Journal Entries from Practicum Experience

Journal Entry 1

On February 8, I made my first visit to my placement site at Norge Elementary in Ann

Colorado’s classroom. Ann and I had arrived an hour before the students so that I could become

familiar with the layout of the school could discuss her schedule and routines for each of her

classes with her. Ann and her teaching partner share the role of teaching 5th

grade identified

gifted students in Reading and Math. They also provide Language Arts and Math instruction for

eligible students in grades 3 and 4. Before the students arrived, Ann explained WJCC’s

identification procedures and Norge’s effort to increase the number of students in the grades 3-4

screening pool. I was surprised to learn that Norge only has 11 identified 5th

grade students in

the Language Arts program and 10 in the Math program—when I observed at D.J. Montague last

spring, there were 22 identified 5th

graders in Language Arts, and 20 in Math. Ann explained

that Norge is taking a more proactive stance toward procuring multiple assessments attesting to

the giftedness or potential for high achievement among students in the 3rd

and 4th

grades as a way

of increasing the number of students the school serves. Aside from considering Naglieri test

scores (that students take in Grade K) and CogAT test scores (that students take in grade 2), the

school is also soliciting classroom teachers for outstanding student products, as well as anecdotal

evidence speaking to any of their students’ abilities. Ann stated that the school’s goal is to make

sure that any student who could be successful in the program is considered, even if their test

scores were below the 90th

percentile (the district cutoff for eligibility). The school is especially

seeking to increase the number of underrepresented student populations (i.e., minority students)

in the screening pool. Ann recently coached a group of 4th

grade students recommended for

inclusion in the talent pool in the thinking and writing strategies emphasized in the William and

Mary Language units. By doing so, Ann said, all of the minority and disadvantaged students

would have the same background knowledge as other students in the screening pool who had

received instruction in these units already, and minority students would have just as much of a

chance of demonstrating their potential and abilities as the other students. The students that

Anne had coached recently took a preassessment based on the William and Mary Language Arts

units that Dr. Jeanne Struck (the Visions coordinator for WJCC) will evaluate. Ann explained

that although cumbersome for Dr. Struck, her analysis of these assessments will ensure that they

are all rated using the same standards. I was impressed with the initiatives Toano has under way

to make the rendering of gifted services as equitable and inclusive as possible (Standard 8,

Assessment, S1).

Ann gave me a tour of the school and introduced me to classroom teachers we met in the

hall and the office personnel. We then stopped by the library to ask the librarian if she had any

books we could use with Ann’s 5th

grade students. She gave us a book with paintings from

several American artists. Today the students would begin researching an artist for connected to

their novel study of Chasing Vermeer. Ann had checked out several books from the public

library about Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Picasso, Monet, and Renoir. I scanned and flagged

pages of artists I thought students might find appealing in the book that the school librarian had

let Ann borrow (e.g., Audubon, Cassat, Bierstadt, and Rockwell, among others). The 5th

grade

students arrived at 11:30 and were instructed to write their personal and academic goals as well

as their homework for the week in their planners. I was immediately aware of how at ease

students felt in Ann’s classroom and their enthusiasm to be in it. Ann asked in a nonthreatening

way if anyone would like to share a goal, which was indicative of her having established a safe

learning environment in which students could share personal and academic responses without

fear of recrimination (Standard 5, Learning Environments and Social Interactions, S3). One girl

shared her goal of making “a really great birthday card” for her dad since his birthday is this

week. Ann later explained how she uses this routine to address the metacognitive skills of her

students. A student had said last week, for example, that her personal goal was to paint her

room. When Ann asked how she planned to meet that goal, the student said she was going to ask

her dad to do it. Ann used this opportunity to convey to students that goals involve a plan and a

series of thought-out steps to meet the goal in order for it to really be a goal (Standard 4,

Instructional Strategies, S2).

Ann then informed the class of the latest development in her “Real Life Mystery” of

having her identity stolen. Over the weekend, she had realized that a facebook application had

installed a Trojan onto her computer, which had accessed her credit card information to make

purchases from companies that charge high monthly rates for their services. I was impressed by

her ability to take a stressful personal situation and present it as a valuable learning opportunity

for students to recognize the potential dangers of the internet. Her story led to a brief discussion

of the difference between computer viruses and spyware. It was also highly relevant to the

curriculum, since the class had just started the mystery Chasing Vermeer and had discussed

mystery-related words on Friday. Ann then introduced me before distributing and explaining a

graphic organizer that students would use to complete their research projects on an artist of their

choice. The report would need to be three paragraphs in length, and Ann had done a great job of

explicitly stating the components of each paragraph in chart form. She used clear and direct

explanations appropriate for students of this age and ability level that demonstrated how the

pieces of the assignment would fit together—“Influences on the artist’s style may come from the

information you found for paragraph 1 where you’ll look at interesting facts about the artist’s

life. Maybe there was something really unusual they experienced that caused them to use a

certain style,” she said. Ann exhibited an outstanding degree of flexibility in how she presented

the project to students and responded to their questions. She allowed students to choose from the

books she had selected from the library. Further, she adeptly responded when one student

requested to study an African artist by saying that this was acceptable, though it’d be a good idea

for him to choose a book from the table as a back-up in case he and the librarian were not able to

find sufficient information on an African artist. Two other students asked if they could study

Georgia O’Keefe and Edward Munch, which Ann also approved. Thus, students were allowed to

explore and research their own interests (Standard 4, Instructional Strategies, S3).

