Work samples for AAP

[Anonymous]

Any suggestions on what work samples make sense? Science fair picture, certificate for completing a book, participating in summer program, developing a robot through a robotics class, scratch?

Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

For your examples: maybe, no, no, maybe, maybe. Look at the bullet points on the GBRS form. For the science fair, robotics, or scratch, if you can explain how your child is exhibiting high levels of creativity, motivation, or any of the other GBRS points, they could be used with that parent explanation.

The easiest thing is to just grab the best work that comes home from school. It's easy to do so if your child is a good writer, but much harder if your child isn't.

[Anonymous]

Both my kids got in the first round. Would you like me to send you photos of the exact work samples that worked for us? You could just recycle them.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to both PP. AART has not given much guidance but we will again discuss with the VP to understand work samples.

[Anonymous]

You want things that show creative thinking and high level thinking. Things that don't have a right or wrong answer. We used questions like "Why is zero important" or "Write an original problem using any 5 numbers where the mean is 12. Explain why knowing the mean is important in your data set" or "Why is poetry important?" or "What do you know about the number 66?" or "Can one person influence the world? Explain" or "The answer is 80, what is the question if you must use 9 in the question?" or "Write an original word problem where the rounded answer would be 40. Explain why people round numbers" or "Adam solved 8 + 3 X 6/9-5 and got the answer 28. Is his answer correct? Explain." or "My calculator does not have a 5 key that works. How can I use my broken calculator to multiply 33 X 85?" or "Among 1 2 6 8 and 12, choose a number which is different from the others and explain why it is different. See if you can come up with something different for as many of the numbers as possible"

We've also done lots of art work, creative writing samples, etc.... I have 4 kids who all got into AAP on the first round and all were in pool. Of course you can't use my examples or you will look crazy. However, I wanted to show you how simple the questions can be and what they want to see is HOW your child thinks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You want things that show creative thinking and high level thinking. Things that don't have a right or wrong answer. We used questions like "Why is zero important" or "Write an original problem using any 5 numbers where the mean is 12. Explain why knowing the mean is important in your data set" or "Why is poetry important?" or "What do you know about the number 66?" or "Can one person influence the world? Explain" or "The answer is 80, what is the question if you must use 9 in the question?" or "Write an original word problem where the rounded answer would be 40. Explain why people round numbers" or "Adam solved 8 + 3 X 6/9-5 and got the answer 28. Is his answer correct? Explain." or "My calculator does not have a 5 key that works. How can I use my broken calculator to multiply 33 X 85?" or "Among 1 2 6 8 and 12, choose a number which is different from the others and explain why it is different. See if you can come up with something different for as many of the numbers as possible"

We've also done lots of art work, creative writing samples, etc.... I have 4 kids who all got into AAP on the first round and all were in pool. Of course you can't use my examples or you will look crazy. However, I wanted to show you how simple the questions can be and what they want to see is HOW your child thinks.

Depending on the answers, the questions may be good but the answers, not so much. The committee members each spend about 5 minutes TOTAL per file. Keep that in mind if you were to create some of these questions for your child to answer. Our work samples came about more organically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You want things that show creative thinking and high level thinking. Things that don't have a right or wrong answer. We used questions like "Why is zero important" or "Write an original problem using any 5 numbers where the mean is 12. Explain why knowing the mean is important in your data set" or "Why is poetry important?" or "What do you know about the number 66?" or "Can one person influence the world? Explain" or "The answer is 80, what is the question if you must use 9 in the question?" or "Write an original word problem where the rounded answer would be 40. Explain why people round numbers" or "Adam solved 8 + 3 X 6/9-5 and got the answer 28. Is his answer correct? Explain." or "My calculator does not have a 5 key that works. How can I use my broken calculator to multiply 33 X 85?" or "Among 1 2 6 8 and 12, choose a number which is different from the others and explain why it is different. See if you can come up with something different for as many of the numbers as possible"

We've also done lots of art work, creative writing samples, etc.... I have 4 kids who all got into AAP on the first round and all were in pool. Of course you can't use my examples or you will look crazy. However, I wanted to show you how simple the questions can be and what they want to see is HOW your child thinks.

Wait - did you sit around on the weekends and make up questions like this for your 2nd grader to answer?

this seems a bit over the top. It's great that they got in, and I guess if they enjoy doing the problems that's great... but if your kid isn't inclined to sit around solving problems like that, I'm not sure I would drill them just to increase their chances of getting into the program.

