edTPA Making Good Choices

https://www.edtpa.com/Content/Docs/edTPAMGC.pdf

Learning Letter

Each student is required to complete a course reflection in the form of a learning letter blog posting. This final blog posting should fulfill three major requirements:

1. Reflect on the work you’ve completed in the course (book talks, mini-lessons, unit plans)

2. Reflect on the theories and concepts we explored in readings and discussions

3. Reflect on how you think your participation in this course has influenced your thinking about yourself as a teacher

The process of continual reflection is essential to your growth as a teacher.

The learning letter is worth 5% of the final grade for the course, and it is due to your blog by Monday, 12/4, at noon.

Three-Week Literature Unit Plan

Each student will prepare a three-week literature unit plan. Preparing this unit will help you in a variety of ways. You will get feedback on the feasibility of your lessons working in the classroom and on your methods of evaluation. 

• You may be developing materials for a text/texts already used in the curriculum that you may/will encounter again in your own teaching. 
• You may be developing materials for a text/texts that you can make the case for why it should be included in the curriculum. 
• Or you may be developing materials that include English Language Arts instruction in a different content area.

Whichever option you choose, you will gain experience in planning an meaningful unit for your future students. This will be a very detailed project. The literature unit plan is worth 40% of the final grade for the course. It is the culminating project for all of the work we will do this quarter.

Project Objective: To construct a well-researched and applicable instructional three-week unit that incorporates a novel, a play, poetry, a group of short stories, an author, or a specific period. This unit should integrate literature, language, composition, listening, speaking, and informational texts. You must incorporate the theoretical work that we’ve discussed in class during the quarter. Feel free to incorporate other theoretical lenses as well. Many of you are in practicum situations. This unit plan is a great opportunity to develop materials for content currently underway in your placements. Although it is not required, the work you develop for this assignment could be used by you or your master teacher so that you can see how what you have designed works in the classroom. Feedback from your master teacher will also be incredibly useful for you.

* This project can be completed individually or in pairs. If working in pairs, it is essential that the each aspect of the project is worked on collaboratively. Please don’t split the project up and complete it separately. Thinking through each aspect of this project is necessary to prepare yourself for teaching secondary ELA skills. For those working in pairs, both students will earn the same grade.

Requirements:

Introductory Overview (50pts): Write an introductory overview that captures the essence of your unit and what you plan for it to accomplish (three to five pages double-space typed). Introduce each section of your unit plan. In your introductory paragraph, tell the title of your text(s), the grade level for which you intend the unit, and what you plan for your project focus. Include your rationale for using your selected text(s) in the classroom. Then, write a narrative describing the unit so that any reader will understand what the focus is and what the unit is generally trying to accomplish. Throughout your overview, the focus of the unit should always be clearly identifiable as you describe the intent of your individual lessons, as you show how you will integrate any extra resources (such as cultural items, texts, technology), and as you explain your unit assessment procedures. This introductory overview must be clear enough that anyone picking up your unit will know what you focused on and how you approached it from the beginning of the project to the end.

Calendar/Timeline (20 pts): Provide a brief overview of each day of your unit plan. Include a brief timeline of the unit that shows the progression of instruction during 3 weeks. This timeline may be in calendar form or as a one to two page description of daily activities. Each day should include the objectives, main activities, and assessment strategies.

Unit Objectives (20 pts): Develop an overall question or statement that will act as an “umbrella” for your goals and objectives for the unit. When you list your goals and objectives, prioritize them, starting with the most important. Keep your list short--a maximum of four or five. Remember that these are the main objectives for the unit as a whole. The objectives for your individual lessons will be much more varied. Explain clearly what it is you want the students to learn and/or accomplish by the end of the unit. Refer to CCSS in this section.

Assessment Plan (40 pts): Consider how you will assess student learning this unit, what assignments will work best for evaluating your selected objectives, and describe in detail your plan (point system, percentages, standards based grading, etc., including the rationale for using them). This section should be a very detailed explanation of both the ways in which you will assess your students as well as your rationale for why these methods are the most appropriate modes of assessment.

