Task 3: What are the requirements of the edTPA and what does an edTPA lesson plan look like? (Essential Questions C)
Pre-Posting – In preparation for your edTPA completion DURING YOUR STUDENT TEACHING EXPERIENCE we will be conducting a mini-edTPA for this course. First, print a hard copy of your edTPA handbook to refer to when watching the edTPA Overview Part II video (if you printed a hard copy for Dr. Chapman’s class you can use that one). Next watch the edTPA Overview Part II video (This video is 15 minutes long).
Posting – Post your interpretation of the key points/aspects of edTPA gathered from the video. What information do you see cutting across all of the resources you have read/seen on this topic so far? What are the cautions needed or “hints provided” for making this a quality product?
Fri. November 8, Initial posting
Response Postings – Everyone should respond at least 1-2 times to each group member with a question, clarification, or addition to the thoughts on their postings. You might consider other information, questions you still have as a future teacher, etc.
Response Postings:
By Sunday, November 10: 11:59 PM. Response postings
I found the Task 3 video to be a helpful guide in working through the huge edTPA document. In addition to simply walking me through the different tasks in the edTPA Handbook, I am glad the power point also informed us about what we could expect to achieve as teachers in training. For example, when describing the rubrics, the woman in the power point indicated that teachers in training can expect to “live” around performance level three and that even master teachers do not always “live” at performance level five. For me, as I’m sure it is for many other students in our cohort, this is important to keep in mind, as I always strive for top marks on the rubrics. Therefore, I appreciated the honesty of the power point in establishing more realistic expectations for my performance at my current experience level.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the full form of the edTPA is new to me, it is helpful to recognize some of our assignments from previous field experiences within it. The main ideas of each task, including planning, instructing/engaging, and assessing, were themes that cut across all of the assignments I have worked on so far in my teacher training experiences at MSU. Because the requirements for each task are much more detailed that what I have done in the past, I can build on the foundation that has already been established in my knowledge about how to go about planning for, instructing and assessing students. I can see that the further detailes the edTPA required in my full-time student teaching experiences will force me to grow as a teacher, especially when it comes to accommodating and differentiating instruction for a variety of students.
Rachael,
DeleteI agree with you that the video was a really helpful guide in working through the edTPA document. It is is also nice to see some of the tasks we've had to do in our past classes. This helps me not stress so much on all the stuff we need to do, since we've seen some of it before. Like you said, we can add on to the knowledge that we built from our other classes. You mention accommodating and differentiating instruction for a variety of students. In one of the classes that I am teaching, I found that there are a lot of ELL and special education classes. Do you have any suggestions on how I can accommodate or differentiate my instruction, but also have equity?
I could not agree more with your comment about the grading system of this EdTPA. It was very nice to hear that most teachers "live" around a score of three, and master teachers don't always score a five. Before watching this video, I was extremely nervous about the grading and I think I would've been very stressed about my grade had the narrator made these comments and connections to real life teaching.
DeleteRachael,
DeleteI thought this video vas very helpful as well. It would also be helpful to see any other videos related to this one in our preparation for the student teaching semesters. This video really gives us an understanding of how well we can expect to do in relation to the edTPA standards.
The video really helped lay out the edTPA. Allowed me to see all the different sections and explain in more detail of what the sections include and what it means for me. I found that each task was set up very similar, what do I need to think about?, what do I need to do? what do I need to write? and the assessment rubrics. When we were introduced to this edTPA I was very overwhelmed (still am a little bit) But from this video I noticed that each task is very laid out and set up the same, as stated above the different forms. This will help allow me to know exactly what I need to do. As Rachael stated, I also liked that the speaker discussed what level we should be at, this allowed us to know ahead of time that we probably won't be at level 4 or 5. So it will be helpful for us to look at level 3 and make sure we are at that level. From the video and looking through the edTPA I noticed that it is very specific, so we will want to make sure we read through all of the edTPA and make sure we do what it is asking. Even the type of font and size and margins. I am glad that they are very specific and detailed in this document, it helps me know what I need to do. I also noticed from the video that there are documents we will upload and fill in, this also helps guide me on what I should be including in that portion.