We then took the class to the computer lab and assisted them with finding general

information about their artists in encyclopedias online. Ann and I circulated to ask students

specific questions about their findings. Being that neither of us are experts on painters, we

skimmed the articles that students were reading to ask appropriate questions, such as, “Why do

you think Van Gogh was inspired to paint scenes of nature?” Noticing the challenging

vocabulary on one student’s screen who was researching Picasso, I asked him how it felt to be

“alienated.” His response was, “Really alone, and sad.” I then asked how feeling alienated led

to Picasso’s beginning a Blue Period of painting, and he explained how Picasso’s feelings of

sadness made him paint “really gloomy things in blue colors.” I was also interested in why some

students chose artists of their own. A girl who wanted to study “The artist that painted that

screaming guy” (Edward Munch) replied that she had seen his painting on the Poptropica

website (a popular games website for elementary students) and really liked it. As she read

further down the page, she became excited to learn that one of his paintings was stolen from a

museum in 2004, “Just like in the Poptropica game I played!” This connection to the student’s

like and experiences made me realize that although some gaming websites have a bad reputation

for being an unproductive use of students’ time, this was not so in this case. I enjoyed talking

with students about their own artistic interests and how their inspirations paralleled or were

different from those of their chosen artists.

On the way back to the classroom, I asked Ann what general rules she uses in

constructing and asking questions of students as they do research that does more than merely

comment on what they are reading and calls them to make higher level connections without

telling them, for example, “This artist was influenced by the death of his mother.” “Ann said, “I

just try to keep the questioning as open as possible. I am not a content expert on everything, and

no teacher is, so I skim what they’re reading and make observations and ask for their thoughts.”

We also marveled over the excitement students had in researching specific artists they had

chosen for personal relevancy. The student who had chosen Georgia O’Keefe takes advanced art

classes outside of school, and is currently studying her work. The boy who had asked to research

an African painter became interested in painters of this ethnicity after he visited a museum with

his parents. “These kinds of connections never would have happened if I had just had the kids

pick an artist out of a hat like I had last year,” said Ann. In including a group of artists from

many cultures, Ann engaged her students in multicultural curricula (Standard 4Instructional

Strategies, S6). She also paced the instruction appropriately given the advanced intellect of these

students (S5). By Friday (when Ann and I see the students next), they will have completed their

research and begun typing their reports. Students of average ability would likely take far longer

to complete a project of this nature.

The other instructional area I observed was 5th

grade math. While there were 11

Language Arts students, there were 10 in math, and the class composition had changed slightly

to include three new students. During this class, students completed an open-ended, hands on

activity adapted from the VDOE scope and sequence for 6th

grade math. Ann modeled for

students how they would use pattern blocks to create an array of differing shapes and colors on a

piece of paper that they would trace and color. Then, the students would count the total blocks,

how many they had of each, and what the fraction, percentage, and decimal value of each color

was relative to how many blocks they had used in all. She modeled an example for the class, and

asked individual students to talk her through the process of converting a fraction into a decimal.

I admired her ability to encourage students to verbalize their thinking so that she and the students

could both better understand the thought process of the individual student. She also very

explicitly ensured students knew exactly what they were supposed to do by stating that they had

a set of specific steps to follow (getting their blocks, creating their designs, tracing and coloring

their designs, and doing the math related to their chosen colors). An area that I had difficulty

with in student teaching was making directives clear, an area in which Ann is evidently very

proficient.

This hands-on activity showed how Ann has a firm knowledge of features that

differentiate general curricula from that of curricula for students with exceptional learning needs

(Instructional Planning, K2). Originally, the activity was written such that the students would

use 100 mosaic tiles of two colors. Ann asked the class why doing it with 100 tiles would be too

easy, and they recognized that their answers would all be out of 100 (e.g., “35/100 = 35%).

Further, Ann required that students use at least five colors. Students were afforded much liberty

in selecting the types of blocks to use, their shape and color, and quantity of each. This

allowance also ensured that students would have proportional figures that required much more

thought than simply creating a fraction with an even or constant denominator, as the case would

have been in the unaltered activity. Some students needed to and were encouraged to use

calculators to determine the results of their arrays, adding another layer of complexity to the task.

In using the calculators, students then had to make decisions of what to do when they

encountered a repeating decimal. Throughout the activity, students good-naturedly engaged in

communicating with others about their results and discoveries as they created their pictures.

Ann’s learning environments clearly encourage positive peer relationships and feelings of self-

efficacy (Standard 5, Learning Environments and Social Interactions, S1-S2).

Throughout today, I was in admiration Ann’s skills as a teacher. She delivered

instruction effectively to her high ability students in many areas, doing so naturally and

seemingly with ease in the process. She also exudes a caring, enthusiastic demeanor that creates

a climate conducive to learning in the sense that it is safe and affirming. I am eager to grow as

an educator through my observations of her and collaborations with her.

Journal Entry 2—Strengths, Weaknesses, and Goals for the Practicum

Having begun a Master’s program straight out of my undergraduate experience, I feel that

my strengths in teaching the gifted are largely in the areas of theory and definitions (Foundations

Standards). For example, I am familiar with the vanguards in formulating school program

models for the gifted and helping them become established from the G80 survey course of the

psychology and education of gifted learners (K2). I also learned much about federal and state

policies and potential issues associated with these policies, specifically in Virginia (K3). These

issues include the need to ensure that gifted programs are internally consistent in how they

define, identify, and provide services for gifted students. Additionally, identification is a process

to be undertaken with care and through use of many unbiased measures (Standard 8, Assessment,

K1). G80 also exposed me to the history of gifted and talented education and to the individuals

who played key roles in the field’s gaining momentum as a respected area of education (K1).

