Southridge Elementary GT Belief Statement
At Southridge Elementary, we believe the goal of the gifted and talented program is to
provide experiences that meet the unique cognitive, social, and emotional needs of
potentially gifted and identified gifted students. A specific emphasis will be to find and
serve students that are traditionally underrepresented in gifted and talented programs,
particularly economically disadvantaged and limited English proficient (LEP).
Our approach is two-fold:

In the primary grades (K-2), we will work with the classroom teachers to craft and
deliver lessons that will nurture higher level thinking. We believe that young
students are developing cognitive skills at a rapid pace during these years and
that all will benefit from these experiences, whether formally identified as gifted
and talented or not. The GT Facilitator will deliver planned experiences in each
classroom to help foster creative and critical thinking in all students.

At the upper elementary grades (3-5), students will receive more direct
intervention in the form of pull out lessons that follow the district designed
curriculum. This curriculum has been created to support the thinking capacities
of creativity, critical thinking, self awareness, problem solving, communication,
and research. The GT Facilitator will deliver planned experiences in each
classroom to help foster creative and critical thinking in all students. In addition,
we will assist the classroom teachers in crafting lessons that continually meet the
cognitive needs of our diverse gifted and talented population.