 Christine Hartland, Grade 5 S/C  Julie Perks, Grade 4 S/C  Jenny Dow, Grade 3 S/C  Kristy Whigham, Grade 2 S/C

 Characteristics of Gifted Learners  Self-Contained Class Description  Goals  Educational Philosophy  Expectations  Common Core Standards  Curricular Resources

 Is intense  Already knows  Draws inferences  Is a good guesser  Asks the questions  Has wild, silly ideas  Is keenly observant  Constructs abstractions  Manipulates information  Discusses in detail, elaborates  Is mentally and physically involved  Enjoys learning (but NOT necessarily school)  Shows strong feelings, emotions, and opinions  Plays around, yet tests well (versus works hard)  Initiates projects (versus completes assignments)  Creates a new design (versus copies accurately)  Typically needs only 1 or 2 repetitions for mastery  Is highly self-critical (this often translates into perfectionism)

There is tremendous potential for learning when academically gifted children are grouped together, and in the self-contained classes gifted students are grouped together all day every day. Students who qualify for this program need the support and challenge that a peer group of students with similar academic interests and abilities provide. Students will participate in the school’s regular art, music, and physical education curriculum. The core curriculum will consist of Kyrene’s grade-level curriculum in all subject areas. Once students master grade level curriculum, they may be exposed to advanced curriculum and enrichment.

The teachers will follow Kyrene’s philosophy of continuous progress – particularly in language arts and math – so that students may be challenged at an appropriate level of difficulty. At the same time, opportunities will be provided to apply and extend content knowledge and skills. Student workload will be designed to be the same in amount as for other students in these grades, but it will be different in content. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, teachers will provide opportunities for students to learn and practice the interpersonal skills so critical to success. Presentation skills, public speaking proficiency, and the various skills involved in polite and intelligent collaboration will be emphasized.

 Becoming responsible for their own learning  Understanding that mistakes are a way of learning  Becoming collaborative thinkers and problem solvers

 High Expectations  Responsibility  Character  Support

What You Can Expect From Us:  Best practices in teaching  Open communication  Differentiation for your child’s individual needs  Enthusiasm  Creativity  Respect  Honesty  Fairness

What We Expect of Your Child:  Ongoing home-school communication  Timely completion of homework and classwork  Respectful collaboration  Initiative  Creativity

What is the parent’s role?  Support  Communication  Reasonable expectations  Setting aside daily time for homework

 Common Core Standards in ELA (English Language Arts) and Mathematics are designed to prepare students for college and career.  Content Areas (Science, Health, and Social Studies) provide additional practice in the skills needed to read and use Informational Text effectively.

 Harcourt Trophies  Junior Great Books  Literature Studies – Kyrene adopted trade books  Word Study (Spelling and Vocabulary) – Wordly Wise and Wordsmith (“Groovy Bob”)  Nonfiction – content area informational text, textbooks, and articles  Writing Workshop and opportunities to write across the curriculum  Many opportunities to present, speak, and listen

 Investigations  Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley  Fosnot units  Hands-On Equations  Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI)  Number Talks  Additional adopted supplementary resources

 The AIMS test, which is not aligned to the existing standards, was used for the last time in Spring  Arizona State Board of Education is devoted to the selection of a rigorous assessment to measure student learning and inform the State’s accountability measures.  The State Board of Education’s final selection and adoption of a new statewide English language arts and mathematics achievement assessment is expected to occur in early October,  This new statewide achievement assessment will be aligned to Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards and will be administered beginning in the spring of 2015.