Differentiated CurriculumCourses of study in which the content, teaching strategies and expectations of student mastery have been adjusted to be appropriate for gifted students. Comprehensive assessment results should be used to match gifted program services to students’ documented advanced learning needs. The ability to match appropriate instructional services to student profiles is as important an equity issue as using a variety of indicators of students’ potential giftedness.
The curricula developed by SCCPSS for gifted learners are based on the characteristics that generally differentiate gifted learners from more typical learners – learning at faster rate, increased capacity to find, solve and act on problems, their ability to manipulate abstract ideas and make connections, etc. The learning objectives below outline the basis for the gifted curricula used in the SCCPSS gifted program. Differentiation at the secondary level provides the appropriate challenge to allow students to demonstrate mastery of concepts and move through curriculum at an accelerated pace, study content to a greater depth, and/or extend content learning to incorporate relation to other fields, global perspectives, incorporation of technology, collaboration, personal interests and more. Students identified as eligible for gifted services and served through the SCCPSS Gifted program must receive a minimum of five (5) FTE segments per week. Students are served through a variety of delivery models tailored to meet student needs.
|
Resource (K-12)GIfted students are grouped with other gifted students for a minimum of one FTE segment per day or equivalent.
The teacher must have gifted endorsement certification, and the curriculum must have a Georgia Common Core Standards content foundation that focuses on interdisciplinary and enrichment activities. The content and the pacing should be differentiated to the degree that the activities are clearly not appropriate for more typical students at that grade level. The Resource Model is not intended for delivery of core content instruction. Cluster Grouping (K-12)The Cluster Group Model serves gifted students within a regular class; the maximum class size is whatever it is for the grade level and content area for Regular Education. The recommended size of the cluster is 5-8. The model should not be used in classes that are already achievement grouped, e.g., honors, advanced, or AP classes, where the majority of the students are identified as gifted.
Classrooms using the cluster model of gifted services may not have more than one half of the students identified as gifted. The classroom teacher must have gifted endorsement. |
Advanced Content (K-12)Students are homogeneously grouped on the basis of achievement and interests (CTAE, English language arts, fine arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and world languages).
Students may be included in the class who are not identified as gifted, but show strong academic abilities in the content area. Criteria are established for placing students who will be successful in the content “advanced content” classes. Collaborative Teaching (K-12)Direct instruction may be provided by a regular classroom teacher but then there must be substantial, regularly scheduled collaborative planning between the content teacher and the Gifted Education Program Teacher or SCCPSS Gifted program specialist. The SCCPSS Gifted program specialist, the regular classroom teacher and the gifted student collaborate in the development of challenging assignments, which substitute or extend the core curriculum objectives which the identified gifted student has already mastered.
|