John Seelke University of Maryland College Park Preparing and Supporting Candidates for the edTPA 1

Goals of this workshop Discuss ways to support candidates in their writing for the edTPA Examine sample commentaries as well as scorer feedback from local evaluations Discuss key points of particular rubrics to help better prepare candidates Answer questions around edTPA 2

Time Constraints Please use the parking lot to post questions that may not directly relate to the topic at hand. Will move quickly through explanations (in order to get as much in as possible), but feel free to interrupt to ask clarifying questions 3

Rubric Blueprint Task name: Rubric Title Guiding Question Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4Level 5 Struggling candidate, not ready to teach Needs more practice Acceptable level to begin teaching Solid foundation of knowledge and skills Highly accomplished beginner 4

Rubric progression Expanding repertoire of skills & strategies Deepening of rationale and reflection Not ReadyProficient NoviceHighly Accomplished Beginner 15 Teacher Focus Student Focus Whole Class Individuals/ Flex. Groups Integrated, Intentional & Well Executed Fragmented, Indiscriminate 5

6 How do we prepare candidates to write successfully for the edTPA?

Short term versus Long term Short term – Triage What can I do this SPRING to get my candidates prepared? Long term – Planning How can I incorporate aspects of edTPA into coursework to better prepare candidates? 7

Short term ideas Have the candidates become very familiar with the handbook, the prompts and the rubrics Use the prompts as formative assessment in teacher seminar or spring classes. 8

Getting to know the handbook Have each student come to the first day of class assigned to a specific rubric. They are then to go through the handbook, find the prompt associated with the rubric, and then share what they think would be needed in the commentary to earn a 3 or a 4 on the rubric 9

Why knowing the handbook matters… Specific items in the rubrics tie back to specific language in the prompts: Level 3 of rubric 3: Candidate justifies why learning tasks are appropriate using examples of… Prompt 2 of PC: Describe what you know about your students with respect to the central focus 10

Example of using Prompt and Rubric By the time of this activity, you all should have been moving into Phase II, where you are asked to take more lead teaching responsibilities in at least one class. For this assignment I would like you to reflect on a lesson you taught, answering the following two prompts: 1. 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)? 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. The reflections will be due October 28. Then, I would like each of you to respond and score a classmates reflection using Rubric 10 of the edTPA (for this exercise, you will only have to score one other person's work). That will be due Oct

Sample assignment response Share Diana L response 12

Offer writing days… One university in Washington offers its candidates three writing days during the semester. These are NOT opportunities to critique writing, but the chance for students to get time to write 13

Long term ideas Incorporating writing prompts into courses (as early as junior year methods class) BE CAREFUL about overwhelming students with edTPA items = share handbook senior year, BUT take prompts from 14

Ways to sneak in edTPA ideas For a lesson plan exercise, have candidates respond to the following: 1. How did you consider your students prior academic knowledge when creating your lesson? Explain 2. How did you consider your student’s personal, cultural or community aspects when creating your lesson? Explain 15

16 Looking at Sample Commentaries

Goals of this section To look at samples of commentaries (both strong sample and samples that are not as strong 17

One general note about commentaries Remember that the rubrics incorporate all aspects – not just the commentaries, but also the plans (in the planning section), the video (in the instructional section), etc.. Have students in their commentaries be specific – refer to the plans or the video to help the scorer and to demonstrate connectedness 18

Let’s look at some sample commentaries These are from Planning Commentary Prompt #5 Sample 1 – A secondary math sample Sample 2 – An elementary literacy sample 19

Now let’s looking at the scoring differences Two notes: 1. The scores do take into account other aspects, not just the commentary; 2. These were scored by myself – while I am a trained scorer in secondary math, and have keen knowledge of the other areas, I am not an elementary specialist. 20

Let’s look at a sample instructional commentary Prompt 4 in Instructional Commentary First Sample: Social Studies Second Sample: English Sample Third Sample: Math Sample 21

Moving onto an assessment commentary Prompt 1 – Middle Childhood Math Prompt 1 - Foreign Language Prompt 1 – Elementary Literacy 22

23 Helpful hints about rubrics

Rubric 2 – Connect supports to the learning objective 24

Rubric 3 – make connections to learning objective 25

Rubric 4 – Academic Language 26

Rubric 5 – Assessment 27

Rubric 7 – Participating vs. Engaged 28

Rubric 8 – types of questions to ask (citing evidence) 29

Rubric 10 – Making connections and changes to the learning segment 30

Rubric 12 - Feedback 31

Rubric 13 – How students use feedback 32

Rubric 15 – Analysis 33

Contact information John Seelke – 34