The dedication of Leta Hollingworth and Lewis Terman in educating and understanding the

gifted taught us much about the intellectual and psychological profiles of these exceptional

students. Both in gifted courses and in those related to more general instruction emphasized the

ramifications of the recent accountability movement and its effect on education as a whole and

specifically as it affects the gifted and talented. Furthermore, these classes attested to the ways

in which varying societal viewpoints can influence trends in education (K6). If many perceive

educating students of high ability as an extraneous service provided to the elite, for example,

then gifted programs will likely be cut when educational administrators are faced with difficult

economic times.

I also have a knowledge base of the affective characteristics of gifted students from my

coursework in G82 that explored the overexcitabilities and their manifestations in gifted students

in the psychomotor, intellectual, imaginational, emotional, and sensual domains (Standard 2,

Development and Characteristics of Learners). Outside of class, a book that I read about

milestones gifted children reach at various points in their childhood provided insight into how

these students’ cognitive growth and development vary from that of their agemates (K4). The

G82 course gave specific emphasis to the psychological domains of twice-exceptional students,

including underachievers and learning disabled students who are also gifted (K2) as well as

gifted culturally and linguistically diverse students (K3). My instructor’s conveying that gifted

culturally and linguistic students sometimes have certain nuances like a keen (and sometimes, to

adults, inappropriate) sense of humor demonstrated the need to pay close attention to each

student as an individual, particularly these students with dual exceptionalities (Standard 3,

Individual Learning Differences K1-K2). Doing so will allow for unconventional methods of

identification (such as teacher observations and student interviews) to be used to make

appropriate decisions regarding these students’ placements in educational settings for the gifted

(K3). Additionally, I was made aware of how the perceptions of a student’s cultural group

toward education as well as his/her parents’ sentiments toward the institution of education will

influence how these students view themselves as a gifted learner as well as the educational

experience in an environment for advanced students (K1). A knowledge of culturally and

linguistically diverse students also made me mindful of how some educators act in biased ways

toward these students, and that I will aim to avoid doing so when I teach (Standard 9,

Professional and Ethical Practice, K1).

The class I took in curriculum and instruction for gifted learners also provided insights

into a number of curriculum models used with gifted learners, including the Parallel Curriculum

Model, the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, and the Integrated Curriculum Model (Standard 7,

Instructional Planning, K1). The ICM was the main model we studied and is based on the use of

pre- and post-assessments to document student growth and to make informed instructional

decisions about individual students’ instruction based on their prior knowledge (Standard 8,

Assessment, K3; Standard 4, Instructional Strategies S4). Using assessments in this way to both

document academic growth and make instructional decisions is limited in that multiple kinds of

assessments need to be used in order to gain the fullest profile of where a student’s strengths and

interests lie. The need to use multiple assessments to make instructional decisions and document

progress may also be applied to students of diverse backgrounds—observations, formative,

summative, and formal assessments should all be used to show student growth in all academic

areas (K2).

The C&I course also increased my awareness of and ways to use instructional strategies

with gifted learners, such as curriculum compacting, acceleration, use of advanced reading

material, and independent studies (Standard 4, Instructional Strategies, K2). Though I had not

taken any gifted courses at the time, I student taught as an undergraduate in a first grade

classroom with a cluster teacher. Six students in the class had scored at or above the cutoff level

on the Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Test (NNAT) in Kindergarten to be placed in a cluster

setting with other students of advanced abilities. My first teaching experience was to provide

their reading group instruction. Rather than restricting their content to the guided readers that

were available in the school’s reading room, I collaborated with the school librarian to select

fairy tales that were at a third-fifth grade reading level to teach a mini unit on fairy tales with

these students (Standard 7, Instructional Planning, S5). Each day, I let them choose which book

they wanted to take home that night, and varied the instructional pace by allowing them 1-3

nights to finish their book, depending on their reading level and comfort with the material

(Standard 4, Instructional Strategies, S5). Although the students were reading different books,

we discussed the attributes of fairy tales and examples of these attributes in each of the books

students were reading. Throughout my instruction with students in this reading group, I gave

them writing assignments in their journals with guided prompts about what they had read. This

assignment was differentiated from the reading instruction I provided to the students of average

ability in the class who were instructed to practice reading in their reader each night and did not

have a writing assignment, which would have been developmentally inappropriate. One of our

two-week reading units was a study of the Amelia Bedelia series. Amelia Bedelia is a character

who takes directions quite literally, to the point that she interprets “Draw the drapes” as

sketching the curtains, for example. One of the journal assignments I gave to students was to

write the steps of how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so that Amelia Bedelia could

follow them. This instructional strategy allowed students to apply higher-level thinking to the

directions they wrote, and introduced them to the metacognitive strategy of writing directions

with a particular audience in mind (Standard 4, S2). Throughout my delivery of instruction with

these students, I maintained collaboration with parents on a daily basis through notes and phone

calls (when appropriate) to ensure that they were apprised of their students assignments and

could provide support accordingly (Standard 10, Collaboration, S5).

