ROBERT LEABONYS & ARIZONA LICENSED TEACHER

Enduring edTPA

Introduction

*I was where you are now and I survived!* In the spring 2014 I student taught and took my first steps

toward becoming a licensed teacher. It was also during that time that NY was changing as it adopted the common core state standards. With that, they overhauled their teacher-certification requirements too. I completed the elementary education edTPA but many components are the same across specialties.

Enter: ALST, EAS and edTPA http://www.nystce.nesinc.com/http://edtpa.aacte.org/https://leaborb192.wordpress.com/robs-edtpa-spring-2014/I’ll provide the audio for you auditory learners too.

edTPA “rationale”

According to some “big names” in education, they felt the need to ensure that quality teachers enter the classroom and carry out the rigorous standards as well as teach students to the best of their ability. The edTPA is nothing more than a professional video portfolio to demonstrate this competency to teach.

However, I am skeptical of its cost and connections with Pearson. Nonetheless, it’s here to stay so this is where I come in. This powerpoint paired with my submitted assignments have already helped – and will continue to help – teacher-candidates be successful.

Quick tips for success

Read, re-read, organize and KNOW the edTPA handbook provided by your college. At the end of the day, YOU are responsible for your success.

Consult with your professors, mentor teachers, college supervisor, etc. to know deadlines. Deadlines are key to tackling the assignment. My own supervisor set up deadlines for each part and it really helped. Chew the edTPA in small bites before you swallow!

Understand all tasks and their components (this is where I come in to help) EDIT YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU SUBMIT! You need to check, double

check, and triple-check grammar, spelling and the rubrics. They say they don’t grade grammar, but we know that’s not true.

Know how to use your camera and all necessary technology BEFORE you upload the final products. This is not a game or fun video to upload on Youtube; this is YOUR future career!

Know the curriculum and common core standards for your lessons. It will help!

Use any published resources available. We didn’t have much when I had to submit but there’s probably more guides and handbooks now.

Elementary Education edTPA

The handbook has since changed since I completed it, but I believe the tasks remain the same. Here’s an overview of the tasks before I go into each one individually.

Task one: Planning for Literacy (ELA lessons)Task two: ELA lesson commentary –and the video – You

record yourself teach and talk about itTask three: Reflect and evaluate student work samplesTask four: Planning, evaluating and reflecting on math

lessons (no video required as far as I know)*Always consult the handbook as it is your number 1

tool for success.

Task 1 part A: Context

*Regardless of your specialty (elementary ed, literacy, special ed, Spanish, ect.) you will be required to complete the context for the lessons.

The context simply refers to where do you teach and who are your students. You want to be as thorough as possible (remember mine is not perfect but it got me a high score)!

You need to explain as much as possible because the people watching the video do not know your school. If you teach in a Title 1 school where half your class has learning disabilities, low readers, or ELL (like my class), they need to know that because that will guide your instruction and adapt for those learners.

This is pretty self explanatory.

Disclaimer

This is where the explanations will get quite lengthy as I attempt to decipher each task and really put it in layman’s terms (What is it saying and asking for?)

I will refer to my own samples to help explainRemember: at the end of the day, this is YOUR

assignment and YOU are responsible for your success.

The edTPA is daunting but possible; I passed with the highest score of my cohort and am now licensed in NY and Arizona

Task 1 B,C,D & E- ELA Planning and materials

• Central focus - Describe the central focus and purpose for the content you will teach in the learning segment. (This is basically your chance to answer the what and why. What are you teaching the kids and why is it important? My students learned to use graphic organizers to organize information and respond to writing tasks.)

Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your learning segment address an essential literacy strategy requisite skills reading/writing connections(What is the essential literacy strategy? Are they annotating text? Learning to

decode words? Use complete sentences as they respond to writing? Literacy refers to reading, writing and thinking! What requisite skills are needed and applied? My students needed to already understand the difference between fact and opinion; how to read various kinds of texts and respond in writing. What is the reading-writing connection? Will they read and write an essay? Write a poem? My kids read informational text, and used their graphic organizers to write a persuasive essay using facts to support their claims.)

