Enduring edTPA
ROBERT LEABO
NYS & ARIZONA LICENSED TEACHER
Introduction
 *I was where you are now and I survived!*
 In the spring 2014 I student taught and took my first steps





toward becoming a licensed teacher. It was also during that
time that NY was changing as it adopted the common core
state standards. With that, they overhauled their teachercertification requirements too. I completed the elementary
education edTPA but many components are the same across
specialties.
Enter: ALST, EAS and edTPA
http://www.nystce.nesinc.com/
http://edtpa.aacte.org/
https://leaborb192.wordpress.com/robs-edtpa-spring-2014/
I’ll provide the audio for you auditory learners too. 
edTPA “rationale”
 According to some “big names” in education, they felt the
need to ensure that quality teachers enter the classroom
and carry out the rigorous standards as well as teach
students to the best of their ability. The edTPA is nothing
more than a professional video portfolio to demonstrate
this competency to teach.
 However, I am skeptical of its cost and connections with
Pearson. Nonetheless, it’s here to stay so this is where I
come in. This powerpoint paired with my submitted
assignments have already helped – and will continue to
help – teacher-candidates be successful. 
Quick tips for success
 Read, re-read, organize and KNOW the edTPA handbook provided by your college.






At the end of the day, YOU are responsible for your success.
Consult with your professors, mentor teachers, college supervisor, etc. to know
deadlines. Deadlines are key to tackling the assignment. My own supervisor set up
deadlines for each part and it really helped. Chew the edTPA in small bites before
you swallow!
Understand all tasks and their components (this is where I come in to help)
EDIT YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU SUBMIT! You need to check, double check, and
triple-check grammar, spelling and the rubrics. They say they don’t grade grammar,
but we know that’s not true.
Know how to use your camera and all necessary technology BEFORE you upload the
final products. This is not a game or fun video to upload on Youtube; this is YOUR
future career!
Know the curriculum and common core standards for your lessons. It will help!
Use any published resources available. We didn’t have much when I had to
submit but there’s probably more guides and handbooks now.
Elementary Education edTPA
 The handbook has since changed since I completed it,





but I believe the tasks remain the same. Here’s an
overview of the tasks before I go into each one
individually.
Task one: Planning for Literacy (ELA lessons)
Task two: ELA lesson commentary –and the video –
You record yourself teach and talk about it
Task three: Reflect and evaluate student work samples
Task four: Planning, evaluating and reflecting on math
lessons (no video required as far as I know)
*Always consult the handbook as it is your number 1 tool
for success.
Task 1 part A: Context
 *Regardless of your specialty (elementary ed, literacy, special
ed, Spanish, ect.) you will be required to complete the context
for the lessons.
 The context simply refers to where do you teach and who are
your students. You want to be as thorough as possible
(remember mine is not perfect but it got me a high score)!
 You need to explain as much as possible because the people
watching the video do not know your school. If you teach
in a Title 1 school where half your class has learning
disabilities, low readers, or ELL (like my class), they need to
know that because that will guide your instruction and adapt
for those learners.
 This is pretty self explanatory.
Disclaimer
 This is where the explanations will get quite lengthy
as I attempt to decipher each task and really put it in
layman’s terms (What is it saying and asking for?)
 I will refer to my own samples to help explain
 Remember: at the end of the day, this is YOUR
assignment and YOU are responsible for your
success.
 The edTPA is daunting but possible; I passed with
the highest score of my cohort and am now licensed
in NY and Arizona 
Task 1 B,C,D & E- ELA Planning and materials
•
Central focus - Describe the central focus and purpose for the content you will
teach in the learning segment. (This is basically your chance to answer the what
and why. What are you teaching the kids and why is it important? My students
learned to use graphic organizers to organize information and respond to writing
tasks.)
 Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning
objectives within your learning segment address
an essential literacy strategy
 requisite skills
 reading/writing connections
(What is the essential literacy strategy? Are they annotating text? Learning to
decode words? Use complete sentences as they respond to writing? Literacy
refers to reading, writing and thinking! What requisite skills are needed and
applied? My students needed to already understand the difference between fact
and opinion; how to read various kinds of texts and respond in writing. What is
the reading-writing connection? Will they read and write an essay? Write a
poem? My kids read informational text, and used their graphic organizers to
write a persuasive essay using facts to support their claims.)

