Gifted Education in Elementary Schools

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Gifted Education in Elementary Schools
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So my child is gifted.What does that mean?

• Even among researchers and experts in the field,
  there is no clear agreement about giftedness
• and who should be considered
• gifted and talented.

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In South Carolina

• According to SC R 43-220
• Gifted and talented students are those who are
  identified in grades one through twelve as
  demonstrating high performance ability or
  potential in academic and/or artistic areas and
  therefore require an educational program beyond
  that normally provided by the general school
  program in order to achieve their potential.

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Purposes of Identification

• To find students who display characteristics of
  the gifted and talented
• To assess the aptitudes, attributes, and
  behaviors of each student
• To evaluate each student for the purposes of
  placement

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Where are they?
Everywhere!
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• Within any racial, ethnic or socioeconomic group
• Within any nationality
• Within both genders
• Within populations with physical disabilities,
  learning disabilities or behavioral problems

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How are they identified?

• In South Carolina, students are identified as
  gifted and talented by qualifying using the
  following dimensions
• Dimension A Reasoning Abilities
• Dimension B Achievement in Reading and/or Math
• Dimension C Intellectual/Academic Performance

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Dimension A Reasoning Abilities

• Automatic qualification total or composite
  score at the 96th national age percentile or
  higher
• 93rd national age percentile or higher in one or
  more of these areas verbal, nonverbal,
  quantitative and/or composite
• Examples of tests OLSAT and CogAT

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Dimension B Achievement in Reading and/or Math

• Score of 94th national age percentile in reading
  and/or math as measured by a nationally normed
  achievement test such as MAP, Terra Nova,
  Stanford 8, etc.
• Advanced score on PACT Reading (not English
  Language Arts) and/or Math

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Dimension C Intellectual/Academic Performance

• For placement in grades 3 through 6 qualifying
  score on SC Performance Tasks for grade level
  administered annually in March
• For placement in grades 7 through 12 Grade
  Point Average in academic areas of 3.75 or higher
  on a 4.0 scale

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Project STAR Criteria

• Placement into Grade 3
• Primary 16 Verbal or Nonverbal
• Placement into Grade 4
• Primary 18 Verbal or Nonverbal
• Placement into Grade 5
• Intermediate Verbal 16 or Nonverbal 22
• Placement into Grade 5
• Intermediate Verbal 18 or Nonverbal 25

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How are they served?

• Resource Room/Pullout Model
• Grade 3 125 minutes per week
• Grades 4-5 200 minutes per week
• Special Class/Content Model
• Grades 3-5 8100 minutes per year
• Reading and/or Math

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What about the curriculum?

• Content, process and product standards that
  exceed the state-adopted standards for all
  students
• Goals and indicators that require students to
  demonstrate depth and complexity of knowledge and
  skills
• A confluent approach that incorporates both
  acceleration and enrichment
• Opportunities for worldwide communication and
  research

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Differentiation for Gifted Students

• Pacing
• Depth
• Complexity
• Level of Abstraction

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Who teaches them?

• Teachers must hold a valid teaching certificate.
• Each teacher of a state-funded gifted and
  talented class must have completed a training
  program.
• Two graduate courses
• Nature and Needs of Gifted and Talented Students
• Curriculum for Gifted and Talented Students

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What do they look like?
Gifts come in different packages!
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Meet Jennifer!

• Jennifer runs her 3rd grade class. A teacher is
  always present, but it is Jennifer who tells the
  children what to do, when to laugh, how to
  construct the paper mache map and when its
  alright to study quietly. Everybody knows she is
  in charge!

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Meet Jason!

• At age 5, Jason could sweep into a room and take
  over. What are you doing? Whats this thing on
  your desk? How come youre doing that now? Do
  you have any gum? What day is this? You put
  that in the wrong place it should be over here.
  Tie my shoe. Most adults instantly disliked
  him. He asked too many questions he demanded
  too many answers he had no self-control.

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Meet Sarah!

• Sarahs parents knew from the beginning there was
  something different about her. She sat up,
  walked and talked at much earlier stages than did
  her two sisters. At age five, she taught herself
  to read but she was not a particularly good
  student. In fact she had to take remedial math
  even to get into a state university. Now shes a
  professor of law and court judge.
• Does This Mean My Kids a Genius? Linda Pergo
  Moore

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General Characteristics

• Sensitivity
• Problem solvers
• Rapid learning ability
• Long attention span
• Wide range of interests
• Seem mature for age
• Compassion for others

• High degree of energy
• Perfectionism
• Sense of humor
• Perseverance in areas of interest
• Likes puzzles, mazes or numbers
• Prefers older companions

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What about their parents?

• Keep things in perspective!
• Stop stressing!

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Thinking about success

• Most people who attain success in their lives,
  however defined, are people who figure out
• who they are
• what they have to offer themselves, others and
  the world at large.
• They find ways of making the most of their
  diverse talents, and they find ways to live with
  their weaknesses.
• Robert Sternberg, 1996

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Quoting the Expert
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Whats your role?

• Certainly parents play a crucial role in the
  lives of individuals who are intellectually
  gifted or creatively talented
• BUT
• This role is not one of active instruction, of
  teaching children skills.

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• RATHER
• It is the
• support and encouragement
• parents give children
• and
• the intellectual climate that they create in the
  home
• which seem to be the critical factors.
• David Elkind, 1987

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Talk About It!

• Parents of achievers spent more time simply
  TALKING to their children.
• Having conversations or discussions was cited by
  parents in the successful group more often than
  any other family activity.
• Every study shows that parents and children
  talking over ideas is an essential element of the
  environment that fosters talent in kids.

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Parental Roles
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Iron rusts from disuse Stagnant water loses its
purity and in cold weather becomes frozen Even
so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks