Task 4: What does a quality edTPA
lesson plan look like? (Essential Question D).
An
important component of your edTPA is planning for instruction. One aspect of the planning for instruction
component of your edTPA is your actual lesson plans. To help guide all candidates to think about
and address all the required elements required by the edTPA the MSU, Mankato
College of Education has developed a lesson plan template. You are required to use the edTPA template
for this course and student teaching.
Pre-Posting:
To help give a visual of what is expected in terms of content, quality,
sophistication and overall general length, please view the example lesson
plan.
To view the example lesson plan click on the link below.
Posting - What stands out to you? What 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” for
making this a quality product? How will
you approach the edTPA lesson plan format now that you have seen this
example? What will you do differently
than you have done in the past? What
questions do you still have?
Response
Postings:
By Sunday,
November 10: 11:59 PM. Response postings
I thought that content specific vocab was the same was language demand objectives. So I was giving a correct list with the vocabulary for content specific vocab words but not the correct language demand objectives. I need to make it connect to my objectives and rewrite my language demand. When comparing the standards, it seems that this lesson does not have a lot of standards. When I normally have 5-8 standards, I also list national as well as state. Does that matter? Is it only supposed to be state standards?
ReplyDeleteIn the knowledge to inform student learning, I was surprised this information was so detailed… with student’s names, specific student interests, and back rounds of family life. I know I did not learn a lot of this information during my student teaching so far but I know I will know this next spring. Do we include such specific details in all of our lessons? Do we even include this information anymore since it is in the context for learning and I have heard the TPA is changing? Will it change for us in the spring?
I was also surprised about the research-based practiced theories section. I had this questions I the edTPA as well. What are you looking for? I thought we gave a list with the theorist and what theory we are applying. This was different on this lesson plan. It gave me a better idea of what I should be doing or explaining.
Another difference is the edTPA is set up vs. a dance TPA. We have modified our lessons to fit the TPA but I do not have a hook, instead I have a ritual warm-up. Do I need a hook? The overall structure of this lesson vs. a dance lesson is a little different but still has most of the same qualities.
When looking at the content of this lesson. There is a list created but no order to follow, are we supposed to list one… we do x, two we do y… etc or just a list? I also have a question about assessment material… what is the different between formal and informal? When I think informal I think formative and formal as summative. Is this correct? Should this be stated under the assessment? This lesson is also 10 pages long, which is too long for the required edTPA does this matter?
I feel this lesson is similar to lessons I have created with a few differences. I believe this lesson (for the most part) fits the edTPA standards. It is clear and content standards are in line with the content objectives and the lesson matches the objectives. I also like how the lesson plan connects to real life experiences or objects it helps the student relate.
Kaitlin,
DeleteI too was essentially getting the language demand objectives correct but putting them under the content objectives. Pretty easy fix! When you said that about having a warm up instead of a hook, I don't think that is an issue. That is the same for me too. As for this example being 10 pages long and that being too long for the edTPA, I'm not sure what to say about that. That is a very good question that we should talk about next time in class.
Agreed that this was helpful in knowing the difference between language demands and content objectives... I guess I was not separating the two in my head as I should have been. In your questions about assessment-- I also think of that as formative and summative. But I do know that we discussed last year about adding formal/informal as well-- for example an informal formative assessment may be as simple as students raising their hand in a thumbs up if they understand the lesson so far. A formal formative assessment may be an "exit" slip when the students leave the classroom, asking them to write a response to a question that would evaluate how they are understanding the material.
DeleteSome key points you hit on: the lesson is longer than allowed, the hook, and the research based portion. What parts of this lesson plan would you trim down? I believe your ritual warmup would qualify as a hook, but maybe that is specific to the lesson. I think the research based portion is important for our reflection while writing the lesson. Are we using activities that will accomplish what we want our students to know.
DeleteThe first thing I noticed about the edTPA was the sheer length of it; so much planning!! But that is expected from teachers to verify that we have reasoning behind teaching what we are teaching. Upon looking at this example the immediate questions I had were:
ReplyDelete- I know as teacher candidates we are required to do the edTPA for all of our lessons. But do "real" teachers really fill this out for all of their lessons? Or is our expectation to do that simply so we get the experience and are comfortable with the format as we enter our first year teaching?
