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IV. Teaching Evidence

IV. H. Curriculum and Program Development from 2021 - 2022

for Fall, 2022, Tenure Application

Link to a video introduction to this page

This page focuses on revisions to the curriculum in the Talent Development program. It is divided into three sections.

The first section includes Curriculum and Program Development from 2021-2022 for my Fall, 2022 Tenure Application

The second section, further down, includes the Curriculum and Program Development from 2019-2021 for my Fall, 2021 Promotion Application

The third section, furthest down, outlines the curriculum and program work completed from the beginning of my time at Ashland University (Fall, 2017) through to the Year Three Review (March, 2020).

Most recent activities appear first.

Reflection on Teaching (September, 2022)

I feel as though I was just here – putting together my portfolio for Fall, 2021 and my application for promotion to Associate Professor – my, as it turns out, successful application for promotion to Associate Professor. What a great feeling.

As I write this reflection, I am looking forward to Year Six – a new College Dean, hope toward getting back into the field to visit internship students, hope toward once again offering optional face-to-face Saturday sessions, and a new move to 16-week classes in Spring semester, 2023. I anticipate a good year ahead.

Reflecting back on 2021-2022 I saw one of my first truly mentored students, Kaelin Lee, obtain her EdD. I co-hooded her with Dr. Judy Alston, and now know that Dr. Lee is moving forward to find her place in the field. She and MEd Student Sharon Scott nominated me for the Faculty Mentor Award, another great feeling.

Teaching-wise, this was a year of holding my own and being responsive to student needs. I made few major content changes. I feel as though I have reached a strong balance in the courses – weekly video and office hour support, strong readings and response assignments that offer depth and choice, and constructive feedback to help students feel seen and apply their knowledge and skills to the classroom.

I revisited the basics of the courses, especially with an eye toward the State Review and HLC Review coming up this year. All Knowledge, Skills, and Disposition (KSD) statements were reviewed, and 652, 653, 654, 710, 891, and 796 KSD statements were all updated to reflect content changes I have made over the past 6 years, which means the pre- and post-assessments now truly reflect the course objectives. In addition, all KSD statement alignment with current standards (ODE, NAGC/CEC, OAE) were re-examined, and I added alignments to AU SLOs, AU/COE SLOs, and Ohio Regents Standards for the upcoming reviews.

I also worked with adjunct Mrs. Janet James and Professional Instructor Dr. Pat Farrenkopf, who also teach in the program, and updated and aligned the rubrics for the culminating assignments in EDIS 652, 653, 654, as well as 710, and 781, the two capstone courses. I am also finishing up a full revision of the EDIS 781 Capstone Thesis Handbook, something that was desperately needed. I hope this gives thesis students more support as they work through their research and writing.

So for now, everything feels tidy, everything feels ready to go into the new school year. That said, I just learned that Spring, 2023 will see our courses expanded from 12-weeks to 16-weeks, something I am very much looking forward to. This semester I am working with Pat and Janet to consider updates to those Spring courses to accommodate this extension of the semester, to deepen the content they already experience, and expand content to students’ ever-changing needs in the field, including more information on diverse populations, twice-exceptional students, working with parents, and creating Written Education Plans and goals.

Curriculum Updates

All course descriptions have been updated to reflect new content since I took over the program in 2017, including new Ohio Assessments for Educators (OAE) exam requirements, and program Resource Notebook requirements I initiated to assist students in studying for the exam and to archive their work in the program for future implementation.

Knowledge, Skill, and Disposition statements (course objectives) have all been updated to reflect new content, and are aligned with all relevant standards - Ohio Department of Education (ODE) Gifted Professional Development Standards, Ohio Assessments for Educators (OAE) Framework, National Association for Gifted Children/Council for Exceptional Children (NAGC/CEC) Gifted Programming Standards, Ashland University College of Education SLO statements, Ashland University SLO statements, and Ohio Board of Regents Standards.

I created Pre- and Post-Assessments from the KSD statements for each course, and I have added a few narrative questions/prompts to the assessment to gather information about students’ needs and goals (in the Pre-Assessment), and their thoughts on the course, text, assignments, and pace (Post-Assessment). These assessments help me to determine if differentiation is needed at the beginning of the semester, to gauge growth in students and determine any updates needed to the courses, based on student feedback. In addition, students can view their Pre- and Post-Assessment responses, and are able to see their own growth through the program. I report on these assessments on the IV. Teaching Evidence page as “Teacher Created Pre/Post on Outcomes” and “Teacher Created Pre/Post Comments.”

