TPE 1B: Subject-Specific
Pedagogical Skills for Single Subject Teaching Assignments
Teaching Science in a Single Subject Assignment
Click here: (CA
Science Content Standards)
Candidates for a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Science demonstrate
the ability to teach the state-adopted academic content standards for
students in science (Grades 7-12). They balance the focus of instruction
between science information, concepts, and principles. Their explanations,
demonstrations, and class activities serve to illustrate science concepts,
and principles, scientific investigation, and experimentation. Candidates
emphasize the importance of accuracy, precision, and estimation. Candidates
encourage students to pursue science interests, especially students
from groups underrepresented in science careers. When live animals are
present in the classroom, candidates teach students to provide ethical
care. They demonstrate sensitivity to students' cultural and ethnic
backgrounds in designing science instruction.
Additionally, Single Subject Candidates guide, monitor and encourage
students during investigations and experiments. They demonstrate and
encourage use of multiple ways to measure and record scientific data,
including the use of mathematical symbols. Single Subject Candidates
structure and sequence science instruction to enhance students’ academic
knowledge to meet or exceed the state-adopted academic content standards
for students. They establish and monitor procedures for the care, safe
use, and storage of equipment and materials, and for the disposal of
potentially hazardous materials.
TPE 2: Monitoring Student Learning During Instruction
Candidates for a Teaching Credential use progress monitoring at key
points during instruction to determine whether students are progressing
adequately toward achieving the state-adopted academic content standards
for students. They pace instruction and re-teach content based on evidence
gathered using assessment strategies such as questioning students and
examining student work and products. Candidates anticipate, check for,
and address common student misconceptions and misunderstandings.
TPE 3: Interpretation and Use of Assessments
Candidates for a Teaching Credential understand and use a variety of
informal and formal, as well as formative and summative assessments,
to determine students’ progress and plan instruction. They know about
and can appropriately implement the state-adopted student assessment
program. Candidates understand the purposes and uses of different types
of diagnostic instruments, including entry level, progress-monitoring
and summative assessments. They use multiple measures, including information
from families, to assess student knowledge, skills, and behaviors. They
know when and how to use specialized assessments based on students'
needs. Candidates know about and can appropriately use informal classroom
assessments and analyze student work. They teach students how to use
self-assessment strategies. Candidates provide guidance and time for
students to practice these strategies.
Candidates understand how to familiarize students with the format of
standardized tests. They know how to appropriately administer standardized
tests, including when to make accommodations for students with special
needs. They know how to accurately interpret assessment results of individuals
and groups in order to develop and modify instruction. Candidates interpret
assessment data to identify the level of proficiency of English language
learners in English as well as in the students’ primary language. They
give students specific, timely feedback on their learning, and maintain
accurate records summarizing student achievement. They are able to explain,
to students and to their families, student academic and behavioral strengths,
areas for academic growth, promotion and retention policies, and how
a grade or progress report is derived. Candidates can clearly explain
to families how to help students achieve the curriculum.
TPE 4: Making Content Accessible
Candidates for Teaching Credentials incorporate specific strategies,
teaching/instructional activities, procedures and experiences that address
state-adopted academic content standards for students in order to provide
a balanced and comprehensive curriculum. They use instructional materials
to reinforce state-adopted academic content standards for students and
they prioritize and sequence essential skills and strategies in a logical,
coherent manner relative to students' current level of achievement.
They vary instructional strategies according to purpose and lesson content.
To meet student academic learning needs, candidates explain content
clearly and reinforce content in multiple ways, such as the use of written
and oral presentation, manipulatives, physical models, visual and performing
arts, diagrams, non-verbal communication, and computer technology. They
provide opportunities and adequate time for students to practice and
apply what they have learned. They distinguish between conversational
and academic language, and develop student skills in using and understanding
academic language. They teach students strategies to read and comprehend
a variety of texts and a variety of information sources, in the subject(s)
taught. They model active listening in the classroom. Candidates encourage
student creativity and imagination. They motivate students and encourage
student effort. When students do not understand content, they take additional
steps to foster access and comprehension for all learners. Candidates
balance instruction by adjusting lesson designs relative to students’
current level of achievement.
