Gifted and Talented Academy Session 2 November 29, 2011

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Agenda  Welcome/Check-in  Process Home Play  Developing a Written Gifted and Talented Plan  Domains of Giftedness  Identification –Tools and Criteria –Using this information  District Program Goals  Developing an Identification Plan

Course Expectations  100% attendance  Active participation Grade A  Completion of SA/RT for program evaluation  Submission of written gifted and talented program plan (at least in rough draft) with sections completed for –Identification –Program Goals –Differentiated Program –In-service Design –Staff Qualifications –Program Evaluation  Reflection paper

Course Expectations Grade B  Completion of SA/RT for program evaluation  Submission of written gifted and talented program plan (at least in rough draft) with at least four of the following sections completed –Identification –Program Goals –Differentiated Program –In-service Design –Staff Qualifications –Program Evaluation  Reflection paper

Home Play  Complete two sections of SA/RT –Program Goals –Identification  Share draft of Mission/Philosophy with GT Advisory, Administrative Team, and/or School Board –Get input –Get mission/philosophy approved

Processing Home Play  Triads - three different districts  With whom did you share your mission/vision/beliefs? Discuss the process.  How was it received? Were there suggestions for revisions?  What discussion and/or professional development needs to happen now? (Related to the mission/vision/beliefs?)  How will these guide your programming?

Processing Home Play  Return to original table.  Whip Around –Share one idea you heard from previous discussion  Where do you go from here as a team?

Academy Outcome A comprehensive gifted and talented plan

Comprehensive Program Design …a thoughtful, unified service delivery plan that has a singular purpose: to identify the many, varied ways that will be used to meet the needs of high- potential students. --Purcell & Eckert, p. 74

Considerations  Unique learning profile of students  Level of challenge in regular curriculum  Ways high-potential learners are already served  Areas where services are lacking --Purcell & Eckert, p. 74

Traits  Derivation of Services  Comprehensiveness  Practicality  Consistency  Clarity  Availability  Continuation, Extension, and Evaluation

Goals and Performance Measures  Program Goals –Provide focus for evaluation and planning –Provide direction toward a particular purpose –“living” - will be revised as needed –Based on clear mission and definition of giftedness (target population) --Purcell & Eckert, p. 63

Goals and Performance Measures  Performance Measures –What does success look like? –How will we know when we get there? –What data will we collect? –How good is good enough?

Traits  Alignment  Validity  Comprehensiveness  Clarity Purcell & Eckert, p. 64-5

Using SART to Establish Program Goals  Complete selected sections of the Self-Audit/Reflection Tool.  Identify area(s) most in need of improvement.  Target goal(s) to the area.  At the end of the year review the SART section and data to ascertain goal attainment.

Sample Program Goals  Urbandale  District 196, Minnesota –Based on NAGC Program Standards

Examine Your Program Goals  Do you have program goals?  Are they program goals or student outcomes? –What’s the difference? –Why is each important?  How do they stack up against the traits of high-quality goals on p. 64?

Writing/Revising Program Goals  Step-by-step process  Report back at each Academy session

Gifted and Talented Identification What is it? Why do it? What then?

The Target Population  Definition of “gifted”  Multiple Criteria used/analyzed

State of Iowa Definition  General Intellectual Ability  Specific Ability Aptitude  Creativity  Leadership  Visual and Performing Arts

Characteristics  With your team  Review areas in your target population  Talk about the assessments that help you find kids in each category  How is that working?  What other assessments might you need?

Understanding Giftedness The Five Levels of Giftedness Losing Our Minds Gifted Children Left Behind Ruff, 2005

Level One Gifted:  Approximately 90 th to 98 th Percentiles –“Moderately” gifted –Bright children well ahead of classmates –Advanced levels must be addressed to maximize their academic potential

Level One Gifted Birth to 2  Early eye contact  Enjoyed being read to  Early vocabulary  Early counting, singing, reciting  Sit still to watch and pay attention to TV

Level One Gifted age two to three  Very busy  Interested in many things  Puzzles are a favorite activity for many  Sit still to watch and pay attention to TV  Knows colors and alphabet  Interested in books

Level One Gifted age four to five  Master kindergarten end–of-the-year academic tasks before they turn four.  Read street and store signs  Appreciation and practice of humor  Understanding of subtleties of language  Enjoy adult conversations

Level Two Gifted 98 th and 99 th Percentiles  Especially interactive very early in their lives. –Ability to communicate and understand even before speaking  Talk progressed quickly to very advance speech  Could do things that adults did not teach them

Level Two Children  By kindergarten most have begun to read  Pick up contextual clues of vocabulary and meaning when interested in a topic  Little evidence of “sounding out”  Many resort to silent reading because it is faster.

