knowledge to

engage in the discussion, which will explore essential questions about the role of mass media in

our democracy. I will present the students with information visually and verbally throughout the

lesson and ask them to respond to guided questions.

Throughout the lesson, information will be displayed on the smart board in a variety of formats

including graphs, written information, political cartoons and video. I will also present information

verbally. This will allow most students to engage in various aspects of the lesson and discussion.

For students who may have gaps in background knowledge, I will provide definitions throughout

the lesson of key concepts. These are concepts that most students will know, but including them

in the lesson will allow students to refer to them during discussion. For the student with memory

issues, this will serve as a reminder of information that she has already learned. I have also made

a copy of the presentation on the smart board available to her.

Exploration/Expression/Guided Practice/Independent Practice/ Feedback/Application:

This lesson consists of several pieces of information presented with essential questions in order to

prompt classroom discussion. The first part of the lesson will be the “Think Now” which asks the

students to identify sources of news. This will be written on an index card, which will later also

be used for an exit ticket that I will collect.

The “Think Now” will lay the foundation for the first discussion question which asks students to

the positive and negative effects of citizen journalism. I will provide an example of each in order

to model the discussion. If at any point during the lesson, students struggle with class-wide

discussion, I will ask them to discuss within their groups. However, this is a relatively small class

that has allowed for class-wide discussion in the past.

Next students will be asked to look at two graphs of polls conducted by the Pew Research Center.

The students are familiar with the Pew Research Center from project completed before which

required them to include statistical data to support a proposed 28th Amendment. The first graph

compares the percentage of adults using a social network and the percentage of adults that receive

their news from this site. This will build on the “Think Now” in which many students will likely

list social media. I will ask students to compare this to their own sources of news. The second

graph shows percentages to support the idea many people who are consistently to the left or to the

right politically tend to have friends that share their beliefs. Using these graphs, I will ask

students to discuss the question, “Does social media encourage or discourage political

polarization?” I will ask guiding questions throughout the discussion to encourage students to

explore the effect of social media on their own opinions as well as other people that they know.

This will ask students to connect the lesson to their lives.

The next part of the lesson will ask students to discuss the role of mass media in shaping public

opinion. In order to provide a background for this discussion, I will provide a definition for both

mass media and public opinion. These are terms that students already know as per their pre-

assessment, but this will help students who may have trouble remembering the terms. For deeper

understanding, I will ask the students to consider whether mass media can undermine openness

and accountability in our democracy.

The last part of the lesson will show different perspectives on the role of mass media in our

democracy through three different political cartoons. I will ask the students to interpret the

cartoons to determine who the author of the cartoon is blaming for possible problems with mass

media’s role in our democracy. I will model the first cartoon by thinking aloud while I interpret

the cartoon. The first cartoon blames media for “force feeding” the viewers, which is shown by a

television spoon-feeding a man who is cuffed to a chair. I will ask the students to interpret the

next two cartoons by asking them to identify who the cartoons are blaming. The second cartoon

blames “corporate control.” The third seems to blame the both media and the consumer for being

more interested in the story that “Britney shaved her head” than “Another copter downed in Iraq.”

This will give students the opportunity to practice the application of concepts from the discussion.

Closure:

At the end of the lesson, I will ask students to watch a short video clip about the role of mass

media in our democracy and judge this opinion in an exit ticket. The clip is from an interview of

George Carlin on the Tavis Smiley show on PBS. Students will be asked to answer two questions:

“Do you think that George Carlin makes a valid point in this video?” and “Is there something that

we can do as citizens?”?

Assessment:

This lesson will use formative assessment to measure student understanding. This understanding

will be monitored in two ways. The first will be student participation and engagement in the

class-wide discussion. Specifically, I will monitor the students’ ability to interpret the information

presented to them and apply it to answer the essential questions presented. I will observe this

understanding by monitoring participation in the discussion. As participation and discussion are

essential parts of this class, I have incorporated another way for students to participate through

responding to a class blog. This allows students who would not normally express their views in

class discussion to do so by another means.

For students that do not participate in the discussion, I will use the exit ticket to monitor

understanding. This will be the second form of formative assessment. The exit ticket should

demonstrate that students have considered the role of media in our democracy in some way.

This lesson will build on knowledge that students demonstrated in the pre-assessment by asking

them to apply the concepts. An engaging class-wide discussion will confirm what the pre-

assessment data has already shown, which is that students are familiar with the concepts of “mass

media” and “public opinion.”

Materials

Interactive whiteboard, computer with internet access, index cards, writing utensils

smart notebook presentation with graphs, guided questions, and political cartoons

video clip of George Carlin on the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS

Lesson script

Task 1: Think Now (7 minutes)

Hand out index cards

Ask students to write their answers to the “Think Now” on one side of the card (Explain that the other

side of the card will be used at the end of the lesson for an exit ticket)

They can discuss the “Think Now” in their groups.

Ask students to contribute their answers to the “Think Now” and write down on the board

First discussion question: Positive and Negative effects of Citizen Journalism

Task 2: Graph Analysis and discussion of social media (10 minutes)

Remind students of the words of the First Amendment and discuss the importance of a free press (This is

a reminder of material already covered.)

Show students the two graphs from the Pew Research Center

Second discussion question: Discuss whether social media encourages or discourages political

polarization

Task 3: Mass media and Public Opinion (10 Minutes)

Review the definitions of “mass media” and “public opinion”

Third discussion question: Discuss how mass media shape public opinion.

Promote a deeper understanding by discussing whether mass media can undermine openness and

accountability in our democracy.

Task 4: Perspectives on the role of mass media (10 minutes)

Think aloud while interpreting the first political cartoon

Ask students to interpret the second political cartoon

Check for understanding by asking questions

Ask students to interpret the third political cartoon

Check for understanding by asking questions

Show the video of George Carlin on the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS

Exit ticket: (remaining time of class)

Have students respond to the two questions on the back of the index card and collect at the end of the

period.

Student Teaching


Name: Tiffany Izzo



This lesson will build on the knowledge and skills from the prior lesson by presenting several

rhetorical tools that politicians and others in the media use to convince their audience so that students can

critically evaluate these media sources. In the prior lesson, students discussed the effect of mass media

and social media on the democratic process. The pre-assessment showed that the majority of students did

not have an understanding of the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos and pathos. Only three students

showed an understanding of these three techniques and these were students who learned about in a

persuasive writing unit in A.P. English. In addition, the students had little to no understanding of logical

fallacies and other rhetorical tools used by politicians and others in the media such as weasel words,

slippery slope, ad hominem attacks, etc. As the specific vocabulary is not necessary in critically

evaluating these media sources, this lesson will instead focus on a conceptual understanding. While

students will be introduced to some of the vocabulary, this lesson will focus on application of the

concepts over use of the vocabulary. This is supported by the New York State Framework in Shift #1

which emphasizes conceptual understanding and application of skills over factual recall.


This lesson fits within the New York State Framework for Participation in government by

building students skills to be “informed citizens.” This lesson will help students recognize rhetoric as it is

used by politicians in different situations. It will look at a variety of political media including a speech

from President Obama, a video clip from President Bill Clinton’s debate with President George H.W.

Bush in the 1992 election, and several political ads from presidential campaigns. This lesson will

introduce some rhetorical tools used in these forums and then ask students to identify rhetoric as it has

been used in presidential campaigns. Students will analyze the rhetoric and support their arguments by

connecting rhetorical techniques to examples that they observed. Students will discuss the effectiveness of

rhetoric on the viewer. This fits within the unit on media literacy by asking students evaluate rhetoric in

media.




Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and

teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and

expressing their own clearly and persuasively.


Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance,

premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

New York State Social Studies Framework

12.G3 RIGHTS, RESPONSIBILITIES, AND DUTIES OF CITIZENSHIP: Active, engaged, and

informed citizens are critical to the success of the United States representative democracy. United States

citizens have certain rights, responsibilities, and duties, the fulfillment of which help to maintain the

healthy functioning of the national, state, and local communities.

12.G5 PUBLIC POLICY: All levels of government—local, state, and federal—are involved in shaping




12.G5d Active and engaged citizens must be effective media consumers in order to be able to find,

monitor, and evaluate information on political issues. The media have different venues, which have

particular strengths and serve distinct and shared purposes. Knowing how to critically evaluate a media

source is fundamental to being an informed citizen.

Objectives:

Students will identify rhetorical techniques used by politicians in political campaigns.

Students will evaluate and discuss the effectiveness of these techniques in a class-wide discussion by

looking at the use of evidence and rhetoric, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of

emphasis, and tone used.

Language information:

Students will be expected to identify rhetorical techniques used. This requires students to have a

conceptual understanding of rhetorical tools. Students will be introduced to some terms

describing rhetorical tools, but will only be asked to apply the concepts behind them. Some of

these concepts include ethos (appeal to character), pathos (appeal to emotion) and logos (appeal

to reason). Students will have the opportunity apply these concepts in evaluating a video clip

from a debate between Governor Bill Clinton and President George H.W. Bush in the 1992

election. In addition, students will be introduced to some ways that language is used in rhetoric

including buzz words, weasel words, poisoning the well, ad hominem attacks,

oversimplification/hasty generalization, and slippery slope arguments. Students will have the

opportunity to apply these concepts looking at various presidential political campaign ads.

Students will demonstrate an understanding by noting rhetoric used in two different ads on an

index card that will be collected as an exit ticket.


I will explain to students at the start of the class what the objective for the lesson is. I will say,

“Yesterday, we discussed the effect of mass media on public opinion. One way that we can

become informed about public issues is by becoming critical media consumers. Today, we will

specifically look at the use of rhetoric often found in political campaigns. The ability to critically

evaluate what candidates are saying during debates, speeches, political ads and other forms of

media will help us make informed decisions when we vote.”


to think about an idea or problem that relates to their lives. The “Think Now” for this lesson will

ask students to identify arguments that they might use to convince their parents to let them go on

a trip to Europe unaccompanied. This activates background knowledge and engages students in

the topic of the lesson. It also connects what they are learning to personal experiences and to their

lives. I will use their examples to demonstrate the different types of persuasive techniques used in

rhetoric. For example, if they appeal to the love of their parents or using guilt, this would be an

example of pathos (appeal to emotion). If they explain that a trip to Europe could be a great

educational experience, this would be an example of logos (appeal to reason). The “Think Now”

will also be written on an index card, which will be collected at the end of the period.

In a survey given at the beginning of the semester, many students in the class expressed an

interest in being able to make an effective argument about political issues. I will explain that

these rhetorical techniques can also be used to make their own arguments on issues. This will be

another aspect of engagement for the lesson.

All of the students are either currently able to legally vote or will be by the next presidential

election in 2016. This will help with engagement as students can see the applicability of the skills

learned in this lesson to their own lives as citizens.


All information in this lesson will be provided both visually and orally to meet the needs of

different types of learners. The smart board will be used to provide supplementary text and

visuals throughout the lesson. Parts of the lesson will also include video, which supports a variety

of learners. A copy of class notes has been made available to students with modifications.

I will use the examples from the “Think Now” to introduce the concepts of ethos (appeal to

character), pathos (appeal to emotion) and logos (appeal to reason). I will discuss some variations

of these that will help with application later in the lesson. For example, I will explain that an

appeal to character can include an appeal to authority or to a specific audience. I will also explain

how an appeal to emotion can include fear, love, and hope.

I will model for the students how to identify these appeals in a speech. I will show three video

clips of remarks from the President Obama in his “Address to the Nation on Syria” on September

10, 2013. The full video is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-

office/2013/09/10/remarks-president-address-nation-syria . I have selected three specific portions

of the video as examples of ethos, pathos and logos. Students will also be provided with a copy of

the transcript from this speech for the specific clips. This will help students who may have

difficult following the video. I will monitor for understanding by observing body language and

asking questions. If students seem to understand the concept after the first clip, I will use the next

two clips in guided practice instead to allow students to apply their understanding more. (I will

ask students to demonstrate understanding with another clip later in the lesson as well.)

I will provide direct instruction on additional rhetorical techniques used through use of the Smart

board. Students will be introduced to some ways that language is used in rhetoric including buzz

words, weasel words, poisoning the well, ad hominem attacks, oversimplification/hasty

generalization, and slippery slope arguments. The slides for the presentation include both text and

visuals such as cartoons illustrating the technique or graphics. I will also explain the concepts

verbally. This will adapt the lesson to a variety of learners.


I will give the students an opportunity to practice these new concepts and the skill of applying

them to media about politics by showing several clips. I will instruct them to look out for any of

the rhetorical techniques we covered.

The first video that I will show the students is of Governor Bill Clinton in a debate with President

H.W. Bush in the 1992 election. I will ask students to write down on an index card any

techniques or things that he does when he is speaking that are effective. We will then discuss

what the students wrote down during the video. I will ask students guiding questions to check for

understanding such as, “Who did he appeal to?”, “How does his demeanor compare to his

opponent’s?” and “Why does he walk away from the podium while he is speaking?”

I will also give the students an opportunity to apply their skills to presidential campaign ads found

at www.livingroomcandidate.org . To show the wide application of what we have learned in the

lesson and promote student-centered learning, I will have students select ads to analyze. We will

discuss what we see. I will continue this until the last few minutes of the period in which I will

move to closure and an exit ticket.

For independent practice, I will ask students to write one technique on their index cards that they

observed in one last ad shown at the end of class. This will be collected as an exit ticket. This will

allow students who did not participate in class-wide discussion to demonstrate understanding.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/10/remarks-president-address-nation-syria

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/10/remarks-president-address-nation-syria

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

Closure:

I will sum up how the key points of the lesson before moving to the exit ticket. I will remind

students to keep some of the ideas that they have learned in mind while completing their blog

responses, which will be due by the following day. Students will also have an opportunity to

practice their skills further in subsequent lessons.

Assessment:

This lesson will use formative assessment to measure student understanding. This understanding

will be monitored in two ways. The first will be student participation and engagement in the

class-wide discussion. I will observe this understanding by monitoring participation in the

discussion. For students that do not participate in the discussion, I will use the index card and exit

ticket to monitor understanding. This will be the second form of formative assessment. Students

should record at least two techniques used in the debate by Bill Clinton. The exit ticket should

also measure students’ understanding. Students should recognize at least one technique in the

political ad.

