Examples of work samples for AAP

[Anonymous]

My 7yo is an excellent reader, good at math and a curious thinker. However, we don’t have any work samples to submit for AAP. Her school gives no homework and the few items we received back are mostly worksheets.

What type of work samples is appropriate to submit?

[Anonymous]

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1239316.page

[Anonymous]

You don't want samples from school - the school will already be providing the best things they have. You want to document the things your kid does for fun in pursuit of their own interests. So, stories or plays or comics they've written. Games they designed. If they build complicated little worlds and tell you about them, take pictures and write up the story. We just held on to that kind of stuff for a month or two and picked from them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't want samples from school - the school will already be providing the best things they have. You want to document the things your kid does for fun in pursuit of their own interests. So, stories or plays or comics they've written. Games they designed. If they build complicated little worlds and tell you about them, take pictures and write up the story. We just held on to that kind of stuff for a month or two and picked from them.

Of the list above, between 3 kids, we used:

- games they designed (it was a math game, so it counted for math)
- stories/poems/songs they wrote (depending on kid)
- complicated little worlds with pictures and the story (kid was constantly inventing own civilizations).

Not on the list above, we used:

- a "dictionary" of a language my kid had been inventing
- math puzzles from NRICH Maths
- some math one of my kids made up for fun when they were bored in class - the AART seemed underwhelmed by this one when she reviewed the packet for me, probably because it was on the basic side. The puzzles went over better.

One of my kids applied back when they still took 4 samples from home, hence how many samples we've used over the years.

For the kid with the complicated little world we didn't submit a math sample at all. Kid was still accepted. But generally the guidance is one math, and one language arts. It's even better if you can have one single thing cover multiple subject areas. So for example the math game my kid made up was kind of like The Ladybug Game in that it showed what she knew about an animal, but with math.

[Anonymous]

I had mine do a reading log after reading a book, I didn’t correct any incorrect spelling nor writing. Also a poem. Had no ideas about what to submit for math so I skipped.

[Anonymous]

PP here - one important thing our AART says every application cycle. Have your KID sit with you and write up a couple sentence explanation of each sample. They should do it in first person even. Our AART says the goal of those sentences should be showing what the thought process behind the sample was.

The entire packet is supposed to give a complete picture of your kid. If there's something you don't think the teacher will see at school, make sure the kid's thinking (plus your parent write-ups elsewhere) highlights that important aspect of your kid that impacts their need for advanced academics.

[Anonymous]

I thought these were supposed to be non academic like playing an instrument or building a crazy train track world, is that accurate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought these were supposed to be non academic like playing an instrument or building a crazy train track world, is that accurate?

We submitted a page of pictures with DS building marble runs using different toys and materials. We put in a few captions like “He wanted to try drums” and “He had fun with the cardboard tube” but that was about it. We thought that it showed creative engineering. That was about all that we did.

Different people will give you different advice. I don’t think the samples from home matter much but are a nice addendum. Avoid pictures of Legos, seems to be a common repeated piece advice from AARTs and parents. LEGOs are cool but building from a kit isn’t hard to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo is an excellent reader, good at math and a curious thinker. However, we don’t have any work samples to submit for AAP. Her school gives no homework and the few items we received back are mostly worksheets.

What type of work samples is appropriate to submit?

If your kid isn’t creating their own comic books or designing a city in your living room made of recycled cardboard or keeping a list of jokes they’ve made up, then perhaps your kid is getting their needs met in the general education class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo is an excellent reader, good at math and a curious thinker. However, we don’t have any work samples to submit for AAP. Her school gives no homework and the few items we received back are mostly worksheets.

What type of work samples is appropriate to submit?

If your kid isn’t creating their own comic books or designing a city in your living room made of recycled cardboard or keeping a list of jokes they’ve made up, then perhaps your kid is getting their needs met in the general education class.

I don't think anyone is saying that. I think two points were being made: 1. Show your kid as they are, being an engaged kid. It doesn't need to be some crazy math proof or something. 2. Show things they won't be seeing in school. A math worksheet isn't as helpful because they have plenty of those from school - try to give a fuller picture of your kid than they can see from a worksheet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought these were supposed to be non academic like playing an instrument or building a crazy train track world, is that accurate?

That's exactly wrong. They are supposed to be academic, says our AART, because it is an academic program. They just don't have to come from school, but they should demonstrate the need for advanced academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo is an excellent reader, good at math and a curious thinker. However, we don’t have any work samples to submit for AAP. Her school gives no homework and the few items we received back are mostly worksheets.

