Chapter 12: Supporting Teacher Candidates’ Commentary Writing

For many teacher candidates, the amount and level of expository writing required for the edTPA presents a challenge as they complete each task during their student teaching semester. This challenge is reflected by research indicating more than half of teacher candidates surveyed felt unprepared for writing the edTPA narratives (Meuwissen, Choppin, Shang-Butler, & Cloon-an, 2015). Educator preparation programs (EPPs) will therefore benefit from supports and practices for teacher candidates specifically designed to address the expectations of the multiple writing prompts associated with each task.