Task 1
 Explain how your plans build on each other to help students make
connections between skills and the essential strategy to
comprehend OR compose text in meaningful contexts.
 (First, are students learning to comprehend (decode and
understand) text or will they write text? You need to make sure your
focus picks a lane: reading or writing; however, in the end they will
intersect as you make the connection between reading and writing.
It seems convoluted in a way. They’re really just “splitting hairs.”
Nevertheless, your lesson plans should involve a sequence. That’s
really all they’re asking here. What will you teach in the first,
second, third and fourth lesson and how will they progress to help
students learn? We know that we’ll introduce it, the students will
practice and it will culminate in an assessment. In my own lessons
we talked about fact and opinion; then, they practiced using
“opinion triggers” as they read text and classified examples and by
the fourth lesson they used graphic organizers to write text.)
Task 1
 Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching
 For each of the prompts below (2a–b), describe what you know about your students
with respect to the central focus of the learning segment.
 Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs, English language learners, struggling
readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge,
and/or gifted students).
 a.
Prior academic learning and prerequisite skills related to the central focus—
What do students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to
do?
 (You have the opportunity to explain more about your students and their learning
needs. It seems kind of unfair given you just stepped foot into the classroom and
now are expected to have bonded and know everything about your kids… oh well,
welcome to teaching… anyway you answer the questions: what do they already know
and can do? And What are they learning to do? Teachers plan lessons based on their
students’ needs and interests; you get to expand on that here. Some of my kids
already knew about fact and opinion but weren’t 100% on it so I got to explore that
in the lessons. We also reviewed how to write complete sentences, syntax, proper
grammar, etc as I taught second graders.)
Task 1
 b.
Personal/cultural/community assets related to the
central focus—What do you know about your
students’ everyday experiences, cultural
backgrounds and practices, and interests?
 (Again, get to know your students to help answer this
question. But basically it assumes that your students
come from a variety of backgrounds and life
experiences… mine didn’t… so I just spoke to what I
knew (that they’re all the same color, similar socioeconomic backgrounds and all live in the same small
town where I came from. Now if you student teach in the
city, you’re in for a treat and can really pontificate here.
You actually have diversity in your classroom.)
Task 1
 3.
Supporting Students’ Literacy Learning
 Respond to prompts 3a–c below. To support your explanations, refer to the
instructional materials and lesson plans you have included as part of Task
1. In addition, use principles from research and/or theory to
support your explanations.
 a.
Explain how your understanding of your students’ prior academic
learning and personal/cultural/community assets (from prompts 2a–b
above) guided your choice or adaptation of learning tasks and materials.
 (I hope you know your “biggies” in education because here’s where you
need to name drop! But not just name drop (e.g. “Vygotsky said…”) you
really need to explain using pedagogical and psychological knowledge. I
talk a lot about ZPD and scaffolding to instruct students as well as Dewey’s
experiential education because those are two philosophies of education that
are important to know. Be prepared to be a researcher here and back up
whatever you say using text-evidence and research. Don’t ever say, “We’re
doing this lesson because it’s ‘fun’”)
Task 1
 Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned
supports are appropriate for the whole class, individuals,
and/or groups of students with specific learning needs.
 Consider students with IEPs, English language learners, struggling
readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic
knowledge, and/or gifted students.
 (This prompt is all about how are you differentiating your
instruction to meet all your learners’ needs? It’s pretty selfexplanatory; obviously if you have students who can’t read, you
might pull them aside and teach them some strategies or utilize
technology (computers) for students who can’t write well or even
use choice boards for your enrichment kiddos. If students have 504
plans or IEPS, you had BETTER refer to them. We’re not all the
same and neither are they. Remember that!)
Task 1
 Describe common misconceptions or common
developmental approximations within your literacy
central focus and how you will address them.
 (What mistakes or errors might your students make as
you teach the lessons and how will you help them? For
example: if you’re teaching singular/plural and the
students write “tooths”, it’s obvious they don’t
understand that you don’t just add “s” to everything –
despite what they’ve learned– so be ready to handle that.
Always have an answer when students say, “But I
thought…”)
Task 1
 Supporting Literacy Development Through Language
 a.
Language Function. Identify one language function essential for students
to learn the literacy strategy within your central focus. Listed below are some
sample language functions. You may choose one of these or another more
appropriate for your learning segment.











