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ntroduction After a careful review of the lecture narrative and reading assignments of all 4 modules, you should have a clear understanding of teacher licensure preparation. For this discussion assignment, you will make connections to this information and what will be expected of you upon transfer to a university and teacher licensure. The Prompt Respond to the following prompt(s) for this module.You have now reached the end of EDU 250 and learned about all things related to Teacher Licensure Preparation in NC. Discuss what excites you and your concerns about the process. Be specific. Resources Discussion Forum Assignment Guidelines (opens in a new window) https://vlc.nccommunitycolleges.edu/bb-templates/discussion-forums.htmlTo successfully complete this discussion assignment, you should refer to the lecture narratives for all 4 modules. You should provide a thoughtful and thorough response to the prompt as well as any print, web, or audio-visual resources in your response to successfully complete the discussion. Grading Criteria Your discussion forum posts and replies will be evaluated using this rubric:  Discussion Forum Rubric (MS Word Document) Discussion Forum Rubric (MS Word Document) - Alternative Formats (opens in a new download window) Specifications For a satisfactory score, your initial responses should include specific support from course materials, including any readings, videos, or lecture narratives, your own experiences, or other sources as detailed in the assignment instructions. An appropriate opening response should consider the goals and expectations outlined in the prompt including the considerations listed in the prompt. Post your opening response to the question early in the assignment period so that others have time to respond to you.You should also respond in a substantive way to other students, moving the conversation forward, presenting an alternative viewpoint, or providing additional support for classmates’ ideas.  Supporting information is expected in those responses as well.In addition, you are expected to reply to those who may have responded to your initial postings.  Thorough, conscientious participation throughout the week will be rewarded. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/13/report-requiring-kindergartners-to-read-as-common-core-does-may-harm-some/?noredirect=on Making Good Choices Candidate Support Resource Version 01 Planning Instruction Assessment Analysis of Teaching Academic Language Table of Contents Introduction 1 Getting Started 2 Planning Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment 9 Instruction Task 2: Instructing and Engaging Students in Learning 18 Assessment Task 3: Assessing Student Learning 27 Introduction1 1 This version of Making Good Choices has been developed for all edTPA fields and replaces earlier versions posted on the edTPA.com and edtpa.aacte.org websites. However, candidates completing edTPA in Special Education and Elementary Education Task 4 are provided with another version of Making Good Choices, which addresses requirements in Special Education and Elementary Education Task 4 separately. Contact your faculty advisor for a copy of the Making Good Choices in Special Education or Elementary Education or go to edtpa.com. SCALE recognizes Nancy Casey and Ann Bullock for their contributions to Making Good Choices in 2014 and 2015, respectively. This support guide will help you make good choices as you develop artifacts and commentaries for your edTPA assessment. This document is not a substitute for reading the handbook. Instead, it should be used as a reference where you can find supplementary advice for completing specific components of edTPA as needed. On the pages that follow, each section of this document addresses key decision points that you will encounter as you complete your edTPA. Use the live links from the questions in the Key Decisions chart to locate the corresponding answers. Bold text provides specific directions to help guide your decision-making. Overall, Making Good Choices examines edTPA tasks within an interactive cycle of planning, instruction, and assessment. This document will help you think about how to plan, instruct, assess, and reflect on student learning, not only for completing edTPA, but also for effective teaching into the future. We encourage you to discuss areas where you need additional support with your teacher preparation instructors and examine relevant Making Good Choices sections together. Getting Started Key Decisions Planning Ahead How do I get started with my edTPA preparation? Organizing What evidence do I have to submit? When should I discuss my Context for Learning, including students with specific learning needs? How do I represent my thinking and teaching in writing? Understanding the Rubrics How do I understand the rubrics? How do the commentary prompts align to rubrics? Planning Ahead How do I get started with my edTPA preparation? Time management is critical to the successful completion of edTPA. Begin planning for your edTPA assessment as soon as possible. Do not procrastinate. Work steadily and regularly. Saving time for revisions and edits will allow you to represent your best thinking in your final portfolio. Since it is important to understand the whole edTPA assessment before you begin, read through the entire edTPA handbook and all of the support materials for your content area before you start working on your edTPA, including any materials you may have been given by your preparation program. The specific subject-area handbook that you will use is determined by your state licensure requirements. Once you have selected the edTPA handbook that fits your licensure needs, be sure that you understand the language