TPE 5: Student Engagement
Candidates for Teaching Credentials clearly communicate instructional
objectives to students. They ensure the active and equitable participation
of all students. They ensure that students understand what they are
to do during instruction and monitor student progress toward academic
goals. If students are struggling and off-task, candidates examine why
and use strategies to re-engage them. Candidates encourage students
to share and examine points of view during lessons. They use community
resources, student experiences, and applied learning activities to make
instruction relevant. They extend the intellectual quality of student
thinking by asking stimulating questions and challenging student ideas.
Candidates teach students to respond to and frame meaningful questions.
TPE 6: Developmentally Appropriate Teaching Practices
Background information for TPE 6: TPEs describe knowledge, skills, and
abilities for all credential candidates, and they underscore the importance
of generically-effective strategies for teaching a broad range of students.
The purpose of TPE 6 is to establish additional expectations that are
of greatest importance in teaching students at distinct stages of child
and adolescent development. It is not the intent of TPE 6 to describe
practices that are appropriate or effective only at one developmental
level.
TPE 6B: Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Grades 4-8
During teaching assignments in Grades 4-8, candidates for a teaching
credential build on students’ command of basic skills and understandings
while providing intensive support for students who lack basic skills
as defined in state-adopted academic content standards for students.
They teach from grade-level texts. Candidates design learning activities
to extend students’ concrete thinking and foster abstract reasoning
and problem-solving skills. They help students develop learning strategies
to cope with increasingly challenging academic curriculum. They assist
students, as needed, in developing and practicing strategies for managing
time and completing assignments. Candidates develop students’ skills
for working in groups to maximize learning. They build on peer relationships
and support students in trying new roles and responsibilities in the
classroom. They support students' taking of intellectual risks such
as sharing ideas that may include errors. Candidates distinguish between
misbehavior and over-enthusiasm, and they respond appropriately to students
who are testing limits and students who alternatively assume and reject
responsibility.
TPE 6C: Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Grades 9-12
During teaching assignments in Grades 9-12, candidates for a Single
Subject Teaching Credential establish intellectually challenging academic
expectations and provide opportunities for students to develop advanced
thinking and problem-solving skills. They frequently communicate course
goals, requirements, and grading criteria to students and families.
They help students to understand connections between the curriculum
and life beyond high school, and they communicate the consequences of
academic choices in terms of future career, school and life options.
Candidates support students in assuming increasing responsibility for
learning, and encourage behaviors important for work such as being on
time and completing assignments. They understand adolescence as a period
of intense social peer pressure to conform, and they support signs of
students’ individuality while being sensitive to what being "different”
means for high school students.
TPE 7: Teaching English Learners
Candidates for a Teaching Credential know and can apply pedagogical
theories, principles, and instructional practices for comprehensive
instruction of English learners. They know and can apply theories, principles,
and instructional practices for English Language Development leading
to comprehensive literacy in English. They are familiar with the philosophy,
design, goals, and characteristics of programs for English language
development, including structured English immersion. They implement
an instructional program that facilitates English language development,
including reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, that logically
progresses to the grade level reading/language arts program for English
speakers. They draw upon information about students’ backgrounds and
prior learning, including students' assessed levels of literacy in English
and their first languages, as well as their proficiency in English,
to provide instruction differentiated to students’ language abilities.
They understand how and when to collaborate with specialists and para-educators
to support English language development. Based on appropriate assessment
information, candidates select instructional materials and strategies,
including activities in the area of visual and performing arts, to develop
students’ abilities to comprehend and produce English. They use English
that extends students’ current level of development yet is still comprehensible.
They know how to analyze student errors in oral and written language
in order to understand how to plan differentiated instruction.
Candidates for a Teaching Credential know and apply pedagogical theories,
principles and practices for the development of academic language, comprehension,
and knowledge in the subjects of the core curriculum. They use systematic
instructional strategies, including contextualizing key concepts, to
make grade-appropriate or advanced curriculum content comprehensible
to English learners. They allow students to express meaning in a variety
of ways, including in their first language, and, if available, manage
first language support such as para-educators, peers, and books. They
use questioning strategies that model or represent familiar English
grammatical constructions. They make learning strategies explicit.
Candidates understand how cognitive, pedagogical, and individual factors
affect students’ language acquisition. They take these factors into
account in planning lessons for English language development and for
academic content.
Teachers are not expected to speak the students’ primary language, unless
they hold an appropriate credential and teach in a bilingual classroom.
The expectation is that they understand how to use available resources
in the primary language, including students’ primary language skills,
to support their learning of English and curriculum content.
