Dr. Barbara L. Branch
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• First Day
– Legal aspects
– California Standards
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• Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performance at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.
• These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative, and/or artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields. They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools.
• Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor.
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NCLB Definition of Gifted
The definition of gifted and talented in NCLB is as follows:
The term 'gifted and talented', when used with respect to students, children, or youth, means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.
Title IX, Part A, Section 9101(22)
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California Definition as gifted and talented in all categories, identification of a pupil’s extraordinary capability shall be in relation to the pupil’s chronological peers.
– Intellectual Ability : A Pupil demonstrates extraordinary or potential for extraordinary intellectual development
– Creative Ability : A Pupil characteristically:
• Perceives unusual relationships among aspects of the pupil’s environment and among ideas;
• Overcomes obstacles to thinking and doing;
• Produces unique solutions to problems
– Specific Academic Ability : A pupil functions at highly advanced academic levels in particular subject areas.
– Leadership Ability: A pupil displays the characteristic behaviors necessary for extraordinary leadership.
– High Achievement : A pupil consistently produces advanced ideas and products and/or attains exceptionally high scores on achievement tests.
– Visual and Performing Arts Talent : A Pupil originates, performs, produces, or responds at extraordinarily high levels in the arts.
– Any other category which meets the standards set forth in these regulations
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CAL CODE REGS, title 5, § 3822

• MGM – 1961
• GATE – 1980 – AB 1040
• Districts set up own criteria
• Expanded services beyond intellectually gifted
• Updated GATE with standards - AB 2313
• Title V of the State Code
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• Components
– Program Design
– Identification
– Curriculum and Instruction
– Social & Emotional Development
– Professional Development
– Parent and Community Involvement
– Program Assessment
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• Continuum of program services
• Integral part of the day
• Flexible groupings
• Trained teachers
– Characteristics
– Differentiation Strategies
• Respect for gifted needs
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
What can schools do to help these students when they really care, but don’t have the funds?
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
Some gifted students may be candidates for early entrance to
kindergarten, or possibly first
grade if they are already reading.
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
Pre-assess gifted students before a unit or a course for mastery of the subject matter and offer a more advanced unit or course.
Self-contained classes for gifted students, particularly in core curriculum classes, help them move on to more advanced subjects.
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Multi-age, self-contained gifted classes are even more effective. Learning with intellectual peers encourages gifted students to achieve.
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
Subject acceleration is appropriate when a student is proficient in a particular subject.
Consider grade
acceleration when a student demonstrates proficiency at a particular grade level. Use the Iowa Acceleration Scale to evaluate this and other options.
Subject
Grade
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• Limited familiarity with the research on acceleration
• Philosophy that children must be kept with their age group
• Belief that acceleration hurries children out of childhood
• Fear that acceleration hurts children socially
• Political concerns about equity
• Worry that other students will be offended if one child is accelerated.
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
Dual enrollment in middle or high school, or high school and college, offers challenging opportunities for gifted students.
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
Offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses and/or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs for gifted students.
Provide counselors who are trained to counsel
gifted students, including advising them of talent development opportunities.
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
Advise students of Academic Talent
Searches, scholarships and academic
competitions and give students credit for the advanced courses they take in
academic summer programs.
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Gifted Program Delivery Models
Create a school culture that values intellectual discovery and achievements, where students encourage one another to accomplish more than they would on their own.
Encourage administrators and teachers to educate themselves on the wide range of
exceptional abilities among bright students and increase flexibility in addressing the individual learning needs of gifted
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• Placing high achievers together in one classroom challenges those students, enabling other students to become academic leaders and allowing new talent to emerge.
Marcia Gentry
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• Cluster grouping makes it easier for teachers to meet the needs of students in their classrooms by reducing the achievement range of students within a classroom.
• Cluster grouping used in conjunction with challenging instruction and high teacher expectations may improve how teachers view their students with respect to ability and achievement.
Marcia Gentry
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• Achievement scores improved over a three-year period for students in a cluster group environment and the number of students identified as high achievers increased.
Marcia Gentry
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• Flexible grouping within and between classes that reduces the achievement range of each class can provide many benefits to all students and teachers.
• The positive effects of cluster grouping result from many changes in the school climate such as:
Marcia Gentry
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• creating opportunities for staff development, emphasizing a variety of instructional strategies;
• raising teacher expectations;
• creating a sense of ownership;
Marcia Gentry
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• reducing the range of achievement levels in classrooms;
• creating opportunities for collaboration with colleagues and administration.
Marcia Gentry
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• Identify possible gifted in K-1
– Reading fluency
– Math problem solving skills
– Vocabulary
– Characteristics checklist
– Reading comprehension
• Train K-6 teachers
• Provide differentiated instruction K-6
• Officially identify in grade 6 for 7-8 placement
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• Identify within schools using checklists and rubrics of exemplars
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• Train teachers in differentiated instruction of the core curriculum
• Create a sequence of extensions for your district content standards
– Core Plus
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Core
Subject
(District
Adoptions)
English Lang
Arts
SRA/McGraw-
Hill, Open
Court
GATE Enrichment or Extensions
Activities that Support the Core
GATE Enrichment or
Extensions
Materials/Enrichment that Support the Core*
* The Classics, SRA/ McGraw-Hill
The core Open Court program is “compacted” in GATE classrooms. To add additional challenge, delivered at an accelerated pace, The Classics are integrated into ELA instruction, 2 nd -6 th grade.
* Book & Brain Reading, Nancy Linden
GATE teachers receive on-going in-service training in how to integrate critical thinking into core curricula. They each have the icon posters and have taught students how to use these elements to explore content in more depth/complexity.
Frames are also being used as graphic organizers to guide further investigations beyond core assignments.
* Chapter books & decodables aligned to OC theme.
English Language Arts Practice Tests & Workbook material is aligned to grade-level ELA standards. Data generated from practice tests (2 nd -6 th grades) allow teachers to pre & post assess student knowledge related to grade specific standards. Using individual data, teachers may compact material that is mastered, focus on skills gaps and accelerate instruction based on student needs.