of the rubrics so that you understand how your teaching will be assessed. The three tasks that structure edTPA (Planning Task 1, Instruction Task 2, and Assessment Task 3) are connected together. Acquiring a complete understanding of the evidence that you need to submit in Tasks 2 and 3 will help guide you as you plan the learning segment for Planning Task 1. When reading through Instruction Task 2, make a note on what you must include in the video. When reading through Assessment Task 3, note the types of student learning that you will need to assess. Back to Getting Started Key Decisions Chart Organizing What evidence do I have to submit? For edTPA, you will submit artifacts (e.g., information about your Context for Learning, lesson plans, video clips, copies of assessments and materials for your lessons) and written commentaries. Response templates are provided as a structure for organizing your responses to the Context for Learning questions and the three task commentaries.2 2 Three additional templates are provided for the Elementary Education Handbook for a total of seven templates for that subject area. 3 If you are submitting materials in a language other than English, see the Submission Requirements for more detailed translation requirements and guidelines. Requirements vary by subject area. When completing the commentary response templates, note that there are page limits. The handbook also specifies instances when supplemental information you may be directed to add to the end of commentaries (e.g., citations of materials from others, transcriptions of inaudible portions of videos, any required translation of materials from another language,3 copies of assessments analyzed) does not count toward those limits. All of the requirements about what to submit (and information about the optional elements) are introduced in the Tasks Overview chart at the beginning of the handbook, and then specified in more detail in the Evidence Chart at the end of the handbook. Read the Evidence Chart and be sure that you understand the requirements and all necessary evidence you must submit before you start working on your edTPA. You may find it helpful to use the Evidence Chart as a checklist to ensure that you have submitted all necessary evidence according to the requirements, including artifact format (e.g., live hyperlinks to materials are not permitted). Portfolios with missing, inaccessible, or inappropriate evidence will receive condition codes (see the condition codes listed in the Submission Requirements). Back to Getting Started Key Decisions Chart When should I discuss my Context for Learning, including students with specific learning needs? The Context for Learning artifact allows you to describe your school setting along with the particular features of your classroom. It informs scorers about the class you are teaching and the teaching environment along with knowledge about the learning needs of your students and their supports/accommodations. In addition, you will be asked to consider the variety of learners in your class several times throughout the handbook—see boxed text below for an example. The boxed text is included to help call your attention to learners who might need different strategies/support to meet their needs relative to the central focus of the learning segment. The list included in the box is not exhaustive; you should consider all students with specific learning strengths and needs. As appropriate, you should also make connections back to the student needs identified in the Context for Learning Information artifact. Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/supports or accommodations/modifications to instruction or assessment. For example, students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or 504 plans, with specific language needs, needing greater challenge or support, who struggle with reading, or who are underperforming students or have gaps in academic knowledge. Back to Getting Started Key Decisions Chart How do I represent my thinking and teaching in writing? Although the rubrics do not address the quality of your writing (and you will not be scored on errors in spelling, grammar, or syntax), you should be mindful that your written work reflects your thinking and your professionalism. Writing errors may change the meaning of your commentaries or cause it to become unclear, so proofreading is essential. When writing your edTPA commentaries, consider the following guidelines: Note the originality requirements included within the edTPA Professional Standards and Submission Requirements. As indicated in the subject-specific edTPA handbooks, you and your teacher preparation instructors can and should discuss how the various aspects of edTPA connect with each other and to your preparation coursework and field experiences, including the placement in which you complete your edTPA portfolio. However, the specific choices that go into the planning, instruction, and assessment tasks that are part of edTPA should solely reflect your thinking, based upon your knowledge of pedagogy and your students’ needs. All writing should be your own–edTPA uses software to detect plagiarism. Originality requirements apply to settings where co-teaching and collaborative planning may take place. Even if you are co-teaching, collaboratively planning with another candidate or your grade-level team, or in a context with a uniform, prescriptive curriculum,4 you must be the lead teacher for the lessons documented in the learning segment and submit original commentaries. You may choose to incorporate help from other classroom personnel during your learning segment (e.g., teacher’s aides or parent helpers) but, again, you must be the lead teacher and these strategic decisions should be addressed in your commentaries. In your Context for Learning artifact, you will explain your placement setting and any features that influence your planning process. Your commentaries for each task must provide your own justification for planning decisions and analyses of your teaching and student learning. Outside editing support of your official edTPA submission that includes direct revisions to the content of your writing is not permitted. Consult with your program leaders for guidelines for acceptable support while developing your edTPA materials. 