Analyze
Argue
Categorize
Compare/contrast
Describe
Explain
Interpret
Predict
Question
Retell
Summarize
 (This is the action verb used in your objective of your lesson plan. As a teacher I now
use “I can” when writing objectives, you could do the same. “I can predict the events
of a text using the cover page and pictures in a story.” My students classified
statements as fact or opinion.)
Task 1
 Identify a key learning task from your plans that
provides students with opportunities to practice
using the language function identified above.
Identify the lesson in which the learning task occurs.
(Give lesson day/number.)
 (This is where you give students the opportunity to
practice the objective. For example: my students
used graphic organizers to classify statements as fact
or opinion in most of the lessons. If you want
students to summarize text, you need to give them
the opportunities to do so.)
Task 1
 Additional Language Demands. Given the language function and learning task






identified above, describe the following associated language demands (written or
oral) students need to understand and/or use.
Vocabulary or key phrases
Plus at least one of the following language demands:
Syntax
Discourse
Consider the range of students’ understandings of the language function and other
language demands—what do students already know, what are they struggling with,
and/or what is new to them?
(This prompt is asking about the nitty gritty of language. For example: my students
had to understand what fact and opinion is and utilize the various triggers “I believe,
I think, I feel” for opinion and facts can be proven as true. Students also needed to
understand that written and spoken language has order “I go to the store.” If you
want your students to craft an argument, for example, they’d need to understand
that the style of writing and language demands are much different and will depend
on the target audience.)
Task 1
 Language Supports. Refer to your lesson plans and instructional
materials as needed in your response to the prompt.
 Describe the instructional supports (during and/or prior to the
learning task) that help students understand and successfully use
the language function and additional language demands identified
in prompts 4a–c.
 (Again, how are you, as the teacher, helping to ensure that all your
students are learning? If you want students to make a prediction
about the story using text-features and they respond (orally or in
writing) with “I like this story,” they obviously don’t understand the
verb “predict”, so how will you help them? I taught second graders
and had to model every step of the process as well as give them
opportunities to practice in groups and individually and scaffolded
when needed. Basically you just answer the question “Are all my
students learning? If not, how am I adapting?” )
Task 1
 Monitoring Student Learning
 In response to the prompts below, refer to the assessments
you will submit as part of the materials for Task 1.
 a.
Describe how your planned formal and informal
assessments will provide direct evidence that students can use
the literacy strategy and requisite skills to comprehend or
compose text throughout the learning segment.
 (You look at your assessments and ask yourself, “How will
these show if my students learned?” Select assessments that
match your objectives- if you want students to classify shapes,
then the assessment needs to be opportunities for the
students to do that- to show you if they can do that or not.)
Task 1
 Explain how the design or adaptation of your planned assessments
allows students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning.
 Consider all students, including students with IEPs, English
language learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or
those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students.
 (Again – TEACH ALL STUDENTS! For example if you want
students to classify shapes as polygons or non polygons and to draw
them on the paper but have a student who has delayed motor skills;
allow that student to actually manipulate the 3D shapes and put
them in two categories as an adaptation of the lesson. Or allow
students to supplement their explanations with visuals to help. This
is the EAS exam by the way. And don’t forget your gifted kids. What
can they do besides classify shapes? Maybe specify them
(quadrilateral, hexagon, etc) and where you’d find them in the
world? ) 
TAKE A BREAK!
 Take a time out and
reflect on what you’ve
learned so far.
 Check your own edTPA
assignments and
hanbook to ensure that
you understand task one
before moving onto the
rest of the tasks 
 Ready for more?
Task 2: ELA Instruction Commentary
Lights,
camera,
action!
Reminders!
 Before you can start filming, you need to do the
following:
 Test your technology, equipment, space and…
 GET PARENTAL CONSENT TO FILM THE KIDS!
 Make sure you adhere to all confidentially laws and
policies of the school. Don’t film the kids and then
put the video on the internet. The parents are
trusting YOU!
Filming
 Test the light, space and sound. If it’s too dark or too quiet… DON’T use the