As participation and discussion are essential parts of this class, I have incorporated another way

for students to participate through responding to a class blog. This allows students who would not

normally express their views in class discussion to do so by another means.

Materials:

Smart board, copies of transcript to President Obama’s Address to the Nation on Syria, video of

the Address to the Nation, video of Governor Bill Clinton, index cards, writing utensils, computer

with internet access

Lesson script


Hand out index cards

Have students respond to the prompt on what arguments they would use to convince their parents to allow

them on an unaccompanied trip to Europe.

Have students share their responses

Compare students’ responses to the persuasive techniques of ethos, pathos and logos

Task 2: Application of new concepts of persuasive techniques in rhetoric (15 minutes)

Hand out copies of transcript of President Obama’s Address to the Nation on Syria

Show video clips from President Obama’s Address

Pause after each clip and discuss the use of persuasive techniques

Show students the video clip of Bill Clinton in the 1992 debate

Ask students to write down any persuasive techniques they observe in the video on the index cards

provided

Debrief this activity with a class-wide discussion

Ask questions to monitor for understanding

Task 3: Additional political rhetorical tools (15 minutes)

Introduce additional concepts used in political rhetoric including buzz words, weasel words, poisoning the

well, ad hominem attacks, oversimplification/hasty generalization, and slippery slope arguments

Ask students to provide examples of some of these techniques

Go to www.livingroomcandidate.org and show a presidential campaign ad

Instruct students to observe any persuasive or rhetorical techniques

Discuss with the class

Show additional ads for practice

Task 4: Exit Slip (3 minutes)

Ask students to independently write down observations about a political ad

Play campaign ad

Collect Exit Slips

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

Student Teaching


Name: Tiffany Izzo



This lesson will continue to build on the concepts in the prior lesson by introducing additional

concepts and requiring deeper application of the concepts presented in earlier lessons. Students have

practiced identifying rhetorical techniques in political debates, ads and speeches. This lesson will have

students look closer at interviews.

In this lesson, students will work with written texts of real and mock political interviews.

Instruction for this lesson will try to reach a variety of learners by adding a simulation aspect. This will

attempt to address three types of learners: kinesthetic, visual and auditory. Students will read interviews

aloud and act them out, while other students listen. Written copies of the interviews will be available to

students as well to follow along. This will allow students that do not process text as well through direct

reading to be able to participate in the lesson. Additionally, this will allow students who are

kinesthetically oriented to participate in acting out the interview. Specifically, this will also address the

needs of the student with IEP as well. This student receives accommodations for any testing that includes

all texts being read aloud. While this is not an accommodation for regular classwork, I try to adapt the

lessons to include texts being read aloud or supplemented with video.

The pre-assessment showed that students have no familiarity with logical fallacies. In this lesson,

I will be introducing some common logical fallacies. I will be focusing on a conceptual understanding of

errors in reasoning that could be used to persuade an audience. This will build on the rhetorical and

persuasive techniques that students learned in prior lessons. Students will be asked to apply their

understanding of these language uses in order to demonstrate media literacy. Students will evaluate

arguments used by fictional candidates for office by recognizing the concepts that have been covered in

this unit.


Throughout this learning segment, students have been learning concepts that will help them to

critically evaluate media. Specifically, there has been a focus on media related to politics and elections.

This lesson will allow students to demonstrate their ability to critically evaluate what candidates or

politicians say. This will include correctly identifying some of the deceptions that may be used to mislead

an audience. In the beginning of the unit, we covered the effect of mass media on public opinion.

Students discussed how social media acts to shape their own personal opinions as well as those of others

around them. One of the ways that citizens can counteract the possible dangers of mass media is to

become critical consumers of media. This fits within the purposes of this course, Participation in

Government, by also helping students to become informed voters and participants of democracy. If

students can understand the forces that affect their opinions, they can better critically evaluate information

presented to them and make informed judgments. The skills practiced in this lesson and learning segment

can also be built upon in order to help students make their own persuasive arguments. This will allow

them to engage in discourse about politics from a knowledgeable and practiced perspective.






CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.d

Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all

sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or

research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.c

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a

hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions;

and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

NY State Social Studies Framework for Participation in Government:









Objectives:

Students will identify 3 examples of persuasive and rhetorical techniques used in each of 2 interviews

and support with evidence.

Students will evaluate the use of rhetoric in order to assess the stance, premises, word choice and

emphasis of an argument.

Students will determine instances when evidence on an issue is contradictory or insufficient.

Students will develop 3 questions per interview that probe the reasoning and evidence of a political

position in order to clarify information.


Students will identify the various uses of language to persuade an audience or use rhetoric and

evaluate the effectiveness of an argument. The will provide examples of instances in which

candidates in the mock interviews use persuasive and/or rhetorical techniques and cite evidence

from the interviews of this. This well help students identify areas where the candidates have

weaknesses in their arguments. Students will generate questions to ask the candidates based on

what they noted.

Students will be expected to engage in discourse while using the concepts learned from Lessons 1

and 2. This will require discussion skills that have been practiced in prior lessons and learning

segments.


I will explain to students at the start of class what activities we will be doing today. I will remind

them of the rhetorical techniques that we discussed previously and will explain that we will be

applying this understanding to critically evaluate one source on information about candidates

during elections: interviews. I will explain that watching interviews and debates can be important

in determining a candidate’s stance on issues so that one can make an informed decision when

going to the polls.


to think about an idea or problem that sets the stage for the lesson. The “Think Now” for this

lesson will ask students to watch a short video clip of 2012 presidential nominee, Governor Mitt

Romney. In the clip, Romney made what was considered a political blunder at the time at a

private event. The incident relates to an earlier discussion of the role of “citizen journalism” in

mass media that was considered in the first lesson of this unit. I will introduce the clip by giving

some background information. In the video, Romney criticizes a portion of the voter population,

which he calls the “47 percent.” The students will be prompted to think about how they would

answer the question, “Do you not care about the 47%?” if they were Mitt Romney. We will

discuss their answers as a class.

All of the students are either currently able to legally vote or will be by the next presidential

election in 2016. This will help with engagement as students can see the applicability of the skills

learned in this lesson to their own lives as citizens.


After the “Think Now,” I will provide explicit instruction on a few additional concepts based on

faulty logic. This includes false cause, false analogy, circular reasoning, and false dilemma. I will

explain each of these and show students examples.

Afterwards, I will hand out copies of the transcript of an interview with Mitt Romney by David

Muir on September 26, 2012 amidst the media coverage following the release of the video clip

we watched about the 47 percent. The text from the interview will also be presented on the smart

board. I will use this interview to model what the students will be doing in the activity for this

lesson. I will read the interview out loud, pausing to reflect and think aloud about what Romney

is saying and how he is answering the questions. The first question is about poll numbers and

Romney assures the audience that he is not worried. I will point out to the students that he says he

knows “what it takes to get this economy going again, and the President has proven he does not.”

I will think aloud as I reflect on the fact that this comment makes Romney sound good, but also

does not say anything about his economic policy or how exactly it is “proven” that the President

cannot make the economy improve. I will point out to the students that “proven” could be a

weasel word, which was covered in the last lesson. I will continue to read aloud and think aloud. I

will point out that after the second question is asked about his remarks on the 47 percent, Romney

does not specifically answer it. Rather, he diverts away from the topic by continuing to talk about

poll numbers. I will point out the “better” “brighter” and “higher” are also weasel words. The

next question from David Muir attempts to ask again about the 47 percent remarks. I will read

Romney’s response aloud and ask the students whether they believe he answered the question yet.


I will hand out blank copies of the assessment (guided notes on observations) for the students to

take during the activity. There is a spot for students to also generate follow up questions for the

candidate.

I will explain to the student, “We need to practice how to be effective media consumers so that

we can make judgements about many things as citizens. This is particularly true during elections

when mass media can be filled with political rhetoric. Sometimes, a candidate can seem to be

saying a lot, but is really saying very little about who they really are as a candidate and what we

can expect if they are elected.”

I will explained to the students what the activity will be for the day. I will explain that we will be

reading mock interviews of candidates and then evaluating them.

I will hand out the handout, “Candidate A: Aaron Appleton running for President” and ask for a

volunteer to play the first candidate. I will ask the student to stand at the front of the classroom

while we act out the interview. I will instruct the other students to listen for any of the “tricks” we

have been learning about and note them down as they listen to the interview.

Afterwards, we will discuss as a class. I will ask questions and have students refer specifically to

the text when giving examples. This will serve as a class-wide model for the activity. Some

students may have difficulty with this first interview, but based on the pre-assessment and my

understanding of the students, they are a few that will be able to perform this task easily and

model it for their fellow students.

We will generate follow up questions as a class. This will help me check for understanding and

model the activity for when it will be completed in groups in the next lesson.

We will repeat this with the next handout, “Candidate B: Barry Bundick running for Senator in

Ohio”. At this point, I expect more students to be able to participate in the class-wide activity as

they begin to understand the process. I will correct any misunderstandings in the activity while

using positive reinforcement as not to discourage student participation. It is important not to have

students feel that any contributions are wrong so that they are not discouraged to take risks in this

new activity using skills they may have not practiced before.

Closure:

This activity is going to be continued in the next lesson. I will have a natural stopping point as

students complete evaluating “Candidate B”. The last part of the lesson will include generating

questions for the candidate.

I will close the lesson by summing up what we covered and explain that we will continue the

activity the next day except we will be working in our groups.

Assessment:

In this lesson, students will be beginning the assessment for the learning segment. I will also use

formative and informal assessment throughout the lesson to monitor student understanding. This

can include observing body language and paying close attention to participation in the activity.

The student generated questions will also help confirm understanding after each candidate is

evaluated.

Materials:

Smart Board, writing utensils, copies of handout for the activity (assessment), copies of the David Muir’s

interview with Governor Mitt Romney, copies of the handouts “Candidate A: Aaron Appleton running for

President” and “Candidate B: Barry Bundick running for Senator in Ohio”, computer with access to the

internet, video of Governor Mitt Romney talking about the “47%”

Lesson script


Introduce “Think Now” activity and the question asked

Show the video of Mitt Romney talking about the 47%

Discuss with students how these comments could be addressed in an interview

Task 2: Logical Fallacies (5 minutes)

Introduce the idea of logical fallacies

Explain to students some basic logical fallacies used and show examples

Task 3: Model Evaluating an Interview (8 minutes)

Hand out the text of David Muir’s interview of Governor Mitt Romney

Read text aloud. Pause after every question is answered.

Model and think aloud while evaluating the interview

Ask students questions to see if they understand the process of modelling

Task 4: Evaluating the Mock Interviews (23 minutes)

Explain to students that we will be practicing our evaluating skills with mock interviews

Handout “Candidate A: Aaron Appleton running for President”

Explain to students that they should take note of any rhetoric that they notice as we read

Have a student volunteer serve as the candidate and simulate the interview for students

Ask students to describe what they heard and ask questions to further understanding

Instruct students to refer to the text if having difficulty

Generate 3 questions as a class

Repeat activity with Candidate B and handout “Candidate B: Barry Bundick running for Senator in Ohio”

Student Teaching


Name: Tiffany Izzo



Students will be continuing the activity from the prior lesson. Prior content from Lessons 1-3 will

be very important for this activity to work successfully. In addition, the skills modelled and

demonstrated in Lesson 3 will be practiced further in this lesson. It is important that the students

understand how to evaluate the interviews in order to practice this skill.

In this class, there are 2 groups with both high-average performing students, 2 groups of mostly

average performing students, 1 group of average-low performing and 1 groups of low performing

students. The group that is made up of low-performing students has a student with an IEP and

another student with a 504. While it is not ideal that this is how the seating is structured, it is in

keeping with cooperating teacher’s policy. Also, as these students are seniors, it gives them the

responsibility to choose their own groups. I have designed my lesson to address the gaps in

understanding and ability that will likely come up. The modelling from the prior lesson will have

allowed for students who clearly understood the activity to model for the other students. I also

modelled for the class.

As students work in their groups, I will move around the classroom. I will start counter-clockwise

from the front corner closest to the door. This will allow me to move in a way that focuses on the

low and average performing students prior to getting to the high performing students who will

likely be able to complete this activity independently.


Throughout this learning segment, students have been learning concepts that will help them to

critically evaluate media. Specifically, there has been a focus on media related to politics and

elections. In the previous lesson, students practiced demonstrate their ability to critically evaluate

what candidates or politicians say on a class-wide scale. This included correctly identifying some of

the deceptions that may be used to mislead an audience. This lesson will focus on students practicing

this within their groups.

Student will engage in meaningful discussions in their group. This will help them practice discussion

skills and using evidence to make arguments. Students will practicing citing examples from the text.

These are social studies skills found in both the New York State Framework for Social Studies and

the Common Core Standards.

This lesson fits within the purposes of this course, Participation in Government, by also helping

students to become informed voters and participants of democracy. If students can understand the

forces that affect their opinions, they can better critically evaluate information presented to them and

make informed judgments. The skills practiced in this lesson and learning segment can also be built

upon in order to help students make their own persuasive arguments. This will allow them to engage

in discourse about politics from a knowledgeable and practiced perspective.






CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.d

Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all

sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or

research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.c

Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a

hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions;

and promote divergent and creative perspectives.

NY State Social Studies Framework for Participation in Government:









Objectives:

Students will identify 3 examples of persuasive and rhetorical techniques used in each of 3 interviews

and support with evidence.

Students will evaluate the use of rhetoric in order to assess the stance, premises, word choice and

emphasis of an argument.

Students will determine instances when evidence on an issue is contradictory or insufficient.

Students will develop 3 questions per interview that probe the reasoning and evidence of a political

position in order to clarify information.


Students will identify the various uses of language to persuade an audience or use rhetoric and

evaluate the effectiveness of an argument. The will provide examples of instances in which

candidates in the mock interviews use persuasive and/or rhetorical techniques and cite evidence

from the interviews of this. This well help students identify areas where the candidates have

weaknesses in their arguments. Students will generate questions to ask the candidates based on

what they noted.

Students will be expected to engage in discourse while using the concepts learned from Lessons 1

and 2. This will require discussion skills that have been practiced in prior lessons and learning

segments.