- Is the same form used in Elementary Grades as well? It seems like it would be much tricker to fill out for lessons spanning over a whole day rather then one lessons being taught to different classes ((such as in a middle school or high school setting).
Looking closely at the edTPA, it makes to much sense how it is structured. The assessment portion comes first-- reminding us that we need to know how we are going to evaluate our students before we know the best method to teach them. Then comes activating prior background knowledge. We need to know what our students know coming into the lesson and take into account students various histories and needs. As we learned in our first half of the semester, often times we will need to work with ELL staff or Special Education teachers to know what modifications are needed for our students/ will work best for them.
There is content specific vocabulary and language demand objectives. Educators need to be able to dicuss where there lesson meets the content standards and how what students are doing that day fit into what they need to know by the end of the course. So much information is needed and addressed before the execution of the lesson itself is written down. I noticed that the research based learning theories section of this example TPA is very detailed. This information was the core of our KSP courses and should be kept in mind when designing all of our lessons.
The edTPA takes many things into account, such as feedback time from students, questions, and transitions time periods. The modeling section on this example is left blank , which is a bit surprising as in one of our readings for this class we learned how important modeling is for students. Ideally, teachers would model the behavior desired (or how to do something), then do it with the students, and then gradually "wean" them off onto performing their task on their own. The notes section is often used for reminders or alternative routes if things are not going as planned.
Keenie,
DeleteFrom what I have observed... teachers know what they are going to teach but they do not write out structured lesson plans like we are required to do. Usually, just a few sentences or words to know what they are going to teach. They seem to know what the students need. I think the purpose of the lesson plans are to help us as future teachers. Gives us a base for the future.
Looking at the assessment, Dr. Chapman pointed out during my student teaching that you should have one assessment per content standard you are addressing. Which, by luck I did and I'm mentioning because I feel that is important when writing out our assessment material.
Also, a lot of our lesson will be pulled out because it will be in our context for learning and our planning and preparation. So, parts like the knowledge to inform student learning will be taken out, as well as, the research based and practiced theories since it will be in out edTPA. Although, I felt this TPA was also very helpful when figuring out what we write in those sections!
Keenie,
DeleteEverything that I have observed and talked about with other teachers in schools and my content teachers at MSU, when you are in the actual field you won't write detailed lessons like this. When we start out we may write a little more but with experience, we will maybe only write down a few ideas like Kailin said. At my field experience now, my teacher only writes out the objectives for the day and then he knows what he will do to help meet those objectives.
That is a very good question about elementary teachers. That would be so much work if they had to do this for every lesson they teach throughout the day since really none of them will double up throughout the day. I don't know the answer to it but I guess if they do the same as us, we can't really complain about the length we have to do compared to them!
Keenie,
DeleteI actually had the opportunity to develop a lesson with my coop and it was not as deep as the TPA. Our focus was on how are we going to make class time rewarding and productive for the students in the class. We discussed how to bring together differing ability levels together. Our end product was a lesson outline that had an objective.
The TPA is a performance assessment. Can we do what we say we can do? The process helps set us on the right track for proper lesson development and planning. I think the proper way to approach the TPA is as a learning experience and less so as a test.
The first thing that stood out to me with this was the length and the amount of content put into the knowledge of students. I knew this is a huge part before and have put this work in but every time I see a TPA it still amazes me how much work goes into the whole thing. The nice thing about this knowledge of students portion is that it is really something that will only be done once for the class. This topic is also what cuts across all of the resources we have read about so far in that it is vital that we understand where all of our students come from and how we can effectively teach our lesson to them.
ReplyDeleteI was pleased to see in this example and through our video in task 2 relating to the language demand objectives, I had been writing them correctly but I had them with the content learning objectives. I had been confused on what to put in this box so it is nice to see I just have to bump a few of the objectives down.
To make this a quality product, it is clear that we need to be very detailed in every piece of information that we write. It is very important that we show we have knowledge of the students as well as the research theories that we are using. I have learned the importance of all the details in the actual lesson and that pacing but it is clear now how much detail is needed to actually write that lesson. This is where I need to put more into my lessons to show my knowledge of the students.
