Developed by Dr. sj Miller and Dr. Jennie Whitcomb
Fall, 2015, EDUC 5365
Lesson Plan for Modified edTPA
Due:
Planning Commentary and Assessment Commentary Due by email: Nov 18th
Final of both, if revision is needed-Dec 2nd
Assignment Overview
You will plan and teach 2 lessons in your cooperating teacher’s classroom and receive feedback from the cooperating
teacher, university instructors, and your peers. In close coordination with your cooperating teacher, together you all will
decide the class(es) where you will teach your individual lesson and your team lesson.
The overall aim of this assignment is to plan engaging, socially just, and differentiated instruction that mindfully meets
the needs of ALL students. Your lessons might be a mini-lesson on a day within the cooperating teachers intended
lessons. You may draw upon your cooperating teacher’s lesson plans, but for each lesson you will provide a detailed
plan commentary. You will consult with your cooperating teacher far in advance so you can work together on relevant
content and sequencing.
To the degree possible, each of your lessons should have a central focus on reading complex text [i.e., comprehend,
construct meaning from, and interpret complex text & create a written or visual product interpreting or responding to
complex features of a text that are just beyond your students’ current skill levels].
For this assignment, you will submit:
 1 lesson plan with narrative
 Completed pre-plan sheet
 Instructional materials for lesson plan
 Assessments used to monitor student learning in the lesson
 Planning and assessment commentary (maximum, 8 single-spaced pages) and:
 Observation notes from mentor teacher and colleagues
 Student work samples
Getting Ready for edTPA
In student teaching you will complete a national performance assessment called the edTPA, which will be part of the
body of evidence you develop in student teaching to demonstrate you are ready to teach. This assignment gives you
an opportunity to practice and receive feedback on key elements of edTPA before student teaching.
The edTPA involves designing and teaching a learning segment, or 3-5 lessons of consecutive instruction. The edTPA
involves three tasks that allow you to document and reflect upon your abilities to (1) plan for instruction and
assessment, (2) instruct and engage students, and (3) assess for student learning. For this lesson assignment, you’ll
practice the entirety of Task 1 and some of the elements from Tasks 2 and 3 required for edTPA. We provide the
edTPA 2014-15 Handbook in your content area as a reference guide when completing this assignment.
Equity Audit & Student Interview Assignments Connection
You will draw directly upon your analyses of data collected in the Equity Audit Assignment and Student Interview
Assignments to make and justify instructional decisions; thus, careful and mindful practice is required in order to truly
understand and recognize how students are learning material. You will select 2 students from those interviews and
explain in your lesson plan how you have differentiated with those students in mind. For the lesson plan, you will then
do an in-depth analysis of the data collected on these 2 students. The same students should be the focus for each
lesson plan.
Planning for Instruction & Assessment
What do I need to think about?
 What do your students know, what can they do, and what are they are learning to do?
 What do you want your students to learn?
 What instructional strategies, learning tasks, and assessments will you design to support student learning
and language use?
 How is the teaching you propose supported by research and theory about how students learn?
 How is the teaching you propose informed by your knowledge of your students?
What do I need to do?
 Select a class. Talk with your cooperating teacher and decide the class(es) where you will teach your
individual lesson and your team lesson.
 Collect and analyze context information. Draw on what you have learned through your Student Interview
Assignment to access the unique features of the context and describe how these features influence the
instructional decisions you make while designing your lessons.
 Identify two students from your Student Interview Assignment who will benefit from specific
modifications/accommodations/considerations in your lesson plans and for whom you will plan differentiated
instruction/assessment. Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, multilingual learners, struggling readers,
underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students).
 Identify appropriate lesson topics. Review the curriculum with your cooperating teacher and select 1
lesson to teach (individually or as a team- I highly encourage you to do this together). You are seeking to
design a lesson that support students in developing the ability to comprehend, construct meaning from,
interpret complex text, and in creating a written or visual product interpreting or responding to text.
 Analyze language demands. Select key language function/BLOOMS from your learning objectives. Decide
which learning task in your lesson will support students in using that language function, and identify
additional language demands required by the task.
 Write lesson plan that includes the following information (4 pages max for each lesson plan):
o State -or district-adopted academic content standards.
o Learning objectives associated with the content standards.
o Language objectives based on your analysis of the lesson’s academic language demands
o Informal and formal assessments to monitor student learning, including type(s) of assessment and what
is being assessed.
o Instructional Procedures: Describe instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and
the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs and reflect social justice practices.
o Differentiation & Adaptation Strategies. Consider the students in your whole class as well as your two
focal students and describe how you will differentiate the lesson for their individual learning needs.
Describe any instructional strategies planned to support students with specific learning needs.
Differentiation can occur in content (what you will teach); process (activities, modifications before, during
or after the lesson, materials); and product (“what” students produce, how they are assessed) and can
be provided to certain students or all students.
o Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning.
o References, including citations for all materials you did not create (e.g., published texts, websites, and
material from other educators).
 Get approval from your cooperating teacher and content methods course instructor. After you
complete planning your two lessons, ask for feedback from the cooperating teacher and me. Once you have
obtained approval from each of us, you receive a green light to teach.
 Respond to the planning commentary prompts listed in the in the “What do I write?” section below.
 Submit your lesson plans, instructional materials, written assessments, and commentary prompts.
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Commentary: What do I need to write?
Write a detailed commentary, responding to the prompts below. Your commentary should be no more than 4 singlespaced pages long.
1.
Description of Class:
a. Grade level(s)?
b. Course focus (e.g., American Lit)?
c. If relevant, track level for this class (e.g., regular, honors, IB)
d. Number of students in class
2.
