EWU TPA Guidelines/CSU Article

Okay, let’s talk about the edTPA and lesson plans!  While writing out all my lessons plans in TPA format has been very tedious, in my opinion, I understand the importance of the lesson plan format.  One of the purposes of the TPA is to help us learn how to internalize all the information we fill out on the form; it makes us think about the lesson, the needs of the students, is what we are teaching backed by research, how to make past and future connections, how parents and the community are connected to what’s being taught in the classroom, etc.  This internalization process takes time and practices which is why we, as teacher candidates, fill out so many TPA lesson plans.  I don’t necessarily like doing the lesson plans because finding research that backs the lessons and remembering what all needs to be in Academic Language can be time-consuming.  However, like I pointed out above, the information the TPA lesson plans causes us to think about as a teacher is very valuable.  And even though I wish I could write a perfect lesson plan on the first try, my mentor and supervisor (for observations) will always pose my questions to me to think deeper and how to extend my students’ critical thinking skills beyond something as simple as the surface level.

I liked the California State Universities Expository Reading and Writing Course Assignment Template.  Much of what the article discusses about I remember learning about in high school English classes.  However, it was interesting to be on the other side of things (i.e. being the teacher) because I can talk about the writing and reading process, annotating books, writing a conclusion, and probably anything else the article detailed, but how do I teach that to high schoolers who have maybe never seen it before is something to continue to be thinking about.