The part that gets me still is the discourse and syntax. I can look at the example in this lesson as well as the quick explanation on the explanation lesson plan document, but when I start writing my own lessons and reach this portion, I always draw a blank. Does anyone have a better way of understanding what that is looking for? Maybe some examples of each? My health teacher gave our class a document with a few of the common theories used in lessons and a very short explanation of each, do any of you have a list like this that maybe we could compile and have a master document we can pull from? This is another portion that I think really takes a lot of time.
Chris,
DeleteAll I can think of is the details and being specific when writing these plans! Especially in the lesson plan part. Here is an example I used for dance for Syntax and Discourse... hopefully this gives you an idea. To me the Syntax is what the teacher will do to provide the literacy and content material... and Discourse is how the students will show me what they learned. Hope this helps!
Syntax: The instructor will introduce dance concepts and vocabulary and provide an explanation/definition. The instructor will use content specific vocabulary verbally and movement modeling in order to provide prompts for the students as they improvise movement.
Discourse: The students will communicate their understanding of content specific vocabulary through movement, by writing, and verbalizing knowledge in response to teacher prompts. The students will communicate using the content specific vocabulary with their peers during discussions.
That is a good point, that for the most part, we can use the same student information across all of our lessons. You are right thought that the rest of it requires a lot of planning! Even though it seems like so much work now, I think I would rather have it all planned/detailed out and feel confident in the classroom, than not have it as planned and than draw a blank when I am teaching and not know what I am doing next.
DeleteI think Kaitlin explained syntax and discourse well, though I think this could be something we ask about it class tomorrow-- or at least seeing more examples would be nice!
Chris,
DeleteWe may only have to complete the context for learning once for each class, but I feel it is a document we should refer to and annotate weekly, if not more often. This could be a piece of information that really boost our performance if we use it actively.
Your question on syntax and discourse. By definition, syntax is structure. If we take this literally, the teacher builds the structure for the students to have discourse. Discourse is the interaction among individuals that push them towards a common goal. We have considerable amount of control over the syntax but the discourse will take on a mind of its own depending on the syntax provided.
I knew the edTPA was a lot of information to put into a lesson plan, but I was most impressed by the amount of information used in the knowledge of students to inform teaching section. I feel this is most important as an educator because it requires us to be aware of all the needs of our students in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI am relieved to know that the idea of academic language is used as a teaching tool and not as an academic treatise on how students relate to academic language. Students use the knowledge the have gained from specific experiences before to guide their understanding of new language. It is also used not only in the sense of language, but in understanding a concept. The concepts are at the heart of what we are trying to teach and allows students to use the language they have learned to help them better understand these concepts.
I will approach the edTPA as a way to better understand how to make my classroom a place of optimal learning and not as a product unto itself. I need to work on not only being aware of the students in my class, but also meeting their needs. I have stressed over what will happen in the classroom and I will spend more time in defining how I will differentiate the activities we will do in class to meet the needs of all the students in class.
Joey,
DeleteI feel that are entire group was surprised about the amount of information written in the knowledge to inform student learning. I know this time around with student teaching, I only had two students that had a learning gap or needed a physical modification. So my information was not a lot. But I also noted on the example, how personal the details were as well. For example, what she wrote about the cultural or back round information about the students. This makes me question what is too personal to share?
I agree with you about making sure that we address all of our students learning needs and less on what happens in the classroom! Teachers should take the time it needs to make sure everyone is on the same page!
Joey,
DeleteI like what you said about using the edTPA as a way to better understand how to make your classroom a place of optimal learning instead of just a product that you create. The edTPA really guides us through the process of what it takes to essentially create a well written lesson plan and helps put our students in the best situation to learn. It is set up that hopefully our thought process will follow these steps in the future when we are teaching and we are aware of what it takes to create successful lesson plans without having to write all these pages of work.
I like what you noted about combining the needs of our students and the concepts that we have already learned about in regards to child development and learning. While it will definitely help using this edTPA format to list all of the students needs as a reminder for ourselves about what we need to be doing in the classroom, it still is something I am nervous about. How does one teacher teach the same lesson, but meet the needs of a handful of students who are far above the class average and get the material the first time, a group of "average " students who need to review the material a few times, and a group of students who have special education needs or are not grasping the material at all? I guess that this is where it really helps us working with established teachers and learning methods from them/ getting advice on what they think is best.
Delete