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Gifted Education: Program Design on

a Shoestring

Dr. Barbara L. Branch

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Objectives• First Day

– Legal aspects– California Standards

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State Law Federal Law

and NCLB

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• Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performance at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.

• These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative, and/or artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields. They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools.

• Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor.

Federal Definition of Giftedness

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NCLB Definition of Gifted

The definition of gifted and talented in NCLB is as follows:

The term 'gifted and talented', when used with respect to students, children, or youth, means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.

Title IX, Part A, Section 9101(22)Page 544

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California DefinitionEach district shall use one or more of these categories in identifying pupils as gifted and talented in all categories, identification of a pupil’s extraordinary capability shall be in relation to the pupil’s chronological peers.

– Intellectual Ability: A Pupil demonstrates extraordinary or potential for extraordinary intellectual development

– Creative Ability: A Pupil characteristically:• Perceives unusual relationships among aspects of the

pupil’s environment and among ideas; • Overcomes obstacles to thinking and doing;• Produces unique solutions to problems

– Specific Academic Ability: A pupil functions at highly advanced academic levels in particular subject areas.

– Leadership Ability: A pupil displays the characteristic behaviors necessary for extraordinary leadership.

– High Achievement: A pupil consistently produces advanced ideas and products and/or attains exceptionally high scores on achievement tests.

– Visual and Performing Arts Talent: A Pupil originates, performs, produces, or responds at extraordinarily high levels in the arts.

– Any other category which meets the standards set forth in these regulations

CAL CODE REGS, title 5, § 3822

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History of Gifted Education in California

• MGM – 1961• GATE – 1980 – AB 1040

• Districts set up own criteria• Expanded services beyond intellectually gifted

• Updated GATE with standards - AB 2313

• Title V of the State Code

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Recommended Program Standards

• Components– Program Design– Identification– Curriculum and Instruction– Social & Emotional Development– Professional Development– Parent and Community Involvement– Program Assessment

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Important Elements of a Gifted Program

• Continuum of program services• Integral part of the day• Flexible groupings• Trained teachers

– Characteristics– Differentiation Strategies

• Respect for gifted needs

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Meeting Standards with no money

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Program Options Based on identification

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

What can schools do to help these students when they really care, but

don’t have the funds?

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Some gifted students may be candidates for early entrance to kindergarten, or possibly first grade if they are already reading.

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Pre-assess gifted students before a unit or a course for mastery of the subject matter and offer a more advanced unit or course.

Self-contained classes for gifted students, particularly in core curriculum classes, help them move on to more advanced subjects.

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Multi-age, self-contained gifted classes are even more effective. Learning with intellectual peers encourages gifted students to achieve.

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Subject acceleration is appropriate when a student is proficient in a particular subject.

Consider grade acceleration when a student demonstrates proficiency at a particular grade level. Use the Iowa Acceleration Scale to evaluate this and other options.

Subject

Grade

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A Nation Deceived• Limited familiarity with the research on

acceleration • Philosophy that children must be kept with

their age group • Belief that acceleration hurries children

out of childhood • Fear that acceleration hurts children

socially • Political concerns about equity • Worry that other students will be offended

if one child is accelerated.

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Dual enrollment in middle or high school, or high school and college, offers challenging opportunities for gifted students.

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses and/or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs for gifted students.

Provide counselors who are trained to counsel gifted students, including advising them of talent development opportunities.

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Advise students of Academic Talent Searches, scholarships and academic competitions and give students credit for the advanced courses they take in academic summer programs.

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Gifted Program Delivery Models

Create a school culture that values intellectual discovery and achievements, where students encourage one another to accomplish more than they would on their own.

Encourage administrators and teachers to educate themselves on the wide range of exceptional abilities among bright students and increase flexibility in addressing the individual learning needs of gifted

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Cluster Grouping

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Rationale for Cluster Grouping

• Placing high achievers together in one classroom challenges those students, enabling other students to become academic leaders and allowing new talent to emerge.

Marcia Gentry

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Rationale for Cluster Grouping

• Cluster grouping makes it easier for teachers to meet the needs of students in their classrooms by reducing the achievement range of students within a classroom.

• Cluster grouping used in conjunction with challenging instruction and high teacher expectations may improve how teachers view their students with respect to ability and achievement.

Marcia Gentry

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Rationale for Cluster Grouping

• Achievement scores improved over a three-year period for students in a cluster group environment and the number of students identified as high achievers increased.

Marcia Gentry

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Rationale for Cluster Grouping

• Flexible grouping within and between classes that reduces the achievement range of each class can provide many benefits to all students and teachers.