4 See the “Planning for Content Understandings” section of this document for more information on how to address prescribed curricular requirements. Respond to commentary prompts in either bulleted or narrative form. Page limits indicate the maximum number of allowable pages. Although you may write up to the maximum as needed, you may not need to reach that maximum in order to sufficiently complete your commentaries. Make sure to respond to every part of every prompt. Pay attention to conjunctions (“and”, “or”). When the prompts are bulleted, make sure to address each bullet point. Incomplete, superficial, and unelaborated responses are not sufficient. Although there may be a few exceptions, answering a prompt in one or two sentences will not provide enough information for a reviewer to understand your intentions. Pay attention to the verbs in the prompts. When asked to “describe,” do that: tell about what you planned or did. When prompted to “explain,” include more detail, and give reasons for your decisions. “Justify” requires analysis; you must explain why you did what you did and include evidence to back up your response with supporting details. Move beyond showcasing or summarizing your classroom practice. Write your commentaries in a way that shows you understand how your students learn, and identify and analyze what you do to help them learn and the evidence of their learning. edTPA provides an opportunity to reflect on your beginning teaching practice and what you have learned by planning, instructing, and assessing student learning. Perfect teaching is not expected. Provide specific, concrete examples to support your assertions. Do not merely repeat a prompt or rubric language as your responses to commentary prompts—you must always include examples and evidence of your teaching. For example, if you state in a response to a prompt that most of the students were able to understand a concept, you should provide specific, concrete examples from your students’ written or oral work that demonstrate and support your assertions. You might point to a specific aspect of a student’s response on an essay, project, or other assessment. In Instruction Task 2, you will submit video evidence for your teaching. Use time stamps to direct a scorer’s attention to specific points of instruction and provide concrete evidence for your commentary statements. Time stamps can be approximate; they need not be accurate to the second. You may find some prompts repetitive across tasks. This “repetition” is intentional. Key prompt elements that appear across tasks represent threads that tie all the tasks together, for example, your knowledge of students or the central focus of the learning segment. Questions that appear to be similar are couched in terms of the task that you are completing. Therefore, when you encounter a prompt that seems similar to one you already answered, think about how the context in which the prompt appears might guide your response. Back to Getting Started Key Decisions Chart Understanding the Rubrics How do I understand the rubrics? Each edTPA task has five rubrics,5 and each rubric has five levels of scoring. As you work on responding to the commentary prompts, refer to the associated rubrics and read them again before and during your writing process. Carefully read the qualitative performance differences across levels found in bold text in each of the rubric descriptions. Pay attention to the conjunctions (“and”, “or”) in the descriptions so that you are sure to provide all of the information required. Be sure to review the Level 1 rubric descriptors carefully, as these point out particular issues to avoid. 5 Classical Languages and World Language Tasks 1 and 3 have four rubrics, and Elementary Education Task 4 has only three. If there are particular rubrics that you want to learn about in more depth, refer to the Understanding Rubric Level Progressions (URLP) resource for your subject area. This resource gives a detailed description of the differences in rubric levels and provides subject-specific examples of what evidence might look like on each level. Back to Getting Started Key Decisions Chart Alignment of Rubrics and Commentary Prompts In general, the rubrics and commentary prompts align as depicted in the charts below. Planning Commentary & Rubrics Rubric # 1 2 3 4 5 Commentary Prompt 1 LSP: 1a–b, 2 2 ETS: 2, 3b LSP: 2a, 3b–c 3 4 5 Instruction Commentary & Rubrics Rubric # 6 7 8 9 10 Commentary Prompt 2 AGR: 2, 3 3 AGR: 4 4a EAL, PE: 4a–b AGR: 5a 4b EAL: 4c PE: 5 AGR: 5b 5 PE, AGR: 6 Assessment Commentary & Rubrics Rubric # 11 12 13 14 15 Commentary Prompt 1 2b PE: 2c 2c PE: 2d 3 4 Key: AGR – Agricultural Education ETS – Educational Technology Specialist PE – Physical Education EAL – English as an Additional Language LSP – Literacy Specialist The World Language and Classical Languages Handbooks have 13 rubrics because they address Academic Language differently than other handbooks. Classical Languages/ World Language Planning Instruction Assessment Rubric # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Commentary Prompt 1 2 3 4 2 3 4a–b 4c 5 1 2b 2c 3 Note for all fields: Although particular commentary prompts align with certain rubrics, all of the required artifacts and commentary responses for each task are taken into account during the scoring process. For example, your lesson plans, assessments, instructional materials, and video are key artifacts in the scoring process that may provide relevant evidence for multiple rubrics. So while you will not find a rubric that “scores” these items in isolation, they all inform and are part of what will be used in evaluating your responses. Planning Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment Key Decisions Planning For Content Understandings RUBRIC 16 What is my subject area emphasis? How do I select the central focus, student content standards, and student learning objectives? How do I develop a learning segment with a central focus? What should I include in my lesson plans? What if I have particular lessons that I am required to teach in a prescribed way or if my school or grade level has a standard curriculum? Knowledge of Students RUBRICS 2 & 3 What information should I convey about my students when describing my class? How do I support the assertions I make about my students and decisions I make regarding their learning needs? How specific do my references to research and theory have to be? Supporting Academic Language Development RUBRIC 4 How do I identify the academic language demands of a learning task? How do I plan instructional supports to help students use the identified language demands? Planning Assessments RUBRIC 5 What kinds of assessments should I choose for my edTPA learning segment? How do I allow students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning? Planning Task 1 Key Points 6 NOTE: Rubric numbering differs throughout the tasks for Classical Languages and World Language, which have only 13 rubrics each. Planning for Content Understandings What is my subject area emphasis? Every subject-specific version of edTPA has its own student learning and pedagogical emphasis that is the foundation of the assessment. The emphasis for each subject area is stated throughout your edTPA handbook (see handbook introduction) and in the rubrics. Pay special attention to the subject-specific language in your handbook and be sure to address all relevant components (usually presented as a bulleted list) for your learning segment. Back to Planning Task 1 Key Decisions Chart How do I select the central focus, student content standards, and student learning objectives? The learning segment you develop and teach for edTPA is defined by a subject-specific central focus for student learning. The central focus is an understanding that you want your students to develop in the learning segment. It is a description of the important identifiable theme, essential question, or topic within the curriculum that is the purpose of the instruction of the learning segment. The standards, learning objectives, learning tasks, and assessments addressed or included in your learning segment should all be related to the central focus. The central focus should also take into account prior assessment of your students and knowledge of your students’ varied development, backgrounds, interests, lived experiences, and learning levels that might further influence students’ thinking and learning. Each edTPA handbook provides subject-specific guidance for your planning for student learning, so review these guidelines carefully. For each subject area, these guidelines address both basic types of knowledge (e.g., facts, skills, conventions) and conceptual understandings and higher order thinking skills (such as strategies for interpreting/reasoning from facts or evidence, synthesizing ideas, strategies for evaluating work, etc.). When identifying the central focus of the learning segment, you must consider conceptual understandings as well as the skills/facts/procedures that students will learn and apply. If you focus only on teaching facts and/or following procedures without deepening students’ understanding of related concepts, you will not fully address your subject-specific learning focus. Within your lesson plans you are asked to identify the state, national, or locally adapted content standards (relevant to your context) that you will address in the learning segment. Though you may find many student content standards that relate tangentially to your planned learning segment, only a few standards should be the focus of instruction. Include only the standards that are central to the student learning that you expect to support during the learning segment documented in your edTPA. Back to Planning Task 1 Key Decisions Chart How do I develop a learning segment with a central focus? As with any learning segment, decisions about what to teach should be driven by what students are expected to learn at their particular grade level. You will want to think carefully about how much content to address in your edTPA learning segment. The amount of content you will address in your learning segment is a significant decision about manageability, not only for the scope of your edTPA assessment, but also for the capacity of your students to learn within the allotted time. While your lesson plans are not required to fall within a certain time range, your learning segment should consist of 3–5 lessons that build toward your selected central focus for teaching and learning, as well as the corresponding standards. District curriculum guidelines, school goals, grade-level expectations, input from your cooperating teacher that falls within the acceptable support guidelines, and student interests must also be considered. Back to Planning Task 1 Key Decisions Chart What should I include in my lesson plans? You will submit a lesson plan for every lesson taught and documented in your edTPA learning segment. Your lesson plans should provide enough detail so that educators reading your edTPA can determine the sequence of the learning objectives, the plan for assessment, and what you and the students will be doing during each lesson. Make sure that each submitted lesson plan is no more than 4 pages in length. If you are using a lesson plan model that extends beyond that page limit, you will need to condense your lesson plans to meet the page limit. However, be sure to include the following necessary lesson plan components (also listed in your edTPA handbook): relevant state-adopted, national, or other local standards used within your teaching context learning objectives associated with the standards formal and informal assessments instructional and learning tasks instructional resources and materials NOTE: Do not put explanations and rationale in your lesson plans, as scorers are instructed to look to the commentary prompts for explanations of your thinking and justification for your plans. Back to Planning Task 1 Key Decisions Chart What if I have particular lessons that I am required to teach in a prescribed way or if my school or grade level has a standard curriculum? Many teachers teach lessons that are from published or prescriptive curriculum guides that are required in a particular district, school, or department. In some cases, pedagogy is prescribed by the curriculum you are required to teach. If this is the case for you, explain this in the Context for Learning artifact. Your lesson plans and Planning Commentary should address how you modified these lesson plans with your students’ backgrounds and/or needs in mind. In your Planning Commentary you might describe how you selected or modified curriculum materials to meet your students’ needs, how you adapted a lesson to meet your students’ needs, and/or how you made accommodations for particular students’ needs (e.g., providing alternative examples, asking additional questions, using supplementary activities). When following highly prescriptive curricula or district/school/department mandates, these changes may be modest. Back to Planning Task 1 Key Decisions Chart Knowledge of Students What information should I convey about my students when describing my class? Planning Task 1 requires you to demonstrate your depth of knowledge of your students in relation to the learning segment you plan to teach. Making casual references or surface-level connections to students’ backgrounds, interests, development, and learning needs is not enough. In Planning Task 1, your responses to the Context for Learning artifact prompts and the relevant Planning Task 1 commentary prompts should provide detail on the class demographics7; significant subgroups of students with similar characteristics; and students’ varied strengths (including personal, cultural, and community assets), language development, and learning needs. Your written commentary and lesson plans should reveal what you plan to do in the learning segment to capitalize on their strengths and address their varied needs to help them meet the objectives of your learning segment. 7 If you need guidance when selecting school setting, reference the NCES locale category definitions or consult with your placement school administrator. When describing what you know about your students, be sure that this information is based on your knowledge of your students and not based on assumptions or stereotypes associated with their age or ethnic, cultural, or socio-economic backgrounds. A good way to ensure you are avoiding stereotypes or assumptions is to ask yourself if you would be able to back up your assertions with evidence; if yes, include that evidence in your responses. Back to Planning Task 1 Key Decisions Chart How do I support the assertions I make about my students and the decisions I make about their learning needs? When describing your students’ personal/cultural/community assets, language development, and/or prior academic learning, describe what the asset or prior learning encompasses and how it is related to your learning segment. Provide specific, concrete examples to support your assertions (e.g., refer to the specific instructional material or learning task you have included as part of Planning Task 1). Consider a variety of data sources and evidence about your students’ interests, backgrounds, cultural/linguistic resources, lived experiences, and other information that helps you determine the instructional approaches best suited to their strengths and needs (academic, social emotional, behavioral, etc.). Do not merely repeat prompt or rubric language as your responses to commentary prompts—you must always include examples and evidence of your teaching. For example, if you suggest that most of the students have not yet learned a concept or skill, you need to provide specific and concrete example(s) from your students’ written or oral work or prior academic learning that demonstrate and support your claim. And, when describing assets, be specific about the ways in which the learning tasks or approaches incorporate what your students bring to the classroom—not as deficits but as strengths. Back to Planning Task 1 Key Decisions Chart How specific do my references to research and theory have to be? When including research/theory in your edTPA, you should justify why you are doing what you are doing. Justify your instructional choices from your plans, i.e., your choice of teaching strategies, materials, and the learning tasks you plan for students. You may include the principles of research and theory you have learned in courses in your preparation program, your independent reading, or elsewhere. Draw upon educational philosophy and specific theories of development, learning, group work, and motivation, as well as conceptions and research-based practices of the …