Completing Your Task Response

PART I Directions:

Note: Before completing your response, you should read through all of these directions and all of the questions and prompts provided within the task. You should also review the guidelines provided in Chapter 2 and in Chapter 7 concerning preparing your written responses and maintaining student and candidate privacy.

Directions: Prior to responding to the task, you should review Chapter 1 and read this chapter in its entirety. As you read the task, you should pay particular attention to the task steps and the associated questions and/or statements that will help you develop and organize your responses.

Follow the procedures provided to you by your teacher preparation program to obtain the Word version of the task. As you complete your responses to the task within the Word document, type your response to each question or prompt within the rectangular box provided. This box will expand as you type.

In the header on the Word document, you will see a number at the upper right hand corner. You should replace this number with the candidate ID number assigned to you by your program. When you have completed your responses to the entire task, you should follow the directions provided by your teacher preparation program for the actual submission of the task.

Use the information provided below to help you understand each of the task steps.

For Step 1: "Academic Content Selection and Learning About Students," you will demonstrate your knowledge of how to learn about students and explain why this information is important. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:

• Select a class and identify the content area (e.g., mathematics), subject matter (e.g., geometry), student academic content standards or frameworks, and unit of study with which you will be working. (See Part 2 below, "Making Choices," for guidance in selecting the class.)
• Identify the information you want to know about the students, describe the methods you will use to get the information and why you choose to use these methods, and explain how you will use this information in planning instruction in your selected content area.

For Step 2: "Learning about Two Focus Students," you will demonstrate your ability to collect information about two specific students. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:

• Select two students, including an English learner and a student who presents a different instructional challenge. (See Part 2 below, "Making Choices" for guidance in selecting the students.)
• Collect and record information about the characteristics of the two selected students.
• Explain how the information will influence your instructional planning for the two selected focus students.

For Step 3: "Planning for Academic Instruction for the Whole Class," you will demonstrate your ability to plan instruction. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:

• Think about a lesson that you might teach to the students within the selected unit of study. (See Part 2 below, "Making Choices," for guidance in selecting the lesson.) Identify the state-adopted academic content standards or framework for students that the lesson will address, the learning goal(s) of the lesson, and the evidence of student learning that will show the extent to which the students made progress towards the learning goal(s). You are not required to teach this lesson.
• Describe the lesson, including the instructional strategies, student activities, grouping of students, use of materials, and progress monitoring of student learning.
• Explain why the plan for instruction is appropriate for the lesson’s content and for your students.

For Step 4: "Lesson Adaptations for the Two Focus Students," you will demonstrate your ability to determine adaptations to the instruction plan that are needed for the two focus students. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:

• Consider what you learned about the two focus students as well as the implications for instruction of the two students. Describe any adaptations necessary to the whole class instruction plan to meet the needs of these students.
• Explain the reasoning behind your instructional planning decisions relating to the two focus students. If you determine that no adaptations to the lesson are needed for one or both of the focus students, explain your reasoning why not.

For Step 5: "Reflection on Connecting Instructional Planning to Student Characteristics," you will demonstrate your ability to use what you learned in this task to improve your future planning. In order for you to complete this step of the response, you will:

• Read your responses to the questions in Steps 1- 4. Consider what you have learned in this task about instructional planning.
• Reflect upon the information that you collected about the two focus students and how it influenced your instructional planning for this lesson.
• Describe how you will use what you learned in this task to improve your future planning for academic instruction.

PART 2: MAKING CHOICES

The suggestions in this section are provided to help you plan your responses and select your evidence so that your most effective instructional planning practice will be evident to the assessors who will score your response.

You have three important choices to make for this task. The choices you make will affect the quality of your response:

1. Choosing a class
2. Choosing two focus students within the class
3. Choosing a lesso

1. Choosing a class

You need to collect and record information about students within a single class.

• If you are a candidate for a Multiple Subject Preliminary Credential, these students need to be in one class within grades K-8.
• If you are a candidate for a Single Subject Preliminary Credential, these students need to be in one class within your content area.
• If you have more than one class from which to choose, it is important to select a class that gives you an opportunity to fully demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and abilities.
   

2. Choosing two focus students within the class

You will need to select two students to focus your exploration of student characteristics. Focusing on these two students as you move through this task will allow you to demonstrate your ability to learn about student characteristics that influence instruction and to develop an instructional plan that meets individual student needs. These two students must be:

Student 1: An English learner. One of the two students must be an English learner, so you can demonstrate your ability to learn about and plan for students who are English learners. This student should have documented EL needs, such a CELDT score within the lower to mid-range of English proficiency. It would not be helpful for you to choose a student who has a high CELDT score or one who has been reclassified as English proficient as these students are not likely subjects for demonstrating your abilities in the this area.

Note: Single subject candidates for a credential in Languages Other Than English who are delivering instruction entirely in the target language may choose another student with a different instructional challenge rather than an English learner.

Student 2: A student who presents a different instructional challenge. The other focus student is one who presents a "different instructional challenge," such as a student who, for example, is very active, or high achieving, or who has a short attention span, or a special health consideration.

Selecting students who have distinctly different learning needs is important because it will give you the opportunity to demonstrate a broader range of your teaching practice than if you focus only on the class as a whole or on one additional type of instructional challenge. It is important for you to choose students who give you an opportunity to demonstrate the range of your ability to teach. Remember that the focus is on your practice, not on the level of student performance.

3. Choosing a lesson

If you are a candidate for a Multiple Subject Preliminary Credential, you will plan a lesson in a core curriculum area such as English/language arts, mathematics, history/social science, or science. If you are a candidate for a Single Subject Preliminary Credential, you will plan a lesson within your subject area.

You will need to select or develop a lesson that allows you to demonstrate your ability to address instructional planning for the whole class, plus adaptations for the two focus students (Steps 3 and 4 of the task). For this task, you may use an existing lesson plan, adapt an existing plan, or design your own plan. This lesson may be one that you will teach or one you have previously taught, but teaching the lesson is not necessary to complete this task. Depending on the age and grade range of the students, the lesson could be 15 to 90 minutes in duration. It is meant to be a single, discrete lesson within a larger unit of study or within a series of lessons. Select or develop a lesson that gives you the opportunity to address all of the components of effective instruction that are discussed in Step 3, and that allows for the kinds of adaptation you will need to make to meet the focus students’ needs in Step 4.

A lesson in which students are only memorizing procedures or are involved in rote learning may not be the best choice for this lesson. The state-adopted academic content standards or state-adopted frameworks in your subject area should guide your lesson selection or development.