Community Teacher Equity Development program
Capstone
Throughout CTED Institute, you’ve developed your understanding of anti-racism education and
culturally responsive teaching and how your individual and teacher identity influences students’
learning experience. You have also developed skill in designing and implement lessons that
utilize anti-racism and culturally responsive teaching practices.
This capstone is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your understanding of these concepts
through the planning and implementation of a mini-literacy unit.
For this capstone, you will design and implement two sequential literacy lesson plans (e.g.
guided reading, read-aloud). Using the UH Lesson Plan template or your school’s preferred
lesson plan template, your lesson design should explicitly include anti-racism teaching strategies
and culturally responsive teaching practices that, when enacted correctly, disrupt patterns of
inequities in instruction.
Your mini-unit should be implemented on July 27 and July 28 with a small group of students. If
possible, record your delivery of each lesson.
In addition to the lesson plans, you should complete the reflections for each area of practice –
Planning, Instruction, and Assessment.
*Adapted from edTPA Elementary Literacy Handbook
Planning
• Identify a learning segment to plan, teach, and analyze student learning. *Recognize and
identify theme
o The central focus3 (e.g., retelling, persuasive writing) should include an essential
literacy strategy for comprehending text (e.g., summarizing a story) OR composing
text (e.g., using evidence to support an argument) AND the related skills needed to
develop and apply the strategy (e.g., decoding, recalling, sequencing, writing
conventions, writing paragraphs) in meaningful contexts.
• Your learning segment should include two consecutive literacy lessons implanting a guided
reading session or read-aloud.
• Determine a central focus for your learning segment (e.g. identify main idea). The central
focus should support students to develop an essential reading strategy for comprehending a
text.
• Write and submit a lesson plan for each lesson in the learning segment.
• Select and submit key instructional materials needed to understand what you and the students
will be doing (e.g. what text will students read during the lesson, what accompanying visuals
will you use, handouts, etc?)
Reflection Questions
1. Given the central focus (e.g. main idea, identify characters, etc.), describe how the standards
and learning objectives within your lesson address the essential literacy strategy related
skills that support use of the strategy reading (e.g. Using the 3-2-1 reading strategy allows
students to easily identify areas in the text that support the main idea).
2. What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural and language
backgrounds and practices, and interests?
3. Justify how your understanding of your students’ prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets guided your choice or adaptation of learning tasks and
materials. Be explicit about the connections between the learning tasks and students’ prior
academic learning and their assets.
4. Describe and justify why your instructional strategies and planned supports are appropriate
for the whole class, individuals, and/or groups of students with specific learning needs.
Instruction
• Videorecord your teaching of both lessons. Analyze your teaching and your students’
learning in the video clips by responding to commentary prompts.
Instruction Reflections
1. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to students
with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in learning?
2. Explain how your instruction engaged students in developing an essential literacy strategy?
3. Describe how your instruction linked students’ prior academic learning and personal,
cultural, and community assets with new learning.
4. Explain how you elicited and built on student responses to promote thinking?
5. Explain how you modeled the essential literacy strategy AND supported students as they
practiced or applied the strategy to comprehend text in a meaningful context.
6. What changes would you make to your instruction—for the whole class and/or for students
who need greater support or challenge—to better support student learning of the central
focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?
Assessment
• Select one formative assessment from mini unit that you will use to evaluate your
students’ developing knowledge and skills.
• Define and submit the evaluation criteria you will use to analyze student learning.
• Collect and analyze student work from the selected assessment to identify quantitative
and qualitative patterns of learning within and across learners in the class.
• Select 3 student work samples to illustrate your analysis of patterns of learning within
and across learners in the class.
• Summarize the learning of the whole class, referring to work samples from the 3 focus
students to illustrate patterns in student understanding across the class.
• Provide feedback on the assessment.
•
Assessment Reflections
1. Identify the specific learning objectives measured by the assessment you chose for analysis.
2. Explain how feedback provided to the 3 focus students addresses their individual strengths
and needs relative to the learning objectives measured.
3. Describe how you would support each student to understand and use this feedback to further
their learning related to learning objectives.
Capstone Rubric
Rubric 1: Planning for Literacy Learning
How do the fellow’s plans build students’ understanding of an essential literacy strategy for
comprehending and the skills that support that strategy?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
instruction focus
solely on literacy
skills without any
connections to an
essential literacy
strategy for
comprehending
OR There are
significant content
inaccuracies that
will lead to student
misunderstandings.
OR Standards,
objectives, and
learning tasks and
materials are not
aligned with each
other.
Candidate’s plans
for instruction
support student
learning of skills
with vague
connections to
the essential
literacy strategy
for
comprehending
Candidate’s plans for
instruction build on
each other to support
learning of
• the essential
literacy
strategy for
comprehending
• with clear
connections to
skills.
Candidate’s plans
for instruction build
on each other within
a meaningful
context that supports
learning of
• the essential
literacy
strategy for
comprehend
• with clear
AND
consistent
connections
to related
skills.
Level 4 plus:
Candidate’s
plans build an
authentic
connection
between reading
Candidate
explains how
they will use
learning tasks
and materials to
lead students to
independently
apply the
essential literacy
strategy AND
related skills.
Rubric 2. Using Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching and Learning
How does the candidate use knowledge of his/her students to justify instructional plans?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Candidate’s
justification of
learning tasks is either
missing OR
represents a deficit
view of students and
their backgrounds.
Candidate justifies
learning tasks with
limited attention to
students’
• prior
academic
learning
OR
• personal,
cultural, or
community
assets.
Candidate justifies
why learning tasks
(or their adaptations)
are appropriate
using examples of
students’
• prior
academic
learning
OR
• personal,
cultural, or
community
assets.
Candidate justifies
why learning tasks
(or their
adaptations) are
appropriate using
examples of
students’.
