TPE: C
Engaging and supporting students in learning
TPE 4: Making Content Accessible
Candidates for a 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 a Teaching Credential 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: 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. This TPE describes professional practices that are most commonly used and needed for students in each major phase of schooling, grades K-3, 4-8, and 9-12. 1
TPE 6A: Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Grades K-3
During teaching assignments in Grades K-3, candidates for a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential understand how to create a structured day with opportunities for movement. They design academic activities that suit the attention span of young learners. Their instructional activities connect with the children’s immediate world; draw on key content from more than one subject area; and include hands-on experiences and manipulatives that help students learn. Candidates teach and model norms of social interactions (e.g., consideration, cooperation, responsibility, empathy). They understand that some children hold naïve understandings of the world around them. Candidates provide educational experiences that help students develop more realistic expectations and understandings of their environment. They know how to make special plans for students who require extra help in exercising self-control among their peers or who have exceptional needs or abilities.
TPE 6B: Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Grades 4-8
During teaching assignments in Grades 4-8, candidates for a Multiple Subject 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
1 TPE 6 does not represent a comprehensive strategy for teaching students at any particular stage; the elements of TPE 6 are intended merely to supplement and not replace the broader range of pedagogical skills and abilities described in the TPEs. 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 Single Subject 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 language, 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.2 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.
Candidates for a 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 a Teaching Credential 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: 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. This TPE describes professional practices that are most commonly used and needed for students in each major phase of schooling, grades K-3, 4-8, and 9-12. 1
TPE 6A: Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Grades K-3
During teaching assignments in Grades K-3, candidates for a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential understand how to create a structured day with opportunities for movement. They design academic activities that suit the attention span of young learners. Their instructional activities connect with the children’s immediate world; draw on key content from more than one subject area; and include hands-on experiences and manipulatives that help students learn. Candidates teach and model norms of social interactions (e.g., consideration, cooperation, responsibility, empathy). They understand that some children hold naïve understandings of the world around them. Candidates provide educational experiences that help students develop more realistic expectations and understandings of their environment. They know how to make special plans for students who require extra help in exercising self-control among their peers or who have exceptional needs or abilities.
TPE 6B: Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Grades 4-8
During teaching assignments in Grades 4-8, candidates for a Multiple Subject 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
1 TPE 6 does not represent a comprehensive strategy for teaching students at any particular stage; the elements of TPE 6 are intended merely to supplement and not replace the broader range of pedagogical skills and abilities described in the TPEs. 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 Single Subject 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 language, 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.2 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.