Curriculum Memos are currently (September, 2022) moving through Graduate Curriculum Committee for approval for Spring, 2023.

EDIS 650 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus and Updated Pre/Post Assessment aligned with Knowledge, Skills, and Disposition (KSD) Statements

EDIS 651 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus and Updated Pre/Post Assessment aligned with KSD Statements

EDIS 652 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus and Updated Pre/Post Assessment aligned with KSD Statements

EDIS 653 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus and Updated Pre/Post Assessment aligned with KSD Statements

EDIS 654 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus and Updated Pre/Post Assessment aligned with KSD Statements

EDIS 710 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus

EDIS 781 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus

EDIS 796 Curriculum Memo and Updated Syllabus

IV. H. Curriculum and Program Development from 2019-2021 for Fall, 2021, Promotion Application

Reflection on Teaching

In my first three years at the University, I concentrated my energies mostly within three themes: improving the applicability of the coursework; adding richness to the interactions within the course and with me; and aligning the courses with applicable local, state, and national standards.  The simple act (all right, it wasn’t all that simple) of pulling together all of my teaching and curriculum work for the Three Year Review invigorated me and gave me a feeling of being rooted at Ashland University as more than a faculty member. I felt impactful – the program, student lives, collegial relationships – all of the parts of my working life felt right. I am right where I belong.

Just as I began recovering from my Year Three Review, COVID entered and impacted everything – from work life to home life, from family interactions to social interactions, and from how my learners taught their students to how I did everything in my virtual classroom. The themes of the teaching portion of this Year Five Review are directly related to how COVID has impacted and continues to impact my teaching and curriculum work. The three themes that drive my teaching these days include the lasting changes COVID has brought to the teaching and learning process. As a result of COVID’s influence, differentiation of content and products is necessary so students not only see this concept modeled in their gifted coursework but so they experience specific content they need in personally meaningful ways. And because these two themes can make online coursework muddled and confusing, a third theme of improved clarity is a constant focus in all aspects of my teaching life.

COVID made immediate and long-lasting changes in this program and how I teach. The immediate shift it inspired was that the deeply rooted rigidity of our lives seemed antithetical to this new world. That said, initially it appeared as though the COVID lockdowns in March, 2020, would not impact my teaching life in the least. The Talent Development program had moved online, so I felt prepared and protected. That is, until I suddenly realized that it was impossible for the courses to continue as stated in my syllabi. I had just completely overhauled the courses to improve applicability of the content to students’ teaching lives, and this meant that all major culminating assignments were deeply embedded into their classrooms and interactions – traditional interactions – with their students and colleagues. For example, the Curriculum Methods (EDIS 651) course had a Curriculum Project implemented into their classroom, the Guidance and Counseling (EDIS 653) course had a face-to-face dialogue with students as its culminating project, the Internship (EDIS 796) and Practicum (EDUC 710) courses involved teaching new lessons in traditional classroom settings.

My immediate response was that I needed time and mental space to come to terms with the rapid changes occurring in the educational world so I could make good decisions about how to move forward. But I also knew that any immediate and major changes to course syllabi would compound the stress my students were already feeling. My students also needed time and mental space to come to terms with the quick and vastly different adaptations they were being asked to make in their own classrooms. I made a drastic and, as it turned out, regenerative decision.

I made a Blackboard announcement to all of my classes: Stop working on coursework immediately for one week. Just set it aside. Stop everything and concentrate on their home lives and adapting their teaching lives to COVID’s changes. This felt strange – time is so precious in these courses. My syllabi are thick and I use every week to my advantage, but I just couldn’t think straight about what changes to make, and I knew students felt the same way.

