Anonymous wrote:You don’t need to send in any work samples if you don’t have any at home. The teacher and AART will compile a packet based on what she does at school. My suspicion is that parent submitted work samples that seem contrived aren’t really given a lot of weight/consideration.
The activities you described, however, would be good things to highlight on the referral form or parent questionnaire. That way, you can make the committee aware that she does this on her own without having to burn/waste one of the work samples that the teacher and AART could use.
No, you don’t have to send in samples from home, but I personally wouldn’t leave work samples entirely in the hands of your kid’s teacher and AART. I’ve seen this done well, with a well-seasoned local committee, and I’ve seen it done very poorly. You’re trying to make the case that your child is in need of an entirely separate advanced academic classroom, you should be able to show at least 1 sample of something they’ve created at home to support that. I do agree that a parent-forced sample is easy to detect and will not be viewed favorable. I also think that as adults, we overthink the quality of the work needed for submission — These are second graders and they aren’t looking for a perfectly crafted thesis.