Task 1

Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make connections between skills and the essential strategy to comprehend OR compose text in meaningful contexts.

(First, are students learning to comprehend (decode and understand) text or will they write text? You need to make sure your focus picks a lane: reading or writing; however, in the end they will intersect as you make the connection between reading and writing. It seems convoluted in a way. They’re really just “splitting hairs.” Nevertheless, your lesson plans should involve a sequence. That’s really all they’re asking here. What will you teach in the first, second, third and fourth lesson and how will they progress to help students learn? We know that we’ll introduce it, the students will practice and it will culminate in an assessment. In my own lessons we talked about fact and opinion; then, they practiced using “opinion triggers” as they read text and classified examples and by the fourth lesson they used graphic organizers to write text.)

Task 1

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, 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—What do students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do?

(You have the opportunity to explain more about your students and their learning needs. It seems kind of unfair given you just stepped foot into the classroom and now are expected to have bonded and know everything about your kids… oh well, welcome to teaching… anyway you answer the questions: what do they already know and can do? And What are they learning to do? Teachers plan lessons based on their students’ needs and interests; you get to expand on that here. Some of my kids already knew about fact and opinion but weren’t 100% on it so I got to explore that in the lessons. We also reviewed how to write complete sentences, syntax, proper grammar, etc as I taught second graders.)

Task 1

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?

(Again, get to know your students to help answer this question. But basically it assumes that your students come from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences… mine didn’t… so I just spoke to what I knew (that they’re all the same color, similar socio-economic backgrounds and all live in the same small town where I came from. Now if you student teach in the city, you’re in for a treat and can really pontificate here. You actually have diversity in your classroom.)

Task 1

3. Supporting Students’ Literacy Learning Respond to prompts 3a–c below. To support your explanations, 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. Explain 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.

(I hope you know your “biggies” in education because here’s where you need to name drop! But not just name drop (e.g. “Vygotsky said…”) you really need to explain using pedagogical and psychological knowledge. I talk a lot about ZPD and scaffolding to instruct students as well as Dewey’s experiential education because those are two philosophies of education that are important to know. Be prepared to be a researcher here and back up whatever you say using text-evidence and research. Don’t ever say, “We’re doing this lesson because it’s ‘fun’”)

Task 1

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

(This prompt is all about how are you differentiating your instruction to meet all your learners’ needs? It’s pretty self-explanatory; obviously if you have students who can’t read, you might pull them aside and teach them some strategies or utilize technology (computers) for students who can’t write well or even use choice boards for your enrichment kiddos. If students have 504 plans or IEPS, you had BETTER refer to them. We’re not all the same and neither are they. Remember that!)

Task 1

Describe common misconceptions or common developmental approximations within your literacy central focus and how you will address them.

(What mistakes or errors might your students make as you teach the lessons and how will you help them? For example: if you’re teaching singular/plural and the students write “tooths”, it’s obvious they don’t understand that you don’t just add “s” to everything – despite what they’ve learned– so be ready to handle that. Always have an answer when students say, “But I thought…”)

Task 1

Supporting Literacy Development Through Language a. Language Function. Identify one language function essential for students

to learn the literacy strategy 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 Argue Categorize Compare/contrast Describe Explain Interpret Predict Question Retell Summarize

(This is the action verb used in your objective of your lesson plan. As a teacher I now use “I can” when writing objectives, you could do the same. “I can predict the events of a text using the cover page and pictures in a story.” My students classified statements as fact or opinion.)  

Task 1

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.)

(This is where you give students the opportunity to practice the objective. For example: my students used graphic organizers to classify statements as fact or opinion in most of the lessons. If you want students to summarize text, you need to give them the opportunities to do so.)

Task 1

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 or key phrases Plus at least one of the following language demands: 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?

(This prompt is asking about the nitty gritty of language. For example: my students had to understand what fact and opinion is and utilize the various triggers “I believe, I think, I feel” for opinion and facts can be proven as true. Students also needed to understand that written and spoken language has order “I go to the store.” If you want your students to craft an argument, for example, they’d need to understand that the style of writing and language demands are much different and will depend on the target audience.)