clips. If the video records upside down (which happened)… DON’T use the
clips!
It’s not your mentor’s job to record you but if you ask nicely enough, they
might hold the camera. It’s nice to build a rapport with your teacher.
15 minutes of footage is all you get… so you need to make sure it’s good.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! I recorded my kids for weeks and
moved the camera (an iphone on a tripod and my laptop) all around the
room to see where the best footage came from. I ended up doing a small
group and put the laptop right at the end of the table.
Remember – if you wait until the deadline, record one lesson and it’s
garbage – it’s YOUR FAULT!
Get at least a week’s worth of footage so you can select the best 15 minutes
and really own it in the commentary! They’re really looking at how well you
interact with students; instruct and let them demonstrate knowledge. They
want to see the students DOING vs. watching you TALK for 15 minutes.
Task 2
 Promoting a Positive Learning Environment
 In response to the prompt, refer to scenes in the video clips where
you provided a positive learning environment.
 How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and
responsiveness to students with varied needs and backgrounds, and
challenge students to engage in learning?
 (To me this was hard to demonstrate and very meta but I
interpreted it as scenes where the kids look like they’re genuinely
expressing themselves, enjoying school, etc. We laughed a lot, the
kids answered questions incorrectly and we talked about them… I
used their incorrect answers to go down those paths of discussion.
Obviously if you just TALK AT the students (or yell), etc., that really
doesn’t demonstrate respect for students. So don’t include any clips
of students fighting… should be a no-brainer but I’m saying it
anyway. You know your students, so select the best clips you can.
And then you just refer to the clips, “In clip 1, THIS happened…”)
Task 2
 3.
Engaging Students in Learning
 Refer to examples from the video clips in your
responses to the prompts.
 a. Explain how your instruction engaged students
in developing an essential literacy strategy and
requisite skills.
 (Again, what is your literacy strategy (mine was
using graphic organizers) and what scenes show
students DOING that? If you want students to
decode words using vowel teams and don’t show
them doing that in the clips, DON’T use the clips!)
Task 2
 b.
Describe how your instruction linked students’
prior academic learning and personal, cultural, and
community assets with new learning.
(Use clips that show you activating students’
background knowledge. For example – if you’re
teaching about story elements you might ask
students “What do we already know about the story
‘Three Little Pigs?’) then connect that to talking
about character, setting, conflict, resolution, etc.)
Task 2
 Deepening Student Learning during Instruction
 Refer to examples from the video clips in your explanations.
 a.
Explain how you elicited and built on student responses to
promote thinking and apply the literacy strategy using requisite
skills to comprehend or compose text.
 (This can go one of two ways – either students answer your
questions correctly and you ask more enriching questions/ complete
more challenging tasks or if students answer questions incorrectly,
you challenge their answers and allow them to the opportunities for
re-learning. For example: I had students who incorrectly classified
statements as fact or opinion so then we re-viewed what the terms
actually mean and I gave the students more opportunities to discuss
and practice. This will occur organically as you teach the lessons. If
students are decoding and pronounce br/ea/d as “br/a/d”, then
they don’t understand the literacy strategy and thus re-teach is
required.)
Task 2
Explain how you modeled the literacy strategy and
supported students as they practiced and applied the
literacy strategy in a meaning-based context.
 (Again, what are YOU the teacher doing to show students
how to learn? I explicitly taught my students how to use
graphic organizers (Venn-Diagram) to classify
statements and then we worked through practice
examples together before they completed them
independently. If you’re teaching students to annotate
and highlight text, then we need to see YOU doing it
before they can do it.)

Task 2
 What changes would you make to your instruction—for
the whole class and/or for students who need greater
support or challenge—to better support student learning
of the central focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?
 (We ALWAYS reflect – well the good teachers anyway–
on what could I have done differently to improve that
lesson? Here’s your chance. You don’t always get to do
what you wanted to and that’s OK, there’s always
tomorrow. Tell them that. For example – “There was a
student who still couldn’t do this or that and here’s what
we’ll do tomorrow to ensure her success.” OR, “This
student truly mastered this, here’s what I’ll do to take it
to the next level.”)
Task 2
 Why do you think these changes would improve student
learning? Support your explanation with evidence of
student learning and principles from theory and/or
research
 (Refer back to your “BIGGIES” in education as you
support your claims with text-evidence and research. For
example – I would allow THIS student to formulate an
argument and present it to the class because it’s higher
level thinking skill on Bloom’s taxonomy and I want to
make sure I challenge all students at their levels.”)
TAKE A BREAK!
 Take a time out and
reflect on what you’ve
learned so far.
 Check your own edTPA
assignments and
hanbook to ensure that
you understand task one
before moving onto the
rest of the tasks 
 Ready for more?
Task 3- Assess students’ work
 Did students learn?
 You’ll get to reflect on that in task 3 of the edTPA
Task 3
 You need to include four main components for this




