1. Gifted and Talented Academy
Session 2
January 26, 2010

2. Agenda Process Home Play Developing a Written Gifted and Talented Plan
District Program Goals
Domains of Giftedness
Identification
Tools and Criteria
Using this information
Developing an Identification Plan

3. Processing Home Play Triads - three different districts
With whom did you share your mission/philosophy? 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/philosophy?)
How will it guide your programming?

4. 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?

5. A comprehensive gifted and talented plan
Academy Outcome
A comprehensive gifted and talented plan

6. Comprehensive Plan
…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

7. 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

8. Traits Derivation of Services Comprehensiveness Practicality
Consistency
Clarity
Availability
Continuation, Extension, and Evaluation
From Purcell & Eckert p

9. 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 are broad and might not be measurable. The objectives or indicators are more specific and measurable.

10. Goals and 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?

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

12. 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.

13. Sample Program Goals Urbandale District 196, Minnesota
Based on NAGC Program Standards

14. 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?

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

16. Gifted and Talented Identification
What is it?
Why do it?
What then?
Membership in the “club” or access to appropriate services?
An event or a process?
Have we mistakenly associated “identification” with running kids through a formal whole grade screening to the end of attaching a label?

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

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

20. Characteristics Groups of 4
Brainstorm characteristics of assigned area of giftedness.
Post to appropriate section on the EtherPad
Gallery “Walk” of EtherPad
Consider how these characteristics might look different at different grade spans.

21. Five Levels of Gifted

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

23. Level One Gifted: Approximately 90th to 98th Percentiles
TAG Academy
Level One Gifted:
Approximately 90th to 98th Percentiles
“Moderately” gifted
Bright children well ahead of classmates
Advanced levels must be addressed to maximize their academic potential
1)Advanced abilities must be addressed to maximize academic potential and their ability to develop into confident & productive adults and
2) Readers or people learning about giftedness need to see how the learning and behavioral distinctions differ between children who are bright and those who are substantially more advanced.
Important to understand the differences in levels of giftedness
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

24. Level One Gifted Birth to 2
TAG Academy
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
Sit still to watch and pay attention to TV is common among the gifted, but it is not common among typical children under one and two years of age.
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

25. Level One Gifted age two to three
TAG Academy
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
Sit still to watch and pay attention to TV is common among the gifted, but it is not common among typical children under one and two years of age.
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

26. Level One Gifted age four to five
TAG Academy
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
Sit still to watch and pay attention to TV is common among the gifted, but it is not common among typical children under one and two years of age.
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

27. Level Two Gifted 98th and 99th 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

28. 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.

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

30. Level Three Giftedness: Approximately 98th and 99th Percentiles
TAG Academy
Level Three Giftedness: Approximately 98th and 99th 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.
Typical public school with 100 children per grade level has one or two of these children in each grade.
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

31. Level Three Giftedness: Approximately 98th and 99th Percentiles
TAG Academy
Level Three Giftedness: Approximately 98th and 99th 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.
Typical public school with 100 children per grade level has one or two of these children in each grade.
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

32. Level Four Gifted: 99th Percentile
TAG Academy
Level Four Gifted: 99th 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 3rd grade level during kindergarten to an average upper high school level by 4th or 5th grades
More students are in this category than we will ever know particularly since some of the students will never be formally identified as gifted because their challenging behaviors in a regular classroom may work against their identification.
Some level 4 children may start in public schools, however the parents might move or send the child to a particular school here they think the educational opportunities will be greater. Many parents of Level four and higher children turn to home schooling so fewer level four and five children are in our schools than what could or should have been
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

33. Level Four Gifted: 99th Percentile
TAG Academy
Level Four Gifted: 99th 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.
More students are in this category than we will ever know particularly since some of the students will never be formally identified as gifted because their challenging behaviors in a regular classroom may work against their identification.
Some level 4 children may start in public schools, however the parents might move or send the child to a particular school here they think the educational opportunities will be greater. Many parents of Level four and higher children turn to home schooling so fewer level four and five children are in our schools than what could or should have been
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

34. 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.

35. Level Four Gifted: 99th Percentile
TAG Academy
Level Four Gifted: 99th 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.
More students are in this category than we will ever know particularly since some of the students will never be formally identified as gifted because their challenging behaviors in a regular classroom may work against their identification.
Some level 4 children may start in public schools, however the parents might move or send the child to a particular school here they think the educational opportunities will be greater. Many parents of Level four and higher children turn to home schooling so fewer level four and five children are in our schools than what could or should have been
Losing our Minds,
Ruf, 2005
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

36. Level Five Gifted: Above the 99th 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.

37. Level Five Gifted: Above the 99th 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.

38. Reflect and Discuss
What are the implications for schools and teachers?

39. Commonality Gifted children seem to need and run on less sleep.
Some go from full activity to ….

40. Small Poppies: Highly gifted children in the early years
Jigsaw sections of Profile article. Number off 1-5,
All will read the introduction and their assigned profile
Plan to share your coding when completed
Miraca U.M. Gross
Source: Roeper Review 1999
Vol. 21, No. 3, pp
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

41. Text Coding ? Needs clarification ! New perspective or new idea
I knew that
? Needs clarification
! New perspective or new idea
Upon completion of reading. Share with a partner what you have coded.
Heartland AEA, Linda Moehring

42. 2-3 places where you text coded
Share With a Partner
2-3 places where you text coded
Why did you code?
What was your connection?

43. Gifted at the Secondary Level
Add information from Feldhusen book

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

45. 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

46. Multiple Measures?

47. Multiple
Hurdles?

48. 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.
Note the ID tools page on the Wiki.

49. Matrix
See the matrix example on the Wiki

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

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

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

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

55. 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

56. 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