Task 1

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.

(Again, how are you, as the teacher, helping to ensure that all your students are learning? If you want students to make a prediction about the story using text-features and they respond (orally or in writing) with “I like this story,” they obviously don’t understand the verb “predict”, so how will you help them? I taught second graders and had to model every step of the process as well as give them opportunities to practice in groups and individually and scaffolded when needed. Basically you just answer the question “Are all my students learning? If not, how am I adapting?” )

Task 1

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 your planned formal and informal

assessments will provide direct evidence that students can use the literacy strategy and requisite skills to comprehend or compose text throughout the learning segment.

(You look at your assessments and ask yourself, “How will these show if my students learned?” Select assessments that match your objectives- if you want students to classify shapes, then the assessment needs to be opportunities for the students to do that- to show you if they can do that or not.)

Task 1

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

(Again – TEACH ALL STUDENTS! For example if you want students to classify shapes as polygons or non polygons and to draw them on the paper but have a student who has delayed motor skills; allow that student to actually manipulate the 3D shapes and put them in two categories as an adaptation of the lesson. Or allow students to supplement their explanations with visuals to help. This is the EAS exam by the way. And don’t forget your gifted kids. What can they do besides classify shapes? Maybe specify them (quadrilateral, hexagon, etc) and where you’d find them in the world? )

TAKE A BREAK!

Take a time out and reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

Check your own edTPA assignments and hanbook to ensure that you understand task one before moving onto the rest of the tasks

Ready for more?

Task 2: ELA Instruction Commentary

Lights, camera, action!

Reminders!

Before you can start filming, you need to do the following:

Test your technology, equipment, space and…GET PARENTAL CONSENT TO FILM THE

KIDS! Make sure you adhere to all confidentially

laws and policies of the school. Don’t film the kids and then put the video on the internet. The parents are trusting YOU!

Filming

Test the light, space and sound. If it’s too dark or too quiet… DON’T use the clips. If the video records upside down (which happened)… DON’T use the clips!

It’s not your mentor’s job to record you but if you ask nicely enough, they might hold the camera. It’s nice to build a rapport with your teacher.

15 minutes of footage is all you get… so you need to make sure it’s good. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! I recorded my kids for weeks and

moved the camera (an iphone on a tripod and my laptop) all around the room to see where the best footage came from. I ended up doing a small group and put the laptop right at the end of the table.

Remember – if you wait until the deadline, record one lesson and it’s garbage – it’s YOUR FAULT!

Get at least a week’s worth of footage so you can select the best 15 minutes and really own it in the commentary! They’re really looking at how well you interact with students; instruct and let them demonstrate knowledge. They want to see the students DOING vs. watching you TALK for 15 minutes.

Task 2

Promoting a Positive Learning Environment In response to the prompt, refer to scenes in the video clips where

you provided a positive learning environment. 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?

(To me this was hard to demonstrate and very meta but I interpreted it as scenes where the kids look like they’re genuinely expressing themselves, enjoying school, etc. We laughed a lot, the kids answered questions incorrectly and we talked about them… I used their incorrect answers to go down those paths of discussion. Obviously if you just TALK AT the students (or yell), etc., that really doesn’t demonstrate respect for students. So don’t include any clips of students fighting… should be a no-brainer but I’m saying it anyway. You know your students, so select the best clips you can. And then you just refer to the clips, “In clip 1, THIS happened…”)

Task 2

3. Engaging Students in LearningRefer to examples from the video clips in your

responses to the prompts.a. Explain how your instruction engaged

students in developing an essential literacy strategy and requisite skills.

(Again, what is your literacy strategy (mine was using graphic organizers) and what scenes show students DOING that? If you want students to decode words using vowel teams and don’t show them doing that in the clips, DON’T use the clips!)

Task 2

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

(Use clips that show you activating students’ background knowledge. For example – if you’re teaching about story elements you might ask students “What do we already know about the story ‘Three Little Pigs?’) then connect that to talking about character, setting, conflict, resolution, etc.)

Task 2

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 to

promote thinking and apply the literacy strategy using requisite skills to comprehend or compose text.

