Meeting the Needs of Our Advanced and High Potential Elementary School Learners

1. Parent Information Presentation Meeting the Needs of Our Advanced and High Potential ElementarySchool Learners

2. The Mission of GT Education • To nurture potential in all students. • To challenge those with advanced learning capabilities through differentiation and responsive instruction. • To address the needs of gifted and high potential learners across all populations.

3. BCPS Board Policy 6401 Every student in Baltimore County Public Schools K–12 who demonstrates high achievement or the potential for high achievement should have access to high quality gifted and talented educational services regardless of that student’s race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, geographic location, primary language, or disability.

4. Shift in the Field of Gifted Education • BCPS’ Office of Gifted and Talented Education is shifting its work to respond to current research and best practices in the field.   • New research in the field of gifted education prompted the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) to redefine giftedness (see NAGC Position Paper: Redefining Giftedness).

5. Highlights of NAGCs Work Include: • The development of ability or talent is a lifelong process. • It may be evident in young children as exceptional performance measures of ability, actual achievement in a subject area, or a rapid rate of learning compared to other students of the same age.

6. Highlights of NAGC’s Work Include: • Achievement and high levels of motivation in a subject area become theprimary characteristics of giftedness as individuals mature from childhood to adolescence.

7. Did You Know?? In BCPS… Students are NOT identified as gifted. Rather, instructional opportunities are tailored to meet the needs of all students, including those with a need for enriched or accelerated learning experiences. It is the placement that is identified as gifted – not the child.

8. Students Who Have Advanced Learning Capabilities MAY Demonstrate: Based on the work of Aquirre/Hernandez 1999; Brulles/Winebrenner 2008; Renzulli, Reis, Siegel 2003; Ford 2003

9. A school-based GT Referral and Review Team analyzes student data to determine appropriate instruction to meet student needs. Instructional Recommendations are made on the basis of the data collected.

10. Referral and Review Team • Administrator • Teachers • School counselor • Facilitator for GT education Multiple, diverse points of view should be represented on the team.

11. How are Students Referred for Review of Their Instructional Needs? ALL Grade 3 students are considered in the spring of Grade 3. No referrals are necessary. Grades 4–5: • Teacher recommendation • Parent recommendation • Achievement

12. Documentation for Review May Include*: • Observations • Teacher checklists • Reading and Math Parent surveys • Standardized test scores • Student product evaluations • Anecdotal data • Student achievement data (report card grades). • * May change based on the review of identification practices.

13. Referral and review is an ongoing process, K – 12. • No single factor determines a student’s placement.

14. Curriculum and Instruction

15. Differentiated Instruction Includes: • Content – What is taught and when it is taught • Processor instructional strategies – How content is taught. • Products – Opportunities to demonstrate and apply learning • Learning environment –The context for learning, including the classroom’s atmosphere, organization, and management. Based on the work of Dr. Joseph Renzulli

16. Elementary English/Language Arts Teachers will use diagnostic data and student observation to determine the most appropriate pathway for each student every 5–7 weeks.  Three instructional pathways exist for each unit: • Scaffolding (on grade level with support) • Enrichment • Acceleration.

17. The revised elementary English/ language arts curriculum will allow all students in Grades 1–5 access to enriched and accelerated learning experiences through a responsive instruction model.

18. Through ongoing informal and formal assessment, students are flexibly grouped in small, teacher-facilitated instructional groups.

19. The Acceleration instructional pathway (formerly the GT reading curriculum) provides an enriched and accelerated instructional group for those students who have the capability or potential to embrace a rigorous learning experience in language arts.

20. Acceleration Group • Acceleration small-group instruction enriches student learning of grade-level standards by increasing the rigor of the texts read (including texts beyond the enrolled grade level), and increasing the work on drawing inferences and evidence from texts. • Students analyze sources to develop reading and listening comprehension, and respond in ways that develop their skills in written and oral expression. • Students will also engage in lessons using above-grade level standards. 

21. Acceleration Group • Students will have ongoing access to an accelerated learning group through a diagnostic pre-assessment task.  • Students do not have to be identified as “gifted” in order to participate in this curriculum and instruction. • Conversely, students who are identified “gifted” will not automatically access this accelerated group.

22. Elementary Mathematics: 2014 - 2015 • Grades 3–5 teachers will be implementing a Common Core State Standards (CCSS) – aligned mathematics curriculum. • Through the alignment to the CCSS, all students will be exposed to increased levels of rigor and significant changes in content standards as compared to the previous state curriculum.

23. Elementary Mathematics: 2014 - 2015 • Those students who are identified for placement in the Advanced Mathematics program in Grade 4 will receive instruction from the Grade 4 Mathematics Curriculum and the new supplement plan for instruction aligned to the Grade 4 CCSS and about half of the Grade 5 CCSS. • Those students who are identified for placement in the Advanced Mathematics program in Grade 5 will use the Grade 6 (GT5) mathematics curriculum.

24. Is a Diagnostic Placement Still an Option for Students? • A diagnostic placement is when a student receives advanced instruction for no longer than one marking period in order to determine if the placement is appropriate due to inconsistencies in student data. • Diagnostic placements are no longer needed in English/language arts since all students will have access to Enriched and Accelerated Groups before each unit. • Diagnostic placements may still occur in mathematics.

25. Updates and Information • The BCPS gifted and talented Web site will be updated frequently throughout the year in order to keep teachers and parents abreast of any shifts in the delivery of curriculum and instruction for our advanced learners. • Frequent updates will also allow further clarification regarding questions that surface on a consistent basis. www.bcps.org/offices/gt