Given that I have not taught gifted students on an extended basis (i.e., for the duration of

a school year), my strengths are mostly in the domain of knowledge rather than skill, as

evidenced by the many Ks cited. The weaknesses that I have are largely attributable to my lack

of experience rather than an inherent deficiency. Although I would like to improve across all of

the standards in the areas of skill development, I recognize that this expectation, while ideal, is

highly unrealistic. Therefore, I have selected three areas of growth to target as goals for this

course. As I taught my cooperating teacher’s first grade students, I was aware of a feeling of

insufficient time to use ongoing assessment measures to measure and guide my instruction as

thoroughly as I could have. Therefore, a weakness I have is in the area of assessment,

particularly making informed decisions about instruction not just following pre-assessments, but

after subsequent formative assessments as well (Assessment, Standard 8, S3; to also include

decisions made from these assessments). I would also like to improve the pacing of my lessons

with gifted students (Standard 4, Instructional Strategies, S5). While I gained some practice in

pacing during my reading groups with the first grade students, this was in the context of a small

group. During my instruction with the class as a whole, I noticed and my cooperating teacher

commented that sometimes I needed to keep up the pace of the lesson better—at times I became

sidetracked listening to student comments, or spent too long on an aspect of the lesson that was

not integral to the overall objective. Finally, I am eager most of all to gain a greater

understanding of the hows of instructing gifted students—how to choose appropriate curriculum

materials, how to implement them, how to make instructional, often spontaneous decisions

directly following their implementation. Almost all of my experience in education has been in

theoretical models and principles to this point in time. It has been frustrating to hear throughout

coursework as an undergraduate and a graduate student that, “You’ll know what all of this looks

like when you actually do it,” and, during my student teaching, “Knowing your students and

making instructional decisions will be more feasible when you have your own class and aren’t

just borrowing someone else’s.” Granted, the practicum is only 45 hours, which is extremely

shorter than the 300 hours of student teaching I completed. Nonetheless, I feel that observations

of and collaboration with Ann will be of great value in becoming a qualified teacher of the

gifted. Ultimately, by the end of this class what I hope to gain most is the confidence that my

teaching aptitudes are commensurate with the certification I will have earned purporting that I

am qualified to teach gifted students.

Journal Entry 3

On February 12, I was again witness to Ann’s mantra and readily apparent attitude of

remaining flexible in her position as a GT resource teacher, most notably in the areas of

instruction, social interactions, and assessment. Ann’s schedule was very fragmented and

uncertain because the 3rd

-5th

graders she sees for Math and Language Arts instruction were

taking benchmark tests today. The arrival of the CogATs (the district’s screening tool for 2nd

graders students will take next week) was also a source of unexpected tasks that needed

attention. The fluidity with which she responded to administrative and student needs served as a

standard that I hope to attain in my future experiences with the gifted and their stakeholders.

Development and Characteristics of Learners

Ann most readily demonstrated her ability to know her students both as members of the

gifted population, as well as individuals in terms of their cognitive and affective needs.

Specifically, she succinctly and plainly conveyed to the 4th

graders that they were in the Visions

room because they needed to be. The formal identification process has recently begun for these

students who may be deemed eligible for full services in the 5th

grade. Part of the process is

allowing students who have been referred to Ann in the 3rd

quarter of the school year to receive

instruction from her along with other 4th

grade students who have been receiving pullout services

since grade 3 in Math and Language Arts. Ann said that some students, one girl in particular,

view coming to her classroom as a privilege or a game. She told me how one girl in particular

whose mother had referred her to Ann had begun dancing around the room and singing, “Oh

yeah, we’re all gifted in here; we do fun stuff” when the principal was observing Ann. Before

she began teaching today, Ann asked the students, “You all know that you are in here because

you need to be, right? Visions is not just something fun that you get to do. We learn and think

differently in here because you need to be taught that way—it’s no different from how other kids

need to be taught in their classrooms.” I thought Ann did a great and tactful job of telling

students just why she was seeing them without stigmatizing their classmates, or making the

referred students feel superior to their classmates. She recognizes the affective aspects of gifted

elementary students (i.e., a potential to perceive oneself as superior to others) and responded

accordingly.

Instructional Strategies

Ann applied higher level thinking strategies throughout her instruction with her 3rd

-5th

grade students. In her 4th

grade Language Arts lesson, Anne used open ended questions to elicit

responses of what students noticed in the frontispiece of the story “Prot and Krot” from Junior

Great Books. Responses were insightful and included, “There’s an abandoned house behind the

men” and “Maybe they (the characters) are in a graveyard since there’s a stone cross behind

them.” As she read the story to the class, Ann paced her instruction appropriately, making sure

that students understood the meaning of critical words and scenarios, while also ensuring that she

did not stop too frequently and unnecessarily interrupt the story. She quickly yet sufficiently

defined words like “indebted” as “willing, or gracious” in a way that was appropriate for her

students, yet may have been inadequate for less advanced students. I admired Ann’s ability to

keep the pace of the story, as her commentary and explanations added to and did not detract from

the overall story. Throughout my student teaching, I frequently broke the rhythm of my reading

to define words, offer commentary, or allow students to contribute their own in such a way that

impeded the progress of the lesson. I caught myself identifying points during the story where I

would have stopped at to ask questions that Ann paused at briefly or not at all. At the end of the

lesson, Ann engaged the students in higher-level thinking by asking them to formulate questions

about the story that had not been answered or might have one or more answers (e.g., “What

creature did the demon in the story represent?”). I was glad to have had the opportunity to see

Ann address one of my goals for the class in the area of pacing.

Ann used assistive technology throughout her lessons, and does so on a regular basis in

the form of a document camera. Projecting materials of study on the board as she did with the

Jacob’s Ladder poem “City” allowed for the entire class to be involved in the analytical thinking

of the lesson. The language of this poem by Langston Hughes is complex and requires students

to make abstract connections to understand his metaphors like “The city spreads its wings” and

“Stones sing.” Ann adjusted her instruction based on her informal assessment that the class as a

whole was not focusing and/or seeing the relationship between these ideas. Although one

student who had lived in Taiwan and could articulate that “It’s (the poem) like in Taiwan where

in the morning, people and the whole city are awake,” other students thought that “spreads its

wings” simply meant that the city had birds in it. Ann’s poem selection had allowed this

culturally diverse student to appreciate his own heritage. She responded to and encouraged this

student, and told the rest of the class they were “thinking too concretely” and needed “to be more

abstract.” When this prompt and additional scaffolding questions did not garner satisfactory

results, Ann was willing to cease pressing her students for responses and told them to write a

poem in free-verse on their own, which they would discuss as a class next week. Before the

lesson, I had asked Ann how she teaches poems that are so open to interpretation besides saying

the generic, “What do you think is happening in this poem? What do you think the poet means

when…?” She said that it takes practice, and lots of thinking on the spot. I began the discussion

of the poem since Ann had a second case of a student who did not want to come in for

instruction, and had just asked students what word or words the class thought were interesting or

stuck out in the poem. She then delivered the rest of instruction so I could observe how she used

follow-up questions that built on students’ prior responses.

