Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Videos for Portfolios

I videotaped my 6 year-old playing chess. We have a 19 minute tape BEFORE my memory card balked and stopped filming. It captured some well-thought moves and adroit plays, though failed to capture the child's successful checkmate. I have a hard time imagining that DYS wants to watch a 19+ minute video. Or do they? Do you think the video, which does show strong, skillful moves, would be okay even though it truncated before the game's end? Would you edit it and just include the child's well-thought moves? Would editing just to show a few strong plays really be enough? Chess games simply aren't 3 to 5 minutes.

A second video questions. Would you tape a 6 year-old describing nuclear fusion and the movement of photons through the sun's layers? Obviously, they have studied the topic. It's not original thought, and they don't add to scientific knowledge when they describe the process. At the same time, it's out-of-level. Would a video of that description be considered demonstrative of mental processes and thinking?
I feel like we're short on showing mental thought processes, but strong on out-of-level work. Any suggestions regarding these would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you. I have to admit that trying to get together their application has become nearly all-consuming, even more so because I've had to learn a lot of technologies I had never used before. (Dare I admit I had never videotaped before or burned a CD?) I think they would benefit a lot from being accepted, especially because we live somewhere without a lot of resources for gifted kiddos. I just really want to avoid being in a position that I have to try to pull together achievement testing. Full-scale achievement tests are pricey and less expensive achievement tests are a few years away for them because of their age.

One way to solve this would be to send them a video clip of part of it, plus a written record of all the moves made in standard notation. Either you could write it down, or if you think he's up to it, you could have him record the game as you play it.

We don't have much written at the level DS works because he has handwriting issues. And we told them that. So we sent in a few worksheets alongside a DVD with an hour which consists of 10 different videos at various ages with him talking about stuff. We provided a list of each video so they wouldn't have to listen to all if they don't want to. The longest was 15 minutes, most ranged from 5-10 minutes. I guess we will find out what they think of this kind of portfolio at the end of the month!!

DeHe

I think both videos would be fine, and that there's no need to edit them. It's not a bad idea to give a brief description of each one, and I think it's a nice idea to give standard notation for the chess moves, but I don't think it's necessary either. Just send what you have and be done with it.