What type of work samples is appropriate to submit?

If your kid isn’t creating their own comic books or designing a city in your living room made of recycled cardboard or keeping a list of jokes they’ve made up, then perhaps your kid is getting their needs met in the general education class.

I don't think anyone is saying that. I think two points were being made: 1. Show your kid as they are, being an engaged kid. It doesn't need to be some crazy math proof or something. 2. Show things they won't be seeing in school. A math worksheet isn't as helpful because they have plenty of those from school - try to give a fuller picture of your kid than they can see from a worksheet.

Our AART always says a math worksheet isn't helpful because a math worksheet doesn't show higher level thinking (unless it's something like one of those W&M math assignments they use in the AAP math curriuclum). If you do a math problem that requires creativity, they love that.

[Anonymous]

The work sample should demonstrate your child has advanced abilities in the "nine thinking strategies"

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/elementary/advanced-academic-programs/critical-and-creative-thinking

Please read the link carefully, such as
Questioning, Mind Mapping (organizing information), Point of View (shifting POV), .....

The AART specifically talked about the thinking strategies. I know we all assume they look for "creative/imaginative" work samples, but in fact the school already broke down the vague "creative/imaginative" thinking into these thinking strategies.

I saw my child's school work sample, they were created specifically for these "thinking strategies", one sample was reading a book about how people, dog, cat, mice see a bird, the child has to write something based on the book and some question prompt. This corresponds to the POV.

About mind mapping, AART said a child drew a garden and labeled everything with English and Spanish words. That shows how she organize information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The work sample should demonstrate your child has advanced abilities in the "nine thinking strategies"

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/elementary/advanced-academic-programs/critical-and-creative-thinking

Please read the link carefully, such as
Questioning, Mind Mapping (organizing information), Point of View (shifting POV), .....

The AART specifically talked about the thinking strategies. I know we all assume they look for "creative/imaginative" work samples, but in fact the school already broke down the vague "creative/imaginative" thinking into these thinking strategies.

I saw my child's school work sample, they were created specifically for these "thinking strategies", one sample was reading a book about how people, dog, cat, mice see a bird, the child has to write something based on the book and some question prompt. This corresponds to the POV.

About mind mapping, AART said a child drew a garden and labeled everything with English and Spanish words. That shows how she organize information.

+1 for this advice. Samples should be academic, but show advanced capabilities in these areas. That's the ideal way to paint a picture of your child the committee will recognize as "needs full-time AAP."

I really do think a compelling parent sample can be a difference maker. If HOPE is utterly terrible and scores aren't there it won't do anything, but if those are borderline the parent packet is key. Even if the scores are good and the HOPE is decent, the parent packet can push a candidate over the line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The work sample should demonstrate your child has advanced abilities in the "nine thinking strategies"

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/elementary/advanced-academic-programs/critical-and-creative-thinking

Please read the link carefully, such as
Questioning, Mind Mapping (organizing information), Point of View (shifting POV), .....

The AART specifically talked about the thinking strategies. I know we all assume they look for "creative/imaginative" work samples, but in fact the school already broke down the vague "creative/imaginative" thinking into these thinking strategies.

I saw my child's school work sample, they were created specifically for these "thinking strategies", one sample was reading a book about how people, dog, cat, mice see a bird, the child has to write something based on the book and some question prompt. This corresponds to the POV.

About mind mapping, AART said a child drew a garden and labeled everything with English and Spanish words. That shows how she organize information.

+1 for this advice. Samples should be academic, but show advanced capabilities in these areas. That's the ideal way to paint a picture of your child the committee will recognize as "needs full-time AAP."

I really do think a compelling parent sample can be a difference maker. If HOPE is utterly terrible and scores aren't there it won't do anything, but if those are borderline the parent packet is key. Even if the scores are good and the HOPE is decent, the parent packet can push a candidate over the line.

My 3rd grade AAP child's HOPE score was terrible. No Always nor almost always. But he got 3 check marks under the section "Please indicate all content areas where the student shows exceptional talent beyond their same age peers", so I don't know how that jive with the poor HOPE rating. Maybe the check mark in content areas (more than 1) is more important than the random rating because different school might rate always vs. often differently?

see hope rating sheet here https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2023-10/hoperatingscale.pdf