I will explain to students that we will be continuing the activity from Lesson 3. I will ask students

to review what we were doing by asking questions. I will also ask students to review what they

noted in the guided notes handout (assessment) with the class. This will remind the students what

we have been working on and reinforce what has been learned.

I will explain to students why these skills are important in order to participate in our democracy

in an informed way. I will remind them that one day, they will be evaluating candidates for an

election on their own and the skills we are practicing will be helpful.

In addition, I will explain how being able to recognize faults in others arguments will help them

make effective arguments as well. This was a skill that many of the students expressed interest in

during a survey taken at the beginning of the course.


Explicit instruction for this activity was done in the previous lesson. If necessary, I will provide

further explicit construction, but this will likely only be needed on the group-level during guided

and independent practice.


I will use a gradual release model for the 3 remaining candidates in the activity.

For the first candidate, I will hand out, “Candidate C: Charley Carson running for Governor of

Pennsylvania” and explain to students that I would like them to read in their groups as an

interview with 2 students. I will explain that this will allow us to practice as if we were watching

an interview on TV or through other mass media. This will also serve to differentiate the activity

for students who may have trouble reading such as the student with the IEP.

I will instruct the students to work in their groups to identify rhetoric and persuasive techniques. I

will explain that we will work on coming up with questions as a class, but they should think about

possible questions that address what they have specifically noted about the candidate.

As students work in their groups, I will move around the classroom to check for understanding. I

will start with the lowest ability group first and move through the groups until I get to the highest

ability group.

After students are done with the candidate, I will ask the students to share with the class what

they came up with in their groups. This will allow some further modelling for any students that

may still be having trouble. I will use positive reinforcement to encourage participation.

I will check for understanding by asking questions. I will provide the specific terms for concepts

as they present them. For example, if as student says that the candidate did not answer the

question and spoke about something else, I will remind them that this is a red herring tactic.

When appropriate, I will ask students to refer directly to the text for examples.

I will have the class come up with questions for the candidate. This discussion will occur on a

class-wide level. This will allow me to monitor for understanding through informal assessment.

Next, I will inform the students that I would like them to work on the next candidate in their

groups again, but that they should come up with questions in the groups which they will share

with the class. I will hand out “Candidate D: Dr. David Dickenson for House Representative in

South Dakota”

I will move around the classroom by ability, checking for understanding.

We will discuss the students’ evaluations of the Candidate D as a class and share questions. I will

encourage students to use the specific language for rhetorical and persuasive techniques, but this

is not necessary. This is mostly to allow the higher-ability students to be challenged in some way.

The last candidate will be completed in the groups without any class-wide discussion afterwards.

I will inform students of this before I hand out the interview for that candidate.

I will move around the groups during the activity. I will correct any misunderstandings, but allow

students to work mostly independently to complete the last candidate.

Closure:

I will collect the assessments. I will ask students to reflect on the activity and whether they can

see the value of these skills as citizens or in their own lives.

Assessment:

I will use formative and informal assessment throughout the lesson to monitor student

understanding. This can include observing body language and paying close attention to

participation in the activity.

I will also have a formal assessment for this lesson from the guided notes handout. I will evaluate

whether students have met the objectives by checking to see that they provided at least 3

examples per candidate and supporting evidence or connections to what the candidate said. This

will allow me to measure their ability to evaluate the candidates. In addition, students are

expected to generate 3 follow-up questions for the candidate that address any concerns or

weaknesses in their arguments. This will be evaluated on relevancy and connections to the text.

This will allow me to measure and confirm how well students were able to effectively evaluate

the candidates and understand the issues covered in this learning segment.

Materials:

Materials from previous lesson (including assessment and candidate interviews A and B), writing

utensils, copies of new handouts: “Candidate C: Charley Carson running for Governor of

Pennsylvania,” “Candidate D: Dr. David Dickenson for House Representative in South Dakota,”

and “Candidate E: Evelyn Everson running for President”

Lesson script

Task 1: Review activity from the previous day (5 minutes)

Take any questions from students and correct any misunderstandings

Task 2: First candidate (10 minutes)

Instruct students that they will be working in groups on the next candidate, but that we will discuss

afterwards.

Explain that they are to simulate the interviews by reading aloud by 2 students

Hand out “Candidate C: Charley Carson running for Governor of Pennsylvania”

Monitor groups for understanding by moving around the room

Discuss evaluations as a class

Generate questions as a class

Task 3: Second candidate (10 minutes)

Explain to students that this candidate will be completed within their groups. This includes generating

questions.

Hand out “Candidate D: Dr. David Dickenson for House Representative in South Dakota”


Discuss evaluations as a class

Have students share questions

Task 4: Final Candidate (10 minutes)

Explain to students that this candidate will be completed in their groups independently

Hand out “Candidate E: Evelyn Everson running for President”


Closure:

Collect the assessments

Ask students to share reflections on the activity

Secondary History/Social Studies Task 1: Planning Commentary

Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 1 of 9 | 9 pages maximum All rights reserved. V3_0914 The edTPA trademarks are owned by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Use of the edTPA trademarks is permitted only pursuant to the terms of a written license agreement.

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.

[The central focus for this learning segment is media literacy. In particular, this learning segment will emphasize on media literacy in regards to political rhetoric. There are two major purposes for this segment. The first purpose is to encourage students to consider the effect of mass media on our democracy. This also helps meet New York State Social Studies Framework guidelines for this course in that students are expected to learn how to be active and engaged citizens through effective media consumption. Students will also make connections between prior content and apply background knowledge to questions about mass media. This includes a clear understanding of the First Amendment as well as an understanding of our democracy. A second purpose for this learning segment is to help students recognize political rhetoric that is received through mass media. This course is expected to give students tools to become critical media consumers. An understanding of persuasive techniques and rhetorical tools often used by politicians and political parties will help students think critically about media related to elections. This will work towards the goal of encouraging students to become informed voters and will allow them to critically evaluate speeches, debates, interviews and other election-related media.]

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

[This learning segment works towards the goals of the New York State Framework for Participation in Government which states that the course aims to prepare students with opportunities to become engaged in the political process through the acquisition of knowledge and the opportunity to practice the skills necessary for active citizenship. There are no content specifications included in the course framework in order to allow the course to adapt to current local, national and global circumstances. This allows the course to focus on key ideas and conceptual understandings. The learning objectives of this learning segment will focus on conceptual understanding of ideas such as mass media, public opinion and political rhetoric. It will also ask students to practice critical thinking skills such as analysis of primary sources. Students will apply their conceptual understanding of political rhetoric to arguments in order to evaluate their effectiveness. The focus on a conceptual understanding in this learning segment also fits within Shift #1 of the New York State Framework for Social Studies, which is an instructional shift away from factual recall to a “Focus on Conceptual Understanding.” (NYS K-12 Social Studies Field Guide) Some specific content knowledge is important as it can serve as a foundation upon which to build conceptual understandings and skills. For this learning segment, students have specific background knowledge taught in earlier units, such as an understanding of the Constitution, which will help them meet the learning objectives of this unit.



This learning segment also contains learning objectives that focus on the interpretation and analysis of primary source documents. This is required by the Common Core Standards and New York State Standards for Social Studies. Throughout the lessons, students will be introduced to a variety of primary sources. This includes primary texts such as a speech and a transcript of an interview as well as graphs. Other primary sources are forms of media including video, political ads and political cartoons. Students will interpret the data found in graphs and will analyze some of the primary sources in the learning segment by identifying persuasive techniques and the use of rhetoric.

Students will be asked to express opinions on the use of visual and linguistic techniques in several videos including a debate, political ads and interviews. They will be expected to build an argument that makes a judgement on the effectiveness of these techniques. They will support their arguments by citing specific observations and referencing their conceptual understanding of rhetorical and persuasive techniques.]

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.

[The first lesson for this learning segment addresses the role of mass media on our democracy. This lesson will be largely discussion based with a series of questions, charts and political cartoons to drive the lesson. Students will be introduced to a few new concepts including “mass media”, “political polarization” and “public opinion.” During this lesson, students will interpret two graphs of data provided by the Pew Research Center and analyze how they relate to mass media. The first graph shows how social media relates to how people get their news. The second graph shows that many people on the consistent left and consistent right politically often share their views with their friends. Students will interpret these graphs and make connections between them. Afterwards, students will apply this information to the question of whether social media can encourage or discourage political polarization. Students will build on the idea of the role of social media on political views to discuss how mass media affects public opinion on a larger scale. In this discussion, students will reference personal experience and content covered in prior units. Students have already engaged in class-wide discussions on the limits of the First Amendment and how it has been applied by the Supreme Court. This lesson will build on that discussion by introducing the modern development of mass media. It will also encourage students to consider how critical evaluation of media is an important skill to have as a citizen. The second lesson will focus on persuasive techniques and other rhetorical strategies often used in politics. This will build conceptual understandings in order for students to critically evaluate what politicians and political figures are presenting through the mass media. Students will look at examples of each of these from several different sources including primary sources. This will include examples provided through phrases, cartoons and videos. The information will be presented through differentiated means.

The third lesson and fourth lesson are based on the application of concepts. The third lesson will introduce a few more logical fallacies used in political rhetoric simply as tools to reference. Students will then apply the concepts learned in prior lessons along with these newly introduced logical fallacies to fictional candidates. I have made up fictional interviews for 5 candidates that include political rhetoric techniques and logical fallacies. Students will identify the concepts learned previously and evaluate the effectiveness of these candidates use of language to persuade their audience. Students will support their arguments with specific references to information found in the interviews.]

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).

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.

[Prior to this unit, students finished a unit on the Constitution with a focus on the Bill of Rights and application to current issues. At the end of this unit, they completed a project in which they submitted fictional 28th Amendments of their choosing. This project provided measurable evidence of what they know and what they can do. Students demonstrated a clear understanding of the content in the project as well as their ability to use resources for research in defending their amendments. At the end of the project, they were required to present their arguments and research to the rest of the class while other students asked questions. This is evidence that they are able to present arguments and engage in meaningful discussion about current issues. As an exercise in defending their arguments, I asked questions and challenged their amendments. I also challenged them with common rhetorical oppositions to their positions and used techniques such as false analogy. Some students defended their arguments rhetorically, but most could not. In addition, students did not recognize the faulty logic and rhetoric that I used to argue against them. This showed that they were still learning to defend their own arguments and to recognize faults in the arguments of others.

I also administered a pre-assessment before the start of this learning segment that was specific to what was to be taught. The background knowledge for students in this class varies greatly in degree. Students demonstrated a clear understanding of broader concepts of such “mass media” and “public opinion,” but less understanding of other vocabulary included in this learning segment. The pre-assessment was given on rhetoric (ethos, pathos, logos) and logical fallacies (ad hominem, ad populum/band wagon, slippery slope, red herring, etc.) that are often used in political rhetoric. The pre-assessment showed that most students had none or little familiarity with this vocabulary. A group of students who are taking Advanced Placement English did show significant background knowledge with a few terms. Specifically, 5 students correctly defined ethos, pathos and logos. After speaking with them, I learned it was mostly from the AP English class and/or prior honors English classes. This means that they have not yet applied them to content in Social Studies. Acknowledging that the background knowledge is low on this vocabulary, I chose not to focus on vocabulary as much as the concepts behind them and on application. This also fits within Shift #1 for the New York State Framework for Social Studies, which is an instructional shift to a “Focus on Conceptual Understanding.”]

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?

[From surveys and interactions with students, I have learned that technology is very important to them. The central focus of media literacy relates to these interests because many of the students are exposed to mass media either through their smartphones, computers or other electronic devices. In addition, many of the students are active on social media. Lesson 1 includes a discussion on the effect of social media and political polarization. Most of my students come from similar economic backgrounds. This means that the majority of students have regular access to technology including computers at home and personal smart phones. I have tried to incorporate technology in the classroom. The school policy allows for the teachers to determine the cell phone policy and I have maintained a policy that students can use cell



phones during class for educational purposes as long as they let me know that this is what they are doing. At the beginning of class, I typically ask students if there are any current events that they would like to talk about before we start the lesson. Students often bring up something that they learned through mass media on their computer or on their smart phones. On some occasions, students have asked to use their phones to find out more about these events. Students are also aware that the computer in the back of the classroom is available to them as an educational tool as well with permission. As cell phone service is limited in school, several have used this option as well.

At the beginning of the semester, I also administered a poll to the students asking them to tell me which topics they would be interested in. I provided a list of current public policy issues and asked them to rank their interest. I use this in my planning lessons and when looking for topics for the class online blog. For this learning segment, I chose “Campaign Finance Reform” as the topic the weekly class blog as many students are interested in this topic. I also had them look at the titles of chapters in the textbook in order to identify their interests. Many of the students were interested in learning how to judge candidates that are up for election. This is also a part of my learning segment and demonstrates student-centered learning in that students have an input on the topics covered in this class.]

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.

[Based upon the cultural value of technology among my students, I have incorporated it into my lessons. This has many educational value for several reasons. First of all, technology use is a 21st century skill that needs to be incorporated into classrooms. In addition, meeting the students where they are increases engagement and enhances learning. This generation is immersed in technology and meeting them there is a great way to increase engagement. Another reason to use technology is to model using technology as a learning tool for students. By incorporating online resources into my lessons, I am able to model for students how to use technology to learn. Digital literacy compliments other literacies such as reading and writing. (Dede 2005) and (Jenkins 2009) One example of this in my lessons is my use of the online resource of political ads dating back to 1952 found at livingroomcandidate.org. Another example is the weekly practice of blogging online. Students are expected to participate in the blog on a weekly basis by responding to articles and/or videos about issues that I have chosen that compliment material covered in class as well as personal interests. In the poll I administered and in discussions in class, students have expressed concerns about the of campaign finance on the political process. The blog for this week is based on the topic of campaign finance reform and presents two different perspectives. This fits within the media literacy unit as students are expected to evaluate the two perspectives critically.

While many of my students have regular access to technology, I also try to meet the students of lower economic backgrounds. Whenever planning lessons that include technology resources, I offer access to any students that may need it. This includes the additional computer in the classroom both during class and outside of class. For the class blog, I have also stated that I will accept written responses to the entire class. I have had one student approach me about not having consistent access to internet at home. This was a concern for the class blog,



but after discussing it with him, we figured out that it could be completed on his smartphone. I have provided printed copies of any articles for him as needed.]