• prior
academic
learning
OR
• personal,
cultural, or
community
assets.
Level 4 plus:
Candidate’s
justification is
supported by
principles from
research and/or
theory
Rubric 3: Learning Environment
How does the candidate demonstrate a positive literacy learning environment that supports
students’ engagement in learning?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
The clips reveal
evidence of
disrespectful
interactions between
teacher and students or
between students.
Candidate The
candidate
demonstrates
respect for
students.
AND
Candidate
provides a
learning
environment that
serves primarily
to control student
behavior, and
minimally
supports the
learning goals.
The candidate
demonstrates
rapport with and
respect for
students.
AND
Candidate provides
a positive, lowrisk learning
environment that
reveals mutual
respect among
students.
The candidate
demonstrates
rapport with and
respect for
students.
AND
Candidate provides
a challenging
learning
environment that
promotes mutual
respect among
students.
The candidate
demonstrates
rapport with and
respect for
students.
AND
Candidate provides
a challenging
learning
environment that
provides
opportunities to
express varied
perspectives and
promotes mutual
respect among
students.
Rubric 4: Engaging Students in Learning
How does the candidate actively engage students in integrating strategies and skills to
comprehend OR compose text?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Students are
participating
in tasks that
are vaguely
or
superficially
related to
the central
focus.
Students are
participating
in learning
tasks focusing
primarily on
skills with
little attention
to the essential
literacy
strategy for
comprehending
Students are engaged
in learning tasks that
address their
understanding of
• the essential
literacy
strategy for
comprehending
• related skills
Students are engaged in
learning tasks that
integrate their
understanding of
• the essential
literacy
strategy for
comprehending
• related skills
Students are engaged in
learning tasks that
deepen and extend
their understanding of
• the essential
literacy
strategy for
comprehending
• related skills
There is little
or no
evidence that
the candidate
links
students’
prior
academic
learning or
personal,
cultural, or
community
assets with
new learning.
Candidate
makes vague
or superficial
links between
prior
academic
learning and
new literacy
learning.
Candidate links prior
academic learning to
new literacy learning.
Candidate links prior
academic learning AND
personal, cultural, or
community assets to
new literacy learning.
Candidate prompts
students to link prior
academic learning AND
personal, cultural, or
community assets to
new literacy learning.
Rubric 5: Deepening Student Learning
How does the candidate elicit student responses to promote thinking and apply the essential
literacy strategy AND related skills to comprehend OR compose text?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Candidate does most
of the talking and the
students provide few
responses.
OR
Candidate responses
include significant
content inaccuracies
that will lead to
student
misunderstandings.
Candidate
primarily asks
surface-level
questions and
evaluates student
responses as
correct or
incorrect.
Candidate elicits
student responses to
support use of
• the essential
literacy
strategy OR
• related skills
to
comprehend
Candidate elicits and
builds on students’
responses to
explicitly portray,
extend, or clarify
• the essential
literacy
strategy OR
• related
skills to
comprehend
Level 4 plus:
Candidate
facilitates
interactions
among students
so they can
evaluate their
own abilities to
apply the
essential literacy
strategy in
meaningful
reading
Rubric 6: Subject-Specific Pedagogy: Elementary Literacy
How does the candidate support students to learn, practice, and apply the essential literacy
strategy for comprehending OR composing text in a meaningful context?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Candidate does not
teach students how to
use the essential
literacy strategy to
support
comprehension.
OR
There is a clear
mismatch between or
among strategies,
skills, and students’
readiness to learn.
OR
Materials used in the
clips include significant
content inaccuracies
that will lead to student
misunderstandings.
Candidate engages
students with the
essential literacy
strategy without
opportunities for
students to
practice or apply
it to comprehend.
OR
Candidate
models/shows how
to apply skills to
comprehend
without attending
to the essential
literacy strategy.
Candidate models
the essential
literacy strategy to
comprehend OR
WITH limited
opportunities for
practice.
Candidate
explicitly teaches
students how to
apply the essential
literacy strategy to
comprehend AND
provides
opportunities for
guided practice.
Level 4 plus:
Candidate
explicitly teaches
students when to
apply the essential
literacy strategy to
comprehend in
meaningful
contexts.
Rubric 7: Analysis of Student Learning
How does the candidate analyze evidence of student learning related to the essential
literacy strategy and related skills?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
The analysis is
superficial or not
supported by either
student work samples
or the summary of
student learning.
OR
The evaluation criteria
are not aligned with the
learning objectives
and/or analysis.
OR
The analysis is not
aligned with the
learning objectives.
The analysis
focuses on what
students did right
OR wrong.
The analysis
focuses on what
students did right
AND wrong.
AND
Analysis includes
some differences
in whole class
learning
Analysis uses
specific examples
from work
samples to
demonstrate
patterns of
learning
consistent with the
summary.
AND
Patterns of
learning are
described for
whole class.
Analysis uses
specific evidence
from work samples
to demonstrate the
connections
between
quantitative and
qualitative patterns
of learning for
individuals or
groups.
Rubric 8: Providing Feedback to Guide Further Learning
What type of feedback does the candidate provide to focus students?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Feedback is unrelated
to the learning
objectives OR is
developmentally
inappropriate.
OR
Feedback contains
significant content
inaccuracies.
OR
No feedback is
provided to one or
more focus students.
Feedback is
general and
addresses needs
AND/OR
strengths related
to the learning
objectives.
Feedback is
specific and
addresses either
needs OR strengths
related to the
learning objectives.
Feedback is
specific and
addresses both
strengths AND
needs related to the
learning objectives.
Level 4 plus:
Feedback for one
or more focus
students •
provides a
strategy to
address an
individual
learning need OR
• makes
connections to
prior learning or
experience to
improve learning.