Academic Language plays a significant role in the edTPA, accounting for 11-13% of your total score. Because of that, you'll need to pay attention to rubrics 4 and 14, even if you find the whole thing annoying. This blog focuses on Rubric 14 and it assumes you have already read my blog on Rubric 4.
Rubric 14 is associated with Task Three, Prompt 3a, for all handbooks except for World Language, SPED, and Early Childhood. World Language does not include the academic language rubrics at all and so it has 13 rubrics instead of 15 or 18. SPED has communicative proficiency instead of academic language for Rubrics 4 and 14. Early Childhood has vocabulary use instead of academic language for Rubrics 4 and 14.
Before reading about Rubric 14 and its requirements, you need to read this, and/or watch this video. It is important that you understand what the language demands are before you think about Rubric 14. Please go ahead and read/watch it even if you THINK you know what the demands are.
Rubric 14 is associated with Task Three, Prompt 3. It reads something very similar to this:
Interpretation of prompt 3a: You will...
Find concrete examples of students using the language function, vocabulary, and either discourse of syntax.
Present and explain those examples.
Note:
"Concrete examples" means that you will be able to present the evidence by pointing out an artifact (video clips or work samples).
Your handbook states that you may find these examples of students use of language from any or all of these artifacts: (If you are PE, you have different options which I discuss in this blog.)
EXAMPLES:
Using Task 2 Video Clips as Evidence:
"An example of when a student struggled to use the language function, explain, can be seen on Task 2, Clip 1, 8:54-9:04. When asked to explain his answer to the class, the boy in the hoodie didn't know how to begin his explanation. He was able to give an explanation with prompting and probing from me."
Using an additional video file named "Language Use" as Evidence:
"In the Language Use video clip at minute 1:00-1:30, evidence of successful vocabulary use can be seen. In the video, I asked the question... and the student in the blue shirt answered..., correctly using the vocabulary."
Using the Work Samples submitted as Part A in Task 3 as evidence:
"Although students had been able to explain their answers to the math problems while in the whole group, two of my focus learners had difficulty writing out their explanations (discourse) when taking their assessment. As you can see on Student A's work sample, he wrote, "..." effectively just restating his answer instead of giving an explanation. Student B also struggled with giving an explanation. You can see this in his work sample when he ..."
(If you are PE, you have different options which I discuss in this blog.)
Collecting the evidence for this prompt takes a little bit of thinking ahead. Watch this for an explanation.
Task 3 Prompt 3 is scored with Rubric 14.
To make a three - You must present evidence of students' use of language function and one other one (vocabulary, syntax or discourse). Remember that it is not enough to describe the use, you should be referencing concrete evidence (see examples above). After presenting the evidence, you give an explanation and discuss how it relates to content learning.
To make a four - You must present evidence of students' use of language function, vocabulary, and either syntax or discourse. Your explanation needs to include discussion on how this evidence relates to content understandings.
To make a five - You must first reach a level 4. Then you must provide evidence of language use from students with varied needs.
I have seen very few portfolios where someone has scored a five on Rubric 14. However, I do have two examples. Even if these examples are out of your content area, you can see how they successfully approached answering the prompt.
In this video, I give an outline and other tips for writing prompt 3 of Task 3.
Check out these other Task 3 Resources from Mamaw Yates.
How to Write the Assessment Commentary
FAQ about Rubric 14 and Task 3 Prompt 3:
Does the evidence that I discuss in Task 3 Prompt 3 have to be about the Key Learning Task that I discussed in Task 1 Prompt 4?
NO! Not only that but you can talk about any language use in any part of your lessons, so long as you have evidence to present. This means that the language demands that you planned in Task 1 do not need to match the evidence that you discuss in Task 3.
How about when you are submitting a retake?
Same answer as before. When submitting a Task 3 retake, edTPA requires you to submit Task 1 Commentary Prompt 4 along with your Task 3 materials. Although they require this, the scorer still does not take what you wrote into consideration when scoring Rubric 14. (I have never understood this requirement and can only surmise that it was an error that was never corrected.)
Hang in there! You can do it!
Mamaw Yates
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