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At WGU we strive to make sure all the necessary tools are available, so you can excercise your own creativity in achieving educational success.
This webpage provides a set of detailed instructions on Capstone Tasks, prepared by various WGU professionals. This webpage is supposed to you by providing examples, templates, explanations, requirements and video tutorials - all in one.
Remember, your success is our primary goal at WGU. At any time, feel free to contact us with questions!
Yours,
WGU Capstone Mentors
Welcome to the Teacher Work Sample. This is a very exciting process where you will be able to showcase your planning, instructional, and assessment strengths. You will also be asked to provide evidence of your ability to meet the individual needs of your student group through each of those domains.
Course Mentor-You are be assigned a Course Mentor that is available to assist you with any questions you have may have regarding task directions, requirements, and/or evaluation comments and revisions. Course mentors have scheduled office hours throughout the week. Telephone communication is strongly recommended as the first mode of communicating with your course mentor. However, emailing is always the next best option!! Remember that there is no such thing as a silly question, so feel free to make frequent contact if needed.
Task Sequence-There are 7 tasks in the Teacher Work Sample sequence. Each of these tasks is described in detail in Taskstream. It is required that you complete these tasks in order. Please do not submit a task until the previous task has been passed. It is strongly encouraged to follow the directions as they are written and be sure to include all of the required components. If additional resources such as lesson plan templates are provided with the task directions, please utilize these resources when completing the task.
Revisions-The course mentor will check your progress frequently in Taskstream and will contact you to provide encouragement and offer assistance if needed. However, you do not need to wait for the student mentor or course mentor to initiate contact. You should have your TWS facilitator's contact information saved so that you can communicate as needed.
Resources: Here are some helpful videos that provide an overview of the capstone process.
Task 1: https://wgu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=c95194e0-540b-441f-9037-50da390a354e
Task 2: https://wgu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=911e5e75-8431-4ed6-b93b-c2d3b8ab25f7
Task 3: https://wgu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=490ab27c-e7b2-4923-815a-69ac10a321e1
Task 4: https://wgu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6fb3493a-3351-43ff-9e7a-7568d3c4c549
Task 5: https://wgu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=7bdc9bb8-1e11-48d0-97e0-1227b7b0a2e7
Resources for the TWS
Review the following document and web links to help you understand the big picture of the TWS:
The requirements for the TWS are listed in the assessment in Taskstream.
Begin thinking about the timing of your unit. You will need to create the detailed contextual factors, learning objectives, goals, lesson plans, assessment plans, and so forth prior to embarking on the delivery of the unit itself. Since you are likely in a classroom now and engaged in teaching a state-mandated curriculum, you need to select a topic that is far enough away in the curriculum (time-wise) to allow for this.
TWS Timeline/Pacing
TWS capstones are designed to be completed within the six-month term, but are often challenging enough that you (and your mentors) should anticipate the project and its defense taking between three and five months. If you are currently a practicing educator but cannot conduct capstone research because part of the capstone term crosses over school break periods (e.g., Christmas or summer), you can still be productive in developing assessment plans, writing lesson plans, and reviewing TWS data gathering requirements during these breaks.
You are advised against starting your capstone without at least three months to complete this large project undertaking. If you have less than two months left in your term before capstone, your mentor can arrange for a capstone evaluator to be assigned to work with you in an advisory capacity, prior to your enrollment in the TWS coursework at the start of your next term. However, you may not submit tasks for the evaluator to assess. Please refer to the 'TWS Flow Chart' for sequencing and alignment of the various TWS tasks. The pacing guide depicts a typical timeline for TWS projects. Please contact the capstone facilitator for detailed information on TWS requirements and pacing. For more information about Teacher Work Samples tasks refer to the following link:
Teaching Dispositions Statement Please review the WGU Statement of Teaching Dispositions.
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