(This can go one of two ways – either students answer your questions correctly and you ask more enriching questions/ complete more challenging tasks or if students answer questions incorrectly, you challenge their answers and allow them to the opportunities for re-learning. For example: I had students who incorrectly classified statements as fact or opinion so then we re-viewed what the terms actually mean and I gave the students more opportunities to discuss and practice. This will occur organically as you teach the lessons. If students are decoding and pronounce br/ea/d as “br/a/d”, then they don’t understand the literacy strategy and thus re-teach is required.)

Task 2

Explain how you modeled the literacy strategy and supported students as they practiced and applied the literacy strategy in a meaning-based context.

(Again, what are YOU the teacher doing to show students how to learn? I explicitly taught my students how to use graphic organizers (Venn-Diagram) to classify statements and then we worked through practice examples together before they completed them independently. If you’re teaching students to annotate and highlight text, then we need to see YOU doing it before they can do it.)

Task 2

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)?

(We ALWAYS reflect – well the good teachers anyway– on what could I have done differently to improve that lesson? Here’s your chance. You don’t always get to do what you wanted to and that’s OK, there’s always tomorrow. Tell them that. For example – “There was a student who still couldn’t do this or that and here’s what we’ll do tomorrow to ensure her success.” OR, “This student truly mastered this, here’s what I’ll do to take it to the next level.”)

Task 2

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

(Refer back to your “BIGGIES” in education as you support your claims with text-evidence and research. For example – I would allow THIS student to formulate an argument and present it to the class because it’s higher level thinking skill on Bloom’s taxonomy and I want to make sure I challenge all students at their levels.”)

TAKE A BREAK!

Take a time out and reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

Check your own edTPA assignments and hanbook to ensure that you understand task one before moving onto the rest of the tasks

Ready for more?

Task 3- Assess students’ work

Did students learn? You’ll get to reflect on that in task 3 of the

edTPA

Task 3

You need to include four main components for this task:

Student work samples (evidence)Your feedback (written or oral)A rubric (how did you score them)Your commentary

Task 3

Analyzing Student Learninga. Identify the specific standards/objectives measured by

the assessment you chose for analysis.

(Remember your objectives and assessments for this prompt. For example: “Students wrote a persuasive essay using text-evidence (3.RI.1/2; 3.W.1/2) and then I analyzed the writing samples)

b. Provide the evaluation criteria you used to analyze student learning.

(Talk about your rubric and how you evaluated students. I wanted mine to include a topic sentence; 3 facts from the text; have five sentences; a closing and use proper grammar.)

Task 3

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 described above.

(Include quantitative and qualitative descriptions here (e.g. 4/5 students did this; ½ of the students did that, etc.) as well as narrating the results. In my own prompt I talked about how many of the students included an opening and closing sentence, however, a few weren’t able to use sufficient and relevant examples from the text in their essays. This prompt allows you to put your thoughts into words.)

Task 3

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

the essential literacy strategy and requisite skills Consider what students understand and do well, and where they

continue to struggle (e.g., common errors, confusions, need for greater challenge).

(Another seemingly convoluted task – do they want you to talk about 3 students or ALL of them? I focused on my three “focus students” and talked about how they performed on the assessment. I chose a high, medium and low student to refer to. If you have ELL’s, SPED, students with IEPS/504 plans, etc, you should select them - -I didn’t have any in my classroom. And basically you talk about did they demonstrate what you wanted them to?)

Task 3

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.

(On your “focus students” you’ll give them feedback– written or oral – which explains what they did and how they can improve. I noted that many of the students did a great job providing and opening and closing sentence and then added that some didn’t include relevant – or sufficient– examples from the text and gave them suggestions for improvement.)

Task 3

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

(You gave them feedback, now what? Will you meet with them one-on-one, in a small group, writer’s workshop, etc.? How will they take what you told them and DO something with it?)

Task 3

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

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

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.