COVID gave me permission to be flexible. Flexibility is what opens our mental capacity for innovation. Giving students time to focus on their own lives and adaptations gave me time to do the same. After searching my professional books and my past experience for ideas, my response turned out to implement a concept I preached to students throughout their program, but did not always practice myself in higher education – differentiation. Differentiation, the second theme of my teaching reflection, is an obvious choice, based on my area of expertise. It is the accommodation of content, process, and product to the needs of the learner, and it is the staple of gifted education. Throughout the program we teach students various ways to accommodate for the gifted students in their classrooms, but I was not differentiating the content of my graduate courses very much myself.

I realized as I began planning the rest of the semester that each and every student on my roster is not only unique in what they teach (something I always knew and tried to accommodate), but who they taught (age level, diversity, students of rural, urban, suburban areas, factors that we now know made an considerable difference in their capacity to adapt to a virtual learning environment), and especially where they taught (and every district in Ohio was responding to this crisis in vastly different ways and to different extremes). Suddenly how students were going to be doing their jobs became a major factor not only in their lives, but in mine, at least if I was going to accommodate for their needs.

Reader, I adapted. I allowed students choices in how they applied the course readings and assignments, especially the culminating assignments for each course. I offered assignments that gave students ways they could use course learning to improve the immediate challenges of teaching in a virtual setting, or even a non-existent classroom environment, for many schools and households did not have the technology capacity to teach or learn virtually. I eliminated synchronous Zoom sessions, as teachers became more and more Zoom-exhausted at the end of the day. I increased my online office hours and expanded the course videos I posted each week to include self-care ideas, meditations or a “breathing minute” before starting on the week’s work to give students a sense of calm before shifting gears to their own learning. I shared Ashland University’s mental health offerings with students, and I extended more than a few assignment dropbox deadlines, implementing a three-day “grace period” for the dropbox, something that I continue to offer students to this day. New accommodations also include giving various readings for a few focus questions and allowing students to choose a topic of interest to them or needed in their teaching situation. In addition, they are also given a choice of how they respond to the readings, using video, Powerpoint presentation, lesson plan or application idea, in addition to the traditional written focus question essay choice. The rubrics for assignments allow for the variety of content and styles, and students get the benefit of learning a wider variety of content through Padlet posts in a jigsaw style.

With all of these new shifts and accommodations, I was aware of the perfectionistic nature of graduate students, especially those taking gifted coursework. They fretted every new adaptation, they worried they weren’t “doing it right,” and they doubted their own interpretations of any loosely detailed assignment. Thus emerged the third theme of the past two years, that of clarity, in this instance, clarity of expectations. I use all organizational, structural, and explanation-al (I made that up just now) tools I can to support students as they take intellectual risks with the course materials and assignment products. Syllabi have more details, more checklists and charts, and the Blackboard site has an improved structure with weekly folders. The addition of Padlet to most courses gives students a stronger sense of connection to one another, making it safer to take risks. The most significant change has manifested in my weekly videos. My recording and editing skills have improved over time, and the weekly videos are more detailed in explaining the work, but also distinctly telling students to trust their abilities in connecting to and applying the material to their lives. In addition, I continue to tell students I am a mastery teacher, which means they have more than one opportunity to get the grade they want for any given assignment. They can rewrite and resubmit assignments to get the grade they want, and the content and structural knowledge I want. They feel safer taking an intellectual risk with these structures in place.  

COVID brought on many powerful changes in the way we teach and learn. Differentiation, as I tell students, is a shift in mindset toward providing strong content and powerful ways of interacting with content, and then allowing students to gain personal meaning from that content and showing it in ways that are applicable to them. One more piece of clarity I have realized is that my existential teaching style has students producing work that takes more time to assess, to grade, and to comment on, but it is immensely personal to each student and makes them feel as though the accent truly is on them as an individual.

In the sections below, my reflection continues as an exploration of these themes of COVID, differentiation, and clarity inn specific course program updates I have undertaken since the Year Three Review in a course-by-course format

Updates to Individual Courses

Updates to EDIS 650 - Nature and Needs for Teachers of the Talented

Pre- and Post-Assessments are now given in a Google Form ( link to the EDIS 650 master form), something I have done for all courses except EDIS 652. I took training from James Hayes in Learn AU to learn how to format this survey so I could have students do a Pre- and Post-Assessment on the same form. This has improved how much I know about students’ Knowledge, Skills, and Disposition (KSD) growth (and students can see this growth, too!). It also supports my individual course reflections, and allows for more ease in compiling data for course and program evaluation. These Pre- and Post-Assessments are more course specific than the University course evaluations.

