John SeelkeUniversity of Maryland College Park

Preparing and Supporting Candidates for the edTPA

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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

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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

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Rubric Blueprint

Task name: Rubric TitleGuiding Question

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Struggling candidate, not ready to teach

Needs more practice

Acceptable level to begin teaching

Solid foundation of knowledge and skills

Highly accomplished beginner

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Rubric progression Expanding repertoire of skills & strategiesDeepening of rationale and reflection

Not Ready Proficient Novice Highly AccomplishedBeginner

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Teacher Focus

Student Focus

Whole Class

Individuals/ Flex. Groups

Integrated, Intentional & Well Executed

Fragmented, Indiscriminate

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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?

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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.

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Getting to know the handbookHave 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

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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

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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. 30.

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Sample assignment response• Share Diana L response

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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

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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

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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

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Looking at Sample Commentaries

Goals of this section• To look at samples of commentaries (both

strong sample and samples that are not as strong

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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Moving onto an assessment commentaryPrompt 1 – Middle Childhood MathPrompt 1 - Foreign LanguagePrompt 1 – Elementary Literacy

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Helpful hints about rubrics

Rubric 2 – Connect supports to the learning objective

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Rubric 3 – make connections to learning objective

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Rubric 4 – Academic Language

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Rubric 5 – Assessment

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Rubric 7 – Participating vs. Engaged

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

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Rubric 10 – Making connections and changes to the learning segment

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Rubric 12 - Feedback

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Rubric 13 – How students use feedback

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Rubric 15 – Analysis

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Contact information• John Seelke – jseelke@umd.edu

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