Learning Environments and Social Interaction

As the group of 4th

graders came into the room for Language Arts instruction at the

beginning of the day, Ann asked where two missing students were. A student offered that one of

them, a girl named “Emily,” “didn’t want to come.” Ann did not make a major production out of

the issue: she simply said, “She doesn’t, huh?” and motioned to me that she would go out to

speak to the student. As I was walking around the room to begin to learn students’ names, I did

not notice Emily and Ann return. It was difficult for her to find a seat since there were 20

students in the class and only 16 desks, which required some students to sit at a table. What

drew my attention to Emily (though I did not know that she was the student who had been

reluctant to come) was when she sat down at a desk that had been occupied and its tenant (a boy

named “Tyler”) snapped, “Hey, that’s my seat!” The other three students snickered, and Emily

sheepishly shot back, “Well, how was I supposed to know?!” Her eyes welled up with tears, and

she stormed to a table where she sat alone and put her head down to cry. Emily looked at me and

knew I had seen what had happened. Student conflicts are an area of discomfort for me,

especially when I do not know the individual characteristics of the students or the existing

dynamic between them. As Ann had not seen what had happened, I wanted to address the event

since Emily was clearly upset. “I saw what happened, and I don’t think the way your friend

(since I didn’t yet know Tyler’s name) treated you was very nice. Why don’t you come over and

sit with the group of girls over here?” I said, and motioned to a table with two other girls seated

at it. Surprisingly, Emily ventured over and composed herself. I told Emily that I still wanted to

talk with her and the boy who had not been kind to her. At this point, Ann was about to begin

instruction, so I told Emily we would wait until the end of Mrs. Colorado’s lesson. I discreetly

told Ann that there had been an issue with Emily and Tyler over seating arrangements that made

Emily cry, and I asked if both of us or I could address it before the class left. Ann agreed, and

said that Emily had come in “looking for a fight” since she had not wanted to come to class, and

that we could talk to both students. Emily and Tyler were surprisingly friendly with one another

when Ann asked them to tell her about what happened—both were laughing over the

misunderstanding, which confused me since Emily had been so upset. Ann handled it well, and

asked Tyler how he could have responded to Emily better since she was in his seat (“You know

Emily, I’m sure you didn’t mean it, but you’re in my seat—could you please move?”). Ann

asked Emily if she was o.k. and if she was having an off-morning. Emily said that “with all the

snow and waking up early to come to school today, I was tired and I get cranky when I’m tired,

but I’m o.k.” Ann asked if I had anything to add, and I said that because Emily had been upset, I

wanted to make sure she and Tyler were on good terms before they each left. After Emily left,

Ann explained Emily’s family situation of having moved from NY months ago while her dad

remained there for no reason of which Ann is aware. Emily’s younger brother also has severe

autism and acts out frequently. This example, as well as that of the other 4th

grade student who

thought that being gifted was “cool” and “fun” was firsthand exposure to the powerful effect

external variables beyond the students’ control can have on their perception of self and their

giftedness, which can then influence their behavior. Ann’s students and her responses to them

illustrated how there is no one way to respond to students, and that their idiosyncrasies will vary.

The best approach is to respond to these students as one should to any human being—with

compassion and understanding.

In the instructional domain, Ann made many formative judgments about how to structure

her lessons as she implemented them. When she realized that the 3rd

grade students were not

making abstract connections to the “City” poem, she had them work in pairs rather than alone to

think about words and phrases from the poem and their associated imagery. In the areas of

Assessment as well as Instruction, Ann modified her lesson for her 5th

grade math students.

She had them do a preassessment sorting activity using geometric figures (e.g., rays, line

segments, lines, angles) in two groups. Upon finding that many of them were approaching the

classifications very literally (i.e., one group was intent on putting all points together, even those

that were contained within rays and lines), she adjusted her plan to have students work for part of

the class to write definitions of the terms in their notebooks. Instead of working alone, she had

students work in pairs to process the meanings of these figures more deeply and planned to let

them finish their definitions and go over them next week.

Collaboration

Ann demonstrated how a teacher of the gifted must demonstrate continued and strong

collaborative skills with others who are responsible for the well-being of gifted students. As a

GT resource teacher, Ann is a teacher, an administrator, and a liaison between regular classroom

teachers, parents, and the coordinator of the WJCC Visions program. It was clear during the

team meeting that Ann, her teaching partner, and the grade 5 team have strong, positive

relationships with one another and consistently apprise one another of instructional plans and

schedule changes. Because benchmark testing was still taking place for an undetermined time in

the morning, Ann conveyed her openness to the grade 5 teachers of having the 5th

grade students

come to her classroom as they finished to work on their artist research projects (which she had

already explained to the team). A commitment to ensuring that all people who work with GT

students have a working knowledge of what and how gifted students are taught throughout the

school day helps ensure that their learning needs are met and their instruction occurs as

seamlessly as possible. Ann also corresponded with the grade 2 teachers to ensure that they

received copies of the CogAT for all of their students, and that all parents were apprised of its

administration next week. This involved counting out the tests, segregating them in boxes for

teachers, and ensuring they remained locked over the weekend. Ann also copied and distributed

a letter informing parents of the test to all grade 2 teachers. Earlier in the week, I became aware

of Ann’s collaboration with Jeanne Struck, the GT coordinator for WJCC, through Ann’s

distribution of student assessments to Jeanne for her to evaluate.

