Context For Learning Assignment

Assigned school:

Middle School

Expectations/requirements of planning and delivering instruction:

The Cheney School District uses EALR’s for their standard requirements. Within the Cheney School District the science teachers agreed upon what EALR’s were going to be taught in which specific grade. Due to so much curriculum in the 9^th grade standards the 8^th grade teachers are teaching some of the 9^th grade EALR’s. My cooperating teacher sits down every Friday with the other 8^th grade science teacher and discusses what they accomplished that week and what they have planned for the following week. They are free to make up their own lessons and labs which is nice for creativity in science.

Classes:

8^th Grade Earth and Space Science

8^th Grade AVID

Course Length:

5^th, 6^th, and 7^th periods 5 days a week for a quarter

Class Length:

47 minute periods

Resources:

Smart board, computer, projector, doc cam, textbook, balances, sinks, and lab equipment.

5^th Period:

 all 8^th graders ranging from 13-14 years old

                        Students: 29 total

                        Males: 16

                        Females: 13

                        English Language Learners: None

                        Gifted Students: None identified

                        Students with IEP’s, 504 plans, or special needs: 5

Response To edTPA

I had a teacher once tell me that when I teach to give feedback in a positive-negative-positive fashion. Well I had a friend describe his IM swim event as an Oreo cookie with the cookies (which are the butterfly and free style) being the solid/pristine strokes and the gooey middle (which are the back and breast) as the messy/inconsistent strokes. I love this analogy that the start and finish should be solid positive things and the gooey middle is the part that needs work and want to apply it to my feedback practices. Thus I will tackle responding to this assignment using the “Oreo cookie method”.

The first chocolate cookie of this edTPA is that it makes writing the TPA very structured. I especially like the extra questions that could be addressed under each category. The titles in each category are bold and direct which makes it easy to look at and find what you are looking for. 

Now I will discuss the gooey part of the cookie that either needs work or I do not understand. I understand the need for a lesson plan but this one is so detailed that it seems ridiculous. If you only teach the lesson once then this would be somewhat okay, but if you teach this lesson more than one period everything could change by the end of the day. My cooperating Teacher uses sticky notes in her calendar because NOTHING is ever set in a middle school classroom, you have to be flexible. Anyone that has ever been in a classroom knows that the first time you teach something you learn would you would do differently and the next class period you adjust. This happens even if it isn’t the first time you teach the lesson, different class periods have different dynamics that could make how you teach the lesson significantly different. All those details are just busy work, I propose a lesson plan with bullet points or a universal check list so teachers can look at their lesson and make sure it has everything it needs. The teacher needs to be flexible in order to meet the students’ needs and thus a detailed TPA is not so flexible. One thing I don’t understand is that this says it is a lesson plan but is not used in any of the schools I have been too/observed in.  So why are we doing it specifically? Another confusing thing about the edTPA is how repetitive it is. Sure, there are none of the same exact questions but they are reworded in disguise (which isn’t a very good disguise because I found Waldo). For example, “how will students demonstrate this? Describe observable and measurable actions” and “what type of assessment will you use to measure student learning” and “describe how you will gather information and data from students that inform you of their knowledge of the learning targets” which are all from different categories but are asking how will you assess them.

          Finishing the cookie on a good note is the fact that it makes teachers responsible for aligning the lesson with objectives. In some classes I think why am I doing this and making the teachers review their EARL’s and targets/goals helps (or it should) keep the “busy work” at bay.