• The positive effects of cluster grouping result from many changes in the school climate such as:

Marcia Gentry

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Rationale for Cluster Grouping

• creating opportunities for staff development, emphasizing a variety of instructional strategies;

• raising teacher expectations; • creating a sense of ownership;

Marcia Gentry

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Rationale for Cluster Grouping

• reducing the range of achievement levels in classrooms;

• creating opportunities for

collaboration with colleagues and administration.

Marcia Gentry

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Talent Development Model

• Identify possible gifted in K-1– Reading fluency– Math problem solving skills– Vocabulary– Characteristics checklist– Reading comprehension

• Train K-6 teachers• Provide differentiated instruction K-6• Officially identify in grade 6 for 7-8

placement

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Identification

• Identify within schools using checklists and rubrics of exemplars

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Curriculum and Instruction

• Train teachers in differentiated instruction of the core curriculum

• Create a sequence of extensions for your district content standards– Core Plus

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CoreSubject(District

Adoptions)

 GATE Enrichment or

ExtensionsActivities

that Support the Core

 GATE Enrichment or

ExtensionsMaterials/Enrichment

that Support the Core*

  

English Lang Arts

SRA/McGraw-Hill, Open

Court

The core Open Court program is “compacted” in GATE classrooms. To add additional challenge, delivered at an accelerated pace, The Classics are integrated into ELA instruction, 2nd-6th grade.

GATE teachers receive on-going in-service training in how to integrate critical thinking into core curricula. They each have the icon posters and have taught students how to use these elements to explore content in more depth/complexity. Frames are also being used as graphic organizers to guide further investigations beyond core assignments.

English Language Arts Practice Tests & Workbook material is aligned to grade-level ELA standards. Data generated from practice tests (2nd-6th grades) allow teachers to pre & post assess student knowledge related to grade specific standards. Using individual data, teachers may compact material that is mastered, focus on skills gaps and accelerate instruction based on student needs.

 

-Students are taught an analysis process for responding to questions found in standardized tests, 2 nd-6th grade. Book & Brain

- Learning contracts are used during workshop, 2nd-6th grade, which includes opportunities to differentiate according to student choice, the need for depth & complexity & pacing options.

- Icons, representing elements of depth & complexity) are integrated into questions, prompts, and student activities, 2nd-6th grade.

- Students are exposed to world folk tales and practice the art of story telling. Folk Tales

- A learning-station format is used to study the genre of Mysteries. Students conduct crime-lab tests on evidence to solve a variety of mysteries. Mystery Festival (2nd-3rd)

- A literary treasure hunt is used as students investigate the plot, settings, characters & themes of ten mystery novels. Sleuth

- Students “Think Like An Author” by experiencing the Young Author’s Program. They write, edit, illustrate & bind their own book.

- Students study California authors, with a culminating field trip by train to Jack London Square. (3 rd)

 * The Classics, SRA/ McGraw-Hill * Book & Brain Reading, Nancy Linden * Chapter books & decodables aligned to OC theme. * Novels that extend/enrich core instruction, for example; The Little Prince The Cricket In Time Square The Velveteen Rabbit

 * The Flip Book, Kaplan & Gould, Educator To Educator * Frames, Kaplan & Gould, Educator To Educator * Depth & Complexity Icon Cards, Kaplan & Gould, Educator To Educator Graphic Organizers & Activities For Differentiated Instruction in Reading , Scholastic Teaching Resources (2nd-6th)

 Differentiation: Simplified, Realistic & Effective, B. Kingore, Professional Associates Publishing (2nd-6th) * Interact Units aligned to grade-level ELA standards: Folk Tales Sleuth GEMS: Lawrence Hall of Science Units aligned to grade-level ELA standards: Mystery Festival (2nd-3rd) Language Arts Today by McGraw Hill “Blast-Off”, English Language Arts Practice Tests & Workbook, Buckle Down Publishing (2nd-5th)

Young Author’s Program

Jack London Square 

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Social/Emotional Needs

• Teacher and administrator training• Parent speakers• Book clubs

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Professional Development

• Minimal - once– Teacher training in characteristics and

differentiated instruction strategies• Maximum - ongoing

– Certificate Program– Differentiation– Social/Emotional– Diverse Gifted– Program Design and Instruction

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Parents and Community

• Parent speakers – CAG regional reps• Book club• Discussions at SSC meetings• Mentor program

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Program Assessment

• Review School Site Plans

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For every gifted child who is not allowed to reach his or her potential, there is a lost opportunity for a society in desperate need of creativity and inventiveness.”Carl Rogers