Use the student work samples analyzed in Task 3 and cite language use. (I wanted my students to understand and USE the terms “fact” and

“opinion” and classify examples from text so I selected video clips and written works where they did this. Anytime a student said, “This is a fact because…” or “This is an opinion because…” I included it because they wanted the students to USE the language. If students will formulate arguments they want to hear the students say, “I agree with you because…” or “I disagree with you because…” and use as much academic language as possible. If students are talking about classifying quadrilaterals and triangles, they need to see/hear the students use these terms.)

Task 3

Using Assessment to Inform Instruction a. Based on your analysis of student learning presented in

prompts 1c–d, describe next steps for instruction for the whole class for the 3 focus students and other individuals/groups with specific

needs (Again – this is something teachers do! We look at what our

students can (and can’t) do and adapt as needed. You just need to be more methodical about it because they want to see if you can answer the question “What next?” Here’s your chance. If students can’t determine the main idea and supporting details from a text, what will you do next time to ensure that they can? Go back to your objectives and learning focus – what do I want students to DO– and reflect on that. OR if these three students didn’t learn but the rest mastered it, how will you help those three students and challenge the other kids?)

Task 3

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

(What will you do? How will it help? And PROVE IT! If you haven’t realized by now, the makers of edTPA really want to ensure you can talk the talk and walk the walk and that you really are familiar and comfortable with pedagogy and best practices in instruction. If not, you better brush up… if you want to do well that is. Justify everything you say and do with text-evidence and research. Again, “We’ll do this because it’s ‘fun’” ISN’T (nor should it be) a valid argument.)

TAKE A BREAK!

Take a time out and reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

Check your own edTPA assignments and hanbook to ensure that you understand task one before moving onto the rest of the tasks

Ready for more?

Task Four – Math (it’s almost over)

Be prepared to plan, teach and assess your students’ math skills!

When I completed edTPA, this was the last task; however, it could (and probably WILL) change as they tweak it.

READ your handbook and seek help from your college.

Task 4 - Context

Once again, talk about your class and this time focus on MATH.

When I completed edTPA, I completed both the ELA and Math contexts together; unless for some reasons your class completely changes (and it might?) a lot of your information will probably be the same.

Task 4

For task 4 you will provide the following: Learning segments (lesson plans detailing the

standards, objectives, instructional strategies and planned assessments)

Sample assessment and rubric 3 work samples with feedback 3 work samples from SAME students after re-

engagement lesson Lesson and assessment commentary *No video was required at the time I completed

edTPA.

Task 4 Assessment Commentary

After you have submitted your lesson plans and assessments with feedback, have reflected on them and your lessons, it’s time to complete the commentary aka your *FINAL assignment for edTPA before you submit to Pearson

*Unless it changes and it probably will.

Task 4

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

[The assessment reflected NYS CCSS Math, grade 2, 2.MD.10 standard. The students collected data from surveys and tally charts organized it into bar graphs, picture graphs and line plots and answered questions and solved problems. ]

(For example: Students represent data on bar and line graphs and answered questions 2.MD.10 and of course the selected assessment should demonstrate and relate to that objective.)

Task 4

b. List the evaluation criteria you used to analyze student learning.

(Again, provide some sort of rubric or evaluation criteria to demonstrate student learning. I gave pre-test and provided the answer key along with a scoring guide: 10/10 = 100; 9/10=90, etc. Remember that this task is all about math! )

Task 4

Provide a graphic (chart or table) or narrative that summarizes student learning for the whole class. Be sure to summarize student learning for all evaluation criteria listed above.

(Be reflective and talk about both qualitative and quantitative data. I used excel and created a pie chart as evidence of student learning and it helped when I discussed student performance. Instead of saying “Some students,” I was confidently able to say “33% of my class was able to…” and referred to the task to talk about the criteria. It’s a number’s game, guys, give them the numbers!)

Task 4

Using examples from the summary chart, discuss the patterns of learning across the whole class relative to:

conceptual understanding procedural fluency mathematical reasoning/problem-solving skills (Look over all to talk about W.G. patterns or trends. This is where you can

make generalizations such as, “Most of my kids were able to do this or that.” But let’s talk about what the three terms mean. Conceptual understanding refers to the rationale behind the math. For example: do they understand what multiplication means? Repeated addition; a number repeated multiple times; four groups of 3 objects, etc. Often times students miss questions because they don’t understand the WHYS behind them. The next is “procedural fluency.” This refers to their ability to actually DO the math that you ask them to do. And the last is the most demanding (especially for low readers) because they need to be able to read and interpret tasks. I have a lot of low-readers in my third grade class who cannot read and thus cannot make their way through multi-step word problems. You would use the data to talk about these main points.)