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.

[A survey that I administered at the beginning of the semester allowed me to collect data about how the students self-reported their learning styles. The results were that 10 students reported being visual learners, 3 reported to be both visual and auditory learners, 3 reported to be only auditory learners and 3 students described themselves as “hands on” or kinesthetic learners. The remaining 2 students reported that they learn through lectures, which could be categorized as either visual or auditory.

My use of the interactive whiteboard throughout my lessons is an instructional strategy that meets a variety of learners. I have based much of my lesson design on modality principles in that they are designed to provide a variety of modes of information including visual and auditory. Students learn better with the combination of visuals with text and sound than through each of these formats alone. Additionally, the ability for students to retain new learning is greatly enhanced by the combination of words (verbal or text) along with visuals. When using multimedia, special and temporal contiguity also lead students to learn better. Furthermore, speech presented by auditory in addition to text can increase comprehension. (Mayer & Moreno, 2003) These ideas can be seen in the design of my slides throughout my lessons. When including text, particularly new concepts, I have included visuals such as graphics and/or cartoons as visual aids to concepts. In addition, I have tried to incorporate the reading of texts out loud throughout my lessons. In Lesson 2, students are given a copy of the text of a speech by President Obama while it is also presented in a video, which provides both visual and auditory representation. Another example of this is in Lesson 3 in which I read an interview with Governor Mitt Romney out loud as it is presented to students as text as well. This can also be seen in lessons 3 and 4 in which other students are assigned to read the mock interviews aloud to the class and in their groups. This reading aloud of texts and use of video supports the accommodations of the student with an IEP plan as well as a variety of learners. All of my digital presentations also follow principles of universal designed learning (UDL). For example, I use darker text on a lighter background. This is helpful to anyone with visual difficulties. I also use text features such as bold, italics or color changes to emphasize important terms and/or ideas. In addition, all fonts are in an appropriate font and font size to meet UDL principles.

As this class and this lesson are largely discussion based, I use positive reinforcement during discussions to encourage students to contribute. A positive learning environment means that students can feel comfortable sharing their opinions. This environment was also set up in the beginning of the semester by having students design their own “Bill of Rights” for the class which included the right to express opinions freely and respect others. Class discussions also increase social interaction, which allows students to build their cognitive skills with conversations and group work with their peers (Vygotsky, 1978). In addition, I supplement students’ ability to participate in class discussion by allowing them to post in a weekly class blog. This allows students who are less likely to voice their opinions in class to participate in another way.]

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



[There are several misconceptions about mass media that students and citizens in general have. One misconception is that a free press ensures openness and accountability in a democracy. I will show the students how mass media and social media can both support diverse perspectives, yet encourage political polarization in other ways. Another misconceptions is the belief that the information being presented by a source is the entirety of the argument. This will be addressed throughout the learning segment, but one example of when this will be addressed is while analyzing political ads. Political ads often present a one-sided argument and it is important for students to be able to recognize this. Another misconception is that there can be invalid credibility given to an argument simply because it is widely believed or comes from a popular source. Additionally, many students believe that an argument that is made effectively correspondingly means that it is validated. This will be addressed throughout my lessons by pointing out common logical fallacies used to make faulty arguments.]

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

[One language function that is important throughout this learning segment is “evaluate.” Students will be expected to evaluate a variety of media and texts including speeches, interviews, and political ads. Specifically they will be expected to evaluate the effectiveness of persuasion and rhetoric. The skill of evaluating is found throughout the New York State Standards for Social Studies and the Common Core Standards for 12th grade as well as in the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards.]

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 3, students will be expected to evaluate both a primary source interview and mock interviews of candidates for political office. One objective for this lesson is: students will evaluate the use of rhetoric in order to assess the stance, premises, word choice and emphasis of an argument. I will model this skill with an interview of presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney by David Muir during the 2012 elections. Using the gradual release model, students will also evaluate this interview. Afterwards, students will examine fictional interviews and evaluate the effectiveness of each candidate’s ability to present their argument through the use of word choice, rhetoric and rationale.]

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?

[There is some vocabulary that students will specifically need for this learning segment including “mass media,” “free press” and “public opinion.” These are necessary as background knowledge for discussion. An understanding of this vocabulary has been assessed and confirmed in a pre-assessment prior to the learning segment. Students will also need to have an understanding of language used in political rhetoric and how language is used to persuade an audience. However, this understanding is more about the concepts than the specific vocabulary. Understanding of these concepts will be measured in application.

Students will be expected to use discourse when engaging in discussion throughout the learning segment. In this discourse, they will need to know and apply key concepts and understandings of political rhetoric. As students recognize examples of rhetoric, they will express their understanding by engaging in discourse with their fellow students. Students will also use their understanding to create follow up questions for the candidates. This will affirm their understanding and application of learned skills.]

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.

[Prior to this learning task, students will have used discussion skills throughout the semester so far. As parameters for discussion and an open an environment have already been established, students will feel comfortable expressing themselves throughout the learning segment. In addition, required vocabulary will be used earlier in the learning segment so that students have practice and comfort using this vocabulary. Also, prior to the learning task of evaluating the effectiveness of political candidates’ uses of rhetoric, students have applied these skills to other forms including political ads and speeches. As this learning segment focuses on the conceptual understanding of certain terms, these terms will be available on the smart board as students are working on the task.

During the learning task, there will be guided practice of the skill of evaluating. I will both model and guide students through evaluating the interview with Mitt Romney. I will encourage class-wide discussion so that students who can demonstrate the language function of evaluating will further model it for other students who may still be struggling with it. Using the gradual release model, students will move to smaller group work on this task in the last lesson.]

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.

[Informal assessment throughout the learning segment will be based on participation in class-wide discussions. I will monitor for understanding by posing questions to students and facilitating discussion. Other informal assessments will be based on observation of student engagement. Some students may not express their understanding verbally, but I can evaluate



their understanding through observing body language. Most students in this class express engagement by directing their body language towards a speaker whether it is me as the teacher or their fellow students. Through the students are seated in groups, no students are facing directly away from me. This allows me to monitor facial expressions for understanding as well. Formal assessments will include observations noted on index cards/exit tickets and an assessment completed during Lessons 3 and 4. The index cards will allow me to monitor understanding during the first two lessons, which are largely discussion based. In both Lesson 1 and 2, I will also have an exit ticket to check for understanding. In Lesson 1, the exit ticket will be to judge an opinion about mass media which is presented in a short video. This task will be practiced on a class-wide level before the exit ticket by looking at political cartoons about mass media. This will measure how students can apply their understanding of the concept of mass media and its role in our democracy. In Lesson 2, students will practice evaluating and analyzing political campaign ads. This will require them to apply concepts about political rhetoric and persuasion covered in the lesson by identifying them as used in the political ads. I will have students note some of the techniques that they can identify on the index cards. We will also discuss this as a class where I can ask questions (informal assessment) to assess understanding further. The exit ticket for this lesson will be to identify techniques observed in one specific ad at the end of the lesson independently. This will allow me to monitor whether students have an independent understanding of concepts and are not just writing down what their fellow students say during discussion.

The written assessment in Lessons 3 and 4 will ask students to evaluate the rhetoric and language use of fictional candidates for office in move interviews. As students read and listen to the interviews, they will take notes and identify and persuasive and rhetorical techniques used by the candidates. This will be noted on the handout. Students will then engage in discussion, class-wide or in their groups, about the candidates in which they will evaluate the uses of rhetoric and persuasion. From this discussion, they will generate follow up questions to ask the candidates that will aim at clarifying any misrepresentations by the candidates or asking more information where the candidate did not provide sufficient evidence or information to support their claims. There is research to indicate that student-generated questions are linked to comprehension of material. A review of studies showed that teaching students the cognitive strategy of generating questions resulted in measurable gains on subsequent tests. (Rosenshine, Meister and Chapman 1996) Another study showed a correlation between low and high level student-generated questions with comprehension of concepts. (Taboada and Guthrie 2006) This supports the idea that generating questions can be used to assess student understanding of new material.]

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.

[The assessment in accessible by the variety of learners in my classroom in several ways. For students with processing difficulties, such as my student with an IEP and another with a 504 plan, I have incorporated texts to be read aloud during the lesson. Also, the gradual release model I use means that students will demonstrate understanding on a class-wide level first through guided instruction. This means that students that might have gaps in understanding can observe other students model their thinking process out loud. The assessment is designed to be within reach of underperforming or struggling students, but also allows for challenge with the gifted students. Students only need a conceptual understanding of the material in the learning segment (political rhetoric, persuasion techniques



and logical fallacies) in order to complete the task measured in the assessment. The assessment does not specifically require students to use the variety of new vocabulary such as the Latin terms for the persuasion techniques (ethos, pathos, and logos) or the specific terms describing logical fallacies (ad hominem, circular reason, false analogy, hasty generalization, etc.) The learning segment does not require this vocabulary to be completed successfully, but including the vocabulary will differentiate the lesson for higher achieving students in allowing them access additional content and vocabulary to enhance learning. Students who attain a deeper understanding of the concepts can apply this vocabulary. Students who are able to apply this vocabulary would have gone beyond the objectives of the learning segment, but will also be able to demonstrate a higher understanding. This should also show in the level of questions generated.]

Secondary History/Social Studies Task 2: Instruction Commentary


TASK 2: INSTRUCTION COMMENTARY


brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Commentary pages exceeding the maximum will not be

scored. You may insert no more than 2 additional pages of supporting documentation at the end of this file. These pages

may include graphics, texts, or images that are not clearly visible in the video or a transcript for occasionally inaudible portions.

These pages do not count toward your page total.

1. Which lesson or lessons are shown in the video clips? Identify the lesson(s) by lesson plan number.

[Video Clip 1 is from Lesson Plan 3. It consists of the first candidate interview simulation in which a student stands up before the class and acts out the interview. Afterwards, there is a discussion about observations with the students. Video Clip 2 is from Lesson Plan 4. It consists of students working in groups to complete the task of reading the mock interview and evaluating each candidate using evidence. Students are completing the assessment for this learning segment. ]

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 students with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in learning?

[In Video Clip 1, I demonstrate a rapport with the students during an activity and an understanding of their backgrounds. One thing that can be noticed in the discussion is that students are generally not required to raise their hands (though some still do) unless it becomes an issue of too much talking and I also allow chatter to go on around the classroom as long as it is on task. At the beginning of my placement, I was concerned, but I quickly learned that sometimes this can be a sign of active engagement and should not be discouraged as long as it is not disruptive and is on task. The activity is fun and engaging for the students, which is seen by their active engagement. At 0:10, I ask for a volunteer to play the candidate in the simulation. The student who volunteers is a high-performing student and participates the most of the students. In fact, I often have to try to avoid allowing him to dominate the discussion in the classroom. This meant that acting and speaking in the front of the classroom was something I knew he would be comfortable with as I know his capabilities. This student has also expressed his political viewpoints often, which are liberal, and also has an internship with a local Democratic politician. I knew that he would object to playing a conservative candidate, but I also knew that this would challenge him appropriately. It is also an important part of this class to be exposed to other viewpoints. Additionally, I knew from the rapport that I had built with him that he would step up to the challenge despite his objection. At 1:24, it can be seen that he playfully responded to the challenge by using a Southern accent. This had a great effect on the class who laughed and seemed to relax about the activity because they saw that it could be fun and creative. Throughout the simulation, it can be seen that students are laughing quietly, which is good because it also means that they are engaged and enjoying the lesson. At 2:29, he laughs at himself as well as other students. At 2:34, a girl who is a friend of his and sits at his table laughs as well. After he finished around 3:12, I open up the class to discussion and a student immediately participates. This is a student that rarely talks and at 3:20 she has the first comment by pointing out that “American Dream” is one of those words. While she was speaking, I moved close to that side of the room to encourage her and the students at that table to participate as this a more reserved table. I have found through experience with this table of students that they respond positively to proximity with more participation. I believe this is



because they are generally quieter and are less comfortable speaking across the room to me. I realized that she is looking for the term, “buzz word” and at 3:24, I respond to a student positively with and provide the word for her to affirm that she was on the right track. Another female student sitting next to her who is also generally very quiet points out that the candidate did not even explain what the “American Dream” policy is at 3:30. I respond by repeating the students point positively. At 3:53, I respond positively to a student’s contribution by nodding and smiling to show that he is correct. A 4:10, I use proximity again to encourage participation one side of the room that is often quiet and ask “how did he try to sell himself?” and a student there says “authority”. In Video Clip 2, students are working in groups at the start. I am moving around the classroom checking for understanding. A student explains to me something that he observed and at 0:34 I affirm his understanding positively. As we engage in discussion, a student contributes to our conversation at the table behind me, which my back is currently to. I respond at 0:98 by stepping back and turning so that I am facing both students as to encourage discourse. We begin talking about presidential debates and at 1:39 a student calls me out on a logical fallacy that I made, which was “hasty generalization” and is one of the concepts we covered. This shows how students are willing to even point out when I make mistakes. I respond at 1:44 by telling him he is correct. At 2:34, I bring the class back to class-wide discussion and start off with positive encouragement. I say “I heard a couple of good things” to suggest that students were successful with the task and encourage them to contribute their responses. As students contribute, I continue to respond positively. At 3:30, a student brings up how the candidate mentions polls and I would like him to elaborate. I ask him to explain, but offer encouragement by saying that there is something there at 3:38. When the student is silent and seems to have trouble thinking of how to explain it, I ask a student at 3:48 who I know has the correct explanation that this student is looking for so that he can get affirmation that he was correct. This is also to promote students bouncing off each other in conversation. At 5:01, I recognize that a student was not there the day before and provide a vocabulary term for him. This is a way for me to show the student that I am paying attention to him and he Is valued. He then tells me it was his birthday, which shows me he is comfortable sharing. I wish him happy birthday. He is completely new to the school and is also the only Junior in this class. It took me a while to build a rapport with him and get him to participate. He participates several times in this lesson, which is much more that it was at the beginning of the semester. At 6:00, a female student who performs at an average level, is seen making a joke about herself being a “red herring” because she was distracting another student. This shows that she is comfortable making jokes and also shows that she is grasping the concepts. At one point the chatter begins to get a little louder, but I notice the tables on the far end are speaking on task, so I use a different tactic to bring the class back to attention. At around 7:47, I ask the students a question that would be answer with a show of hands. This is a technique I use to get the students’ attentions sometime while remaining positive.]

