How to Survive EdTPA

• Emma Melick
• Posted 2/28/22
• 0 comments

As a recent graduate of the Teacher Education Program at the University of Iowa, I have survived EdTPA! Here is some advice for those of you facing this daunting task. EdTPA can seem — and sometimes is — very daunting. But if you consistently work on it, you too can pass/conquer EdTPA.

Start Early

My most helpful piece of advice is to start early. The writing and planning needed in the EdTPA assessment take a lot of time. This is the one tip you need to follow as you will not do your best work a week before the deadline.

Procrastination is not your friend. You will need time to get feedback from your peers, supervisor, and cooperating teacher. Additionally, you need time to upload all of your materials.

I recommend submitting your portfolio a day or two before the deadline. If you find yourself submitting your portfolio the night it is due, know that videos can take a long time to upload. Additionally, if your college uses a third-party website (my college used Tk20), allow extra time to transfer your portfolio to Pearson.

Passing is Better than Perfection

Next tip, you do not need to get 100%!

I think too often, as music majors, we are perfectionists and feel discouraged when we don’t get a perfect score. Don’t get me wrong; you should aim high and put your best foot forward. However, people rarely get perfect scores in anything.

Overthinking is Overrated

Speaking of perfectionists, my third big piece of advice is for you. Do not overthink the questions in the commentary so much that it inhibits you from beginning the assignment.

To put it bluntly, write something down; anything is better than nothing. The best piece of advice I got during this process is, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”

At first, I found that choosing a central focus tricky because general music covers a wide variety of content. What helped me was starting with a specific class or grade level I wanted to use in my portfolio. I had lunch duty with the second graders, allowing me to become familiar with individual students’ names and personalities earlier than other graders. This made my decision easy!

Once I picked my grade, I consulted with my cooperating teacher about what central concepts would be coming up in the curriculum the week I planned to videotape my learning segments. It was much easier to narrow down the options from there.

Before you finalize your lesson plans, look at all the questions and rubrics for the planning commentary. Make sure that what you have planned matches what the scorers are looking for. This includes planning for assessments and consulting the rubrics in Task 3. Finally, remember that one evaluation score does not determine your overall quality as a music teacher.