TPE 8: Learning about Students
Candidates for a Teaching Credential draw upon an understanding of patterns
of child and adolescent development to understand their students. Using
formal and informal methods, they assess students’ prior mastery of
academic language abilities, content knowledge, and skills, and maximize
learning opportunities for all students. Through interpersonal interactions,
they learn about students’ abilities, ideas, interests and aspirations.
They encourage parents to become involved and support their efforts
to improve student learning. They understand how multiple factors, including
gender and health, can influence students’ behavior, and understand
the connections between students’ health and their ability to learn.
Based on assessment data, classroom observation, reflection and consultation,
they identify students needing specialized instruction, including students
whose physical disabilities, learning disabilities, or health status
require instructional adaptations, and students who are gifted.
TPE 9: Instructional Planning
Candidates for a Teaching Credential plan instruction that is comprehensive
in relation to the subject matter to be taught and in accordance with
state-adopted academic content standards for students. They establish
clear long-term and short-term goals for student learning, based on
state and local standards for student achievement as well as on students’
current levels of achievement. They use explicit teaching methods such
as direct instruction and inquiry to help students meet or exceed grade
level expectations. They plan how to explain content clearly and make
abstract concepts concrete and meaningful. They understand the purposes,
strengths and limitations of a variety of instructional strategies,
including examining student work, and they improve their successive
uses of the strategies based on experience and reflection. They sequence
instruction so the content to be taught connects to preceding and subsequent
content. In planning lessons, they select or adapt instructional strategies,
grouping strategies, and instructional material to meet student learning
goals and needs. Candidates connect the content to be learned with students’
linguistic and cultural backgrounds, experiences, interests, and developmental
learning needs to ensure that instruction is comprehensible and meaningful.
To accommodate varied student needs, they plan differentiated instruction.
When support personnel, such as aides and volunteers are available,
they plan how to use them to help students reach instructional goals.
TPE 10: Instructional Time
Candidates for a Teaching Credential allocate instructional time to
maximize student achievement in relation to state-adopted academic content
standards for students, instructional goals and scheduled academic tasks.
They establish procedures for routine tasks and manage transitions to
maximize instructional time. Based on reflection and consultation, they
adjust the use of instructional time to optimize the learning opportunities
and outcomes for all students.
TPE 11: Social Environment
Candidates for a Teaching Credential develop and maintain clear expectations
for academic and social behavior. The candidates promote student effort
and engagement and create a positive climate for learning. They know
how to write and implement a student discipline plan. They know how
to establish rapport with all students and their families for supporting
academic and personal success through caring, respect, and fairness.
Candidates respond appropriately to sensitive issues and classroom discussions.
They help students learn to work responsibly with others and independently.
Based on observations of students and consultation with other teachers,
the candidate recognizes how well the social environment maximizes academic
achievement for all students and makes necessary changes.
TPE 12: Professional, Legal, and Ethical Obligations
Candidates for a Teaching Credential take responsibility for student
academic learning outcomes. They are aware of their own personal values
and biases and recognize ways in which these values and biases affect
the teaching and learning of students. They resist racism and acts of
intolerance. Candidates appropriately manage their professional time
spent in teaching responsibilities to ensure that academic goals are
met. They understand important elements of California and federal laws
and procedures pertaining to the education of English learners, gifted
students, and individuals with disabilities, including implications
for their placement in classrooms. Candidates can identify suspected
cases of child abuse, neglect, or sexual harassment. They maintain a
non-hostile classroom environment. They carry out laws and district
guidelines for reporting such cases. They understand and implement school
and district policies and state and federal law in responding to inappropriate
or violent student behavior.
Candidates for a Teaching Credential understand and honor legal and
professional obligations to protect the privacy, health, and safety
of students, families, and other school professionals. They are aware
of and act in accordance with ethical considerations and they model
ethical behaviors for students. Candidates understand and honor all
laws relating to professional misconduct and moral fitness.
TPE 13: Professional Growth
Candidates for a Teaching Credential evaluate their own teaching practices
and subject matter knowledge in light of information about the state-adopted
academic content standards for students and student learning. They improve
their teaching practices by soliciting feedback and engaging in cycles
of planning, teaching, reflecting, discerning problems, and applying
new strategies. Candidates use reflection and feedback to formulate
and prioritize goals for increasing their subject matter knowledge and
teaching effectiveness. |