D.

Anderson

Final Assessment Part A

Due Date: April 23, 2019

The goal of this endorsement is to equip Candidates to identify and teach gifted students from a variety of
cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds. We hope that you become advocates for gifted children, are
empowered to exert positive leadership in your school and come to be more effective teachers of ALL students.
This exercise is intended to provide an opportunity for you to reflect upon your growth towards those objectives.

I. Answer 1 of the following questions in a reflective written response with at least one paragraph per
question.

B. What have you learned about yourself as a teacher as you have analyzed your implemented lessons and
worked on your performance task and rubric assignment?

Through my analysis of my implemented lessons, I have learned that I need to really think about what my
students can realistically accomplish in one day as I write new strategy lessons. I have found that some of my
implemented lessons have run over the one day pacing that is intended, so I either need to refine how much I
include in the lesson plan itself, time each component to ensure that all lesson activities can be done in one day,
or plan specifically for the lessons to carry over into 2 days (which is something that I don’t always have time to
do). While my implemented lessons have gone well overall, and I know that students have enjoyed them and
learned a lot throughout the lessons, I think that using rubrics alongside my synthesis and unit culminating
activities can push them to improve on their quality of work.

When working on the performance task and rubric, I chose to create a rubric to accompany a synthesis activity
for my implemented decision-making lesson, as the synthesis activity was already written as a performance
task. The most challenging part of creating the rubric was not so much the performance task, rather it was
making the rubric qualitative as opposed to quantitative. I think it is inherently more difficult to decide on the
criteria to be used showing how one level changes to another based on quality over quantity. It’s not always
easy to put that into words. I know I need to continue to build my familiarity with creating this type of rubric.

What have you learned your students as a result of their responses to your assessments and lessons?

I have learned that my students really enjoy the opportunity to think critically and in different ways as I’ve
implemented lessons using various TAG strategies. Additionally, they enjoy the ability to create a product to
showcase their learning. Most importantly, however, I have learned that my students value having a choice in
how they demonstrate their learning. My more creative thinkers like the tasks that allow them to draw/create,
while many others love incorporating technology into their products. Now matter what, I feel it’s really important
going forward to offer as much choice as possible to reach all learning styles that I have in my TAG classroom/
This was the most consistent feedback I received from my students.

What is working and is most effective?

I feel like the implementation of strategy lessons into my teaching is quite effective, and that I am becoming
more and more comfortable teaching each strategy, but that is understandable since the units in my TAG
curriculum consist of strategy lessons and I, therefore, get practice each week. I am starting to find that I enjoy
 D. Anderson

Final Assessment Part A

Due Date: April 23, 2019

teaching some strategies more than others, but I see the benefit in all strategies that we’ve learned about.
Furthermore, I have found that certain strategies lend themselves more towards use in either the general
education classroom as a way of lifting the level of thinking with gifted students, or with grade levels that I don’t
teach. Since I teach at the elementary level, implementing the New American Lecture, for example, is more of a
daunting task. Based on this understanding, I am learning which strategies work best for my students.

I also believe that the use of varied formative assessments that we have learned in this course are being
effectively utilized in my classroom. Many of them are becoming routine and I don’t need to spend time with my
students going over how to complete them, and we can focus on using it as an assessment of learning and
thinking.

What do you plan to change?

Going forward, I would like to continue the practice of creating rubrics to accompany my strategy lessons that I
implement into my TAG classroom, especially when it comes to synthesis activities and unit culminating
activities. While we have used a few rubrics throughout the course of the school year, we could make the use of
rubrics a little more routine. I feel like students really benefit from knowing ahead of time exactly what is
expected to help them produce high quality work. I also feel that this is an area in which I can improve my
capacity in assessment. I had a little difficulty creating a rubric that was qualitative as opposed to quantitative,
so I would like to continue working on writing this type of rubric to become more comfortable with the process.

II. Of the selected essential questions listed below, what would you say are two strengths of your understanding
of the identification and assessment process for gifted/advanced learners and what is one area of weakness on
which you need more information Explain each choice in detail.

What is the process for referral and eligibility in my district? STRENGTH

I feel like this is a strength of mine because I have gone through the testing process both in the Fall
and Spring of this school year. In the Fall, the TAG lead at my school walked me through the process
of how we decide who to test, but I was able to assist in this process during our Spring testing
window. This allowed me to learn what specific supporting data we look for to determine whether
or not we test a student, such as Fastbridge scores, previous testing, native/home language, etc.
Moreover, serving on the school eligibility team gave me the opportunity to learn how students can
become eligible for gifted services through Option A and Option B.

How do we evaluate Mental Ability, Achievement, Motivation, and Creativity for eligibility?
STRENGTH

I feel confident about my ability to speak knowledgeably about how we assess students in these 4
areas of eligibility. I am familiar with the testing process and how we go about deciding which
students to test, looking for supporting data, and which tests we will administer to each student.
 D. Anderson

Final Assessment Part A

Due Date: April 23, 2019

Having gone through the testing process both in the Fall and Spring of this year, I have had the
opportunity to actually administer and score the various assessments used to determine eligibility,
as well as serving on my school’s eligibility team. All of this experience has afforded me the ability to
develop a deep understanding of the assessment and eligibility process.

What are the issues concerning appropriate development and use of assessment in my classroom?

What are appropriate formative assessments to use with high ability learners?

What are the unique aspects of some evaluation instruments for special populations?

How does one create analytic and holistic rubrics? WEAKNESS

While I definitely have a better understanding of this as a result of this course and working on the
performance task, this is still an area where I can improve. Throughout my teaching career, most of
the rubrics that I have used in my classroom have been more specific to quantity as opposed to
quality, so I feel like only creating one performance task and rubric is not quite enough to make me
feel confident about my ability to create analytic and holistic rubrics for use in my gifted classroom. I
would like to continue to learn about these rubrics and making the use of them routine. I struggle
specifically with how to show a difference between levels in the rubric components. It’s a challenge
for me sometimes to create 4 different levels or proficiency that show an increase in quality, which
this type of rubric requires. I think this will become easier with further practice.

III. As a concluding synthesis, please answer the crucial question below in one of four ways:
 Write your response including anecdotal evidence
 Chart or draw your response
 Write a story or parable or poem or song in response
 Design your own creative way to answer this question.

QUESTION: How is my new understanding of assessments, and lesson analysis impacting my

students?

I have created an Apple Clips video to submit for this synthesis activity.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hq3z0rVEiUr1LHjeBY8d0B8z-cLXN9QJ