Gifted Assessment Tool

Nominations can be completed by:

Any Teacher (including elective teachers)

Any Administrator

Parent/Guardian

Self

Peer

Once the nomination is done the screening process begins automatically and is completed for every child that is nominated

Step #1

Teacher Evaluation Forms

Parent/Guardian Questionnaire

Self Evaluation

This step will focus on narrowing down the characteristics of the child in relation to characteristics of gifted.

• Variety of Interests
• Excellent memory
• Long attention span
• Unusual curiosity
• Persistence in attacking difficult mental tasks
• Creative ability/Divergent thinking skills
• Good problem solving/reasoning abilities
• Rapid learning ability
• Leadership qualities
• High degree of energy
• Above average language development
• Early/avid reader
• Preference for older/matured companions
• Unusual emotional depth and intensity
• Heightened sensitivity
• Non-conformity behavior
• Above average ability with numbers/jigsaw puzzles
• Keen powers of observation
• Vivid imagination
• Good sense of humor
• Sense of justice and moral sensitivity
• Perfectionism
• Apparent maturity in judgment

Information is collected and put in the chid’s file for the parent interview.

Step #2 Initial intelligence test

The WISC IV test is administered to give an initial indication of the child’s aptitude. I selected this test primarily because it accounts for ADHD and learning differences. This is an initial test and poor performance does not exclude continuation of the process. If the test is not available in the child’s home language a substitute Naglier Non-verbal test.

Step #3 Review of portfolio

The assessor will obtain samples of the students work from all current teachers in all subjects. Special effort should be made to obtain things that the child does at home which may show creative or above level cognitive ability. The student will then give three open-ended assignments that will test verbal, quantitative, and critical thinking ability. The assignments will be chosen at or above grade level depending on the results of the WISC IV test. The assignment should be open ended to allow for creative thinking evaluation.

Step #4 Parent/Guardian Interview

A meeting will be scheduled with the parent to review the information that has been collected add any new information and review the portfolio of work. At this point the parent and the assessor will discuss the results of the portfolio, characteristics profile, and intelligence test. The parent will be presented with the services that are available through the district along with local and state resources whether they are classified as gifted or not. Students that are not accepted in the program should be re-evaluated in one year.

Step #5 Final Test

If the child is classified as gifted they will be given a final intelligence test the Woodcock-Johnson Test. This final step will allow the assessor to more accurately determine the child’s aptitude. I choose this particular test because of it’s large ceiling. Services should be differentiated for gifted students based on their needs. Students should be given ample opportunity for acceleration even dramatic acceleration.

Final Comments

My favorite information was how to effectively create and use blogs and also the sheer amount of information from blogs that is out there if you just know where to look. I have talked to my wife about this and she plans on incorporating the blog idea in here class at Eastfield Community College. The students will have to summarize the weeks worth of information into blog postings and other students will be "required ( at first to get the ball rolling)" to comment on each others notes. This will reinforce the concepts, make sure students are getting the main idea out of each week, and make sure that the students are thinking through correct interpretations. I really enjoyed finding like minded (and opposing) viewpoints out there and joining a civil discussion.

The web 2.0 tools were great I especially enjoyed diigo and my igoogle looks great now. These should help me keep more productive (I can keep track on my to do list)

Several of the tools I have used before but learned to use more effectively. I had used youtube before and I have seen embedded video but I had never done it. This will make things much easier in future. I have also used podcasts before but had not found a lot of information on podcasting which I was interested in .

This program is helping me to shift into the classroom style that I have always wanted but never quite managed to get to. I am trying to develop a class well enough with enough resources and responsibilities that it is individualized similar to reading levels in the first grade. At the secondary level we often teach to the middle out of time necessities and curriculum necessities but these technologies combined with my idea of switching homework and lecture will allow me to get where I want be.

I was surprised at how much of the program I plan on incorporating into my classroom. I came into the program thinking that blogging was for people with an excessive ego and something to prove but my opinion changed the more I learned about it. This challenged all of my preconceptions about the web 2.0 technology and I was more likely to give it a chance.

I personally would change out the flickr information. It did not seem relevant to me for educational purposes. I also did not get nings, especially now that they are going to be a pay site. I would remove nings first and add the following.

I would also combine so that a subject specific week could be added for teachers to design a lesson of their own using the web 2.0 tools as the final "thing"

I would definitely take a program similar to this in the future. I can honestly tell you that this has piqued my interest and given me more ideas than any professional development that I have done. Usually P.D. is something to "get through" as it conflicts with your schedule, isn't relevant to you, etc but this was fantastic. I would recommend that you offer it again because I will tell my colleagues to take this course.

I will continue to monitor this blog for a while but I plan on starting a new blog for my coursework. I was too specific in the title of the blog and I can't change it now.

Thanks for everything Nancy.

Thing #23

How confusing is that comic book and video? The video jumped around so much that it was frustrating although it did make its point. The comic was also very confusing (for effect)

I went through all of the links and still feel like a deer in the head lights when it comes to copyright. I tend to use the printout that came in our binders at the beginning of the year.

The way the information is presented (format) has changed. The instructions are more in depth with more video embedded. A few of the assignments have changed as well including posting about web 2.0 technologies instead of a general blog about technology. Also all of the posts are on our own blogs not on the original site. We also spent time talking about the importance of community through commenting where the original did not. Finally we focused more on widgets, productivity tools, and things we could add to an igoogle instead of googledocs (which have become fairly common place).