task:
Student work samples (evidence)
Your feedback (written or oral)
A rubric (how did you score them)
Your commentary
Task 3
 Analyzing Student Learning
 a.
Identify the specific standards/objectives measured by
the assessment you chose for analysis.
 (Remember your objectives and assessments for this prompt.
For example: “Students wrote a persuasive essay using textevidence (3.RI.1/2; 3.W.1/2) and then I analyzed the writing
samples)
 b.
Provide the evaluation criteria you used to analyze
student learning.
 (Talk about your rubric and how you evaluated students. I
wanted mine to include a topic sentence; 3 facts from the text;
have five sentences; a closing and use proper grammar.)
Task 3
 Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that
summarizes student learning for your whole class. Be
sure to summarize student learning for all evaluation
criteria described above.
 (Include quantitative and qualitative descriptions here
(e.g. 4/5 students did this; ½ of the students did that,
etc.) as well as narrating the results. In my own prompt I
talked about how many of the students included an
opening and closing sentence, however, a few weren’t
able to use sufficient and relevant examples from the text
in their essays. This prompt allows you to put your
thoughts into words.)
Task 3
 Use evidence found in the 3 student work samples and the




whole class summary to analyze the patterns of learning for the
whole class and differences for groups or individual learners relative
to
the essential literacy strategy and
requisite skills
Consider what students understand and do well, and where they
continue to struggle (e.g., common errors, confusions, need for
greater challenge).
(Another seemingly convoluted task – do they want you to talk
about 3 students or ALL of them? I focused on my three “focus
students” and talked about how they performed on the assessment.
I chose a high, medium and low student to refer to. If you have
ELL’s, SPED, students with IEPS/504 plans, etc, you should select
them - -I didn’t have any in my classroom. And basically you talk
about did they demonstrate what you wanted them to?)
Task 3

Feedback to Guide Further Learning
 Refer to specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your




explanations.
a.
In what form did you submit your evidence of feedback for the
3 focus students? (Delete choices that do not apply.)
Written directly on work samples or in a separate document
b.
Explain how feedback provided to the 3 focus students
addresses their individual strengths and needs relative to the
standards/objectives measured.
(On your “focus students” you’ll give them feedback– written or oral
– which explains what they did and how they can improve. I noted
that many of the students did a great job providing and opening and
closing sentence and then added that some didn’t include relevant –
or sufficient– examples from the text and gave them suggestions for
improvement.)
Task 3
 c.
Describe how you will support students to apply
the feedback to guide improvement, either within the
learning segment or at a later time.
 (You gave them feedback, now what? Will you meet
with them one-on-one, in a small group, writer’s
workshop, etc.? How will they take what you told
them and DO something with it?)
Task 3
 You may provide evidence of students’ language use from ONE, TWO




