The term "central focus" is used a lot in edTPA. In order to be successful, you not only have to have a central focus, you also need to have a central focus that will be a good one for your project. For Elementary Literacy, you have to also know what your Essential Literacy Strategy and Related Skills are and how they fit with the central focus. I talk about that in more detail in another blog. You should read it, too.
The purpose of this blog is to give you some quick guidance on finding your central focus and expressing it in words.
If you are Middle, Secondary, or K-12 (Art, PFA, PE), then click here to read about your central focus. If you are Early Childhood, you should read this to understand your central focus.
How to Write Your Central Focus for Elementary Literacy
You should use Appendix A in the back of your Understanding Rubric Level Progressions (URLP). Look in the very back of that document and you will find Appendix A.
Step One: Decide whether you are doing Comprehension or Composition. The first 4 pages of Appendix A lists Essential Literacy Strategies (ELS) and Related Skills (RS) for Comprehension. The ELS and RS for Composition begin on the 4th page of Appendix A.
Step Two: Looking at the left hand column, choose one Essential Literacy Strategy.
Step Three: Looking at the right hand column, choose no more than two Related Skills.
Example: Using the snip from Appendix A shown here...
Here's an Example using Steps 1-3:
Central focus: Comprehension
Essential Literacy Strategy: Analyze Text Features
Related Skills: Identify key cue words/organize key ideas in the text
Step Four: Try this Sentence Frame to write your Central Focus Statement
My central focus is [comprehension/composition], which will be accomplished by [Essential Literacy Strategy], using [Related Skill(s)].
These steps will guide you in creating a solid Central Focus Statement such as this:
"My central focus is comprehension, which will be accomplished by the essential literacy strategy of analyzing text features using the related skills of identifying key words and organizing key ideas in the text."
Take a look at my TPT store for more guidance with Elementary Literacy: CLICK HERE.
Take special notice of this very inexpensive resource that will help you organize your learning segment.
Use my Free YouTube videos to help you write your edTPA! CLICK HERE.
Do you want more help with this? Check out this video for purchase on TpT.
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Mamaw Yates
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