Thing #22 Nings

I have never heard of ning's before today and I was intrigued by the idea of a facebook type group based around a single interest but I found ning to be cumbersome, difficult to navigate, and lacking in any real value. This is more than likely my personal bias based on my utter distaste for myspace and facebook. The conversations on the future of education ning where often a great initial post or idea but degenerated into advertisements, name-calling, and irrelevant information rather quickly. I was much more impressed with the level of conversation in various blogs that I continue to search. As nings develop further it could potentially replace the AP physics listserve which I subscribe to that is a long an cumbersome email process but it isn't there yet for me. I also checked the educator ning and although it was a little bit better and slightly more organized I still find it not nearly as useful as the blogs that I found earlier.

I guess the biggest problem that I have with the idea of nings, or facebook is that everyone is an expert even when they are unqualified.

Thing #21

I have posted several different podcasts on my wiki the second semester. I plan on taping, editing and podcasting as many lectures that I can this year so that I can switch from lecturing and giving notes in class to doing things in class. I want student's "homework" to be watching the lecture that way they can rewind, pause, look up terms elsewhere, and verify using outside resources as they go. I would then use class time to "do stuff" like labs, group problem solving, PBL's, etc.

I tried both of the podcasting directories but I still prefer Itunes for its search function, easy storage, easy download to my ipod and the variety of podcasts that I found. The current podcasts that I subscribe to and would recommend to anyone are

HowStuffWorks.com: Brain Stuff
HowStuffWorks.com: Stuff you missed in history class
Freakonomics Radio
Cognition Podcast

In addition I subscribe to several other "podcasts" through Itunes U and I use this for examples and improving my lessons to make them more college appropriate. This is also great preparation for me since I will begin a masters program in the Fall. I can take the class through a university watch the lectures and do the work and then enroll in the class in the fall. Since I won't have much time I have learned the material before enrolling in the class therefore reducing the time and stress for the graduate work.

Stanford
Berkley
Yale

have the most complete podcasts for entire courses. I highly suggest that you find one you are interested in and then listen while exercising or burn it to a CD, it's better than the radio.

I also downloaded audacity and I am in the process of planning my podcasts for the first few lectures. My goal is to tape this year and go live with homework = lecture and classwork = "homework" + other stuff next year.

Thing #20

I enjoyed the tutorial on evaluating sites and will show it before my first research project.

I really do NOT like Vision of Today's students. I am going to sound like an old foggie here but this video reeks of self-indulgent and spoiled kids (not young adults). The mark of being an adult is that you take responsibility for your own circumstances (my opinion). The kids is this video keep saying "I grew up on video games and the internet I'm different its YOUR responsibility to reach ME" I agree that we as teachers should use best practices and the new tools that available clearly have some advantages over the traditional lecture and socratic methods BUT students share some of the responsibility of meeting us in the middle. Ultimately it is their responsibility to meet the social norms of the country until they are significant enough to change the social norms. I will always try to reach every student I can using multiple angles but after reading Daniel Willingham's book and numerous cognitive research articles learning, memory, and brain function I will only use tools that are going to be effective. I am sure that the tools in this presentation can be used effectively (I plan on using a lot of them) but I won't pander to them

The Machine is Us is a great way to get teachers on board with the idea of using this technology in the classroom. A lot of teachers see technology as this mysterious terminator that is out to destroy the safe environment that they have established. This video clearly demonstrates that the Web 2.0 tools are only what they and others put into it.

In my opinion youtube is far superior to teacher tube. Youtube moves much faster and has more server space. Yes you have to wade through a lot of stupid irrelevant videos but if you are embedding them you students won't have to. I also don't like that teacher tube is ad supported and puts 30-60 ads in front of the videos. I have a hard time getting the students to stay on task on the computers when it is immediate but give them an extra 60 seconds and they will find something else to do.

I have used a great deal of video in lecture presentation and recently began linking it in my wiki for students to review. Does embedding the video reduce the space the file takes up (I assume that it does)as opposed to downloading it converting it and reposting for the students to view? Does embedding the video increase the bandwith of the district servers (Does it slow the rest of the district down?)?

Hey look I can embed video. I never knew how to do this until this class.

Thing #19 Library Thing

What a great tool. This could easily be used to find recommendations for students that liked a particular novel or idea in history on science class. I always struggles when a students asks me for recommendations on string theory or quantum mechanics. I can really only recommend books that I have read but this will allow me to input the books that I have read and come up with a more relevant recommendation for them at their level.

The books that I put in were fairly popular with about 20,000 of the 90,000 subscribers having read the books. Of course some of the books that I input barely had a a 100 readers (I have strange tastes in reading). I input a lot of the books that I preview for my older son. He is nine and gets bored with nine year old "picture books" so I read older books to make sure that they are not traumatizing before he does. I also signed up to be a previewer of new books. Apparently each month library thing receives numerous books before they are published and you can request that they be sent to you. All the ask you to do is post a review about the book for others. Usually about 600 people request the 50 books so the odds aren't great but you may get a book before it is published

Here is a link to my books. I will add more later as I am interested in what it has recommended for me.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jeffc65am