OR ALL THREE of the following sources:
Use video clips from Task 2 and provide time-stamp references for
language use.
Submit an additional video file named “Language Use” of no more than 5
minutes in length and provide time-stamp references for student language
use (this can be footage of one or more students’ language use). Submit the
clip in Task 3 Part B.
Use the student work samples analyzed in Task 3 and cite language use.
(I wanted my students to understand and USE the terms “fact” and
“opinion” and classify examples from text so I selected video clips and
written works where they did this. Anytime a student said, “This is a fact
because…” or “This is an opinion because…” I included it because they
wanted the students to USE the language. If students will formulate
arguments they want to hear the students say, “I agree with you because…”
or “I disagree with you because…” and use as much academic language as
possible. If students are talking about classifying quadrilaterals and
triangles, they need to see/hear the students use these terms.)
Task 3
 Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
 a.
Based on your analysis of student learning presented in
prompts 1c–d, describe next steps for instruction
 for the whole class
 for the 3 focus students and other individuals/groups with specific
needs
 (Again – this is something teachers do! We look at what our
students can (and can’t) do and adapt as needed. You just need to be
more methodical about it because they want to see if you can answer
the question “What next?” Here’s your chance. If students can’t
determine the main idea and supporting details from a text, what
will you do next time to ensure that they can? Go back to your
objectives and learning focus – what do I want students to DO– and
reflect on that. OR if these three students didn’t learn but the rest
mastered it, how will you help those three students and challenge
the other kids?)
Task 3
 Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of
student learning. Support your explanation with
principles from research and/or theory.
 (What will you do? How will it help? And PROVE IT! If
you haven’t realized by now, the makers of edTPA really
want to ensure you can talk the talk and walk the walk
and that you really are familiar and comfortable with
pedagogy and best practices in instruction. If not, you
better brush up… if you want to do well that is. Justify
everything you say and do with text-evidence and
research. Again, “We’ll do this because it’s ‘fun’” ISN’T
(nor should it be) a valid argument.)
TAKE A BREAK!
 Take a time out and
reflect on what you’ve
learned so far.
 Check your own edTPA
assignments and
hanbook to ensure that
you understand task one
before moving onto the
rest of the tasks 
 Ready for more?
Task Four – Math (it’s almost over)
 Be prepared to plan,
teach and assess your
students’ math skills! 
 When I completed
edTPA, this was the last
task; however, it could
(and probably WILL)
change as they tweak it.
 READ your handbook
and seek help from your
college.
Task 4 - Context
 Once again, talk about your class and this time focus
on MATH.
 When I completed edTPA, I completed both the ELA
and Math contexts together; unless for some reasons
your class completely changes (and it might?) a lot of
your information will probably be the same.
Task 4
 For task 4 you will provide the following:
 Learning segments (lesson plans detailing the standards,
objectives, instructional strategies and planned assessments)
 Sample assessment and rubric
 3 work samples with feedback
 3 work samples from SAME students after re-engagement
lesson
 Lesson and assessment commentary
 *No video was required at the time I completed edTPA.
Task 4 Assessment Commentary
 After you have submitted your lesson plans and
assessments with feedback, have reflected on them
and your lessons, it’s time to complete the
commentary aka your *FINAL assignment for edTPA
before you submit to Pearson
 *Unless it changes and it probably will.
Task 4
 a.
Identify the specific standards/objectives
measured by the assessment you chose for analysis.
 [The assessment reflected NYS CCSS Math, grade 2,
2.MD.10 standard. The students collected data from
surveys and tally charts organized it into bar graphs,
picture graphs and line plots and answered questions
and solved problems. ]
 (For example: Students represent data on bar and
line graphs and answered questions 2.MD.10 and of
course the selected assessment should demonstrate
and relate to that objective.)
Task 4
 b.
List the evaluation criteria you used to analyze
student learning.
 (Again, provide some sort of rubric or evaluation
criteria to demonstrate student learning. I gave pretest and provided the answer key along with a
scoring guide: 10/10 = 100; 9/10=90, etc. Remember
that this task is all about math! )
Task 4
Provide a graphic (chart or table) or narrative that
summarizes student learning for the whole class. Be sure
to summarize student learning for all evaluation criteria
listed above.
 (Be reflective and talk about both qualitative and
quantitative data. I used excel and created a pie chart as
evidence of student learning and it helped when I
discussed student performance. Instead of saying “Some
students,” I was confidently able to say “33% of my class
was able to…” and referred to the task to talk about the
criteria. It’s a number’s game, guys, give them the
numbers!)