The role of a GT resource teacher is multifaceted indeed, covering many roles and

warranting communication with several individuals. Today I became acutely aware of how

much GT teachers do that is over and above planning and delivering instruction for their

students.

Journal Entry 4—Observational and Teaching Experiences

Ann was not in the classroom due to a building meeting for Visions teachers this past

Friday (February19). There was not much instruction to deliver or observe, as her plans were

largely independent creative writing activities for all language arts classes. I did have the

opportunity to interact with students in grades 3 and 5 as they completed their assignments, and

to gain insights into their ideas and personalities. The Norovirus that was running rampant

through the school had significantly reduced the class sizes for each grade (eight in 5th

grade

language arts; seven in math).

Practicum goal: To develop a greater awareness of and ability to respond to students’

observations and insights

As 5th

grade students were working on writing either their artist reports or a creative

mystery story, I learned the value of giving gifted students appropriate opportunities to reflect

and gather their thoughts prior to and during the writing process. I discovered it is not always

imperative to inundate students (even gifted learners!) with information. In order to concentrate

fully on their thoughts and how they will take shape in their output, students need incubation

time to think, and even to speak with one another. I conferenced with three students about the

progress they had made on their mystery stories thus far. My concern here was responding to

students in a way that demonstrated that I had heard and listened to what they shared with me

without simply affirming all of their ideas and offering gratuitous praise, as we discussed in the

seminar last week. Carol Dweck’s 2002 book Self theories illustrated how continually praising

students, especially those of high ability, can be detrimental to their motivation and perception of

their ability. I used the open-ended prompt of, “Tell me about what you’ve written so far,” or

“How is your mystery coming?” to learn more about the students’ interests. I didn’t want to talk

to them too long, as doing so would take away from their writing—Elliott, who was writing an

involved story about the kidnapping of President Obama, said he was disappointed that the

mystery was “supposed to be kind of short” and had already handwritten three pages!

Andrew, who was sitting next to him, shared that he had come up with the plot of a

snowboarder’s snowboard gone missing because of the Olympics and a recent snowboarding trip

he took with his parents. A problem he had in coming up with the story as he was planning it

was making sure the events were not too obvious—“I didn’t want to have his snowboard just be

under his bed.” I noticed that there was a strong murder/forensic science interest among the

class—of the six students who were working on their mysteries, four were writing stories that

involved a shocking death or murder. It was interesting to see the level of individual differences

among students in their writing—despite sharing the same topic, each student varied in the level

of detail and style they were using, as well as in their personal experiences. I noticed that Jenny

was using advanced and technical vocabulary such as, “evidence,” “testimony,” and “hearing”

throughout her story. I commented that she had used lots of great vocabulary, and she replied

that she loved watching CSI and wanted to be a forensic scientist when she grows up. Though

many students wrote murder mysteries, Jenny’s was the most complex and technically advanced.

I also spoke with Brooke, who I noticed had handwritten several pages, complete with

detailed illustrations in the margins. I was surprised at the complexity and eloquence of her

writing. She was writing in the first person as a girl whose mother had been murdered, and

commented reflectively, “My mother dies when I was 14 days old. She had felt more like a

friend than a mother.” I asked her what made her phrase her description in such a unique way.

She replied, “Well, since she only knew her mom for two weeks, she couldn’t have been like a

mother. When you know someone for that short of a time, it’s like they’re really only your

friend.”

“Like an acquaintance, then?” I asked. Brooke agreed. As I spoke with her and Jenny, I

realized the importance of knowing my individual students as people and learners, specifically as

it pertains to gifted students. It became apparent to me very quickly that I rarely or never would

have conversations like these in a regular classroom with a class of mostly average ability.

During my student teaching, I paid close attention to what made my students individuals in terms

of their interests and abilities. My observations today revealed that in working with gifted

students, I will need to be prepared to use their interests to make specific suggestions for

improving their work and to propel them to even higher levels of thought. I now see

opportunities to engage students in applying metacognitive models to their thinking by using

their personal areas of interest. I could ask, “In what ways might a forensic scientist view the

concept of change?” for example. If I feel in need of contexts to use to make open-ended

questions a little narrower for specific students, I might a question like, “What examples of

cycles do you see in the work of Renoir?” In future synectics lessons when I ask students to

make higher-level connections between familiar concepts (i.e., their interests) and new Wordly

Wise words, I will encourage students to approach these tasks from an area that I know to be of

interest to them.

During my language arts instruction on Monday, I felt that I responded well to students’

comments on the poem “New Feet Within My Garden Go” by Emily Dickinson. After hearing

this poem aloud twice and having the opportunity to ask what unfamiliar words meant; students

completed the W&M preassessments for literary analysis and writing skill for it as the beginning

of the Patterns of Change unit. In planning this lesson, I had been worried about which of the

questions suggested in the unit I would use, which I would add, and how I would build on

student responses and model my own interpretations without giving students the sense that there

was only one accepted way of interpreting the poem or visualizing one of its lines. Below are

distinct portions of the discussion that I reconstructed after students left.

First of all , what is this poem about?