Level Two Children  Could complete the entire elementary curriculum in three years.

Level Three Giftedness: Approximately 98 th and 99 th Percentiles  Described as “highly” or “exceptionally” gifted  Intense eye contact from birth or soon after  Clearly know and understand many things before they actually talk  Talk in full sentences before age of 2  Quick transition of no speech to full sentences  Know how to read, count, do simple math before Kindergarten.

Level Three Giftedness: Approximately 98 th and 99 th Percentiles  Abilities with numbers, colors, the alphabet, speaking & reading, and sense of humor are recognizably advanced.  Know how to read, count, do simple math before Kindergarten.  Most move from simple to chapter books during kindergarten.

Level Four Gifted: 99 th Percentile  Exceptionally to profoundly gifted  Clearly outpace lower levels of giftedness in their powers of reasoning, complexity of speech and interests, and in grasp of math concepts  Learning trajectories in reading raised from average 3 rd grade level during kindergarten to an average upper high school level by 4 th or 5 th grades

Level Four Gifted: 99 th Percentile  Most level Four children are capable of finishing all academic coursework through eighth grade before they reach third or fourth grade, but few have the opportunity to live up to their capabilities.  These are students who could go off to college at age  They could complete the elementary curriculum in two years.

But we don’t let them Radical acceleration is not radical to the child whom it serves. Instead it is a shock to the “system” and deemed “radical” by the big people in that system who don’t understand either the affective or the cognitive needs of highly gifted young children.

Level Four Gifted: 99 th Percentile “Every child in this chapter started kindergarten and first grade with other children who were within a year of his or her own age. Every child in this chapter had parents who asked the schools to recognize the abilities that their child possessed and to guide him or her appropriately. Every parent and child encountered one problem after another. Losing our Minds, Ruf, 2005

Level Five Gifted: Above the 99 th Percentile  Profoundly gifted  Omnibus genius – unusual occurrence of profound ability across all ability areas Feldman, 1986  Children are so obviously different from their age-mates in intellectual ability that either their parents or the school arrange for dramatic changes.

Level Five Gifted: Above the 99 th Percentile  Many times a parent postpones a career to advocate for the needs of the child.  Incredibly advanced in every intellectual domain – the primary distinguishing factor in contrast with other levels  Level 5 children could finish the entire elementary curriculum in less than a year if given the opportunity.

Reflect and Discuss  What are the implications for schools and teachers?

Small Poppies: Highly gifted children in the early years Miraca U.M. Gross Source: Roeper Review 1999 Vol. 21, No. 3, pp

Text Coding I knew that (highlight yellow) ? Needs clarification (highlight pink) ! New perspective or new idea (highlight blue)

Share With a Partner 2-3 places where you text coded Why did you code? What was your connection?

Gifted at the Secondary Level

Starting the Process  Screening –Use existing data sources  Nomination/Referral –Who may/should refer? –How will they do it? –How will they know they can?

Digging Deeper  What stands out about the child?  What more do you need to know? –Cast a wider net –No single piece of data screens a child “in” or “out”  Are the criteria valid for the construct being measured?  How will you analyze the information?  At what point can you make a decision with confidence?  Notification

Activity  Consider the list of multiple criteria  Identify which area(s) of giftedness for which each would be a valid criterion to consider.  Are all the criteria appropriate at all grade spans?  Add other examples at the bottom.  Share with someone you haven’t yet worked with today.

Placement  Which children need which services?  Not about assigning a label  According to need

It is better to have imprecise answers to the right questions than precise answers to the wrong questions. --Donald Campbell

Some Things to Ponder  Once identified, always identified?  Procedure for staffing out?  Your questions?

Gap Analysis With your team 1.Study Guiding Principles, Attributes That Define High-Quality Identification Procedures (p. 51-2), and SART results 2.Identify desired state 3.Outline your current identification procedures (current state) 4.List steps needed to move toward desired state

Home Play  Establish program goals for identification  Determine domains of giftedness to be served  Write identification plan for district (Identification section of written plan)  Share with GT Advisory and/or Administrative Team  Complete Differentiated Program section of Self-Audit Tool

Magnet Summary  Fold paper in fourths  Write “identification” in the middle  In each corner write a key word or phrase to remember  Summarize at the bottom