LAE

7735 – TeacherEd P-TIP 1

TRACE (Syllabus, Lesson, Video Annotation)
Purpose:
As an English teacher educator, you will prepare syllabi, teach lessons, and reflect on your practice. This
process is not only a day-to-day part of the job, but also an integral part of the job search, annual
review, and tenure/promotion processes. To practice at this task, you will analyze and annotate a
syllabus, lesson plan, and video from an English teacher education course in which you participate as a
teacher.

Audience:
This assignment will trace your principles and practices as an English teacher education from syllabus to
lesson plan to instructional enactment; you will annotate, or add comments to, each of these artifacts
to examine the choices you made. YOU are the primary audience for this work. However, OUR CLASS
will also compare and discuss the artifacts you annotate at each step. So you may wish to annotate in
ways that are not only reflective (how can I improve) but also explanatory (why do I do what I do?).

Process:

1. Syllabus
For this step, you will generate (or find) a syllabus for an English teacher education course (e.g.,
Teaching Methods, Literature for Young Adults, Children’s Literature, Writing Pedagogies, etc.). Based
on our readings in the first half of the semester, you will analyze this syllabus (materials, assignments,
activities) with attention to the theories of learning/teaching it entails (for more on this, please see
Secondary English Teacher Education in the United States). Using MS Word or Adobe PDF annotation
tools, you will annotate this syllabus, pointing out key moments that illustrate your analysis. Please
refer to the last section and to the rubric criteria for guidance on how to make these annotations.

2. Lesson Plan
Next, you will compose a lesson plan for one of the class meetings in the syllabus you chose. That lesson
plan should be one that you (or you and the course instructor) are prepared to teach and video record
(see next step). Please use the following format, or another that addresses the same purposes:
• Objectives: What will they learn? (“Prospective teachers will…in order to…”)
• Materials: What will they need? (Books, tools, resources, handouts)
• Activities: What will they do? (Imagine a sequence of activities for a 50-min. class session)
• Assessment(s): How will you know if they learned something? (“I am looking for prospective
teachers to ______ “)
• Annotations: Why did you make this choice? (Using MS Word or Adobe Pro, please add
comments that explain the choices you made in this lesson, with connections to the
syllabus). Please refer to the last section and to the rubric criteria for guidance on how to
make these annotations.
In place of standards, please consult the NCTE/CAEP standards for initial teacher preparation at
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Groups/CEE/NCATE/ApprovedStandards_111212.pdf.

3. Lesson Video
Having taught and recorded your lesson, you will upload your video recording to a video annotation
webware program (I can help with this). At selected moments of the video, you will add annotations to
reflect on and explain the choices you made, with connections to the syllabus and lesson plan. Please
refer to the next section and to the rubric criteria for guidance on how to make these annotations.

 LAE 7735 – TeacherEd P-TIP 2
4. Annotation
For each of the artifacts (syllabus, lesson, video), you will annotate (add comments) to reflect on and
explain the choices you made. These annotated artifacts are NOT meant to serve as a trophy case or a
confession, and you will not be evaluated on the success of your lesson. Rather, these annotations are
meant to:
• Help you to TRACE your principles and practices from syllabus to lesson to instructional
activities: why do you do what you do as an English teacher educator?
• Help you to reflect on your principles and practices: how can you celebrate and improve your
craft as an English teacher educator?
• Help you to explain your principles and practices to others: how can you teach others by sharing
artifacts of your work as an English teacher educator?

Rubric:

Criterion 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0
Process: TRACE steps (syllabus, lesson, video) analyzed, annotated,
and revised in the weeks preceding the final draft
Aligned: TRACE annotations refer to standards in analyzing syllabus,
lesson, and video to reflect on and explain the author’s principles
and practices as an English teacher educator
Scaffolded: TRACE annotations make clear connections across
syllabus, lesson, and video in order to reflect on and explain the
author’s principles and practices as an English teacher educator
Relevant: TRACE annotations of syllabus, lesson, and video explicitly
connect content to learners’ needs and interests
Diverse: TRACE annotations of syllabus, lesson, and video address
learners’ diverse cultural/linguistic backgrounds, ability levels, or
learning styles in reflection/explanation of materials, activities, and
assessments