Program Overview and Selection Process

PROJECT EXTRA OVERVIEW

Project Extra is Oceanside School District’s gifted and enrichment program, which serves children in grades 4, 5, and 6. This pull-out program is centrally located at School 6. The children leave their home schools once a week to engage in activities of a specialized nature.

Project Extra activities are designed to nurture the potential giftedness of our students. These activities provide children opportunities to learn that are commensurate with their abilities. This differentiated curriculum is designed to foster independent thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem solving. Children are encouraged to take risks by attempting to solve complex problems in unique and original ways. The activities in Project Extra are not designed to complement, relate to, or extend the standard classroom curriculum. They are chosen and designed for their purposeful ability to meet the needs of academically talented students.

The program of instruction maximizes the opportunities for children to be producers rather than consumers of knowledge. It equips them with the ability to generate not only ideas, but also the criteria with which to evaluate them. The children work in group activities as well as individually. Thus effective communication and decision making skills are fostered through group interaction, oral presentations and written work.

The teacher evaluates the child’s growth in the program through projects, class work, and class participation.

Over the three years the children are involved in the program, there is a well-planned sequential development of increasingly difficult content and processes. The techniques, activities, and projects experienced in Project Extra are designed and taught to nurture the life long needs of the potentially gifted learner. These skills, techniques and activities are built upon each year as the children mature and become more cognizant of their own learning and environment.

PROJECT EXTRA SELECTION PROCESS – 2019-2020 (revised 2/16)

All students in Grade 3 will participate in the InView assessment during the first two weeks of February. Students who achieve an above-average score will be considered for entrance into the Project Extra program.

For those students who have met the above criteria, the Gifted and Talented Evaluation Scale, 2nd Edition (G.A.T.E.S.) will be completed.

The Grade 3 students who achieve the highest ratings, based on a 65% weight of the InView and a 35% weight of the G.A.T.E.S., will be invited to participate in the Project Extra program. All other students, including students who did not achieve an above-average score on the InView assessment, will receive enriched instruction through our Project Extra in the Classroom program in grades 4, 5 and 6

Students in grades 4 and 5 who are recommended by their classroom teacher for consideration for entrance into the Project Extra program will be considered based upon the above criteria, as well as available space in the program.