ANATOMY OF THE TAKE ONE! ENTRY

The Take One! Entry is either Entry 2 or Entry 3 depending on the certificate. But ALL Take One! Entries are VIDEO ENTRIES because the area of focus is TEACHER PERFORMANCE. In these entries, the National Board asks teachers to show some aspect of their teaching practice and demonstrate how it impacts student learning. Entries are divided into the following sections:

1) The TITLE of the entry and a short overview of the focus of the entry.

2) STANDARDS measured by the entry followed by examples from the standards of accomplished teaching practice.

3) What Do I Need to Do? This section details the objective of the entry and lists the three items you must submit for scoring"

• Written Commentary: (followed by the maximum page length)
• Video Recording(s): ONE or TWO depending on the certificate (followed by the min.)
• Instructional Materials: (followed by the maximum number of pages)

4) Composing Written Commentary is divided into sections that contain the prompts you will respond to. You need to follow the order given and answer all prompts in each section. The sections are:

• Instructional Context: a largely descriptive passage that gives the assessors a snapshot of your class and teaching context. This is discussed below in the previous post.
• Planning and Instruction/Teaching: Here you answer questions regarding how you plan lessons and/or units of instruction and implement the instruction with your students. The focus in this section varies among certificates. Sometimes the emphasis is on a single lesson. In other certificates it is on a "lesson sequence", or unit of study. Read your own instructions carefully to learn what your certificate asks for.
• Analysis of the Video Recording: This section focuses on your description and anlysis of the learning experience shown in the video.
• Reflection: The final part asks you to look back and evaluate and reflect on the success of the lesson.

5) Recording Your Video Entry: It is extremely important to have a clear understanding of WHAT your video needs to show. Read and re-read this section multiple times. Each certificate is different, so what a friend working on another certificate does may not apply to you at all. This part gives many hints as to how to video successfuly, how to select groups/students to feature, and how to select the video segment you want to submit. You will likely make numerous videos before finding a segment that shows YOU putting into practice as many of your standards as possible. That is what the video is about - showing that you practice the standards in your teaching.

The video recording you submit is of a single lesson, but you need to read your entry carefully to find out in what context the lesson must be. In some certificates the recorded lesson is a lesson that appears within a unit of study. In others it may be in a different context - so once again, read your directions carefully.

6) Instructional Materials: This last section directs you to include a certain number of materials that will help the assessors understand the content of your video; materials you used during the lesson featured on the video or before or after the video lesson. Again, the amount specified varies by certificate so be sure to read YOUR instructions carefully.

The remainder of the entry has to do with correct formatting of writing, the video, and all materials submitted. It contains very specific information that must be followed exactly. The NB receives tens of thousands of entries each year and this consistency helps assessors do their job better. Submissions that do not follow the formats will not be scored.

GETTING STARTED:

There are t wo things you can do early on - long before you start to video:

1) Set up your computer with the format for the written commentary. Read the formatting section(s) and set your margins, get your candidate ID# and page numbers set up.

2) Type in the names of the sections in the written commentary and under each type in ALL of the prompts. I typed mine in a color in the 12 point font they recommend. Then as I wrote more and more, and got closer to being finished, I made the prompts smaller and smaller. As I finshed, I deleted them. By doing this, you won't forget to answer any part of the prompts. An unanswered prompt will NOT earn points!

My best advice is to READ THE ENTRY OVER AND OVER. READ YOUR STANDARDS OVER AND OVER. TALK WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES about the prompts. If you are the only one working on a certificate, you can still meet with others to discuss the entry. There are enough similarities that you'll still be able to help each other.