a. Introducing the PACT Teaching Event to Students

This compilation of examples from early implementing institutions describes a number of ways to introduce the PACT Teaching Event to certification candidates.

Introducing teacher candidates to the teaching event can be done in several ways depending on the structure of your program. Reading Making Good Choices, the Teaching Event Handbook, the Rubrics, and Thinking Behind the Rubrics with your students is a good way to ensure you, your faculty, and your students understand the PACT teaching event. Below are practices from other campuses describing how and when teacher candidates were introduced to PACT.

UCSB Timeline and Description

Students are told about PACT during orientation and Fall closing however, no formal introduction is done until Winter quarter. PACT is introduced to the teacher candidates during Education 395, Curriculum Design and Implementation, a course designed to integrate PACT into lesson plan design. Here the students are given the PACT handbook for the Teaching Event, Making Good Choices, the Rubrics, and Thinking Behind the Rubrics. Together and independently we read all PACT documents and students are then shown in a PowerPoint presentation a timeline of PACT and how the Teaching Event and ESA’s would overlap with the courses already scheduled for the Winter, and Spring quarters. Through this course, students grade a PACT TE and become familiar with our electronic platform and videotaping procedures. Combining PACT with curriculum design allows students to complete the PACT TE while making direct connections with lesson plan design, differentiated instruction, and assessment.

UCSB Example:

Talking to students about PACT

PACT stands for the Performance Assessment for California Teachers

It consists of 2 parts:

  1. The Teaching Event
  2. Embedded assessments
  • PACT is a performance assessment measure that is used in UCSB’s TEP program as well as programs in other UCs, Stanford, and some CSUs. It measures a variety of skills and understandings across courses and student teaching.
  • The PACT Teaching Event is a requirement of the TEP program. It will be a part of your course- and field- work. Successful completion of PACT is necessary for successful completion of the program, which in turn is necessary for obtaining a credential.
  • The PACT Teaching Event is valuable in a number of ways:
  • It measures several important constructs in the craft of teaching—such as planning and assessment—and provides you and future employers (note that video clips may not be shared with employers) with a standard source of evidence of your abilities in these areas of teaching.
  • It offers a well-defined goal that makes it easier for instructors throughout the TEP program to work together in providing you with a variety of supports to aid in your learning.
  • It helps you tie learning from different course and field experiences together.
  • We are providing practice—by way of assignments in various courses—that will give you constructive feedback to enable you and faculty to target areas for growth in Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection (areas measured in PACT).
  • PACT is not the end all in measuring excellence in teaching. It is a good measure of the constructs it was designed to measure. Many other things that make a teacher excellent—such as rapport with students, classroom management, attention to issues of social justice—are measured in different ways in your courses and fieldwork. You will have an opportunity to bring these things together in your credential portfolio.

UCB

In DTE students are aware of the TE from the beginning of the program. They are formally introduced to the TE during their math methods course (during their second of four semesters), as they complete a “mini-pact.” The mini-pact entails a similar cycle of Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection as the TE, but on a smaller scale and with no video-tape component.

Students in the MACSME program are aware of the PACT TE from the first semester. They are given copies of the materials and go through the materials with the 2ndYrs who are preparing to do the TE. They also do several sections for practice, including lesson planning and video analysis.

UCLA

Interns are introduced to the Teaching Event through their Seminar class, which is organized for the first quarter to introduce them to the ideas and theory surrounding Planning, Instruction, Assessment and Reflection. Preservice teachers are introduced to the Teaching Event at a meeting, and the concepts of PIAR are integrated in their Methods classes.

UCI

The Candidates are introduced to the PACT TE late in the fall quarter. The fieldwork course is the vehicle for the introduction. In seminar, the students are presented with an overview of the PACT, and a timeline, handbooks, and rubrics are distributed. Candidates are asked to read through the handbooks and rubrics and note any questions or areas of confusion. During the following seminar, which also previews the winter quarter student teaching assignment responsibilities, about an hour is devoted to answering TE questions. The Candidates are also informed about the various supports that are available to them during the Teaching Event which are:

  • 1 hour each week with the Coordinator to answer questions/problem solve implementation issues
  • 1 hour each week with methods advisors to answer questions/problem solve content specific issues
  • 4 consecutive Saturdays for technology support (lab assistants available) and video selection feedback (Coordinators)

The Student Teacher and the University Associate, together, must complete a long-term planning guide during the first week of student teaching. The planning guide should indicate when the Student Teacher will assume responsibility for classroom routines, as well as small group and whole class instruction. It must also include the timeline for the implementation and instruction of the Teaching Event. Student teachers provide a copy of the Long Term Planner to the University Associate and submit a copy to the Coordinator.

Source: UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine

Created: Fall 2007