[Anonymous]

I think some people create work samples for AAP. I won’t do that.

My oldest is in AAP and I didn’t understand much about the process when he was admitted. Luckily he was in pool on Cogat because I was not going to parent refer him. At the last minute I threw in one sample that I liked that had just come home from school but in general I was actively throwing out work to declutter.

Now I have DC2 in 1st grade and knowing what I know about the AAP curriculum and school now that DC1 is there and in seeing DC2 in general probably do better in school than DC1, I will probably parent refer DC2 if needed. I’m not creating any work samples but if I see something get sent home (probably starting next year) I will probably save it this time.

I think they want responses to open ended questions showing creating etc. not worksheets.

[Anonymous]

When we went through the process several years ago, we just sent in some school work that matched our explanations on the form (i.e. advanced math thinking on a worksheet). We did not send in anything that did not come from school.

As it turns out, the teachers were saving examples all along for the GBRS packet, and had even better work samples than we had.

(FWIW, our child got in first round, with test scores under cutoff - 130 CoGat and somewhere in the 120s on NNAT.)

[Anonymous]

We took pictures of cool work/projects that the child produced, with some small caption of what it was about. These were things that I thought were clever, for example using something for a purpose other than its intended purpose, and completing some needed task. Took note of insightful conversations I had with the child, and put them down. As a previous poster said, the teachers had been collecting some great samples, but you never know what the child is doing in school.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t send anything in for my DS and he is now in 4th grade aap. He was a poor writer. I couldn’t find any good work samples. I was going to send in some pictures of legos he has built but at the aap session, they told parents not to send in pictures of legos and Minecraft. I did fill out parent questionnaire.

I now have a second grader and once again having trouble gathering work samples. DS is a creative thinker and great talker but poor writer.

[Anonymous]

We sent in a short book from a series our kid wrote that highlighted some of the concepts the AART's presentation said they looked for, a short writing sample that demonstrated problem-solving, and photo of the rotating art gallery (complete with museum-style labels) of their favorite projects that my kid keeps in their room. None of them were created specifically for AAP.

We submitted one earned award for an extracurricular that was rigorous and relevant to the criteria.

If you look at the various FCPS elementary websites, a lot of schools post the AART's presentation with both positive and negative examples of work samples. In general, completion certificates, answers that are merely correct, and participation awards aren't going to be very compelling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We sent in a short book from a series our kid wrote that highlighted some of the concepts the AART's presentation said they looked for, a short writing sample that demonstrated problem-solving, and photo of the rotating art gallery (complete with museum-style labels) of their favorite projects that my kid keeps in their room. None of them were created specifically for AAP.

We submitted one earned award for an extracurricular that was rigorous and relevant to the criteria.

If you look at the various FCPS elementary websites, a lot of schools post the AART's presentation with both positive and negative examples of work samples. In general, completion certificates, answers that are merely correct, and participation awards aren't going to be very compelling.

Just curious what a rising second grader could earn that would be relevant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We sent in a short book from a series our kid wrote that highlighted some of the concepts the AART's presentation said they looked for, a short writing sample that demonstrated problem-solving, and photo of the rotating art gallery (complete with museum-style labels) of their favorite projects that my kid keeps in their room. None of them were created specifically for AAP.

We submitted one earned award for an extracurricular that was rigorous and relevant to the criteria.

If you look at the various FCPS elementary websites, a lot of schools post the AART's presentation with both positive and negative examples of work samples. In general, completion certificates, answers that are merely correct, and participation awards aren't going to be very compelling.

Just curious what a rising second grader could earn that would be relevant?

Art awards, creative writing awards, awards the school hands out at the end of the year that only go to 1 student per class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We sent in a short book from a series our kid wrote that highlighted some of the concepts the AART's presentation said they looked for, a short writing sample that demonstrated problem-solving, and photo of the rotating art gallery (complete with museum-style labels) of their favorite projects that my kid keeps in their room. None of them were created specifically for AAP.

We submitted one earned award for an extracurricular that was rigorous and relevant to the criteria.

If you look at the various FCPS elementary websites, a lot of schools post the AART's presentation with both positive and negative examples of work samples. In general, completion certificates, answers that are merely correct, and participation awards aren't going to be very compelling.

Just curious what a rising second grader could earn that would be relevant?

It was a scouting program award that was the highest attainable at that level and required problem-solving and planning/implementation an age-appropriate project. We provided some information about the project along with it for context.