Gifted Program & Enrichment @ the Ridge

IROQUOIS RIDGE HIGH SCHOOLGrade 8 Parents Night

Nov 17, 2016

Mr. David PearceSpecial Education (Gifted) Resource Teacher

ALEX & AUSTIN

A Special Shout Out to My 2 Volunteers:

▶ Supports classroom teachers and students by generating ideas, providing resources and collaborative time to discuss curriculum development

▶ Meets with gifted students 2x/year, monitor their progress, and update the IEP as needed

▶ Develops transition planning for students▶ Maintains and updates Enrichment website▶ Manages Enrichment activities outside of the

classroom

The Special Education Resource Teacher

1. Teaching Gifted & Highly Able students2. How Clustering is Done3. Enrichment Opportunities

Topics to be Covered

Definition of “Giftedness”:An unusually advanced degree of general intellectual ability that requires differentiated learning experiences of a depth and breadth beyond those normally provided in the regular school program.

Ontario Min. of Ed. Special Ed. Guide for Educators 2001

1. Teaching Gifted & Highly Able Students

▶ Keen to go beyond the curriculum▶ Anxious to share ideas and discuss

areas of interest▶ Think/process quickly ▶ Continuously ask questions,

inquisitive

Traits of a Gifted and/or Highly Able Learner

▶ Skip steps in a process and jump to the answer

▶ Have messy notebooks/incomplete homework OR are perfectionists with extraordinary organization

Traits of a Gifted and/or Highly Able Learner

▶ Differentiated curriculum ▶ Greater depth, breadth and a faster

pace.▶ Evaluated on the same scale and

expectations as Academic classes▶ Enrichment opportunities – often a field

trip, guest speaker, special lab, choice projects

Learning in a Clustered Enriched Class

▶ Focus on Critical and Creative Thinking▶ High Level Questioning▶ RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic)▶ Think Tac Toe

Strategies for Differentiated Classrooms

▶ Students are offered choices to meet their Learning profile needs.

▶ Sometimes students are challenged to work outside of their areas of strength to precipitate personal growth

▶ Always, students are encouraged to challenge themselves to learn

CHOICE!

▶ “A great classroom conveys to all students ‘This is hard, but you can do hard things, and I am not willing to let you settle for less’”

- Carol Ann Tomlinson

“Failure is not an option” - Apollo 13

Challenging Work = Growth

▶ Students are clustered by:a) identification (Gifted) orb) marks (Highly Able)

▶ Clustering in Grade 9 occurs in: Math, English, Science and Geography

▶ Students cannot be clustered AND in French Immersion unless timetable easily permits it and it does NOT interfere with French Immersion

2. How Clustering is Done

▶ Formally identified “Gifted” students are placed in clustered classes first according to their IEP placement

▶ They may choose to be in some or all of the 4 clustered classes offered in grade 9

Placement in Clustered Classes for Students with an IEP (Gifted)

▶ Highly Able students fill the classes according to marks, beginning with the student with the highest mark in each specific subject.

▶ Students can be invited into more than one class but in each case it depends on their marks for that subject.

Placement of Highly Able Students

▶ February Report marks are used first and the invitation is dependent on the student maintaining a grade above the “cut off” by the end of the year.

▶ If they do not do so, another student with a

higher mark may be invited into the class and the original student moved to an academic class.

Placement of Highly Able Students

▶ Invitations (a letter and/or phone call) are issued to the highly able student and parents, they may choose to accept or reject that invitation to join the clustered class(es).

▶ Once the classes are filled to approx. the same size as Academic classes in the same subject area, the class is “closed”.

Placement continued

▶ If your child was identified in another boardOR

▶ If you would like to see if they meet the criteria to be identified “Gifted” in the Halton District School Board

1. Send a copy of a psycho-educational testing report to me, David Pearce

2. It is then reviewed by our Board Psychological Education Consultant

3. IPRC happens

Process for Identification HDSB

Enrichment is for EVERYONE!

3. ENRICHMENT AT IRHS

OUR ENRICHMENT WEBSITE

▶ Advanced Placement▶ E=mc2 (Queens)▶ Encounters with Canada▶ SHAD Valley▶ Rotary Camp Enterprise▶ Ontario Student Leadership Conference▶ COLs Leadership▶ Waterloo Unlimited▶ Ontario Student Leadership

Conference

Enrichment Opportunities

● Student Senate● SHSM● Writing & Speaking Contests● Math, Computers, Science Contests ● Language & Cultural Exchanges● Skule Sisters● Go Eng Girl● Duke of Edinburgh● Brain Bee

Enrichment Opportunities

Go to www.irhs.caFeel free to contact me at any time

Mr. David PearceE-mail: pearced@hdsb.ca

Phone: (905) 845-0012 x255Gifted Education Office: Room 214

Website: http://enrichridge.blogspot.com/

Further Information