3. Engaging Students in Learning

Refer to examples from the video clips in your responses to the prompts.

a. Explain how your instruction engaged students in

developing the skills of interpretation or analysis in relation to accounts of historical events or social studies phenomena


[In both videos, students can be seen developing the skills of analysis as they are working on an activity that requires the analysis of mock political interviews. Specifically, they are looking for examples of political rhetoric and persuasive techniques. At 3:15, I ask students if they noticed



anything as they were listening to the mock interview. At 3:18, a student begins talking about the use of a buzz word, “American Dream”, which prompts another student to point out that the candidate did not even explain what the policy was. The first student is showing the ability to analyze and the second student uses evidence to support her point. At 3:45, another student points out a fallacy in the candidates argument and then refers directly to the text to support his argument.

In Video 2, after several students have given examples, I try to encourage further analysis and discussion by asking students to look at a particular part of the text. I ask the students to give their opinion on one of the responses given by the candidate at 6:08. This brings discussion back to the text.]

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

[As these students are technology savvy, they are also linked to mass media coverage. Often, students that may not be the highest performers in social studies, can still make references to current issues because of their immersion in mass media through television, the internet and video clips found on YouTube. Most of them can clearly remember the 2012 presidential election and this helped during instruction. I built on this asset by using popular video clips from the 2012 election at the start of Lesson 3. Later in the lesson, a student brings up part of a debate he remembered seeing. This shows that students are connecting what they are learning in the classroom to background knowledge and experiences outside of the classroom. This can be seen starting at 0:53 in Video 2. Another student quickly adds to the discourse by confirming that he also saw this part of the debates. At 1:17, I bring up another occurrence in the presidential debates that was very popular on social media at the time. This was Romney’s “Big Bird” comment during the debate which was moderated by Lehrer who works for PBS who broadcast Sesame Street with Big Bird. I know that this was turned into internet memes and also started an online campaign to “save” Big Bird. At 1:23, both students confirm that they remember this. These types of connections can be seen throughout the learning segment. In particular, many students made connections on Day 1 to their experiences with social media and how they received their news. Another idea that students would have been exposed to and have brought up before in class is the language of the “one percenters” versus the “99 percent.” I intentionally added this to one of the candidates profiles. In video 2, at 7:45, this is brought up and I ask students if they have heard of it. They all had. This helps students engage in social studies phenomenon that they might have knowledge of in another way. While students were aware of the idea, this lesson asks them to look deeper at what it means for politicians and mass media to use these terms over and over again until they become buzz words or lose their meaning. I also try to make connections to students’ lives when giving examples in order to help them connect new concepts to their personal lives. At 3:05 in video 2, I compare the candidate saying he listens to his patients well by explaining to the student that their parents might listen to them well, but that does not mean that they would make a good politician. This was to illustrate an example of a false analogy. ]

4. Deepening Student Learning during Instruction

Refer to examples from the video clips in your explanations.

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



[In Video 2, a student points out a part of a candidate’s argument that is weak when the candidate speaks about polls. In order to encourage the student to think deeper and support his point, I ask him to explain what is wrong with the candidate mentioning polls. Often, it was students that helped elicit and build on each other’s responses. This is particularly true for the higher-performing students in the class. This was part of the motivation behind having group work. It allows me to focus on groups that had lower performing students because I knew there were several students who would instruct each other based on what was already learned in the learning segment. This can be seen in Video 2, around 2:31 as one student suggests a text-based question to another student. Again, this is seen at 4:28 when one student, Student #5, is pointing out something to another student and the other student asks where he sees that. Student #5 explains this to the student and he writes down on the assessment. I would also elicit responses by asking students to elaborate on any examples that they provided. For example, at 2:35, students start pointing out that there is a false analogy in the text. I am already aware that the false analogy is there because I created the text, but I ask the students to show me where it is at 2:41 in order to encourage them to think deeper and support their analysis with evidence. The students then proceed to point it out to me in the text and provide an explanation. I do this throughout instruction to encourage students to explain their responses more fully.]

b. Describe and cite examples from the clips of how you supported students in using evidence from sources to build and support arguments about historical events, a topic/theme or social studies phenomenon.

[In order to support and encourage students reference the text when making their arguments, I modelled referencing the text in the video. Throughout instruction in Video 1, I am walking around looking at the text of Candidate A’s interview. This encourages students to refer to the text as they participate. In Video 1, at 5:00, I point out specific language from the text and explain that it is an example of one of the concepts we covered: begging the question. Following this at 5:11, another student references the text in his response and use positive reinforcement.

In Video 2, at 0:17, I can be seen speaking to a student about something that he noticed. He is referring directly to the text and I respond by looking at the text as well to show importance. At 0:30, I explain the type of appeal that he is pointing out. At 0:43, I refer to another primary source of an interview with Governor Mitt Romney that we discussed in a previous lesson to show another example of what the student is talking about in order to build his understanding. At 5:45, this happens again as a student refers to Romney using a red herring tactic in a debate.

In video 2, at 2:45 and again at 3:15, I ask students “where” the examples they are providing are in the text while I look at the text. I know where the examples are, but I am trying to encourage the students to reference the text in their examples. In both occurrences the student explain where it is directly in the text.]

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—for the whole class and/or for students who need greater support or challenge—to better support student learning of the central focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?

Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners,



struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students).

[In my effort to try to engage the whole class in discussion, I missed students raising their hands. This can be seen at 3:20 in Video 1. This happens another time when I am looking down at the text at 4:59. While I do not require students to raise their hands, I should try to be more aware of the ones that do.

In Lesson 4, I think the class-wide discussion was unnecessary. At that point, most of the groups seemed to understand the skills and were able to apply them. In particular, the 2 groups with high-performing students in them did not need further instruction to complete the task. I had continued group discussions based on cooperative learning theory in which proficient students model for other students how to use and apply skills. (Vygotsky, 1978) However, I think it would have been more effective to take this time to work with the groups that were struggling. In Video 4, after I checked all the tables for understanding, I moved to class-wide discussion. I could have instead went back to the specific groups that were struggling. Though I had worked with the one particular group with underperforming students and the student with an IEP during the group work, the assessment later showed that there was a gap in understanding. This was an area that I could have provided greater support.

Another way that I would change my instruction is to challenge the gifted students further. In viewing this video, I think it would have been appropriate to differentiate the materials from group to group. If I eliminated class-wide discussion and used a different model, I could meet the needs of struggling students as well as challenge the gifted students further. One way that I could have done this is to have higher ability groups use primary source materials, which would have been more difficult to analyze. I also could have given them an additional task to complete with their analysis. For example, having them write a mock editorial in response to the interview.]

b. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your explanation with evidence of student learning AND principles from theory and/or

research.

[By adapting the cooperative learning model to the group level instead of class-wide, the gaps between students when it comes to understanding during discussion in the individual groups would have been less. Students could still scaffold each other’s learning, but this would lessen the gap in ability that occurs class-wide to only that which is within smaller discussion groups. This would still use cooperative learning (Vygotsky, 1978), but would allow me, as the teacher, to provided more guided practice to the students that need it. Additionally, as the class is informally grouped by ability, this would enhance my ability to use differentiated instruction. Also, I could focus more intently and directing the attention of the student with the IEP who has issues with inattentiveness and is easily distracted. I could have worked to keep that particular group more on task.

Differentiating materials and instruction is an excellent way to meet the needs of a variety of learners in the classroom. (Tomlinson and McTighe, 2006) By eliminating the class-wide discussion, I could vary activities and instruction from group to group. I could still use class-wide instruction to have students share the work completed within their groups, but it is not necessary that every group be working at on the same task and skill at all times. This allows students who have attained mastery learning of a skill to move on to high order thinking skills. Education theorist Benjamin Bloom supports a school of thought that encourages students to attain mastery of skills before moving on to another task. (Bloom 1985) By differentiating the groups, I can have students who have mastered the skill move to a hire skill, while focusing on students that have not reached mastery to receive additional instruction. In addition, in having the students who have mastered the tasks and skills in this learning segment move on to



creating an editorial, they are moving up Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to highest level, which is “create”. (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001) ]

Secondary History/Social Studies Task 3: Assessment Commentary

TASK 3: ASSESSMENT COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 10 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. Attach the assessment you used to evaluate student performance (no more than 5 additional pages) to the end of this

file. If you submit feedback as a video or audio clip and your comments to focus students cannot be clearly heard, attach

transcriptions of your comments (no more than 2 additional pages) to the end of this file. These pages do not count toward

your page total.

1. Analyzing Student Learning

a. Identify the specific learning objectives and standards measured by the assessment you chose for analysis.

[Learning objectives • Students will identify 3 examples of persuasive and rhetorical techniques used in each of 5 interviews and support with evidence. • Students will evaluate the use of rhetoric in order to assess the stance, premises, word choice and emphasis of an argument. • Students will determine instances when evidence on an issue is contradictory or insufficient. • Students will develop 3 questions per interview that probe the reasoning and evidence of a political position in order to clarify information. Common Core Standards Comprehension and Collaboration:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.d Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1.c Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. New York State Standards NY State Social Studies Framework for Participation in Government: 12.G5 PUBLIC POLICY: All levels of government—local, state, and federal—are involved in shaping public policy and responding to public policy issues, all of which influence our lives beyond what appears in the Constitution. Engaged citizens understand how to find, monitor, evaluate, and respond to information on public policy issues. 12.G5d Active and engaged citizens must be effective media consumers in order to be able to find, monitor, and evaluate information on political issues. The media have different venues, which have particular strengths and serve distinct and shared purposes. Knowing how to critically evaluate a media source is fundamental to being an informed citizen. ]

b. Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes student learning for your whole class. Be sure to summarize student learning for all evaluation criteria submitted in Task 3, Part D.


[

Stu

den

t #

# o

f Ex

amp

les

Giv

en /

15

# o

f c

orr

ect

evid

ence

/1

5

# o

f q

ues

tio

ns

gen

erat

ed/1

5

Hig

her

Lan

guag

e

exam

ple

s/1

5

(no

t in

clu

ded

in

fin

al s

core

)

Fin

al s

core

ou

t o

f

30

1 15 15 15 11 30

2 15 13 14 7 28

3 15 15 15 10 30

4 14 6 12 1 22

5 15 15 15 15 30

6 15 6 15 2 25.5

7 15 10 14 8 26.5

8 absent for entire learning segment

9 10 8 12 3 21

10 8 6 10 1 17

11 15 12 14 0 27.5

12 12 11 10 0 21.5

13 14 14 12 1 26

14 9 9 11 3 20

15 13 5 13 2 22

16 15 15 15 15 30

17 15 15 15 15 30

18 15 15 15 11 30

19 15 8 14 3 25.5

20 10 4 11 1 18

Average 13.4 10.6 13.3 5.7 25.3

(There was one student absent during the entire learning segment: Student #8. This

student a the student with a 504 plan who also has behavioral issues. These absences from the class were considered illegal/unexcused absences. This student is currently failing all of his classes, which is likely due to attendance issues. Only a week before, he missed class for a suspension. He has not made up any of his missed work and it remained that way until the end of my placement. I have built a rapport with this student, but it is hard to pass this class with so many absences.)

Students were evaluated in their assessments in three different areas. This included number of examples of rhetoric or persuasive techniques used, corresponding evidence for each example (connection to the interview), and number of questions generated. The expectation was to provide 3 examples of persuasive or rhetorical techniques with supporting evidence for each of the 5 candidates. For instance, an example could be “appeals to the


people”. Many students gave more than the minimum 3 examples, but the students were assessed for only 3 each, which corresponded to a total of 15 points for the measured area of giving examples. The average for this section was 13.4.

Evidence to support their examples could be anything that connects to the interviews, but need to have a valid connection to a persuasive or rhetorical technique. For instance, evidence for the above example could be “speaking personally about his/her life.” This would give the student credit for 3 uses of evidence/connections to the interviews for each interview, for a total of 15 points. Students that gave evidence from the interviews that could be clearly identified with a technique that they learned would get credit for both categories. The average for this section was 10.6/15. Students were expected to generate follow up questions for the interview. The expectation was to provide at least 3 follow up questions. Credit was given for the questions as long as they were relevant to the interview and had some value. This could lead to a total of 15 points. The average for this section was 13.3/15. The final score was calculated by averaging the first two categories (explanations and evidence) and adding the last category (questions). The overall average score was 25.3/30. I included an additional category to measure the success of higher achieving students in the use of new vocabulary. This included ethos, pathos, logos, hasty generalization, slippery slope, ad hominem, false analogy, false cause, circular reasoning, weasel words, etc. I only counted up

to 15, but some students did use more than that. The average for this was 5.7, but average is not a statistically valid measurement in this instance. Higher achieving students all used at least 15 examples, which many students, 11 specifically, used less than 5 examples. This was more than half the class.]

c. Use evidence found in the 3 student work samples and the whole class summary to analyze the patterns of learning for the whole class and differences for groups or individual learners relative to

facts and concepts

interpretations or analyses


Consider what students understand and do well, and where they continue to struggle (e.g., common errors, confusions, need for greater challenge).