Task 4

From your analysis of whole class student learning, identify one area where students struggled mathematically. Select 3 student work samples that represent the struggles in this area. These students will be your focus students for this task. At least one of the students must have specific learning needs, for example, a student with an IEP (Individualized Education Program), an English language learner, a struggling reader, an underperforming student or a student with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or a gifted student needing greater support or challenge.

[…] (You get to define the BEAST in this task and really answer the question “What

did my students struggle to do and understand?” You will select three focus students and refer to their work samples (evidence) in these prompts. For example – if you noticed that many of your students struggle to identify the relationship between multiplication and addition, they’d struggle with solving problems that require them (There are three groups of three students waiting to watch a movie, how many students in all?) You get to be investigator (and doctor) and diagnose the problem. Or perhaps students understand but cannot fluently multiply, “3x3= 6”, that demonstrates the need for a student to draw arrays to model his thinking.)

Task 4

a. Based on your analysis of the focus students’ work samples, write a targeted learning objective/goal for the students related to the area of struggle.

(After you’ve diagnosed the problem, you need to provide a prescription. Figure out what you will do next to help students learn. “Students will draw arrays to model multiplication problems.”)

Task 4

Describe the re-engagement lesson you designed to develop each focus student’s mathematical knowledge in relation to the targeted learning objective/goal. Your description should include […]

(You’ve identified the problem; wrote a new objective which should help and now you need to teach that lesson for the new objective. This is called the “re-engagement lesson.” In my own we went back and re-visited not only reading bar and line graphs but we made our own to ensure students truly understood what they meant and how to use them to show data. What did you do during this lesson?)

THEN TEACH THE RE-ENGAGEMENT LESSON.

Task 4

Cite evidence from the three focus students’ work samples from the re-engagement lesson to support your response to the prompt below.

Analyze the effectiveness of the strategies you used during the re-engagement lesson to develop students’ mathematical understanding in the identified area of struggle.

(After you teach the lesson you will reflect on Was it effective? Did the students actually learn what you wanted them to? For example- I wanted my students to be able to read and interpret bar and line graphs. After the lesson, they could. If you want students to draw arrays to model multiplication then you should be able to say “Yes they can because…” or “No they can’t because…” and what did you actually DO during the lesson? And you can talk about what you will do for later lessons to ensure that student learning is not only maintained but enriched. )

Congratulations!

You’ve completed edTPA, maybe?

If there are more tasks, I cannot help as I didn’t have them … but you should be able to at least understand what it’s asking for. Basically it just wants you to be a REFLECTIVE PRACTIONER (What are you planning on doing? Why? Did it work? PROVE IT! )

If you’re a true educator, you can do this!

Don’t forget to edit, edit, EDIT before you submit.

Good luck!

Score report

So you’ve completed and edited the homework assignment and got your supervisor’s OK to submit? Great.

Go to edTPA’s official website, upload all the tasks onto the platform and pay your $300* and click “SUBMIT”

Wait… you’ll get your score report a month – or so – later

You need to know what your state’s passing score is… edTPA doesn’t tell you if you’ve passed or failed.

•This was my score report. You read through all the blah, blah commentary and anxiously look for PASS/FAIL. Again, this WON’T happen! NY’s passing score was a 49 and 57 for “mastery.” Needless to say I blew it out of the water.

Questions?

You can leave me questions or feed back:

www.Leaborb192.wordpress.comRobert_Leabo@hotmail.com

Testimonial- I’ve helped someone: A college professor in Oregon sent me this email,'"Hello Robert,

My elementary education students in Oregon found your edTPA portfolio posted and have found it so very helpful that you posted those materials. They shared your link with me and I wanted to let you know how much they appreciated your thoughtful work and project.I wish you the best in your teaching.Julie"