Students have a choice in how they respond to focus question readings. Students can submit PowerPoint slides or a written response essay. Both require correct APA formatting and references.

-Students previously created a Personal Top Ten Glossary of terms on their own. I have revised this assignment so that it is a Collaborative Glossary, with each student contributing two concepts and glossary entries. I require one entry to be one of the government documents important to gifted - The Marland Report, A Nation Deceived, A Nation Empowered, etc. At the end of the semester they download the document, format it, and have the glossary to put into their Resource Notebook. This helps them study for the OAE and gives them specific terms, people, and important documents at their fingertips. Here is a link to the Summer, 2021 Collaborative Glossary

The final Case Study assignment is now a PowerPoint presentation with a 5-7 minute video explanation. These are posted to the Padlet site, viewed by class colleagues, where they comment on one another’s presentations. I provide comments via Blackboard, personal between the student and me. I encourge students to consider another audience for their presentation - colleagues or administrators - so the presentation can be used beyond the course.

The final Case Study assignment is now divided into smaller, weekly chunks, so students can slowly work toward the final presentation, rather than racing to complete it in the last few weeks of the course. In addition, a few of the weekly focus questions are now directly related to the case study (identification of the Case Study subject, characteristics of the subject as related to the readings, etc.) and can be researched, written, and submitted as the focus question response, and then included in the case study final presentation.

Also new is the use of a Padlet (or two, split by age level of their students, if the class section is large) for students to interact with one another and share from their work.  Link to the Summer, 2021, EDIS 650 Padlet as an example

Since students will most likely never visit campus (until we are able to reinstate the optional Saturday Face-to-Face meeting) I provide a short walkthrough of our beautiful College of Education building. Here is the video.

Here is an example of an EDIS 650 weekly video.

Updates to EDIS 651 - Curriculum Development for Education of the Talented

Pre- and Post-Assessments are now given in a Google Form ( link to the EDIS 651 master form).

This course was in session in Spring, 2020, and was adapted for the COVID shutdown. Here is the Spring, 2020, EDIS 651 syllabus with changes in red.

COVID adaptations (temporary) -

- Focus Questions 5 and 6 allowed them a choice of three readings to respond to. I eliminated Focus Question 6.

- The Curriculum Project. students had already begun working on their final curriculum project, researching a new strategy for their gifted students, implementing it, and reporting on the results. The final project paper had already been changed to a PowerPoint presentation. As COVID hit, they had information to outlining their strategy and their research on the strategy. They were to add four slides to their presentation. From the syllabus, here are the instructions:

Through this project presentation, I am interested in showing how teachers/you adapted to this challenging situation, which is the purpose of these four slides.

1) Then This Happened Slide – I have a slide for you to insert into your project here that shows where the COVID19 impacted this project. You can include my slide or another you create that indicates this interruption.

2) How was this handled in your district? Slide. Give a short review of how your district responded to the Governor’s announcement. Who met? Who decided? What did they decide? How did they let faculty and staff know? How did they let parents and students know?

3) How were you prepared by your district to deal with the change? Slide. Give a short review of how your district prepared you for the new school format? If Professional Development – how? How long did you have?

4) What was/is your biggest concern for your students? What was/is your biggest concern for your gifted/high achievers?

Students could also add an ending slide to their presentation (after their References slide) thus:

Strengths Slide (optional) – If you would like, you may create a final slide that comments on the semester, your strengths, and how you feel you responded to this

unprecedented shift in your life and teaching.

I think students, at the end of this crazy semester, needed a short opportunity to look back on how they responded to the lockdown and its impact on their life.

Other changes to the assignments and calendar are in the syllabus, easily recognizable in red.

-The Optional Face-to-Face was cancelled.

Here is the EDIS 651 video that explains the COVID updates to the syllabus and calendar. The video is about 25 minutes long, so I recommend that you increase the speed to 1.5X or faster. It’s more fun to watch that way, too.

Other changes to the course include:

-A few focus questions now offer choice in readings and topics.

-Students can respond with APA slides or a traditional APA written essay response.