ReplyDeleteYou're right-- it IS very specifically detailed, Sara! Thanks for pointing that part of the presentation out. It would be really frustrating to lose points on something as trivial as font size or incorrect layout.
DeleteI'm glad you are still a bit overwhelmed with this task! I'm right there with you! Also, I was glad the video was so detailed and organized. It helped greatly in understanding what will be asked of us. It's funny you took out what size and font we were to write the EdTPA in because that was one piece that stuck out to me, as well.
DeleteIts becoming more and more clear that we are all in the same boat: slightly overwhelmed and nervous about the amount of detail that goes into this. It would be really helpful if we had the chance to do some peer-reviewing of our actual edTPA lessons before submitting them during our student teaching. One of the things I am looking forward to from this experience, though, is the amount that we will learn about ourselves and about our teaching from completing all of the edTPA requirements.
DeleteThank you all for everything you’ve shared.
The edTPA has seemed daunting to me from the very beginning. Upon reading through the edTPA handbook, it is easy to see how completing the edTPA will help us evaluate ourselves and be thoroughly evaluated as professionals in our field. This TPA overview has served as a helpful guide to recognizing the patterns in the edTPA. As Rachael and Sara also pointed out, one of the most beneficial aspects of this video is that it helps us to put the expectations of us into perspective. As explained in the video, a level 5 teacher would be an ideal teacher. It helps to know that we are not expected to be perfect as beginning teachers. This video has also helped me realize that it will be very important to take time to read through the entire edTPA handbook (my section, anyway) before beginning to work on the lesson plans for the learning segments I plan to teach. I think it is only by actually reading through the documents in their entirety and trial and error that we will be able to fully grasp the level of planning that goes into the preparation of the edTPA.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
DeleteYou mentioned that sitting down and reading all the parts of the edTPA will be beneficial, especially before working on the lesson plans that you plan on teaching. Since the document is so huge, do you have any suggestion son how to approach breaking apart the edTPA?
Thanks for pointing out how meticulously going through each section of the edTPA can inform our lesson planning process before we have delivered our lessons, David. It seems like an obviously good strategy now that you have pointed it out, but it is one that I actually hadn't thought of before! I was looking at the edTPA as more of an assessment of ourselves, but by using this information BEFORE we plan, we can ensure our lessons "go deeper" and are more effective.
DeleteThanks for reaffirming that this process isn't all about someone else evaluating us. It's also about evaluating ourselves and improving our teaching. I can also see how we can use the EdTPA format in order to improve our lesson planning and preparation.
DeleteI really enjoyed this video. It gave us a different look at the EdTPA, maybe in an administrator's or professional's view. I thought it was beneficial that the EdTPA is broken down into tasks and the video did a great job describing each of these tasks. I also thought it was great that the narrator related the tasks and grading of the EdTPA to real life situations, such as how an every-day, exemplary teacher would score on a typical teaching day. These exemplary teachers aren't going to score fives every day and it's not expected that we score a five on our first EdTPA during student teaching. Examples like these during the video made me a feel a little bit better about the whole experience. Finally, I was glad the video added a bit more information about the grading system and all that's involved with Pearson. I feel as though this is the first information we've been giving in regards to how everything's graded, etc.
ReplyDeleteDani,
DeleteI also liked the video. When we first looked at it in Dr. Chapman's class I was very overwhelmed and didn't look forward to looking through all the pages! This video helped get me to look through it in more detail and helped me not feel as scared of the document because it helped walk me through it and become familiar with it. I didn't catch the grading system that is all involved with Pearson, so thanks for pointing that out! I'll have to go back and watch that part again.
I agree, Dani, this tutorial was so helpful! I am wondering why we haven't been given this information earlier. It would have been a lot easier to navigate the edTPA during our Level II experience, I think, if we had a bigger picture on which to base our lessons.
DeleteThat’s a good point, Rachael. I feel as though we were kind of left clueless about what the Danielson Framework and edTPA were during the beginning stages of our program. Adding a video and a sample edTPA like this into the introductory courses would be a great way to help give the students a sense of direction as they continue into the program. This video really does help to show us the ‘bigger picture’.
Delete