The Ohio Department of Education has stated that all gifted professional learning must address eight competencies. The competencies are:
a) The ability to differentiate instruction based on a student’s readiness, knowledge and skill level, including using accelerated content, complexity, depth challenge, creativity and abstractness;
b) The ability to select, adapt or create a variety of differentiated curricula that incorporate advanced, conceptually challenging, in-depth, distinctive and complex content;
c) The ability to provide an extension or replacement of the general education curriculum to modify the learning process through strategies such as curriculum compacting and to select alternative assignments and projects based on individual student needs;
d) The ability to understand the social and emotional needs of students who are gifted and to address the impact of those needs on student learning;
e) The ability to recognize and respond to characteristics and needs of students from traditionally underrepresented populations who are gifted and create safe and culturally responsive learning environments;
f) The ability to use data from a variety of sources to measure and monitor the growth of students who are gifted;
g) The ability to select, use and interpret technically sound formal and informal assessments for the purpose of academic decision-making;
h) The ability to participate in the development of the Written Education Plan.
The four pathways to obtain your fifteen hours of professional learning are aligned to the eight competencies stated by the Ohio Department of Education. On your gifted professional learning log, each activity must be aligned to one or more of the eight competencies.
Modules Pathway - Each module is aligned to one or more competencies.
Books Pathway - Each book is also aligned one or more of the eight competencies. Use these alignments in your gifted professional learning log.
GIS (Gifted Intervention Specialist) Collaboration Pathway - When collaborating with a GIS, identify which of the eight competencies upon which you are working. Note these on your professional learning log.
PL (Professional Learning) - Third party gifted professional learning opportunities must be aligned to the eight competencies. If the presenters do not offer an alignment to the competencies, please choose the one or many that most closely align with the learning. Note these on your professional learning log.