Description of Students.
a. Using the table below, provide the following information about your students. Include specific information
about all two focal students selected from your Student Interview Assignment and any other individuals or
groups who will benefit from differentiation.
Students with Specific Learning Needs
IEP Plans: Classification Number of Students
Needs
Example: Visual processing 2
Supports, accommodations,
Pertinent IEP Goals
Close monitoring, use audio text
Other Learning Needs
Number of Students
Supports, accommodations, modifications
Example: Struggling readers
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Provide oral explanations for directions,
extended time, and sentence frames to
support written responses
modifications,
3.
Central Focus: Rationale for Each Lesson’s Topic/Objective
a. Describe the central focus and purpose for the content you will teach in this lesson plan.
b. Provide the title, author (or, if a film, the director), and a short description (about a paragraph in length) of
salient features of the text(s) [that a reviewer of your evidence, who is unfamiliar with the text(s), needs to
know in order to understand your instruction]. If there is more than one text, indicate the lesson(s) where
each text will be the focus.
Consider including the following in your description: genre, text structure, theme, plot, imagery, or
linguistic features, depending on the central focus of your lesson
c. Given the central focus, describe how the standards and learning objectives within your learning segment
address students’ abilities to
 construct meaning from, and interpret complex text
 create a written product interpreting or responding to complex features of a text
d. To the extent possible then, explain how each lesson plan builds on prior lessons to help students make
connections between textual references, constructions of meaning, interpretations, and responses to a text to
deepen their learning of English Language Arts. **You should discuss this component thoroughly with
your mentor teacher as it is likely your lesson will be an extension of the teacher’s lessons. If you are
doing a mini lesson on a topic that is not relevant to prompt c, then, please adapt your answer to fit
the central focus.
4.
Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching
Drawing on what you have learned from the Equity Audit, Student Interview Assignments, and being observant
and engaged in your practicum site, for each of the prompts below, describe what you know about your students’
prior learning and experience with respect to the main learning objective of each lesson plan. Consider both the
variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/support, and in particular, the two focal
students you have identified as needing specific modifications/accommodations.
a.
b.
Prior academic learning and prerequisite skills related to each lesson’s main learning objectives. Cite
evidence of what students know, what they can do, and what they are still learning to do.
Personal/cultural/community assets related to each lesson’s central focus. What do you know about your
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students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices and interests?
5.
Supporting Student’s Learning
a. Drawing on the Equity Audit and/or Student Interview Assignment, and your knowledge of learning theories
and adolescent development, justify how your understanding of your students’ prior academic learning and
personal/culture/community assets guided your choice or adaptation of learning tasks and materials. Be
explicit about the connections between learning tasks and students’ prior academic learning, assets, and
research/theory.
b. 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.
Be specific about how you will differentiate for your two focal students and what theory or research you are
drawing upon to justify these specific supports, adjustments, or accommodations. For example:
 Is there a small group of students who have not mastered a portion of the material who require reteaching?
 Are there students who commonly struggle in your practicum class and might benefit from adapted
materials?
 Are there Multilingual Learners who might benefit from more opportunities to develop language skills?
 Is there one student whose behavior impedes learning?
6.
Supporting English Language Arts Development Through Language
a. Language Function. Identify one language function essential for students 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.
b.
c.
Analyze
Argue
Describe
Evaluate
Explain
Interpret
Justify
Synthesize
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.)
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
 Plus at least one of the following:
 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?
7.
Monitoring Student Learning
In responding to the prompts below, refer to the assessments you will use to monitor student learning during
this lesson.
a. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments will provide direct evidence of student’s
meeting the lesson’s content and language objectives.
b. 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 IEP’s 504’s, multilingual
learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or
gifted students).
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Instruction & Engaging All Students in Learning
What do I need to do?
Record and/or have your Mentor Teacher and/or a peer observe you and your students in action.
Assessing Student Learning
What do I need to think about?
 How will you gather evidence and make sense of what students have learned?
 How will you provide meaningful feedback to your students?
 How will you use evidence of what students know and are able to do to plan next steps in instruction?
 How will you identify evidence of and explain students’ use of language that demonstrates the development
of content understanding?
What do I need to do?
 Collect student work from informal or formal assessments completed during each lesson.
 Analyze collected work to identify quantitative and qualitative patterns of learning within and across
learners in the class.
 Analyze in greater depth the evidence of learning for two of your three focal students.
What do I need to write?
Focusing on one of the two lessons taught, write a commentary responding to the prompts below. Your commentary
should be no more than 4 single-spaced pages. Attach the assessment used to informally or formally assess student
learning. In your write up, do not use student names. Label as student 1, student 2, or pseudonyms. Keep all results
confidential.
1.
Analyzing Student Learning
a. Identify the specific learning objectives and standards measured by the assessment you chose for
analysis.
b. Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes student learning for your whole class and
your initial 2 focal students.
c. Use evidence found in the 2 focal student work samples and the whole class summary to analyze
patterns of learning for the whole class and differences for your 2 focal students.
2.
Evidence of Language Understanding and Use
a. Explain and provide evidence for the extent to which your students were able to use or struggled to use
language (selected function, vocabulary, and additional language demands you identified in the lesson
planning process) to develop content understandings.
3.
Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
a. Based on your analysis of student learning presented in prompts 1 b-c, describe next steps for
instruction for the
 Whole class
 Two target students and other individuals/groups with specific needs
b. Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of student learning. Support your explanation
with principals from research and/or theory (use proper citations and include at least 2 references)
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