[The measurement of the students’ correct identification of examples of persuasive techniques and rhetoric in the interviews speaks to whether a conceptual understanding was reached. The class average for this area was 13.4/15. This tells me that there was around a 89% successful completion rate for this task. Also, 11 of the 19 students successfully identified all required examples. For the 4 gifted students, the average was 15. These students are Student #1, Student #5, Student # 16 and Student #17. This tells me that the learning objectives for this task were well within their abilities. These 4 students also used the higher-level vocabulary in their assessments, with a minimum of 11 uses of the new vocabulary. In addition, two students who are in AP classes for subjects other than social studies also were successful at adapting and using the new vocabulary. Throughout the lesson, they remained engaged and participated. The additional measurement of higher language use showed that they also successfully adapted and applied the unrequired vocabulary. By including this extra challenge, I was able to differentiate to their needs and offer them a higher standard to be measured at. The fact that they participated and filled out their assessments with a lot of detail included tells me that the level was appropriate. It may have been possible to challenge them more, but it would have been difficult with the type of class-wide instruction that was done. The group work allowed the


higher achieving students to engage in deeper and more meaningful conversations while I focused on other groups that were having challenges. While the gifted students adapted and used the new vocabulary at high rates, the majority of students used it very little. The average for the class was 5.7 uses, but 11 out of 19 students used the new terms 3 times or less. This tells me that the vocabulary was likely out of their reach. This was as I had planned as I did not expect students to incorporate that many new vocabulary terms. This was not a learning objective of my learning segment or of this specific lesson, but rather a way to differentiate for the higher-achieving students. The pre-assessment told me that most of the students including had little experience with vocabulary. As Shift #3 of the New York Social Studies Framework stresses conceptual understanding, I made this a priority over rote memorization. Additionally, the specific vocabulary was not necessary to meet the objectives of the lesson. The reason that several students were able to acquire the new vocabulary is because I designed the instruction based on research for teaching vocabulary. For proper acquisition of new vocabulary, both direct and indirect instruction should be used. Specifically, it is particularly effective when used in combination to provide both receptive and productive learning. (Vacca,Vacca and Gove, 2000) This can be seen in my lessons as I introduce concepts with examples and then ask students to recognize those concepts in application. The next measurement used in the assessment was the use of evidence to support the students’ observations of the interviews. The class average for this portion was 10.6/15. This tells me that this is a skill that they are still practicing. Another reason for this variance could be that the handout did not have specific instructions to use evidence. I told them verbally, but instructions should have been both verbal and written. This might account for the difference. In future assessments, I will be sure to include all prompts on the assessment so as to get a more authentic assessment. The final measurement was of the students’ ability to generate questions. The ability to generate questions shows that students comprehend the concepts more deeply. In this class, the average score was 13.3/15. Students were able to demonstrate the ability to pose questions based on missing or inadequate information presented in an argument. This relied on their ability to evaluate each candidate’s statements. This tells me that they were able to “read between the lines” of the political rhetoric and logical fallacies. One of the focus students I chose for this assessment is Student #5. This student is a gifted student who should be presented with greater challenge along with the other gifted students in the class. This student sits with 2 other gifted students at his table. This student had a high level of engagement throughout the learning segment and this is shown in the data. In addition to scoring maximum points in all areas of the assessment, Student #5 also showed a higher level of thinking and used the specific terms presented for different rhetorical and political techniques. For the examples and evidence, he provided 28 items, which was well above the requirement. He recognized not only rhetorical devices in the candidates, but exposed faulty logic as well. Student #5 met the objective of the lesson and also met the differentiated objectives for the gifted students. All of his questions corresponded directly to his evaluation of the speakers arguments. Another focus student that was chosen performs at an average level. This student is Student #11 in the chart. The data for this student says that he performed well overall on this assessment with an overall score of 27.5/30. He received a 15/15 on the example portion as well as a 14/15 in the generating questions portion of the assessment. One question he had for candidate D did not correspond to any information found in the text and had little value. He received a slightly lower score in corresponding his examples to the interviews with evidence. Here, he achieved a score of 12/15. This student does not orally participate much in class discussions, but his engagement can be seen in that he complete exit slips and other activities collected on index cards throughout the learning segment. In addition, he consistently


completes the weekly blog entry and reply on time. As was expected for the majority students outside of the high performers, he did not use any of the higher language and vocabulary in completing his assessment. However, he clearly demonstrated a conceptual understanding. This says the objective of the lesson was met for this student.

The last focus student for this assessment is Student #20. The student has an IEP which asks for redirection and refocusing due to inattentiveness. This student fell significantly below class averages in all sections. She received a 10/15 for identifying rhetoric and persuasive techniques. Technically speaking, she did write down some new vocabulary terms, but as there was no evidence to show that she understood what she was writing down, I did not count this for the measurement. This is partially due to the fact that she did not attempt the last candidate at all. In addition, only 4 of these were connecting to the text and explained. She generated 11/15 questions. Again, the last candidate was not attempted in this assessment. The student’s overall performance was 18/30. This is below expectation and indicates that the objective was not met for this student. One significant concern that affects this assessment is the seating arrangement in this class. As students are permitted to choose their own seating per the cooperating teacher’s policy, this student is sitting with a group that significantly impacts her learning. Student #10, Student #14 and Student #12 all sit at the table. The average performance at this table was Student #10 19.125/30. Student #10 is a disengaged student who is currently not going to graduate based on his grades and he also has poor attention. The focus student, Student #20, performs at a higher level and is generally more engaged when this student is absent. I did provide scaffolding and specifically worked with this group during group work. However, I had students complete the information for the last candidate independently to assess their understanding better. It is my observation that they chose not to complete the last candidate as only one of the students, Student #12, had written anything down. Acknowledging this dynamic, I have encouraged the focus student to come after school, which is also an accommodation in her IEP. She has come after school to work on her blog entries in the past. After this learning segment, I would likely recommend to this student that she change her seating as it is affecting her performance.]

2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning

Refer to specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your explanations.

a. In what form did you submit your evidence of feedback for the 3 focus students? (Delete choices that do not apply).

Written directly on work samples or in a separate document;

b. Explain how feedback provided to the 3 focus students addresses their individual strengths and needs relative to the standards/objectives measured.

[For the higher-performing student, Student #5, the feedback was all positive as he did very well on the assessment and met all objectives. The feedback that is written tries to positively reinforce the critical thinking skills that he shows in the assessment. I positively reinforced his use of specific techniques with evidence throughout the assessment. I also gave positive reinforcement on the way that he made connections between the questions that were generated directly to the weakness in the arguments that he noted. In order to provide feedback that would encourage deeper thinking, I also suggest that he include a question for Candidate E that addresses her hasty generalization on education. This is specific to this student’s strengths and ability to think critically. I did not make this suggestion with average to low performing students as I wanted to focus on the positive reinforcement of practices skills and addressing any misunderstandings. Though this student met the objectives, it is important to recognize what he did successfully so that he can continue to do so as the unit moves on or in a future culminating project. Additionally, this student is the type to welcome feedback that gives him more to


consider as he as academically strong and confident. One of the other gifted students has shown more insecurity about her ability and this type of feedback might not be appropriate for her.

For the average performing student, Student #11, I continued to use positive feedback to reinforce understanding. However, I also posed questions to the student to address areas where he could have included more information or show a stronger connection. At several points, I included prompts to “explain” or “give evidence”. Specifically, I made a point to explain in detail at any point if points were taken off. This type of feedback is meant to direct any misunderstandings towards a better understanding. It is matched with plenty of positive feedback as well.

For the low-performing student, Student #20, some of the feedback resembled that of Student #11 in that it asked for explanations. However, the feedback also had to address the lack of attempts at completing certain portions. For one candidate, the student correctly listed follow-up questions, but had only put one example of rhetoric/persuasion down. This could indicate a couple of things. It is possible the student copied questions from another student or wrote them down during the discussion without understanding why. If this is the case, this needs to be addressed as the student does not have a proper understanding and this could be an issue in later lessons that build upon the skills measured in this assessment. Another possibility is that she simply did not attempt the task, which could have been affected by the distractions from other students sitting at her table. The best way for me to be able to assess her understanding would be to have her come outside of class to review the information for clarity. As she has done this in the past when her grade was not doing well, it is a possibility that she would be willing to come in for assistance again. As such, I noted in the empty spaces that she should come see me. This should also be addressed in person in order to encourage her choice to come for help. These are a part of her accommodations. Additionally, she is a student athlete and therefore has certain academic requirements that she needs to meet. This is something that has factored in with her seeking help in the past. I believe she wants to do well, but I also know that she is a very social and well-liked student who can be easily distracted by her peers.]

c. How will you support students to apply the feedback to guide improvement, either within the learning segment or at a later time?

[As this assessment was given at the end of this learning segment, the feedback provided is meant to guide improvement in future learning segments. A way to encourage students to observe, apply and improve upon feedback is to have a follow up assignment that requires the same skills in a similar manner, but perhaps with more depth. For example, a research project where students look at actual candidates. If a project or later related learning task is introduced, it would be helpful to have students refer back to this activity and assessment to guide their learning.]

3. Evidence of Language Understanding and Use

You may provide evidence of students’ language use from ONE, TWO, OR ALL THREE of the following sources:

1. Use video clips from Task 2 and provide time-stamp references for language use.

2. Submit an additional video file named “Language Use” of no more than 5 minutes in length and provide time-stamp references for student language use (this can be footage of one or more students’ language use). Submit the clip in Task 3, Part B.

3. Use the student work samples analyzed in Task 3 and cite language use.


When responding to the prompt below, use concrete examples from the video clips (using time-stamp references) and/or student work samples as evidence. Evidence from the clips may focus on one or more students.

a. Explain and provide evidence for the extent to which your students were able to use or struggled to use language (selected function, vocabulary, and additional identified language demands from Task 1) to develop content understandings.

[The student work samples show whether the students were able to successfully meet the language function of “evaluate” with varying levels of success. Student #5 uses many examples and direct references to the text when evaluating the candidates. He also shows an understanding of key flaws/weakness in each candidate’s argument by choosing questions that address these issues. For example, with Candidate C, Student #5 points how the candidate attacks his opponent’s gun policy without ever explaining his own. Student #5 writes a follow up question, “What is your gun policy?” This shows that the student made an evaluation of the candidate’s argument and saw that there was missing information. Student # 11 also applies the concepts needed for evaluation, but does not use any of the new language introduced. He does, however, identify key issues with each candidate’s statements and explains with evidence. For example, for Candidate B, he writes down “Appeals to the American people by explaining what happened to him.” This shows that he is recognizing the persuasive techniques. In her assessment, Student #20 shows that she is still struggling with the concepts. She noted “play the sympathy card” for Candidate B, which is related to the persuasive technique of pathos or appealing to emotion. She also writes “hates generalization”, which I can interpret as trying to use “hasty generalization” from her example which is “rich ppl try to take money and greedy.” This shows some conceptual understanding, but also shows that she has difficulty using academic language. This can also be seen overall in her writing. One of her questions is, “Was is his gun policy be?” For Candidate D, she writes down terms, but gives no examples. It is likely that this because she does not really understand the vocabulary and possibly just wrote down what other students were saying.

The video clips also show use of vocabulary and application of new concepts. In the video clip from Lesson 4 submitted for Task 2, a student can be heard around 3:25 struggling with some of the vocabulary. She describes a concept that she recognized in a candidate’s interview that she does not know the word for. I explain to her that it is a “buzz word” which was a new concept learned in Lesson 2. A 3:46, another student attempts to use some of the vocabulary introduced, but cannot remember the term, which is “false cause”. He instead says fallacy, which still shows an understanding of the language. He looks at the Smart board to see if it is there and I shortly after I notice this I change slides to the vocabulary slide for logical fallacies. As I did not expect students to try to use the terms, I did not give them a vocabulary sheet. I also did not want to overwhelm other students with too much information. However, this student was a high performing student who was quickly applying the new vocabulary to his evaluation of the candidate. At 5:11 a student points out that the candidate tries to “appeal to the audience” which is a concept that was covered in Lesson 2. He cites evidence directly from the text as he evaluates the candidate. At 5:43, Student #5, a focus student, points out that “right wing nut” is a personal attack.

The video clip for Lesson 4 vocabulary use, engagement in discourse about the content and a demonstration of the language function “evaluate”. the At the start of the video clip submitted for Task 2 for Lesson 4, there is evidence of Student #11, an average-performing focus student, demonstrating the chosen language function: evaluate. This student is the closest to the camera in an orange hoodie. He is discussing Candidate D and identifying that the candidate responds to a question about his economic plan with information about education.


When I walk in around 0:15, another student evaluates the opening statement of the candidate. Around 0:55, this student begins to ask questions about who is the person who asks the questions in the debates. Another student jumps in and says “moderators.” The student who brought up the question begins to engage in discourse about a past debate in which the student who said “moderators” becomes involved. At 1:40, Student #5 who is another focus student points out that I have made a “hasty generalization” about the audience of the debate. This is one of the terms introduced in the lesson. At 2:40 when I move the activity back to class-wide discussion, a student quickly points out they she noticed a “false analogy”. This student is off camera, but a student can be heard in the foreground also saying “false analogy.” At 3:11, another student at the far table brings up a “false dilemma” that the candidate uses and points out where in the text this is. Another student brings up an example of something he thinks is wrong, but cannot explain why. At 3:51, Student #5 points out that this is an example of “circular reasoning”. This shows how students are using vocabulary.]

4. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction

a. Based on your analysis of student learning presented in prompts 1b–c, describe next steps for instruction

for the whole class

for the 3 focus students and other individuals/groups with specific needs

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).

[The majority of students met the objective of the lesson successfully. The next step would be to have them apply learned skills and concepts to more difficult material. For example, I could have them look at primary source examples of political candidates using rhetoric and persuasion. This would move students towards mastery learning. I could also ask them to take their evaluations further by asking them to research and verify what they are reading. This is an important skill that is found in the New York State Framework for Social Studies and the Common Core Standards. Additionally, I would like to see the students create a final project that demonstrates that they have mastered the skills learned in this learning segment. An example of a culminating project could be to have a debate in class that resembles a presidential debate. Another which require them to use the skills and concepts, but also use higher order thinking skills, could be to create a website for a candidate that sells the candidate, but also has the strength of argument. This would require them to consider how to use persuasion and rhetoric while avoiding weaknesses in argumentation. This would also move the students up the levels of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to the top of the pyramid, which is “create.” This type of project would require more instruction, but would allow students to build upon prior skills. A project like this can be easily differentiated to student abilities as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

Student #20, one of the focus students who also has an IEP, still needs further instruction on these concepts and skills. My next step would be to meet with her to review her understanding. If she can demonstrate an understanding that is higher than what was shown in the assessment, I will recommend to her that she consider changing seats. This would probably not only help her, but the other struggling students as well. One of the students at that table has anxiety and has shown anxiety over her grades. I think she would greatly improve from a seat change. Her IEP says that she should be seated away from distractions, but the seating policy used by the cooperating teacher is that students can choose their own seats. A possible solution would be to change this policy upon consultation with the cooperating teacher. Another


could be to speak to the student who is doing most of the distraction, Student #10. A behavior conference that focuses on student responsibility could be effective.