Also new to this course is using a Padlet (or two, split by age level of their students, if the class section is large) instead of a discussion board for students to interact with one another and share from their work.  Link to the Spring, 2020, EDIS 651 Padlet as an example

Updates to EDIS 653 - Guidance and Counseling for Teachers of the Talented

-Pre- and Post-Assessments are now given in a Google Form ( link to the EDIS 653 master form).

-This course was in session in Spring, 2020, and was adapted for the COVID shutdown. Here is the Spring, 2020, EDIS 653 syllabus with changes in red.

-The final Dialogue Project requires a face-to-face dialogue with 3-8 pupils. To adapt to the sudden change in environment, students could do their dialogue with adults, through technology, Zoom with a small group of 653 colleagues, adapt the dialogue for use in another way, or simply do the dialogue as written. Specific details appear in red on p. 16 of the syllabus provided above.

-I also required students to add five new slides. The EDIS 651 outline, above, gives instructions for the first four slides, to which I have added a fifth:

1) Then This Happened

2) How was this handled in your district?

3) How were you prepared by your district?

4) What was your biggest concern?

5) The Change in Plan slide - share how you changed your dialogue.

I also offered students the opportunity to include a “Strengths” slide, as in EDIS 651.

Other changes to the course include:

Students have a choice in how they respond to focus question readings. Students can submit a Big Five response (expounding on four interesting points, and applying one aspect of the reading to their teaching), an application (lesson plan, narrative of a classroom ideas, etc.), or traditional response to provided focus questions. They can respond using PowerPoint slides (or other presentation formats like graphic organizers, Canva graphics, etc), a lesson plan, or written response essay. All formats require APA style citations and reference list.

Also new to this course is using a Padlet (or two, split by age level of their students, if the class section is large) instead of a discussion board for students to interact with one another and share from their work.  Link to the SummerB, 2021, EDIS 653 ( Elementary-Middle Grades) Padlet as an example.

I have also tried to engage students in my weekly videos. They are personal, I integrate other videos and instructions (APA, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, etc.) Here is a link to an EDIS 653 weekly video.

Updates to EDIS 654 - Creativity for Teachers of the Talented

I am in the process of updating the KSD statements for this course, to make them better for assessment purposes. Here is a comparison of the old (2016) and new (2021) statements. With these new statements, I was able to create and implement a Pre- and Post-Assessment for EDIS 654. Here is the template for the Pre- and Post-Assessment.

Also new to this course is using a Padlet (or two, split by age level of their students, if the class section is large) instead of a discussion board for students to interact with one another and share from their work. Link to the SummerA, 2021, EDIS 654 Padlet as an example.

Student evaluation comments indicate that they are struggling to take more practical applications from the course content back to their classrooms. For this reason, I now use a collaborative Google document for a final focus question where students can post ideas for integrating various concepts from the Piirto creativity model into their classrooms. Here is an example of the EDIS 654 Collaborative document from Summer, 2021.

I have added a minute breathing break to the videos, and have changed the format of the 654 video to prepare them for an exploration of their own creative work. Openness to experience is important to creative thinking, as well as risk-taking and group trust. The videos attempt to “gentle” them into the process, and inspire them along the way. Here is an example of an EDIS 654 weekly video. 

Updates to EDIS 710 - Field Practicum in Talent Development Education and EDUC 710 - Field Practicum in Education

This course was in session in Spring, 2020, and was adapted for the COVID shutdown. Here is the Spring, 2020, EDIS 710 syllabus with changes in red, and here is the Spring, 2020, EDUC syllabus with changes in red.

The Project Paper became one of two options - a paper or a Project Presentation (via PowerPoint or other presentation technology). This remains an option in these courses.

Adaptations I made to the projects for COVID: I posted an updated Module 3 and Module 4 document and video to help them work through how COVID might impact their 710 projects. The document is here. Option 1 - Students could continue working on their project AS WRITTEN (if they still had students to interact with), For these students the specifications for the 710 project remained the same, but I offered the option of submitting a PowerPoint presentation or a written paper. Option 2 - Students who no longer had students to work with could do a CURRENT MODEL PLANNING, where they used the research they had done on the strategy of their choice prior to COVID closure, and write up a lesson plan (with pre- and post-assessments to gauge learning) on that model they could use once the school year went back to ‘normal.’ Option 3 - Students could submit a NEW ADAPTATION if they wanted to share how they were making changes to their teaching during COVID to adapt to the online learning. EDIS 710 students were still to focus on accommodating gifted or high achieving students.