Joey--It’s about change, since change occurs over time and it talks about how the seasons go

from winter to spring over time.” (I was amazed that this was essentially the concept and topic

that the unit wanted students to address!). Another student offered, “I know people can change

over time, but still be the same person—it’s just that they’re different. I said, “Okay. Think in

terms of the seasons. How might they be different each time they happen?” Responses

were, “You could have the temperature be in the 70s one time, or in the 80s the next.” Another

element of the poem that led to a good discussion was, “How do the images you got in your

head as you read the poem challenge our assumptions about spring?” When students did

not respond right away, I added, “What are people’s assumptions about spring?” Students

said, “It rains, “It’s hot,” and “There are flowers.” I followed up with, “How do these features

of spring relate to what we know about cycles?” One student offered, “The water cycle

happens in the spring with the rain…?” Though expecting more of a higher-level response, I still

ended up using the response to achieve the aim of more abstract thinking. Okay, that’s pretty

concrete. I was thinking of something more abstract,” I said. But, that makes me

wonder…could you have cycles within cycles? Andrew said, “There could be cumulus clouds

and stratus clouds that cycle throughout the water cycle, and another offered that, “Frogs are in

the spring! Like, they keep going from tadpole, to frog, to tadpole, to frog over and over again!”

The last area that garnered particularly insightful responses occurred when I asked, “What was

particularly difficult about the preassessment?” Jazmin responded, “The question about the

troubadour on the elm and betraying something…” I asked, “What does it mean to betray

someone or something?” and, “So how could the troubadour be going against the solitude?”

Students were on-target and offered, “Someone was alone, then the troubadour took away the

person’s being by themselves.” I then offered, “Could a troubadour do that just by their

presence? Think about what a troubadour does.” Jenny responded, “I said he could betray

the silence with his music,” which was very insightful.

Before the preassessment, I introduced the Wordly Wise lesson words in a new way.

Ann usually reads the story associated with the lesson which has all of the week’s words

embedded in it. Following the reading, students discuss the meaning of the words they learned.

I decided to do things differently by conducting an informal preassessment. I wrote all of the

words on the board before the class arrived. When I gathered them at the back of the room to

read the lesson’s story, I read each word and asked them to raise their hand if they knew or

thought they knew any of the words. It turned out that they knew or had a fairly good idea about

11 of the 15 words. After reading the story, they still were not sure about the meaning of “woe,”

“sentinel,” and “siege.” I put the students into small groups and assigned each one of these

words to make a skit about based on the word’s meaning as it appeared in context or in the

definition at the beginning of the lesson. The students enjoyed pretending to be teachers doling

out several books’ worth of homework and woe and sentinels guarding Troy with rulers. As I

explained it to the students, the point of determining what words they knew already and having

them act out the unfamiliar ones was to make these definitions stick in their minds for the test on

Friday.

Practice in achieving balance in teaching fundamental skills and processes of greater

difficulty to gifted students

One of my ultimate goals for the practicum is to achieve balance in my work as an

educator. A sense of balance is necessary in multiple domains. The one that I experience most

tangibly is in recognizing that although gifted students do indeed have higher cognitive abilities

and catch on to concepts more quickly than other students in their regular classrooms, they still

need practice with basic knowledge and fundamental skills. This is especially true in the math

curriculum of WJCC. Students identified for gifted services in the 5th

grade bypass the 5th

grade

math SOLs completely, and take the 6th

grade SOL tests at the end of the year. Their math

instruction advances rapidly such that they only spend roughly one day’s worth of instruction (an

hour) on any given concept. When I began teaching on Monday, Ann had to leave early in the

afternoon to go to an appointment, so I was with her substitute who has several years of

experience in education, particularly in gifted education. Before the students arrived, Kornelia

and I talked through the lesson I was planning to teach on transformations (i.e., reflections,

rotations, and translations). I had anticipated that the concepts of flips, rotations, and slides

would be relatively easy for the students to grasp, so I had prepared a PowerPoint presentation

focused on having the students arrive at the definitions of these orientation changes through

concept attainment. I had developed four slides for each change in position (i.e., translation,

rotation, reflection) that were designated as a “yes” or a “no.” Following this activity, I planned

to have students define the seven terms for the lesson delineated in their texts, as this is how Ann

usually conducts her lessons. Rather than having the students complete the textbook exercises

on whiteboards or orally, I wanted to give the students a challenge by asking them to select

pattern blocks and represent a slide using any block and in any direction, a reflection in any

direction using a different block, and a rotation between 0 and 180 degrees using a protractor.

As I showed Kornelia how I envisioned the students tracing a triangle block, using a protractor to

measure a point between 0 and 80 degrees from the top of the triangle, and trace the outcome in a

different colored pencil, she and I weren’t sure if the students would clearly understand how to

complete the task. She said to try it, nevertheless, because the only way to learn is by trying new

things. After the process of having students write the definitions in their math journals and

talking through examples in the text took much longer than expected, I opted to have the students

work in pairs to try just the triangle activity. I realized that a pair of students were having

difficulty with determining which point of the triangle they needed to place their protractor to

accurately make the appropriate rotation they had chosen. The other three pairs completed the

activity rapidly and seemingly with ease. One pair of girls had even chosen to extend the

challenge I had posed further by rotating the triangle by 130 degrees, and had done so correctly.

At times I find it difficult to assess if my instruction is really beneficial to students in that it

actually does further their knowledge and understanding, or if they would have understood the

material regardless of my teaching because of their inherent capabilities and are not better or

worse following my instruction.