If Student #20 cannot demonstrate an understanding when I speak with her about her assessment, I will use the accommodation found in her IEP, which allows me to work with her for additional time after school. This school has a specific extra period called “Period 10” for students who need additional supports. Some gifted students take extra classes such as Mandarin during this time, but it is also used for students with accommodations. Her IEP specifies that she is to regularly communicate with teachers about staying for help during “Period 10” and she has done so in the past. I speak to her Special Education teacher occasionally about her performance and he has suggested that she uses the 10th period to make up work that she is not completing during class.]

b. Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of the student learning. Support your explanation with principles from research and/or theory.

[My next steps are based on my analysis that students have been able to meet the demands of the learning objectives in this learning segment. This is based on the data from the assessment, which showed an average of 25.3/30 for the measurement of tasks successfully completed. The next objective is to focus on mastery learning of these skills by challenging the students to apply them to more difficult materials including primary sources. Benjamin Bloom’s school of thought stresses “mastery learning” of learning units before moving to a more advanced learning task. (Bloom 1985) It is my analysis that the students have reached a mastery level at applying these concepts to evaluate fictional candidates. A more advanced task would be to have them apply it directly to primary source material. Furthermore, by asking the students to research ton confirm or refute an argument, I would be adding an additional learning task that builds on skills that they have already mastered.

By having a project for the students to complete that requires the students to create something, such as a website for a candidate, I am having them use the highest level of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (BRT).(Anderson and Krathwohl 2001) This taxonomy orders functions of learning hierarchically and the highest function on the pyramid is “create.” Create is also an important 21st century skill. With the dawn of modern technology, many of the lower functions of BRT can be replaced by computers. However, “create” is currently a uniquely human function. Students that can master the ability to create meaningfully are more likely to be marketable in the current job market as well as be successful. The ability to create also fits within the C3 Framework for College and Career Readiness.

The next steps for the struggling students would be to address any issues that are impeding their ability to learn including distractions. For students whose performance is negatively impacted by distractions due to inattentiveness, preferential seating away from distractions is an appropriate solution. (US Department of Education 2004) Having a behavior conference with Student #10, who doing engaging in the most distracting behavior, is a research-based option as well. By asking the student to name the negative behavior himself and then offer his own solutions, I can move responsibility to him. This allows the student to take ownership for the bad behavior, but also for the solution. This is a best practice in classroom management. (Walker, Colvin, and Ramsey 1995)]

Lesson 1 Instructional Materials (Blog information throughout learning segment)

Class Blog Assignment during the Media Literacy Unit: "Campaign Finance Reform" Response by 3/10, Reply by 3/12 This week, I would like you to look at two different viewpoints on one issue: Campaign Finance Reform. One side is from a blog post and the other is a video from Senator Ted Cruz. Please evaluate each critically. You may find flaws in the arguments of both sides. Article: "Supreme Court: Money is free speech, provided you have money to start with"

“Every American” has the right to influence the political process with never-ending gobs of money. Provided that you ignore the fact that most Americans don’t have never-ending gobs of money, so they won’t ever be able to “speak” in politics at all.

Video: Ted Cruz discussing an amendment to limit campaign contributions

The text of the bill he is discussing can be found here: The Library of Congress

Text of the article for the blog:

Supreme Court: Money is free speech, provided you have money to start with

4/2/14 12:37pm by John Aravosis

The Supreme Court today struck down a federal law that limits the aggregate amount an individual can give to candidates, political parties and polical action committees (PACs) in one election cycle.

That amount was $123,200, and included a separate cap on giving to candidates of $48,600 per cycle.

Thanks to the McCutcheon v. FEC ruling, those limits are now gone.

Many are comparing today’s ruling to the infamous, and disastrous, Citizens United decision of 2010.

What the court left in place was the $2,600 per candidate limit that any one individual can give any particular candidate during an election cycle.

The court ruled 5-4, with all the court’s conservatives backing the striking down of the campaign finance limits. Clarence Thomas, of course, was upset with the court’s decision. Even though he supported it, he thinks all limits should be done away with.

Justice Roberts, for the court, concluded that the aggregate limits “intrude without justification on a citizen’s ability to exercise ‘the most fundamental First Amendment activities.’ ”

http://americablog.com/2014/04/todays-totally-gay-supreme-court-campaign-finance-bombshell.html

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c113:1:./temp/~c1137TwsBB::

http://americablog.com/author/john-aravosis

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/02/mccutcheon-v-fec_n_5076518.html

http://americablog.com/2012/06/feingold-thanks-to-scotus-and-citizens-united-were-in-a-constitutional-crisis.html


Supreme Court via Shutterstock

The argument that “money is free speech” reminds me of when the religious right tells gay people that they don’t need marriage equality because they can already get married in every state of the union.

But that’s not true, you think, gays can only get married in a (growing) handful of states – right?

The answer is simple, the religious right says: Just marry someone of the opposite sex!

The same “wishes were horses” argument applies to McCutcheon. “Every American” has the right to influence the political process with never-ending gobs of money. Provided that you ignore the fact that most Americans don’t have never-ending gobs of money, so they won’t ever be able to “speak” in politics at all.

Part of the reason we protect freedom of speech in this country is because we all have the ability to speak. The whole “fight bad speech with good speech” argument presumes that we can all speak in the first place.

And while that’s true of vocal speech, and physical speech (marching in a protest), it’s not true of economic speech.

Not everyone can afford to give money to a political candidate. And most couldn’t afford to give the old, now extinct, $123,000 limit in one election cycle – or a lifetime.

There is quite literally no way that you can fight economic speech with more speech if you don’t have the economic ability to speak in the first place. And most people don’t.

Most of us are quite literally gagged when it comes to pitting our economic speech against the speech of the rich, and the corporate, in the political realm. They have the money, the speech, and we don’t.

They can get married, and we can’t.

Video of this speech is included for response in the blog:

http://americablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/shutterstock_65757709-e1352343385461.jpg

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=65757709&src=id


Ted Cruz: Democratic Senators Want to

‘Repeal the First Amendment’

By Penny Starr | May 22, 2014 | 4:08 PM EDT

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) (AP photo)

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told attendees at a Family Research Council pastors

retreat that Senate Democrats want to limit free speech through amending the Constitution.

“When you think it can’t get any worse, it does,” Cruz said at the FRC’s Watchmen on the Wall

2014 event in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. “This year, I’m sorry to tell you, the United States

Senate is going to be voting on a constitutional amendment to repeal the First Amendment.”

Calling these “perilous, perilous times,” Cruz said Senate Democrats have said they are ready to

vote on the amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 19 – “an amendment to the Constitution of the

United States relating to contributions and expenditures intended to affect elections.”

“Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced the Senate Democrats are scheduling a vote on a

constitutional amendment to give Congress the authority to regulate political speech, because

elected officials have decided they don’t like it when the citizenry has the temerity to criticize

what they’ve done,” he said.

“They don’t like it when pastors in their community stand up and speak the truth,” Cruz said to

an audience of hundreds of pastors from across the country.

“And I’ll note this amendment, which has 41 Democratic senators as co-sponsors – 41

Democrats have signed on to repealing the First Amendment,” Cruz said. “It explicitly says

nothing in this new amendment shall abridge the freedom of the press.

“So the New York Times is protected, but it doesn’t say the same thing about the freedom of

speech,” Cruz said. “It doesn’t say the same thing about religious liberty.”

Cruz said Democrats want to limit free speech.

“What it says is that politicians in Washington have unlimited constitutional authority to muzzle

each and every one of you if you’re saying things the government finds inconvenient,” Cruz said.

http://cnsnews.com/author/penny-starr

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.J.RES.19:


Cruz was not scheduled to speak at the event but showed up to introduce one of the speakers –

his father, Rafael Cruz, an ordained minister.

Cruz said his father embodied the American dream, having emigrated from Cuba, landing his

first job as a dishwasher and going on to be a successful businessman.

Cruz related his father’s advice on preserving liberty in America.

“When we faced oppression in Cuba, I had a place to flee to,” the senior Cruz said. “If we lose

our freedom here, where do we go?”

Copy of the bill available through the Library of Congress:

S.J.RES.19 -- Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to

contributions and expenditures intended to affect elections. (Introduced in Senate - IS)

SJ 19 IS

113th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. J. RES. 19

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to contributions and

expenditures intended to affect elections.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

June 18, 2013

Mr. UDALL of New Mexico (for himself, Mr. BENNET, Mr. HARKIN, Mr. SCHUMER, Mrs.

SHAHEEN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. TESTER, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. COONS, Mr. KING, Mr.

MURPHY, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. FRANKEN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mr. UDALL of Colorado)

introduced the following joint resolution; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on

the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to contributions and

expenditures intended to affect elections.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in

Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following

article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall


be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the

legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:

`Article--

`Section 1. To advance the fundamental principle of political equality for all, and to

protect the integrity of the legislative and electoral processes, Congress shall have power

to regulate the raising and spending of money and in-kind equivalents with respect to

Federal elections, including through setting limits on--

`(1) the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for election to, or

for election to, Federal office; and

`(2) the amount of funds that may be spent by, in support of, or in opposition to

such candidates.

`Section 2. To advance the fundamental principle of political equality for all, and to

protect the integrity of the legislative and electoral processes, each State shall have power

to regulate the raising and spending of money and in-kind equivalents with respect to

State elections, including through setting limits on--

`(1) the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for election to, or

for election to, State office; and

`(2) the amount of funds that may be spent by, in support of, or in opposition to

such candidates.

`Section 3. Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress the power to

abridge the freedom of the press.

`Section 4. Congress and the States shall have power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation.'.

Lesson 2 Instructional Materials

The White House: Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release: September 10, 2013

Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on Syria

East Room

9:01 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:

[Clip 1] “The situation profoundly changed, though, on August 21st, when Assad’s government gassed to death over a thousand people, including hundreds of children. The images from this massacre are sickening: Men, women, children lying in rows, killed by poison gas. Others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath. A father clutching his dead children, imploring them to get up and walk. On that terrible night, the world saw in gruesome detail the terrible nature of chemical weapons, and why the overwhelming majority of humanity has declared them off-limits -- a crime against humanity, and a violation of the laws of war.”

[Clip 2] “Let me explain why. If we fail to act, the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons. As the ban against these weapons erodes, other tyrants will have no reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas, and using them. Over time, our troops would again face the prospect of chemical warfare on the battlefield. And it could be easier for terrorist organizations to obtain these weapons, and to use them to attack civilians.

If fighting spills beyond Syria’s borders, these weapons could threaten allies like Turkey, Jordan, and Israel. And a failure to stand against the use of chemical weapons would weaken prohibitions against other weapons of mass destruction, and embolden Assad’s ally, Iran -- which must decide whether to ignore international law by building a nuclear weapon, or to take a more peaceful path.

This is not a world we should accept. This is what’s at stake. And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike. The purpose of this strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime’s ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use.”

[Clip 3] “That's my judgment as Commander-in-Chief. But I’m also the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right, in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take this debate to Congress. I believe our democracy is stronger when the President acts with the support of Congress. And I believe that America acts more effectively abroad when we stand together.


“ABC World News” Weekend Anchor David Muir spoke with Gov. Mitt Romney today in Toledo, Ohio.

Below is a transcript of the interview which is aired tonight on “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” and

tomorrow morning on “Good Morning America.”

DAVID MUIR: Governor, thank you for doing this, the crowd is waiting for you. Let me just ask you –

you’ve seen the polls in Florida and Ohio and I’m curious what you would say to some of your supporters

tonight, your donors who might be concerned that this could be slipping away.

GOV. ROMNEY: Well I’m very pleased with some polls, less so with other polls, but frankly at this early

stage, polls go up, polls go down. We have the chance during our debates to make our message clear to the

American people, and I’m absolutely convinced when the people see the two of us talking about our direction

for America, they’re going to support me because I know what it takes to get this economy going again, and

the President has proven he does not.

MUIR: There are some who believe that these polls are just now a reflection of that videotape last week. You

were talking to donors, talking about the 47%, and you know on the tape you said “my job is not to worry

about those people, I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility” and I’m curious who

exactly you were talking about there.

ROMNEY: Well, I think as you look at the national polls, you see that I’m tied in the national polls, both

Gallup and Rasmussen have the numbers at even. State-by-state you’ve got some advertising going on from

the Obama people, which expresses their views on my positions, which frankly I think are inaccurate and in

some cases dishonest. The advantage I have is to go to the American people and describe how I’m going to get

America working again. How some of the things being said about me are not accurate, and mine is a campaign

about 100% of the people, not 99 and 1, not any other percent. It’s about getting 100% of the people in this

country to have a brighter future, better job prospects, and higher take-home pay.

MUIR: But about the people you said you couldn’t convince to take greater personal responsibility, those are

heavy words…

ROMNEY: What I’m talking about is a political process, I don’t’ expect to get 100% of the vote, I know I’m

not going to get 100%, I hope to get 50 plus percent and make sure that I become the next president. That’s

what my campaign is focused on. Get those numbers so I could become President and help all the people in the

country.

MUIR: We heard from your wife Ann who was responding to criticism from within your own party. I know

you have been in the ring before, you’ve heard it all before, but when you hear your wife that fired up about

the incoming fire, I’m curious what you think and what you say to your wife?

ROMNEY: Ann is a very strong character, she doesn’t like it when people go after me, but I’m just fine I got

broad shoulders. I’m happy to fend off the attacks that come my way and frankly all of this is diversion from

what the people of America care about. What they want to know is who is going to make their life better, who

is going to make sure we have more jobs, who’s going to make sure we have more take home pay. Who is


going to keep America strong abroad, who is going to cut our military. The President is. As those questions

are asked and answered in the weeks that are here til the final day of November 6th I become the next

president because I think the American people believe I can get this economy going and they have seen he

can’t.

MUIR: But about those critics within your own party, will there be any changes at the top? Are you doing

anything wrong?

ROMNEY: There are critics and there are cheerleaders, we have people of all different persuasion, and

frankly

MUIR: So no changes?

ROMNEY: Well every day there are improvements and new messages that come out. What the President said

just the other day about bumps in the road, with regards to the events in the Middle East, that obviously was a

whole new area to be discovered and discussed. And so almost every day it, particularly with debates, there

will be a lot of new material that’s going to come forward.

