The Most Intimidating Test I Will Ever Take

I have been in the education program long enough to be familiar with and to have created some long-form lesson plans of my own. However, for some strange reason, this quarter is the first time that I am seeing the EdTPA handbook, and, oh boy, it makes me overwhelmed. I never realized how big this assessment actually was. It is justified. It’s important to learn how to think in the way that the test wants you to think, but it is definitely tedious. The lesson plans now seem like the least of my worries.

My past lesson planning experiences have been okay. I realized that I am going to have to think in ways which are completely new to me. I do feel that I have improved since the first few that I have written, and there is something to be said about repetition making them easier. The parts I have struggled most with are differentiated instruction and community connections. I was just placed in a classroom two weeks ago, and before that, I found it very difficult to differentiate instruction for a hypothetical class. I know that we can include UDLs in that section, but honestly I could use a refresher lesson on those. I also really struggle with the parent and community connection piece. It is the last section of the of the EdTPA lesson plan format, so I often do not think about it until I have already written my lesson plan, and by then, it seems too late. I need to make more of an effort to think about this in the beginning of the lesson planning process, and I would love to see some examples that other teachers use for community connections. Actually, I would love to see examples of all of the parts of the EdTPA. I’m not sure if it is a confidentiality thing (I know EdTPA is proprietary), but it’s a challenge to write something without seeing a successful example of it first.