edTPA Making Good Choices Candidate Support Resource
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appropriate, you should also make connections back to the student needs identified in the
Context for Learning Information artifact.
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/supports or
accommodations/modifications to instruction or assessment. For example, students with
Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or 504 plans, with specific language needs, needing
greater challenge or support, who struggle with reading, or who are underperforming students or
have gaps in academic knowledge.
Back to Getting Started Key Decisions Chart
How do I represent my thinking and teaching in writing?
Although the rubrics do not address the quality of your writing (and you will not be scored on
errors in spelling, grammar, or syntax), you should be mindful that your written work reflects
your thinking and your professionalism. Writing errors may change the meaning of your
commentaries or cause it to become unclear, so proofreading is essential. When writing your
edTPA commentaries, consider the following guidelines:
• Note the originality requirements included within the edTPA Professional Standards
and Submission Requirements. As indicated in the subject-specific edTPA handbooks,
you and your teacher preparation instructors can and should discuss how the various
aspects of edTPA connect with each other and to your preparation coursework and field
experiences, including the placement in which you complete your edTPA portfolio.
However, the specific choices that go into the planning, instruction, and assessment
tasks that are part of edTPA should solely reflect your thinking, based upon your
knowledge of pedagogy and your students’ needs. All writing should be your own–
edTPA uses software to detect plagiarism.
o Originality requirements apply to settings where co-teaching and collaborative
planning may take place. Even if you are co-teaching, collaboratively planning
with another candidate or your grade-level team, or in a context with a uniform,
prescriptive curriculum,
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you must be the lead teacher for the lessons
documented in the learning segment and submit original commentaries. You
may choose to incorporate help from other classroom personnel during your
learning segment (e.g., teacher’s aides or parent helpers) but, again, you must be
the lead teacher and these strategic decisions should be addressed in your
commentaries. In your Context for Learning artifact, you will explain your
placement setting and any features that influence your planning process. Your
commentaries for each task must provide your own justification for planning
decisions and analyses of your teaching and student learning.
o Outside editing support of your official edTPA submission that includes direct
revisions to the content of your writing is not permitted. Consult with your
program leaders for guidelines for acceptable support while developing your
edTPA materials.
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See the “Planning for Content Understandings” section of this document for more information on how
to address prescribed curricular requirements.