Elementary
School
Social acceptance by
parents, teachers, and
peers is positively
connected to school
achievement and being
smart
Middle School
Teachers approval is less important
that peers’ approval, which is often
contingent on athletic prowess, rapidly
changing fads in clothing or music, or
belonging to the right clique
Gifted students may have a hard time
finding compatible friends because
they often need more than one groupage peers and intellectual peers
Educating Gifted Students In Middle School, P. 6-7
• Levels of Service model; Level 3
services
• ALM (Autonomous Learner
Model): ALM is a year-long
course where a group of highpotential students meet using a
holistic gifted curriculum to
literally learn how to learn
independently.
• FLEX Classes
• Honors Courses
Hopkins
Autonomous Learner Model
Autonomous
Learner Model
Hopkins West High School
Hopkins, cont.
•
Gifted Education: Autonomous Learner Model (ALM)
• Addresses the unique needs and interests of top-ability students and is
offered by invitation only.
• Offered over all three years in the junior high — 7th, 8th, and 9th
grades.
• Units of study include reading and analyzing high-level literature
(examples: Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, Into Thin Air, Frankenstein)
including literary analysis papers, Socratic seminars on controversial
topics or literary works, philosophy and psychology seminars, and
creativity/imagination challenges. All ALM students conclude each year
with a long-term (4-7 month), research-based, in-depth project on a
topic of their choosing. That project is the culmination of their work and
illustrates their interests and ability to complete a high-level project.
Unit One: Orientation/Understanding Brain Styles
• What is ALM? (orientation and review of dimensions)
• Brain styles (Right/Left, Abstract/Concrete,
Random/Sequential, etc.)
• What is intelligence?
Unit Two: Enrichment/Seminar Studies
• Novel Study: Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game
– Socratic discussions: Violence, Personal reflection
in Ender’s struggles
• Bloom’s Taxonomy explorations
• Socratic Discussion Skills: Why do intelligent students
fear failure so much?
Unit Three: Enrichment/Seminar Studies
• Novel study: Everest Adventures (Into Thin Air, The
Climb, Dark Summit)
– Socratic discussions: Is basic human nature
selfless or selfish?
• Begin process/brainstorming work on 1st year
Advanced Project: What is it? What are the
expectations? Project proposals and timelines
• Fun with Math investigations
ALM: First Year
Highlights
Hopkins West Junior High school
South
Washingt
on County
Schools
Clustering Model
http://www.sowash
co.k12.mn.us/Depar
tments/Gifted/docu
ments/LevelofServi
ceSecondary.pdf
South Washington County
Cluster
Classrooms
Differentiated
Instruction
Identification
• Gifted students are placed together into cluster
classrooms for their core classes: language arts,
social studies, science & math with teachers who
have been identified and specifically trained in areas
•
•
•
•
•
Pre-assessments that guide learning activities
Enhanced problem solving
Project-based learning
Engagement and relevance
Responding to individual differences
• Core cluster classes will be formed with the following
groupings to ensure a realistic instructional range:
• Gateway students
• Identified gifted students
• Non-identified high achieving students
http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/Departments/Gifted/documents/MiddleSchool_G