Completing your Task
PART 1: DIRECTIONS
Note: Before completing your response, you should read 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 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: “Learning About Students in the Whole Class and Two Focus Students,” you will demonstrate your ability to collect information about the whole class and two focus students and describe how you will use the information for planning academic instruction in the selected subject matter. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:
· Select a class and identify the content area, subject matter, state-adopted student academic content standards and/or frameworks, and unit of study with which you will be working. (See Part 2 below, “Making Choices,” for guidance in selecting the class and unit of study.)
· Collect and record information on the background and academic ability of the students in the class.
· Describe your students’ physical, social, and emotional development in relation to typical students of this age group.
· Select two focus 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 two focus 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 2: “Learning Environment and Academic Instructional Planning for the Whole Class,” you will demonstrate your ability to plan appropriate instruction for all students in the class. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:
· Describe the classroom climate, expectations for students, and classroom procedures.
· Select or develop an academic lesson you will teach. (See Part 2 below, “Making Choices,”for guidance in selecting/developing the lesson.)
· Identify the academic learning goal(s) and the state-adopted student academic content standards and/or frameworks addressed in the lesson.
· Describe the components of the lesson, including the strategies, activities, grouping, materials, assessment, and evidence of student learning you will collect.
· Explain why the plan for instruction is appropriate for the content of the lesson and for your students.
For Step 3: “Lesson Adaptations for the Two Focus Students,” you will demonstrate your ability to identify and make adaptations to the class instructional plan as 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 appropriate adaptations to the whole class instruction plan that are necessary 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 4: “Teaching and Video Recording the Lesson: Whole Class, Including Two Focus Students,” you will demonstrate your ability to teach the lesson you have planned. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:
· Write a brief paragraph about your teaching context for this lesson.
· Draw a simple floor plan of your classroom.
· Submit a 20-minute continuous and unedited video of you teaching this lesson. Remember that you will need permission forms for students and adults who will be seen on the video (See Chapter 7 for further guidance on privacy issues).
For Step 5: “Analyzing the Lesson,” you will demonstrate your ability to analyze the effectiveness of the lesson for the whole class and the two focus students. In order for you to complete this step of the response, you will:
· Analyze the effectiveness of the lesson you taught, using the video as one reference for the analysis.
· Analyze the effectiveness of the lesson plan and of the adaptations for the two focus students.
· Score the assessment and collect evidence of student learning from the assessment, including the focus students’ responses plus three student responses that represent the range of achievement on the assessment (total of five responses to be submitted).
· Label the five responses as indicated below. If the assessment was not given in written format, indicate the scoring criteria used and provide your assessment notes about the students’ performance based on these scoring criteria (e.g., for a non-written, oral or other performance-based assessment).
§ English learner focus student (or Languages Other Than English second student who presents a different instructional challenge) focus student: remove her/his name and label as “Student 1.”
§ Student who presents a different instructional challenge focus student: remove her/his name and label as “Student 2.”
§ Student who scored well on the assessment: remove her/his name and label as “Student 3.”
§ Student who scored in an average range on the assessment: remove her/his name and label as “Student 4.”
§ Student who did not score well on the assessment: remove her/his name and label as “Student 5.”
§ Analyze the evidence of student learning for the class and for the two focus students.
Hint: It is helpful to write this analysis while reviewing the video.
For Step 6: “Reflection after Instruction,” you will demonstrate your ability to use what you learned in this task to improve your future planning and instruction. In order for you to complete this step of your response, you will:
· Reflect on your analysis of the effectiveness of the lesson and on student learning as a result of the lesson.
· Describe how the outcome of the lesson and of the assessment will affect your future planning and teaching.
· Identify your professional development goals based on what you learned from this instructional experience.
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 instruction and assessment planning your teaching practices and your ability to analyze the evidence of student learning will be demonstrated 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 an academic lesson
4. Choosing an assessment
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 are a candidate for a Single Subject Preliminary Credential, choose a class within your content area that is different from the class you chose in the Designing Instruction and the Assessing Learning tasks.
· 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 practice. For this reason, the best performing class may not be your best choice for this task.
2. Choosing two focus students
Select two students who are different than the students you chose for the Designing Instruction and the Assessing Learning task. Focusing on these two students as you progress through this task will allow you to demonstrate your ability to learn about and plan for students’ individual learning needs. Selecting students who have distinctly different learning needs, and therefore present different instructional challenges, is important because it will give you the opportunity to demonstrate a broader range of skills in planning and implementing lessons and assessments than if you focused only on the class or on one type of challenge.
The two focus 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 they 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 an academic 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 that is different from the lessons you planned in the previous tasks. If you are a candidate for a Single Subject Preliminary Credential, you will plan a lesson within your subject area that is different from the lessons you planned in the previous tasks. Your teacher preparation program may provide you with additional guidance for making your content area selection.
Select or develop a lesson that allows you to demonstrate your ability to address the instructional planning for the whole class with 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 lesson plan, or develop your own lesson plan. Depending on the age and grade range of the students, the lesson could be 15 to 90 minutes in duration. It should be a single, discrete lesson within a larger unit of study or within a series of lessons. Select, adapt, or develop a lesson that gives you the opportunity to address all of the components of effective instruction that are discussed in Step
2, and that allows for the kinds of adaptation you will need to make to meet the focus students’
needs in Step 3.
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 student academic content standards and/or frameworks in your subject area will guide your lesson selection or development.
4. Choosing an assessment
If you are a candidate for a Multiple Subject Preliminary Credential, you will plan and conduct an assessment in a core curriculum areas such as English/language arts, mathematics, history/so- cial science, or science. If you are a candidate for a Single Subject Preliminary Credential, you will plan and conduct an assessment within your subject area.
Your first step in choosing an assessment is to consider where you are in the selected unit of study. The following chart provides a review of the three major purposes of assessment: entry level (typically used as the beginning of unit of study); progress monitoring (typically used in the middle of the unit of study), or summative (typically used at the end of the unit of study). In your task response, you will need to identify and describe the purpose of your assessment.
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