The TPA, or Teacher Performance Assessment, is a relatively new teacher evaluation process that EWU recently implemented. All of my official lesson plans are to be done in the TPA format and following the TPA guidelines.
Regarding the TPA lesson format or template, I think that it is a good tool for beginning teachers since it promotes thinking about the different aspects of teaching a lesson that we need to keep in mind: the context for learning, differentiated instruction, management and safety issues, etc. However, as you talked about in class on Wednesday, lessons should be designed with things like differentiated instruction intrinsic within the lesson rather than just having a short paragraph blurb that describes an isolated lesson as demonstrating the differentiation. I am satisfied with using the template as it will help me for when I have to do the TPA assessment this spring, when I am student teaching.
I think that the TPA should include something that covers units or more. I haven't had much training or much education about units or how units combine to reflect the curriculum. At this stage I am still designing individual lessons with the exception of your class and The Composition Process (which requires a week unit plan). How these units link together, how to transition from units, etc., are things that I'll have to observe in the classroom and improvise as I go along.
I think that master teachers may find the TPA overly cumbersome if they themselves were to design lessons using it. Most of the lessons my master teacher uses are ones she has already created. When she needs to make a new lesson, she usually draws on previous lessons. Once you teach for so long I think that you have many of these things in your head and don't necessarily have to articulate them or account for all of them in the precise way that the TPA asks for.
No comments:
Post a Comment