Daily Lesson Plans (150 pts): Follow the TPA lesson guidelines to plan each day of your 3 week unit. In each lesson plan provide enough detail so that anyone could understand where your lesson is moving and how you will accomplish it (this includes outlines, handouts, and lecture notes, if used). In bibliographic form, be sure to list all materials used. Attach all supplementary material used in the lesson, including quizzes, worksheet, handouts, poems, stories, pictures, overheads, etc.

Annotated Bibliography (30 pts): Make an annotated bibliography for all the sources you used as well as those you might use later (10 minimum). The idea here is to show the theoretical, philosophical, methodological, and pedagogical underpinnings of your unit plan. Some of these should be from course material, but please use a minimum of 3 outside sources as well. Your annotation should be descriptive and evaluative and should run from three to four sentences.

Self-Evaluation of Final Project (20 pts): When you have completed your project and are ready to turn it in, write a self-evaluation of your entire final project, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of your unit. Include what you have learned from doing this unit. Looking ahead, consider what you might change based on what you’ve already learned from preparing this unit.

Draft pieces on time (50 pts): There are multiple due dates during the quarter for you to turn in drafts of particular pieces of your literature unit plan. You may choose to turn in a draft of whichever section you choose, but you must turn in a draft of a new section for due date listed on the course calendar.

Organization of Teaching Materials (20 pts):  Organize your information. Make it as easy as possible for you—and others that you are sharing your project with—to find items.

A few suggestions:

1. Use Section Dividers. Use subject dividers or tabs to identify each section. Consider breaking up large sections into smaller, more easily accessible sections. For example, lesson plans could be divided up week by week, or even day by day.

2. Add a Table of Contents and Paginate. List each individual section in the order presented.

3. Edit.  Also, have a friend/colleague edit. Edit for your friend/colleague.

4. Proofread.  Also, have a friend proofread. Proofread for your friend/colleague.

This assignment is worth 40% of your final grade in this course. Please feel free to consult with me throughout your process of putting this project together. I’m available for discussions of ideas, texts, assignments, etc. 

Mini-Lesson

All students will have the opportunity to teach a lesson using one of our course texts:

• Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007.

• Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Tales and Poems. Castle Books, 2002.

• Kick, Russ. The Graphic Canon. Seven Stories Press, 2012.

• Wiesel, Elie. Night. Hill and Wang, 1958.

• Rivera, Lilliam. The Education of Margot Sanchez. Simon and Shuster, 2017.

All students will have the opportunity to teach a 20 minute lesson using one of our course texts. Students will select which of the four texts to use. Each student will be responsible for teaching a mini-lesson focused on one aspect of the text. You will consider your 493 classmates as your students, and we’ll be respectful secondary students at your request. Each student will provide the class with a TPA lesson plan for his/her mini-lesson (we’ll review these requirements together in class). Following each lesson, the class will participate in a feedback session designed to help us all consider what worked well and what can be improved. Additionally, each student will complete a self-evaluation after reflecting on his/her teaching. 

Note: All students are responsible to know every text presented. The presenters need your participation to grow as teachers, and you will depend on their participation as well. Consequently, the class is not only responsible for reading the texts, but also for participating in the lesson and the discussion following the lesson. The mini-lesson on a literary text is worth 20% of the final grade for the course.

Specific requirements:

1.      Each student will provide the class with a TPA lesson plan for his/her mini-lesson. Prior to completing this project, we will discuss the requirements and the purpose of the TPA. This lesson plan will be a thorough explanation of what is planned and implemented.