For Summer, 2021, I adapted the EDUC 710 course for students, because they do not have pupils during the Summer, and could not complete the traditional project. I had students complete the 710 project of planning a new unit or strategy and create a PowerPoint presentation of all of the aspects of the strategy, including gauging student learning and goals for their own learning. Then they presented their project to a small group of teaching colleagues, to get collaborative support, suggestions, and ideas for the project. This was one of the best 710 classes I have ever taught - there were five students, very dedicated, fun to work with, and they interacted beautifully on the Padlet support page. The projects included: a scope and sequence document that improved integration of writing in elementary grades; a semester of bellwork on Greek and Latin word roots; a project based learning experience using personal storytelling; incorporating technology into higher level learning discussions; and supporting and differentiating note-taking skills using graphic organizers. Here is the syllabus for that course and here is the Padlet page for that course.

I continue to provide the option to students of writing a Project Paper or a Project Presentation (both using APA citations and a reference list). I encourage them to consider other audiences for their presentation, besides only their 710 classmates.

In EDIS 710 (for Talent Development MEd students), I hold individual Zoom meetings so students can share their Resource Notebooks, a program requirement. Here is an example of a Resource Notebook (used with student permission).

Updates to EDIS 781 - Thesis Capstone in Talent Development Education

I initiated an AURWC-style spreadsheet so students could check in weekly with me and one another, and could support one another during the semester. Here is an example spreadsheet.

I am leading an initiative to update the “College of Education Graduate Handbook for Theses and Capstones.” It has not been updated since 2014. This is in progress.

Updates to EDIS 796 - Internship in Talent Development Education

COVID updates include -

I eliminated the Site Supervisor observation component.

Students in this course are observed in their classrooms. For this semester I waived that requirement. Instead they had the option of continuing with the course AS WRITTEN and have me observe them virtually. Alternately, they could do a NEW ADAPTATION by showing (through a lesson plan or narrative) how they accommodated for gifted and high achieving students in their new COVID situation.

General updated include -

I am not longer able to travel to observe students in their classrooms, due to financial restraints and COVID challenges still present in Ohio schools. Instead students either send me a video of them teaching (online, in-person or hybrid) or I observe them synchronously online as they teach virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid situation).

I hold individual Zoom meetings with students at the end of the semester for students to walk me through their Resource Notebook.Here is an example of a Resource Notebook (used with student permission)

Specific updates to EDIS 796 for the Liberty Union Cohort (Spring, 2021)

The cohort from Liberty Union consisted of 17 students. I had what I thought was a great idea for this cohort - I wanted to work with the gifted coordinator (who was also in the cohort) to create committees based on topics relevant to the entire district, and integrating topics from their program coursework. The gifted coordinator welcomed this suggestion - and I worked hard over the holiday break to completely overhaul the syllabus and the calendar, keeping the most important pieces (the log of hours required by ODE, the final reflection, statement of philosophy, and the Resource Notebook).

The 796 work I gave to the Director of Student Services (who is the acting Gifted Coordinator and also cohort student), was very job-embedded: to oversee each committee and assist them as they planned their work, and to collect all of the committee work for a final board presentation. The rest of the cohort signed up for one of five committees, planned and scheduled three meetings throughout the semester (the final meeting I would attend as their observation), and went to work! Their first job was to determine, well, the the committee’s first job! They did preliminary research - surveys, research on topics, talking to colleagues - and determined the tasks the committee would take on.

The committees were thus: Curriculum, Communication, Assessment and Identification, Service Model, Professional Development.

I wrote in specifications so that leadership of the committee changed with each meeting. The committee submitted meeting minutes and goals for their committee moving forward. I attended the final meeting and observed the group’s shared leadership, as well as on my observations of the ODE Gifted Operating Standards competencies. To end the semester, students met with me via Zoom to share their Resource Notebook.

The Liberty Union EDIS 796 updated syllabus appears here.  A letter from the Liberty Union Director of Student Services is here. The Liberty Union 796 organizational Padlet page is here.