1. CONTINUUM OF TEACHING PRACTICE DIRECTIONS Tulare County Office of Education BTSA Induction Program

2.  Read the element and think of evidence of your teaching practice related to that element. The continuum is designed so that as you enter the induction program you will be at least in the Emerging column. As you move to the right across the columns, it assumes that you do everything in the columns to the left. So in the example, if you place yourself in Integrating, you are recognizing, guiding maintaining, and providing. Understanding the leading verbs is key to establishing which column best describes your current practice. Often the description also talks about the frequency of the action (in single lessons or series). The columns build on each other as you move to the right. The Innovating Column is not used in BTSA Induction.

3. STEP 1  With your Support Provider, read the descriptions in the Emerging, Exploring, Applying, Integrating columns. (Innovating is not used during BTSA Induction.) Determine which description best describes your current teaching practice. This should be a rich discussion between the two of you about things you do and what the SP has observed. Note carefully the words in the descriptions that separate the columns, so that you can select the column that most clearly reflects your practice.

4.  What do I do to meet each part of the description?  How do I do it?  What is the outcome of what I do?

5. STEP 2

7. STEP 3  Date your response with the month, day and year. Remember, you will use this continuum twice, once in year one and once in year two.

8. STEP 4  Select a piece of evidence that illustrates why you think you are in the column you have chosen.

9.  Describe your piece of evidence. The description will be in narrative form. It is all right to use first person. Give specific examples. For example, if you say, “I use a variety of strategies to check for understanding.” Continue the response by two or three examples of strategies that you use. Then a sentence about the outcome. The outcome might be what students do or think or what you learned or changed in your teaching. Type your response in the column that you have highlighted. The boxes on the continuum open as you type.

10.  Both first and second year PT’s should be able to respond to each element of each of the six CSTP’s.

11.  Each level addresses what a teacher should know and be able to do, in addition, in CSTP #1 and #2 are what students would be doing at each level of practice.  The student information is written in brown font, please read the descriptor, reflect on your classroom and find a level that best describes what students are doing. Highlight the descriptor in yellow, date your response, turn font to blue for Year 1 PT and green for Year 2 PT, and record evidence of students practice under the appropriate level to validate the level chosen.

12. STANDARD 2 CSTP: CREATING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE ENVIRONMENTS FOR STUDENT LEARNING  Working with your table, complete the chart you were given. Make the assumption that you are in the column on the chart. Working together, format the response as we have just described: Highlighting the description being responded to, using blue or green font (marker), date. Then write a response that includes what you do, how you do it, and what the outcome is.

13. ANY QUESTIONS? Margaret Moss moss.m@sbcglobal.net