1. Manson School District Highly Capable Program
Program Administrator: Keitlyn Watson
Program Instructors: Keitlyn Watson and Juliana Ortiz

2. What is a Highly Capable Student?
(1) Capacity to learn with unusual depth of understanding, to retain what has been learned, and to transfer learning to new situations;
(2) Capacity and willingness to deal with increasing levels of abstraction and complexity earlier than their chronological peers;
(3) Creative ability to make unusual connections among ideas and concepts;
(4) Ability to learn quickly in their area(s) of intellectual strength; and
(5) Capacity for intense concentration and/or focus.
[Statutory Authority: Chapter 28A.185 RCW. WSR , §
What is a Highly Capable Student?

3. Other Characteristics of Highly Capable students
Difference between academic maturity and emotional maturity
Can present behavior challenges
Not necessarily one with “good grades”
Can be highly capable in one area
Other Characteristics of Highly Capable students

4. Students identified by referral during two timeframes: Fall for Grades K – 4 and May for grades 5 and up.
Once referred, parent permission is obtained for screening.
Screening consists of multiple measures, including test scores, grades, and the SIGS (scales for identifying gifted students).
Screening results are compiled by HCP director and reviewed with a Highly Capable Program committee. Currently, this consists of Mrs. Clausen, Mrs. C. Williams, and Ms. Watson.
Qualifying Process

5. Delivering Instruction
Service delivery commences January for students identified the previous fall, and fall for students identify the previous May.
Students in middle and high school typically have their services provided by placement in advanced coursework. Should there be a situation in which an identified Highly Capable student is not placed in advanced coursework, the HCP director works with the building principal and individual teacher(s) to design appropriate challenging assignments.
The model in the elementary school is primarily a pullout model, either individual or small group, weekly, for up to half an hour. The content is in the area in which the student has been identified as highly capable, and digs deeply into content that is already being taught.
Delivering Instruction

6. Examples (deep learning opportunities within content)
Requiring more elaboration in writing than required by the typical student in fourth grade
Extending math learning for a second grader – exploring concepts of mass versus weight, fractional thinking, etc.
Increasing complexity of math problems for a pair of fourth graders
Providing tiered written assignments for a first grade math student
Working with a second grader on prefixes/suffixes/roots and continuum of meaning of vocabulary
Working with a second grade on rhyme scheme, an advanced concept in poetry
Working with a sixth grade student to create challenge assignments that require
Examples (deep learning opportunities within content)