* Novels that extend/enrich core instruction, for example;
 The Little Prince
The Cricket In Time Square
The Velveteen Rabbit
* The Flip Book, Kaplan & Gould, Educator To Educator
* Frames, Kaplan & Gould,
Educator To Educator
-Students are taught an analysis process for responding to questions found in standardized tests, 2 nd
Brain
-6 th grade. Book &
* Depth & Complexity Icon Cards,
Kaplan & Gould, Educator To Educator
Graphic Organizers & Activities For Differentiated Instruction in Reading, Scholastic Teaching
Resources (2 nd -6 th )
- Learning contracts are used during workshop, 2 nd -6 th grade, which includes opportunities to differentiate according to student choice, the need for depth & complexity & pacing options.
Differentiation: Simplified, Realistic & Effective, B. Kingore, Professional Associates Publishing (2 nd -6 th )
- Icons, representing elements of depth & complexity) are integrated into questions, prompts, and student activities,
2 nd -6 th grade.
* Interact Units aligned to grade-level ELA standards:


Folk Tales
Sleuth
- Students are exposed to world folk tales and practice the art of story telling. Folk Tales
GEMS: Lawrence Hall of Science Units aligned to grade-level ELA standards:
 Mystery Festival (2 nd -3 rd )
- A learning-station format is used to study the genre of Mysteries. Students conduct crime-lab tests on evidence to solve a variety of mysteries. Mystery Festival (2 nd -3 rd)
- A literary treasure hunt is used as students investigate the plot, settings, characters & themes of ten mystery novels.
Sleuth
Language Arts Today by McGraw Hill
“Blast-Off”, English Language Arts Practice Tests & Workbook, Buckle Down Publishing (2 nd -5 th )
Young Author’s Program
Jack London Square
- Students “Think Like An Author” by experiencing the Young Author’s Program. They write, edit, illustrate & bind their own book.
- Students study California authors, with a culminating field trip by train to Jack London Square. (3 rd )
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• Teacher and administrator training
• Parent speakers
• Book clubs
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• Minimal - once
– Teacher training in characteristics and differentiated instruction strategies
• Maximum - ongoing
– Certificate Program
– Differentiation
– Social/Emotional
– Diverse Gifted
– Program Design and Instruction
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• Parent speakers – CAG regional reps
• Book club
• Discussions at SSC meetings
• Mentor program
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• Review School Site Plans
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For every gifted child who is not allowed to reach his or her potential, there is a lost opportunity for a society in desperate need of creativity and inventiveness.”
Carl Rogers
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