During this lesson, I realized my need to be better prepared with the basics of what

students need to know. In order to be able to engage in higher level thinking, kids need to be

familiar with the basics first. I struggle with fitting in checking homework, writing definitions,

explaining concepts, modeling, and partner work all in an hour. Throughout the classes I have

taken in gifted education, the necessity of providing students with hands-on, meaningful

experiences has clearly been conveyed, yet these students still need requisite knowledge of

concepts prior to taking on these challenges. In speaking with gifted and classroom teachers, I

have heard the sentiment expressed that not all lessons can be exceptionally hands-on and

exploratory driven. The filter I plan to use going forward is, teach the essentials first, even if at

first it seems “boring” to outside observers, and save the most promising hands-on activities for

later, when there is time (i.e., a class period) to devote to an extension activity.

Journal Entry 5

Practicum Goal—Understanding The “Hows” of Teaching Better

The focus of this personal goal involves my becoming more adept at reacting to students’

responses to questions and planning instruction. Throughout last week and yesterday, I felt that I

demonstrated growth in this area. I was especially anxious about teaching a synectics lesson to

5th

grade students last Thursday, the goal of which was to challenge them to engage in higher-

order thinking to make connections between familiar things in a strange way. I was

apprehensive about how I would affirm students’ responses, since the author of the guidebook

frequently reiterates that there are “no right or wrong answers” to the activities. It was difficult

for me, then, to know how I would react to answers like, “A bear, because it can kill a lot of

animals” in response to the open-ended question, “What animal is most like a victor?” I wanted

students to think more abstractly to see how animals that we don’t think of as particularly strong

could be victors as well, such as ants that carry weights that far exceed their own. When many

students offered “tiger,” “lion,” or “gorilla, because they defeat other animals,” I asked, “Does an

animal have to be able to kill other animals to be a victor? Could a smaller animal be a victor?”

When students seemed puzzled, I asked, “How could an ant be a victor?” which made students

think about its ability to carry heavy loads, as well as its stinging abilities. This experience

reinforced for me the idea that gifted students still need additional scaffolding in higher-level

thinking, and that it is possible to provide this direction without telling them the answer.

I also experienced success in a 4th

grade language arts lesson during which I introduced

students to Langston Hughes through a picture book and guided them through a literature web

for his poem What Happens to a Dream Deferred? The students had never completed a

literature web before, and I was not sure how they would fare in distinguishing “key words”

from “ideas” and “images and symbols,” for example. Their responses were very intuitive, and I

noticed that I slightly extended their thoughts by offering more complex vocabulary, while

ensuring that the ideas they offered were still their own. After we read the poem, I asked what

feelings students experienced that could go in the “feelings” bubble. A student said, “not taken

care of…sort of forgotten.” I then offered, “How about neglected?” with which students agreed.

When another student thought the overall idea of the poem was, “Sweet, but kind of like, sad and

bitter, too,” some students and I added, “bittersweet!”

In the area of planning, I was successful in becoming more spontaneous in two instances.

Last week, before I assumed full responsibility for teaching Ann’s 4th

graders, she indicated that

she needed a creative writing sample from them and was looking for a topic we could have them

write about. I happened to have a copy of the story The Seven Chinese Brothers with me in

preparation for a 5th

grade lesson on plot maps, and remembered that some of the 4th

graders had

enthusiastically asked if they could change or extend the ending of a story they had read the

week before. I suggested that Ann and I plan to read The Seven Chinese Brothers to the 4th

graders and assign them the task of continuing the story. Through our discussion, we devised

two creative writing options so that we would accommodate stronger writers who sought a

higher degree of artistic liberty, while also considering the needs of students who needed more

defined parameters in the prompt we gave them.

During a 5th

grade math lesson, I exhibited spontaneity in guiding the course of my

instruction after informally gauging how comfortable students were with the material we had

discussed to that point in time. Last Friday, I had planned for students to engage in free

exploration of cutout circles to see if they could determine how to find the area of a circle. As

we read the story Sir Cumference and the and the First Round Table, I noticed that we were

running short on time, and decided having students define the key terms of the parts of a circle in

their own words in their math journals would be more beneficial. Students’ knowledge of these

terms was integral to completing the homework, and I decided not to interrupt a valuable

learning activity in which students were sharing and honing their prior knowledge of the parts of

a circle.

Pacing of lessons

This past week, some of my lessons when smoothly, while I felt that I became mired in

others. The Language Arts lessons, particularly with the 5th

and 4th

grades, went very well in that

my time estimates for the lengths of learning activities were relatively accurate and I did not

draw out explanations unnecessarily. The completion of literature webs with the 4th

grade went

especially well, as I felt comfortable expanding upon and/or guiding student responses to the

poem we read. 5th

grade math was more of a challenge, especially yesterday. I did not feel that

my transitions were strong between having students correct quizzes they had taken Friday, and

having them explore how they might find the area of a circle. I did not feel that I clearly

explained how they might go about cutting a circle into parts to reconfigure it and arrive at the

formula for finding its area. My purpose in having students do this activity was to ascertain if

and how they would reason through finding the area of the circle based on what they knew about

its parts and the area of other polygons. I could show students step-by-step why the formula for

the area of a circle is what it is, however, I had trouble explaining to students when and how they

would use the ratio 22/7 for pi versus 3.14 when completing their class work assignment. There

were many moments of silence as students were confused and I thought about what to do to be

clearer in my instruction. This experience demonstrated that I need to continue to familiarize

myself with the math material to the best of my ability before instruction and account for areas

that may be difficult for students, though I will need assistance in doing so. I feel that a large

part of my trouble in not pacing math lessons effectively is attributable to my own unfamiliarity

with some of the concepts. In addition, I have a sense of automaticity with many of the formulas

I am teaching that it is hard for me to step back and regress to how students who are learning the

material for the first time will interpret it. Any insights from Ann, my practicum supervisor, and

other experienced teachers will continue to be appreciated.

In sum, this past week of teaching had successes as well as areas of difficulty that I desire

to continue to improve with additional encouragement and suggestions.