Task 4





Using examples from the summary chart, discuss the patterns of
learning across the whole class relative to:
conceptual understanding
procedural fluency
mathematical reasoning/problem-solving skills
(Look over all to talk about W.G. patterns or trends. This is where you can
make generalizations such as, “Most of my kids were able to do this or
that.” But let’s talk about what the three terms mean. Conceptual
understanding refers to the rationale behind the math. For example: do
they understand what multiplication means? Repeated addition; a number
repeated multiple times; four groups of 3 objects, etc. Often times students
miss questions because they don’t understand the WHYS behind them. The
next is “procedural fluency.” This refers to their ability to actually DO the
math that you ask them to do. And the last is the most demanding
(especially for low readers) because they need to be able to read and
interpret tasks. I have a lot of low-readers in my third grade class who
cannot read and thus cannot make their way through multi-step word
problems. You would use the data to talk about these main points.)
Task 4
 From your analysis of whole class student learning, identify one area where
students struggled mathematically. Select 3 student work samples that
represent the struggles in this area. These students will be your focus students for
this task. At least one of the students must have specific learning needs, for
example, a student with an IEP (Individualized Education Program), an English
language learner, a struggling reader, an underperforming student or a student with
gaps in academic knowledge, and/or a gifted student needing greater support or
challenge.
 […]
 (You get to define the BEAST in this task and really answer the question “What did
my students struggle to do and understand?” You will select three focus students
and refer to their work samples (evidence) in these prompts. For example – if you
noticed that many of your students struggle to identify the relationship between
multiplication and addition, they’d struggle with solving problems that require them
(There are three groups of three students waiting to watch a movie, how many
students in all?) You get to be investigator (and doctor) and diagnose the problem.
Or perhaps students understand but cannot fluently multiply, “3x3= 6”, that
demonstrates the need for a student to draw arrays to model his thinking.)
Task 4
 a.
Based on your analysis of the focus students’
work samples, write a targeted learning
objective/goal for the students related to the area of
struggle.
 (After you’ve diagnosed the problem, you need to
provide a prescription. Figure out what you will do
next to help students learn. “Students will draw
arrays to model multiplication problems.”)
Task 4
 Describe the re-engagement lesson you designed to
develop each focus student’s mathematical knowledge in
relation to the targeted learning objective/goal. Your
description should include […]
 (You’ve identified the problem; wrote a new objective
which should help and now you need to teach that lesson
for the new objective. This is called the “re-engagement
lesson.” In my own we went back and re-visited not only
reading bar and line graphs but we made our own to
ensure students truly understood what they meant and
how to use them to show data. What did you do during
this lesson?)
 THEN TEACH THE RE-ENGAGEMENT LESSON.
Task 4
 Cite evidence from the three focus students’ work samples from the
re-engagement lesson to support your response to the prompt
below.
 Analyze the effectiveness of the strategies you used during the reengagement lesson to develop students’ mathematical
understanding in the identified area of struggle.
 (After you teach the lesson you will reflect on Was it effective? Did
the students actually learn what you wanted them to? For exampleI wanted my students to be able to read and interpret bar and line
graphs. After the lesson, they could. If you want students to draw
arrays to model multiplication then you should be able to say “Yes
they can because…” or “No they can’t because…” and what did you
actually DO during the lesson? And you can talk about what you
will do for later lessons to ensure that student learning is not only
maintained but enriched. )
Congratulations!
 You’ve completed edTPA,




maybe?
If there are more tasks, I cannot
help as I didn’t have them … but
you should be able to at least
understand what it’s asking for.
Basically it just wants you to be a
REFLECTIVE PRACTIONER
(What are you planning on
doing? Why? Did it work?
PROVE IT! )
If you’re a true educator, you can
do this!
Don’t forget to edit, edit, EDIT
before you submit.
Good luck! 
Score report
 So you’ve completed and
edited the homework
assignment and got your
supervisor’s OK to submit?
Great.
 Go to edTPA’s official website,
upload all the tasks onto the
platform and pay your $300*
and click “SUBMIT”
 Wait… you’ll get your score
report a month – or so – later
 You need to know what your
state’s passing score is…
edTPA doesn’t tell you if
you’ve passed or failed.
•This was my score report.
You read through all the
blah, blah commentary and
anxiously look for
PASS/FAIL. Again, this
WON’T happen! NY’s
passing score was a 49 and
57 for “mastery.” Needless
to say I blew it out of the
water. 
Questions?
 You can leave me questions or feed back:
www.Leaborb192.wordpress.com
Robert_Leabo@hotmail.com
Testimonial- I’ve helped someone:
A college professor in Oregon sent me this email,'"Hello Robert,
My elementary education students in Oregon found your
edTPA portfolio posted and have found it so very helpful that
you posted those materials. They shared your link with me
and I wanted to let you know how much they appreciated your
thoughtful work and project.
I wish you the best in your teaching.
Julie"