2.      Each student will complete a 2 pg. self-evaluation after reflecting on his/her teaching. In this self-evaluation, each student will:

*reflect on what was successful about the lesson and teaching,

*reflect on what he/she might do differently next time, and

*address issues that are brought up during the feedback session

3.    Each lesson must include some aspect of popular culture, social justice, or informational text. 

It’s expected that you use the content of the course to guide your lesson preparation. This assignment is a great opportunity to take some risks and attempt things you haven’t tried before. As a class, we are here to support and help each other to become better teachers. My hope is that you take this opportunity to do that.

Evaluation Rubric

The mini-lesson teaching exercise is worth 20% of the final grade for the course. Students will be evaluated by the following.

___/10 Lesson Plan

___/10 Effectiveness of Lesson Activities

___/10 Teacher Effectiveness/Poise/Presence

___/10 Level of Class Engagement

___/10 Self-evaluation Paper

Book Talk Selections

Aubrey--The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
Ashley--Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Michelle--Looking for Alaska by John Green
Hailey--I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
Amanda--The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Ashton--My Life as a Traitor by Zarah Ghahramani 
Lauren--Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Tess--Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Austin--The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Kennedi--The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Shawn--The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseinni
Matt--Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Dez--Sandpiper by Ellen Wittlinger
Jordan--Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Book Talks of a Young Adult Text

Each student is required to choose a young adult text and prepare a short talk to introduce the text to the class. As a teacher of adolescents, you will want to familiarize yourself with as much literature as possible that speaks to a younger reading audience. These book talks will assist you in becoming familiar with the text that you choose, as well as the variety of texts that your classmates choose. Each student will be asked to provide a handout detailing the text for his/her classmates. The book talk of a young adult text is worth 10% of the final grade for the course.

What to include in your presentation and handout:

• 1.      Please include a detailed description of the text. Take into consideration that your colleagues might not be familiar with the text that you have chosen. A detailed description will include everything necessary for your classmates to gain an understanding of the text without reading it. Your job is to introduce the text in a complete way so that it is possible for others to decide when, where, and how this text might be appropriate.

• 2.      Please explain why you chose this text. What was your rationale? For whom is this text appropriate? Please consider age, ability, and any other factor you find important. Why is it appropriate for this group of students?

• 3.      Please include some teaching ideas. How do you envision this text being used in a secondary classroom? Provide at least 3 specific ideas for what is possible with this text.

• 4.      Please consider some obstacles to using this text. What are the potential issues that may arise from using this text? Predict an administrator’s response to the use of this text. Predict parents’ responses. Predict students’ responses.

• 5.      Anything else you think is important for us to know and understand about this text and its use with students.

Book talks will be about 10 minutes each with an additional few minutes for questions and brief discussion about your text. When you have decided on a text, please email me (sagriss@ewu.edu) with your selection. This way we can avoid overlap of texts. One of the goals of this assignment is to increase your potential library of texts, so it is important that we each choose something different. I will OK texts based on the order in which I receive emails. If you choose a text that someone else has already chosen, I will ask you to choose a different text.

Book Talk of Young Adult Text

Evaluation Rubric

____ / 10 Detailed outline of text

____ / 10 Rationale for choosing the text

____ / 10 Teaching ideas

____ / 10 Obstacles

____ / 5 Handout

____ / 5 Presentation

Links to Your Colleagues' Blogs

Aubrey--https://rosiereflectionss.blogspot.com
Ashley--https://ashleyisin493.blogspot.com
Michelle--https://michellemoniquerubio.blogspot.com
Shawn--https://shawns493blog.blogspot.com
Lauren--https://missarcherengl493.blogspot.com
Hailey--https://haileysenglishadventures.blogspot.com
Amanda--https://aguarisco.blogspot.com
Matt--http://mhrycenko.blogspot.com/
Ashton--https://ashtonmallory.blogspot.com/
Kennedi--https://quaintrelle1.blogspot.com
Dezarae--https://youarenotheretosink.blogspot.com
Tess--https://tk-meraki.blogspot.com/
Austin--https://austinsreadingvoice.blogspot.com
Jordan--http://thebaileyblogging.blogspot.com/