Olivia's Topic 1 notes — two questions for James (29 September 2026)

INTRO-script — I'm not clear the purpose of this video so am having trouble reviewing it. The video does not say "What words were missing" like the script does. I showed my forth grader and he seemed to like it. But I feel like it could use some context - why are we watching this? We students come back to it?

L01-script — This has promise but there are some very confusing things. Why did Mia point in the wrong direction? Why was the ball suddenly become visible? I like the landmark/position framing. The video should just make more sense. Maybe the ball is hidden under something, or in a big pile, or maybe there are a lot of similar objects (soccer balls at the end of a soccer game? And someone is directly another person toward a specific one).

L02-script — Again, decent video, very confusing execution. Objects should not just randomly appear. Also , "two steps away from the door" could be two steps in all sorts of different directions. I will add my 7th grader said "a desk is not a landmark!" so this might conflict with other definitions of "landmark" students have received. "Reference point" could be another idea? *I'm coming back after looking at future lessons - do we need "landmark" at all? Is there a use for it later on? If it's only a way to get at defining "position" I would instead simply use the appropriate Engleman's DI sequences.

L03-script — This is pretty good. But in the beginning we know where the truck is, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to say "near the door is not enough" - not enough for what? We can see both the door and the car.

L03-article — I'm not sure it works to have a reading that is the exact same script as a video. I might just do the video.

L03-q1 — "Which object is the landmark in this sentence." -> shows that the "landmark" is relative.

L03-q2 — This just feels very specific to this video. I would have text again.

L03-q3 — "Each circle shows one step. How many steps..." -> also from which part of the window? and the final step in the image is not directly next to the ball.

L03-q4 — Maybe label left and right, they are relative.

L03-q5 — bold or italic or make all caps - "exactly"

L03-q6 — bold or italic or make all caps - "exactly"

L03-q7 — Remove "The chair is two steps from the table" from the question. Leave the answer choices. Ask "Which sentence tells you the direction you must take to get from the chair to the table?"

L03-q8 — "... tells you the distances between the tent and campfire"

L03-q9 — "tells you the direction of the soccer ball compared to the goal"

L03-q12 — I think this is too linguistically confusing and would just cut it.

L03-q13 — bold or italic "far", you could do "far away"

L03-q14 — bold or italic "way"

L01-q7 — You did not introduce this context for "landmark" - I'd remove this.

L01-q8 — I don't love this but don't have a great alternate definition. It's just very broad.

L01-q9 — This was not reviewed in the quiz. It need to be a "recognition" task before retrieval. I think most students would get this wrong.

L02-q1 — I'm again questioning "landmark" as a vocabulary word and think "reference point" or "reference object" might be better. Also, whatever you use, I'd have some questions and more emphasis in the video on what is NOT a landmark. "The bike is the object we are trying to find. The shed is our landmark/reference object. The bike is NOT our reference point"

L02-q3 — Add more info in the video about the landmark definition. At the end say something like. "If you say "The ball in under the table," you have a sentence with two objects. One object is the object you are trying to find - here the object you are trying to find is the ball. The other object is the landmark/reference point. This object help you find your object. A landmark is an object that is easy to see. It can help you find something else (this is only a so-so definition). A

L02-q8 — This is a little dicey because technically "that" is a stand in for an object, so in reality it sort of is naming an object. It's a little like, "Which words give this description a person? "He went" "Robert went"

L02-q9 — Delete "The bird is up high." Ask "Which sentence contains a landmark?" The answer sentences don't "add" to the original sentence, they are just new sentences.

L02-q10 — I would delete this. If someone said this in real life there would be context that might make it exact. I wouldn't use questions that require us to pretend language is used differently than it is in reality.

L04-script — This is making me wonder the need for the "landmark" videos at all. Is the purpose of those simply to define position? You can just define position with a DI sequence of examples and the other things they use. For this video my only other comment is I might say " Imagine we turn the light off" instead of "look away." It's a little strange to say "look away" and then the screen turns black.

L04-article — The first sentence would be better as "compare the car in the before and after image" - again I'm not sure how useful a video transcript is as the main reading. Perhaps it works as a reference? I'm not sure.

L04-q1 — As noted in the other comment, I'm doubting the value of "landmark" - but maybe it's useful for a later lesson I don't know about yet.

L04-quiz — It feels like these questions should come on a video that doesn't use the word "position" and then there should be a video that uses the word "position" and the questions should be "did the X change position" - at first use "The X changed its position" or "The X did not change its position" but then half way through require them to write a full sentence "The ball changed its position" "The ball did not change its position" (you could exclude the "its"

L05-script — Ah, I wish this could be posted on YouTube, I do measurement in class and have been wanting to make a video like this. But it needs some changes. The dialog of the kids doesn't make sense (they speak in fragments) and doesn't get readdressed. Also "long" and "short" are relative and not useful here. They could say "I wondered how far the car traveled." (Also the child says "a lang way" instead of " a long way" for some reason). There needs to be a bigger deal made of measuring from the same side of the car each time. The FRONT of the car is at the zero mark so you need to measure from the FRONT of the car everytime. If might be nice to show why this is. Anyway I do this literally with cubes in person with 3rd grade and lots of kids measure from the wrong side of the cube. The end rule is kind of confusing, specially "put zero at the start mark." Better is something like "Put the zero line on the ruler in the place where your object was before it moved" Alternatively, I think kids might understand "starting line" better (although I'm not fully sure). I also would say "toy car" throughout and maybe show a kid using it as a toy in the beginning. Otherwise this gives the impression that real cars are only centimeters long.

L05-v1 — This is confusing and is a language challenge. Instead, show an image and ask where the O should go.

L05-q1 — bold or italicize "far"

L05-q2 — "starting line." Maybe somewhere tell them, when you "read" the number off a ruler, we can call that a "reading"

L05-q4 — Students were never hold how to measure when on an unnumbered line

L05-q5 — Students were never hold how to measure when on an unnumbered line

L05-q8 — same as above

L05-quiz — Only do questions showing the ruler. Add question (and video instruction) on mistakes when measuring. Show an image lining up the edge of the ruler and ask what's wrong. Show a measurement from the front and back of an object and ask what's wrong.

L05b-script — The video starts off using numbers without units!!! Also - start with using simple even numbers, then make the math more complex. Say "the front of the shell started at Xcm. This is our starting line. Or you could call it a "start line" and "finish line" - I think due to sports that more familiar language.

L05b-v1 — I would just have them do the math instead of asking them how to do the math.

L05b-q2 — I might show two panels, the before and after moving for all of these

L05b-q7 — no word only questions for this

L05b-q9 — no word only questions for this

L05b-q10 — no word only questions for this