Gifted and Talented Programming Wendy Pieseski (with a little help from Natasha Straayer) April 23, 2015

 Gifted and talented students are those students between the ages of four and twenty-one whose abilities, talents, and potential for accomplishment are so exceptional or developmentally advanced that they require special provisions to meet their educational programming needs.  Gifted students include students with disabilities (i.e. twice exceptional) and students with exceptional abilities or potential from all socio-economic and ethnic, cultural populations. Straayer

 Gifted students are capable of high performance, exceptional production, or exceptional learning behavior by virtue of any or a combination of these areas:  General or Specific Intellectual Ability  Specific Academic Aptitude  Creative or Productive Thinking  Leadership Abilities  Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Musical or Psychomotor Abilities

 We identified 23 students this year as gifted in math or language arts, ranging from 2 nd – 8 th grade  Second grade – 2  Third grade – 3  Fourth grade – 3  Fifth grade – 3  Sixth grade – 1  Seventh grade – 3  Eighth grade - 8

 Unusual alertness, even in infancy  Rapid learner; puts thoughts together quickly  Excellent memory  Unusually large vocabulary and complex sentence structure for age  Advanced comprehension of word nuances, metaphors and abstract ideas  Enjoys solving problems, especially with numbers and puzzles

 Often self-taught reading and writing skills as preschooler  Deep, intense feelings and reactions  Highly sensitive  Thinking is abstract, complex, logical, and insightful  Idealism and sense of justice at early age  Concern with social and political issues and injustices  Longer attention span and intense concentration  Desire to organize people/things through games or complex schemas

 Preoccupied with own thoughts—daydreamer  Learn basic skills quickly and with little practice  Asks probing questions  Wide range of interests (or extreme focus in one area)  Highly developed curiosity  Interest in experimenting and doing things differently  Puts idea or things together that are not typical  Keen and/or unusual sense of humor  Vivid imaginations (imaginary playmates in preschool)

 Identified students have an Advanced Learning Plan (ALP) to document affective and academic goals in their identified area(s) of strength.  Accommodations, timelines, transition points, evaluation/progress tools are all outlined in the ALP.  ALPs are a collaborative process between the parents, teacher(s) and the student.  ALPs are reviewed and updated annually.

 Gifted Programming is designed to meet the academic, social/ emotional, and behavioral needs of students identified with advanced learning needs.  Teachers in the classroom differentiate instruction as students demonstrate a need for more depth and complexity.

 Differentiated instruction  Curriculum compacting  Grade and/or Content acceleration  Cluster grouping  Tiered assignments  Flexible grouping  Independent study  Project-based learning  Leadership opportunities  Mentorships

 talented talented  ed-education/professional- learning/discovery-program- teachers/disocvery-program-teachers- meeting-april ed-education/professional- learning/discovery-program- teachers/disocvery-program-teachers- meeting-april-2014