Program

Definition of "Talented and Gifted"

“Gifted and talented” children means those children identified at the elementary and secondary level as having demonstrated potential abilities of high performance capability and needing differentiated or accelerated education or services. For the purpose of this definition, “demonstrated abilities of high performance capability” means those identified students who score in the top five percent in more than one standardized tests such as the Iowa Assessments, NWEA MAP, and the Cognitive Abilities Test(CogAT) particularly in the areas of math and reading.

Goals

Program Goals:

• Students will be identified and routinely monitored for talented and gifted services.
• Student progress will be continuously monitored and reported to parents at regular intervals to coincide with building expectations.
• Different levels of service will be provided to learners based on their unique learning needs.
• K-12 identified gifted students will receive instruction and/or guidance from program staff, program facilitators, school counselors, teachers, and administrators.
• Differentiated curriculum will be a focused strategy for staff to ensure no gifted child is left behind.
• The program coordinator will provide professional development for all teachers concerning differentiation and giftedness.

Student Learning Goals:

• Students will demonstrate advanced levels of content understanding associated with District Standards and Benchmarks.
• Students will be given opportunities to investigate career opportunities relating to their individual passion areas and areas of giftedness.
• Students will be given opportunities to develop the necessary skills to become Autonomous Learners as they progress from Elementary to High School.
• Students will develop skills in research, problem solving, and presentation.
• Students will exhibit the application of higher order thinking skills at appropriately challenging levels.
• Students will enhance relationships with others, including both those who are identified as gifted, and those who are not.

Philosophy

In the Springville Community School District, teachers, administrators, and support staff recognize that gifted and talented students possess unique learning characteristics. These characteristics might include the student’s need to delve deeply into a given subject, a desire to spend longer periods of time researching a topic, the ability to quickly master designated grade level content, an extremely strong sense of fairness, sensitivity and empathy, and the need to interact with mental peers on a regular basis.

Research shows that because of these characteristics, gifted students require some alteration to the regular classroom program in order to reach their full academic, social, and/or physical potential. In the Springville Community School District, talented and gifted students will experience a differentiated program in the following areas; learning environment, teaching/learning processes, student products, and curriculum content.

The program for identified TAG students includes a focus on the following elements:

Learning Environment

• A counseling, guidance, and teaching staff who acknowledge and respect each student’s uniqueness.
• A flexible classroom structure which meets the needs of the gifted learner through a variety of learning situations including small group instruction, cooperative learning, and independent research.
• A school day which provides opportunities to:
  • interact with intellectual peers
  • interact with other gifted students who share the same learning needs
  • learn and practice being a leader as well as a follower
  • engage in divergent thinking
  • develop social as well as academic skills
• A risk-free environment in which freedom of thought and divergent thinking is encouraged, expected, and valued.
• Opportunities to understand, experience, and appreciate intellectual and cultural diversities.
• Teachers who have the same desire, skill, and commitment necessary to provide for individual TAG student’s intellectual, social, and emotional development.

Teaching/Learning Opportunities

• Opportunities to interact with teachers and other adults about topics of personal interest in a one-on-one situation.
• Opportunities to operate at the higher cognitive levels for a portion of the school day.
• Opportunities to evaluate individual growth and achievement.
• Strategies to guide students toward a greater tolerance of other’s skills and strengths.
• Use of higher levels of thinking skills and a variety of teaching styles to promote critical/creative thinking.
• Opportunities for students to consider their personal and academic growth.
• Use of a variety of teaching modes:
  • cooperative learning
  • discussions
  • hands-on experiences
  • simulations
  • inquiry
  • lecture format
• Opportunities to be both a leader and a follower and to participate in both homogeneous and heterogeneous ability and skills groups.

Student Products

• The work of the gifted student often shows an intellectual engagement with processes and products of learning; i.e., a commitment to the knowledge and insights that education has to offer. Because of this, student products will reflect the following;
  • an ability to grasp cognitive concepts quickly and in-depth, and to appreciate and comprehend interdisciplinary connectedness
  • high levels of critical thinking (evaluation and synthesis)
  • evidence of an individual response to information and ideas (creativity)
  • an original approach to an assignment in content and/or presentation format
  • an ability to address solutions to real personal, environmental or community problems

Curriculum Content

• Opportunities to pursue in-depth academic studies
• Opportunities to reflect and consider the relationship of new information to existing knowledge
• Opportunities to understand, experience, and appreciate the cultural diversity within our society
• Opportunities to move from the cognitive to the affective domains to explore moral and ethical issues and values
• Opportunities to discuss ideas with teachers and other students and to suggest original solutions or viewpoints
• A curriculum which is integrated throughout content areas and which encourages student interactions and creative thought