Ed TPA Guidelines

Ed TPA guidelines are almost a joke to many educators and teacher candidates. As students we hear lines like “these are the tools you will need” but I have seen great lesson writers teach lessons that would make an AP student snooze. One teacher was asked if she would write a lesson for the class she was teaching, she replied abruptly that quality teachers do not need to write TPA lessons. Not only was this insulting, but it showed an entire class how little faith even our professors have in Ed TPA.

The only quality response I have gotten about the TPA guidelines is that they attempt to prepare us for the Pearson TPA test, however, this has little or nothing to do with the actual education of my students, which at this point is all I care about. I have had several phenomenal lesson plans that I do not have time to fully develop since I have to spend my time finding research and community connections. The time I spend prepping should be spent purely on ideas for the classroom and classroom involvement. Class involvement and student voice would be the only two sections on ROSS TPA. If those two things are achieved: Your students are involved and everyone knows the purpose of the lesson. Game over. You win.

Differentiated instruction is important, but I have found many of my differentiations in the moment while teaching. Often improvisation is the only way that a solution can be found. I will spend time later incorporating my ideas into lessons, but often they lend themselves to class involvement regardless of how differentiated they are. Ed TPA does nothing but slow down our students at eastern who have a chance to be great.