MUIR: One last question, you bring up the debate, one week from tonight, a lot of your supporters want to

know – are you going to win it?

ROMNEY: I’m going to describe very clearly what I will do to get America working again and the President

will describe his own view, and I believe the American people are going to side with me.

MUIR: You’ve been practicing, any nerves?

ROMNEY: Uh I don’t worry about the opportunity to be on the air and to face the president – he has his

views, I have mine. I’m going to let the American people make their choice and I think when they do, they’re

going to choose the guy who understands what it takes to get America working again and I do.


Candidate A: Aaron Appleton running for President

Tell us about yourself Governor Appleton.

I have represented the good people of Alabama for over 15 years. I started out as a state representative

and have served two terms as governor. My family has served the state of Alabama for 3 generations. I

believe it is time that I take my experience to the White House to serve the American people.

What is your plan to fix the broken economy?

As governor, I instituted an economic plan that I call the “American Dream Plan.” It is based on the

ideals of freedom, justice and hard work that have built this country. If you vote for me, I promise to

restore the American Dream. My plan is better, smarter and at the heart of America.

Why should we vote for you?

When I instituted my economic plan in Alabama, the national unemployment rate went down two

percent. National exports had a 3 percent growth and over 200,000 jobs were created. That is the kind

of economic growth I aim for and my record has proven.

How do you feel about your opponent’s “Economic Recovery” plan?

My opponent is a right-wing nut. He would take this country into an economic depression if he were

elected. Even his wife of 15 years left him. He is clearly an immoral person whom we cannot trust to run

our country. Would you want a dishonest person running our country?

What is your foreign policy?

I believe in Common Sense Diplomacy. I think we can all agree on who are enemies are. My plan would

be to focus on our allies and building those relationships.

Would you send more troops overseas?

First of all, let me say that I support our troops and the sacrifices that they make. As Commander in

Chief, I would only ask the men and women who serve this country to risk their lives if there is an

imminent danger to the American people.


Candidate B: Barry Bundick running for Senator in Ohio

What can you bring to the Senate?

I understand the plight of Americans. During the economic crisis, I lost my factory job with 3 children to

feed. I went looking for a job every day, but it was not enough. We had to sell our home at half its worth

and then my youngest got sick. We had no health insurance, but I knew she needed hospital care and

more debt was piled onto us. However, I never gave up hope. I always believed things would get better.

If elected, I will bring the strength and hope that got me through rough times to the Senate seat in Ohio.

What do you plan to accomplish if elected?

When I was campaigning in southern Ohio, I met a farmer who told me that all he wanted was a new

tractor. A new tractor would mean higher productivity and increase his output. I realize that new

tractors are what all small-town Ohio farmers need. I will push legislation to make this come true for all

farmers in Ohio.

What about the middle class?

I understand the plight of the middle class in this country because I have been there. I have struggled

and known what it is like to not know where my kids’ next meal will come from. I will fight for the

middle class in Congress.

How will you deal with unemployment?

Well, I have always liked the expression, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to

fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I believe we need to give the unemployed the opportunity to get

new training.

What makes you more qualified than your opponent?

My opponent is rich and greedy. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and has no idea what it

means to work for her money. She sends her children to private school because she does not believe in

our public school system. If we elect another millionaire to a Senate seat, we’re giving away Congress to

the rule of the wealthy who will squeeze every dollar out of us that they can.

Candidate C: Charley Carson running for Governor of Pennsylvania

What qualifications do you have for the officer of governor?

I received my doctorate in economics from NYU and ran my own successful business for thirty years. If

you want someone who is qualified for the tough job of turning around our state economy, it only

makes sense to hire an economist. I understand how supply and demand work and will use my

experience to fix our state’s problems. I am the right person to turn around our local economy as I have

all intention of helping the economy grow.

You opponent supports gun reform by increasing restrictions and requiring background checks. In

addition, she wants to increase enforcement. Where do you fall on gun rights?

I believe my opponent’s plan is anti-gun. She wants to take guns out of the hands of lawful owners and

thrust them into the hands of criminals. It is a policy that will lead to more gun deaths and not a good

solution at all. If you want to take away second amendment rights, support her anti-gun plan. If you

believe in the right to protect yourself, vote for me.

How do you plan to deal with rising crime rates?

I think it’s time we make a serious change in leadership. The Democratic Party has been controlling this

state for the last 4 years and crime rates have continued to increase. I think it is clear that the

Democrats have made crime worse in our state.

How do you plan to deal with corruption in state politics?

I believe this is a major concern for the people of our state. I pledge to bring honesty to the statehouse.

More importantly, accountability is vital to bringing real reform. Any politician found of wrongdoing will

be charged with any criminal charges that apply and held accountable to the law. As governor, I will not

be giving any breaks.

How will you get the state budget passed on time?

I have no control over the individuals in the state legislature who want to stop our government from

working. All I can say is that I promise to work hard for the people of our state and do whatever it takes.

Candidate D: Dr. David Dickenson for House Representative in South Dakota

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Dr. David Dickenson and I have been practicing as a Pediatrician for 25 years. I care about

my community and have served on my local Board of Education for the past 5 years. It is my impression

that the people of this state are tired of politicians who talk and talk, but never accomplish anything. If I

only talked to patients and never treated them, I’d have a lot of sick patients. If elected, I would listen to

the concerns of people in South Dakota way I listen to my patients.

Your opponent has pushed his economic plan, promising to increase the number of small businesses.

What is your economic plan?

Yes, my opponent keeps talking about his economic plan, but what about the 35% of high school

students who do not graduate or the 60% that are unprepared for college. I don’t know about you, but I

have deep concerns about these statistics.

So what would you do?

I believe the key to fixing our problems is to revamp our education system. Too many of our children are

failing and dropping out of school. My plan will raise the standards and increase funding for public

schools. You can either support my plan for real change in the public school system or give up on the

futures of our children. If you do not care about the children of the state, vote for my opponent.

Where would you find the funding for your education program?

Well, partially from necessary tax increases. We also need to make significant cuts to our defense

budget. We outspend any other nation.

How would you deal with unemployment?

Well, the key to employment is to increase cash flow. I would make sure that the unemployed have

more money in their pockets to spend. It is time that the one percenters start paying their fair share.

What would you say to those still undecided voters?

The poll numbers are clear. We are going to win this election. It is because my policies are the best. Join

us on the winning side and vote for me on Election Day.

Candidate E: Evelyn Everson running for President

Tell us about yourself.

I have served as Senator for Indiana for 8 years now. Before that, I served my country in Iraq where I

saw first-hand the sacrifices that our military make to protect our freedoms at home. As Senator, I have

a long record of voting to support our military in any way we can. If elected, I would bring leadership

qualities to the White House, which I feel are in great need at this time.

You’re running against an incumbent. Do you think that makes it more difficult to win?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

Gordon Goodman has been the president for 4 years and failed to fix our broken healthcare system. No

sane person could vote for him again.

What is your plan for education?

Everybody agrees that the Common Core is failing our students. My own children struggle with it, I think

this is true for all of our children. I would get rid of the Common Core.

Education should be controlled by the states. Our federal government has no business making a national

curriculum. I see this as a states’ rights issue.

What is your foreign policy?

We are a leader in the world and with that comes great responsibility. It is important to show our

strength and wield it when necessary. We must advocate freedom for those who cannot do so for

themselves. I believe the best way to do this is by influencing our allies and using our power in the

United Nations to encourage international action.

How would you deal with unemployment?

I think it’s time we look at balancing our budget. The government continues to go further into debt and

it seems no one is ready to make the hard decisions. I will make those difficult decisions.

Secondary History/Social Studies Task 1: Context for Learning Information


TASK 1: CONTEXT FOR LEARNING INFORMATION


brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored.

About the School Where You Are Teaching

1. In what type of school do you teach? (Type an “X” next to the appropriate description; if “other” applies, provide a brief description.)

Middle school: _____ High school: __X___ Other (please describe): _____ Urban: _____ Suburban: _____ Rural: __X___

2. List any special features of your school or classroom setting (e.g., charter, co-teaching, themed magnet, remedial course, honors course) that will affect your teaching in this learning segment.

[My school is a public high school which teaches grades 9-12. There are 920 students attending the school, with 211 students in the senior class. This school does not have a population diversity comparative to other schools in the state. The student population is 77% White, 14% Hispanic, 6% black and 3% Asian/Pacific Islander. The state averages are 48% White, 23% Hispanic, 19% Black and 9% Asian/Pacific Islander. In addition, only 16% of students participate in a free or reduced-price lunch program versus the state average of 43%. The relative homogeneity of the student population suggests that diversity will need addressed in some manner. In a class such as Participation in Government, it is valuable to bring in a diversity of viewpoints as well.]

3. Describe any district, school, or cooperating teacher requirements or expectations that might affect your planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing plan, use of specific instructional strategies, or standardized tests.

[This class is a one semester course required by the state for graduation. The school offers an alternative, American Law, in order to fulfill the requirement. This was offered only the first semester. Many of the students in this class took Economics last semester, which is the other course required in Social Studies for graduation. There is not a set curricula required by the school for this class. There is also not a State Regents exam for the class. However, there is a framework laid out by the state that fits within the state curriculum for social studies. Also, my cooperating teacher has provided a course outline, which includes the topics and concepts that he expects to be covered. Additionally, there are key ideas that students must understand to cover topics later in the semester after I leave. This means that I have a responsibility to provide this foundation in the class. Out of respect for the cooperating teacher, I maintain his policy of letting students choose their own seats and the layout for the desks. The class is set up into 6 pods around the room with 4 or 6 desks in each. I can easily move around the classroom during instruction. Students are allowed to choose their own seats and this means that students tend to group by social group. In this class, this also means by academic ability. The higher achieving students sit at two tables together, while a few lower achieving students also sit together. I need to take this into consideration during planning. This allows me to focus on other groups during group work]



About the Class Featured in This Assessment

1. What is the name of this course?

[Participation in Government]

2. What is the length of the course? (Type an “X” next to the appropriate description; if “other” applies, provide a brief description.)

One semester: ___X__ One year: _____ Other (please describe): _____

3. What is the class schedule (e.g., 50 minutes every day, 90 minutes every other day)?

[41 minutes every day]

4. Is there any ability grouping or tracking in history/social studies? If so, please describe how it affects your class.

[There is tracking in social studies in this school. There are AP courses offered for each grade level in history. However, this course is a general requirement and has students of mixed abilities. In this particular class, there is one student currently taking AP Euro and a few who took AP US History last year. All students take Participation in Government with the exception of those that opt to take American Law. American Law does not have any eligibility requirements, but is often taken by high achieving students. The tracking of students in prior years has created social grouping that is reflected in the class. Students choose their own seating as per the cooperating teacher’s policy. This has led to an informal ability grouping. This is something I have to take into consideration when using group work in the class.]

5. Identify any textbook or instructional program you primarily use for history/social studies instruction. If a textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication.

[McClenaghan, William A. (2013) Magruder’s American Government. Pearson, Prentice Hall. This text is available to the students as a resource in the classroom, but is not used directly for the class by my cooperating teacher. He also has many primary documents and resources available as planning tools. There are copies of some resources found in shelves at the back of the classroom.]

6. List other resources (e.g., electronic whiteboard, resource library in classroom, online resources) you use for history/social studies instruction in this class.

[The classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard and two computers. One computer is at the front of the classroom and the other is in the back of the classroom. I allow students to request to use the computer in the back of the room to look information up at times during class. This has been done when discussing current events in class. There are also chalkboards on either side of the whiteboard and in the back of the classroom.]

About the Students in the Class Featured in This Assessment

1. Grade-level composition (e.g., all seventh grade; 2 sophomores and 30 juniors):

[19 seniors, 1 junior]

2. Number of students in the class: __20___

males: __10___ females: ___10__



3. Complete the chart below to summarize required or needed supports, accommodations, or modifications for your students that will affect your instruction in this learning segment. As needed, consult with your cooperating teacher to complete the chart. Some rows have been completed in italics as examples. Use as many rows as you need.

Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/supports or accommodations/modifications to instruction or assessment (e.g., English language learners, gifted students needing greater support or challenge, students with Individualized Education Programs [IEPs] or 504 plans, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge).

Students with Specific Learning Needs

IEP/504 Plans: Classifications/Needs

Number of Students

Supports, Accommodations, Modifications, Pertinent IEP Goals

504 Plan: Writing Fluency, Organizational and Executive Processing

1 Impairment affects student’s ability for cognitive reasoning and to follow-through with academic expectations/ Student receives counseling 1x weekly and preferential seating away from distractions. Communication with the student’s parents is recommended as needed. This student also has behavioral issues and has been suspended on several occasions. This interrupts his instruction as he has missed many classes and is often unwilling to makeup work.

IEP: Reading Comprehension, math application, processing deficiencies in short-term memory and fluid reasoning

1 Student may need help with refocusing and redirection as the student is easily distracted. Student receives counseling 1x weekly and testing modifications including extended time (1.5), flexible setting and reading of passages and questions aloud to the student. For written assignments, the student should have access to a spell-check device. Student is to communicate with the teacher about staying after school for assistance. Student also receives a copy of class notes upon request.

Other Learning Needs Number of Students

Supports, Accommodations, Modifications

New Student/Junior Class 1 One student is recently new to this school. The student is also a junior and has been placed in this class because it is a semester course and will prevent any interruption in the progression towards graduation. Unlike the rest of the students, the student has not yet



taken U.S. History and Government. This creates a gap in academic knowledge that may hinder the student’s ability to participate if not addressed.

Gifted Students 4 There is currently one student taking an AP European History class who also took AP U.S. History in junior year. There are 3 additional students that took AP U.S. History in junior year.

Eating disorder/Sever Anxiety 1 One student has a medical alert for an eating disorder and severe anxiety. These are not to be discussed with the student unless brought up. Student has expressed anxiety over grades and receives feedback on performance whenever requested.

Documents

Portfolio: Tiffany Izzo - Teaching and Learning Using ...tizzoteaching.weebly.com/.../edtpa_combined.pdf · Portfolio: Tiffany Izzo My edTPA portfolio submitted to Pearson for certification