Hi, I am currently starting my TPA task one for social science. Would anyone be willing to help me out on this? I would like to perhaps see example TPAs, and I would also appreciate it it someone would like to comment on my TPA.
i got a three on number one and fours on the rest. my best advice, don't over think it. Give them what they ask for, no more, no less, and rationalize when they ask for it. I no longer have a task stream account so I can't let you see mine, but I am happy to comment.
Teaching Performance Assessment, unless I'm mistaken: in one version, the credential candidate is required to design a lesson plan, be videotaped teaching it to real live kids, and then reflect on how the lesson went and how it could be improved.
We are fortunate enough to not have had to do that! TPA is something that California college education students have to do now in order to fullfil their credential requirements. It's bascially a LOT of busy work (lesson plans, video taping themselves teaching lessons, analyzing their lessons, etc). My hubby, before getting a programming job, was working on his math credential and would wait till the night before they were due to work on his TPA!!! Anyways, OP, have you looked online? Or spoken to your college professors or your classmates? I had to take a class through open university for my science credential that I was adding on and my teacher spent a LOT of time getting those students prepared for the TPA.
I'm doing task 2 right now. My advice is to start EARLY. It's busy work and you don't want to do it all the night before. It's almost impossible even though the work isn't hard. I got a 3 on task 1. The main thing is to make sure you answer ALL of their questions. Read the questions carefully, because sometimes they hide two questions under the guise of one. Propose as many accommodations as you can think of. Never NEVER say that a student doesn't require an accommodation. That's an automatic fail for that question. And be brief. You don't need to write a novel for each question. I've been told that you can even simply answer with short bullet points, but I'm not secure enough to do that myself. Answer clearly and concisely, and the TPA assessor will be grateful to you. TPA Task 1 is simply about providing a clear image of your lesson plan (remember to describe everything in detail because they only have the information you give them on your test) and providing accommodations for case study students. Start early, give yourself a time goal for each part of the task, and leave yourself time at the end to review it or have a friend review for you.
Oh! These TPA's were very difficult for me and the rest of the students in my education classes. Our college classes were the first in California to have to complete the TPA's. You could look online at sample tests. I don't remember the website, but I am sure if you Google (TPA Samples California) the link will come up. If they are the same as 5 years ago they took massive amounts of time to complete. Mine were all between 35-45 pages long (as were my other classmates). By the end of the fourth one I was so burned out from taking state tests. You can do it! Look at samples. It really helps.
The TPAs were so time consuming. I had a major headache over them and they simply exhausted me. I agree that you should look up samples. If we are not supposed to share ours (which is what it looks like from one of the comments above), then I don't feel comfortable sharing mine, otherwise I would. I think you just really need to be detailed and include the information they require....and get the aspirin out...you'll need it.
TPAs were very BUSY work. You had to rationalize everything, even why you would choose a certain standard. (at least that's how it was in TPA 3 and / or 4). I got a 4 on my first one, and i was stressed about it. Just make sure you answer each question, with everything you got. For the rationale, give as many as possible. And don't stress. I put in less effort and time with the other ones and got 3s on each. Just get started on it as soon as you can, and don't wait too long. With home work, (and possibly student teaching) it can add to too much to handle.
Examples I need to start mt TPA's and I just want to look at an example of a single subject answer for TPA1 to get a feel for it. Any suggestions?
Examples Do you have any examples of what you wrote or a website to access an example of TPA 1. I'm starting that one now.
I got three on all four of them. I would suggest to answer the question in its entirety. They are not looking for length of answer, so make sure you are not rambling. They are looking for you to be able to answer the questions and give examples and use buzz works. Make sure that you know what you are talking about, especially when it comes to talking about differentiation. Dont put them off, do them now! Good Luck!
I don't think anyone is allowed to share their answers / give examples. (if I remember correctly that was emphasized for us). Like others said, answer in as much details as possible, as concisely as you can. I also remember answering a question as fully as I could, and then the next answer was 50 % the same, because I went above and beyond answering the first. Sometimes I left it like that, but other times I took that part from the first answer and added it to the second so I wasn't repeating myself. Although, of you go into too much detail and end up repeating yourself, is ok, you won't be penalized for that.
As others have said, we're not allowed to give away our personal examples, but if you Google TPA Task 1, you'll come up with websites that have examples. I found a few just by doing a preliminary search. I don't know what subject and grade you teach, so it would be better to search with those terms as well. i.e. TPA Task 1 Science 8th Grade, etc.
I failed Task 4. It's was very frustrating, because they wouldn't give me feedback about what I did wrong. But I agree that buzzwords was a huge part of it. I'm glad they're phasing out these tests. My school stopped doing them the year we left.
