Jennifer Moon

August 22, 2016

EPSY 7710
Dr. Hines

EPSY 7710/9710: Practicum/Internship in Gifted Education

Proposal for Practicum/Internship

A. Sponsoring Agency Info

Agency Name:Clarke County School District

Site of Placement: Timothy Road Elementary School

Site Address: 1900 Timothy Road Athens, GA 30605

B. Sponsor Info

Name: Rehema Capri Phone#: (706) 549-0107

Sponsor email: caprar@clarke.k12.ga.us

Sponsor Role:

Rehema Capri is the gifted team leader at Timothy Road Elementary School. She works

with both third and fourth grade by providing resource classes for gifted students. Rehema also

provides collaboration services to meet the needs of gifted and advanced fourth grade students in

their classroom during reading, writing, science and social studies. Rehema has organized

creativity projects school wide. Last year Rehema, along with the other gifted teachers at

Timothy Road, encouraged students to put on their engineering and creativity hats to design and

build leprechaun traps. These traps were judged by the teachers on each grade level and

displayed in the library. Rehema has also planned, organized, and facilitated enrichment clusters

at Timothy Road Elementary School.

C. Description of Experience
i: Project Title: Fourth Grade Enrichment Clusters

ii: Project Goals and Rationale:

My practicum experience will be based on planning, organizing, and facilitating

enrichment clusters with my fourth grade team and students. I became interested in enrichment

clusters during my coursework in EPSY 7250, Program and Curriculum for Gifted Students.
Jennifer Moon

During this course, I researched the Schoolwide Enrichment Model and presented information on

this model to my classmates. The Schoolwide Enrichment Model is based on the Enrichment

Triad Model. This model allows teachers to provide enrichment for all students through type I

and type II activities that expose students to a variety of topics, disciplines, events, hobbies,

persons, places, interest areas and occupations that are not a normal part of the curriculum and

promotes the development of a broad range of thinking and feeling processes (Davis & Rimm,

2004, p. 166). It also allows students to pursue a self selected problem and create an original

product based on this problem through type III enrichment (Davis & Rimm, 2004, p. 177). This

model of enrichment helps teachers and schools identify students who need gifted services.

After learning about enrichment clusters I am eager to try this model at my own school.

This type of enrichment, that focuses on inclusion, will be beneficial to all students. This

opportunity will allow students to grow and show new aptitudes in areas of interest. The

Schoolwide Enrichment Model will also increase student engagement as students are encouraged

to pursue learning based on their interests. Not only will this enrichment increase engagement for

students, but it will allow teachers to connect the community to the students at the school by

bringing in community experts to speak to students about their areas of interest.

Through this project, I want to become more knowledgeable about enrichment clusters

and interest based learning. I want to understand how enrichment clusters and interest based

learning impacts students interest and achievement in school. I plan to read a minimum of three

articles on enrichment clusters and interest based learning and provide professional learning to

teachers on my fourth grade team based on the knowledge I have gained. Using enrichment

clusters with fourth grade students and teachers will also be challenging as we schedule activities

for students that will meet their interests and help them create a product around what they have

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learned. During this project I want to learn how to effectively schedule, plan, and facilitate

enrichment clusters and provide support to teachers on my team to effectively implement interest

based learning for our students. I want to understand the impact that enrichment clusters have on

student engagement and how this engagement impacts learning in other content areas. I also

want to understand how enrichment clusters impact teachers practices.

Updated Goals and Rationale:

The fourth grade teachers and I have been implementing clusters for two months. Over

the course of these two months all teachers have focused on type I enrichment activities. As I

move further into this project I am implementing additional type I enrichment activities which

allow students to see and experience problems associated with our cluster, The Sea. I am

working now on helping students identify a problem, propose a solution to that problem, and

create a product that effectively communicates the solution. As I move from implementing type

I activities to type II and III activities I will focus on helping students develop important

research skills, which will be valuable to them as they continue their educational career.

iii. Duties and Responsibilities

During this project I will be responsible for providing professional learning to my team

so that they understand enrichment clusters and how to implement clusters effectively. I will also

be responsible for organizing and collecting interest surveys and using that data to create

enrichment clusters. I will plan my own cluster and provide additional guidance on planning for

other cluster groups as needed. I will also be responsible for collecting appropriate data to gauge

the effectiveness of enrichment clusters and make adjustments as needed.

Updated Duties and Responsibilities:

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I will help my students identify effect ways to communicate their solutions and help them

identify an audience to present their type III projects too. I will also be responsible for providing

assistance to teachers on my team as they help their students identify problems, create solutions,

and create products for their type III projects. After the fourth graders have completed their first

type III project, the fourth grade team will reconvene to debrief and brainstorm new clusters that

will be offered. I will once again be responsible for creating a survey and using that data to

regroup students in their new cluster groups.

iv. Location and Time Frame

September: Teachers will receive professional learning on enrichment clusters and the

fourth grade team will choose an interest survey to give to students. Students will take

the interest surveys. Teachers will gather results and form enrichment cluster groups.

Teachers will also advertise the clusters and students will make a decision about the

enrichment cluster they want to join. (25 hours)

October: Enrichment clusters will begin. Students will engage in enrichment clusters 1

time a week each week. Students will explore general topic information. (15 hours)

November: Enrichment clusters will continue. (15 hours)

December: Enrichment clusters will continue. Students will take a survey to gauge the

impact of enrichment clusters and how teachers can better meet their needs when

enrichment cluster begin again in January. ( 10 hours)

iv. Location and Time Frame Updated:

January: Enrichment clusters from the previous semester will continue. Students will

work on creating a type III project in their cluster groups. (15 hours)

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February: Students will finish type III projects, present those projects to an appropriate

audience. Type III projects and presentations will be completed no later than February

24. Teachers will meet to debrief about clusters and brainstorm the new round of clusters.

A new survey will be administered no later than February 27. (20 hours)

March: New clusters will begin. (15 hours)

April: Clusters will continue. (15 hours)

v. Products and Portfolio

I will document my learning through a digital portfolio. This portfolio will include

articles I have read and the professional learning presentation based on the information I have

learned. It will also include the student learning survey and the result from the survey the team

used to form enrichment cluster groups. I will also include lesson plans from the enrichment

clusters and samples of student work. I plan to include surveys and survey results that show the

impact of enrichment clusters on teachers and students.

D. Developmental Statement
Implementing enrichment clusters is different than the other strategies I have

implemented in my classroom. I have implemented student choice and interest surveys in my

class through the use of choice boards, but enrichment clusters go beyond giving students choice

over the content that is chosen for them. Enrichment clusters give students more authority as they

get to choose the content that they want to learn. Enrichment clusters are different too, because

they require a team of people to provide interest based learning to students. These clusters

require that I help my team understand the benefits of this type of learning and make sure that

they are implementing the clusters correctly. Enrichment clusters will also provide an

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opportunity to help teachers on my team recognize the aptitudes and talents of students in their

classroom.

E. Courses Pursued and Work-related Duties During Practicum Term

EPSY 7060: Assessment of Gifted Children and Youth
Teaching full-time
Serving on the gifted eligibility committee
Serving on yearbook committee
Courses Pursued and Work-related Duties During Practicum Term - Updated
ERSH 7500E: Action Research
Teaching full-time
Serving on the gifted eligibility committee
Serving on yearbook committee

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