edTPA Summary Actions and Tips for Teacher Performance Assessment

Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment:  In Task 1 you will plan a learning segment of 3-5 consecutive lessons or 3-5 hours of connected instruction.  You will develop a central focus for your learning segment and align all your standards, learning objectives, learning tasks, and assessments for it based on what you know about your students.  You will complete the Context for Learning, Lesson plans, Instructional Materials, and Assessments, as well as the Task 1 Planning Commentary where you will identify language functions and demands related to your central focus, as well as your plans for collecting student voice.

Task 2: Instructing and Engaging Students in Learning:  In Task 2 you will teach the lessons you have developed to your students and film yourself teaching (and students learning).  From the 3-5 hours of footage, you will select one to two continuous and unedited video clips to illustrate how you engage students in learning (requirements vary by content).  You will demonstrate subject specific pedagogical strategies, how you elicit and monitor student responses, and how you deepen their understanding of the central focus.  An additional short clip may be included if you video students expressing their understandings of the learning targets (student voice). In the Task 2 Instruction Commentary you will provide further explanation of the evidence in your video selections, as well as analyze the effectiveness of your teaching.

Task 3: Assessing Student Learning:  In Task 3 you will create an analysis of your students’ progress towards the learning targets.  You will collect data from the entire learning segment and analyze it for trends. Evidence and data requirements vary slightly by content. You will select whole class assessment/s from your learning segment and submit evidence from three focus students who represent the patterns of learning across the class on the selected assessment.  One student must have specific learning needs.  Evidence of students use of the targeted academic language function, as well as students reflecting on their work may be recorded in an additional short video clips.  As part of your analysis you will include information about student voice, how well your students were able to use the language functions and demands you planned, how focus students use your feedback to help remediate or extend their learning in relation to the targets, and how you will design next steps for instruction.  You will complete Task 3 Assessment Commentary, Evaluation Criteria, and Student Work Samples and provide a full analysis of what your assessment data shows about your learning segment.

1. Talk with your mentor teacher early on in your placement about which aspect of the teaching you can take over soonest (a topical area that aligns with edTPA) and begin preparing right away.  You do not have to have taken over the whole schedule in order to film the edTPA (but your mentor should not be helping teach the lesson as you are being filmed).
2. Remember that your first priority is your classroom and the students in it, the edTPA will only need to be a priority for part of your student teaching experience.
3. Manage your time.  Do not procrastinate.  Work steadily and regularly.  Most candidates spend an average of 40 hours outside of the classroom writing and revising the edTPA prior to submission.  Working in smaller blocks of time more frequently helps avoid writing fatigue and keeps a clear focus.
4. Thoroughly review the edTPA Handbook, the Understanding Academic Language Handout, the edTPA Making Good Choices document, and the Understanding Rubric Level Progressions documents for your content area.  Refer back to them repeatedly as you are preparing for and working on your edTPA.
5. The three tasks that structure the edTPA are all connected and build on each other.  Having a complete understanding of the evidence needed in task 2 and 3 will help you to plan for task 1.
6. Complete the Context for Learning (in Task 1) as soon as you can.  Talk it over with your mentor to help you understand who is in your classroom and how lessons must be adapted to meet the many and varied student needs.
7. A central focus is an understanding that you want your students to develop in the learning segment.  It will include a description of the important identifiable theme, essential question or topic within the curriculum.  Through your learning segment you will develop knowledge (skills, factions, conventions), conceptual understanding, and provide opportunity for higher order thinking.  Your standards, objectives, learning tasks and assessments will all relate to your central focus.
8. As you are preparing for your commentaries, spend some time reviewing the prompts and the associated rubrics (and rubric level progressions) and gather your thoughts on how and where you will answer the prompts and what evidence you will use to support your claims – BEFORE you start writing.
9. Be sure that you respond to every part of the prompt, paying close attention to and/or statements, and the verbs.  When you are asked to Describe – do that – tell about what you planned or did.  Explain – give more detail and 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.
10. Clarity of response to the prompt and rubrics is critical.  Make sure you have 2 or more examples/evidence to support your claims.  Do not try to “fluff” answers.  Writing quality is not as important as conveying your ideas clearly.
11. Talk over any part of the edTPA with your supervisor or mentor; they cannot edit your writing but they can give you general feedback i.e.: Does this meet the target?  How might you go more in depth? Ask questions of your supervisor or seminar leader as they come up.