Gifted and Talented

Teachers assess prior knowledge. Data from pre-tests allow teachers to modify curriculum and arrange students into flexible working groups.

Classroom assignments that emphasize the same essential understandings or skills but use different learning modalities, content, and/or processing strategies, etc. are tiered. Assignments differ in depth and complexity to meet the student’s readiness level, interest, and/or learning profile.

Students with similar academic needs are placed into learning groups within a class or grade for a particular content or assignment; supportive of differentiation.

Based on pre-assessments, teachers compact the curriculum for students who have already mastered content to be covered.

Often used with curriculum compacting, students delve further into a topic of interest, exploring it in greater depth and complexity. Such projects often involve a presentation component and/or an interdisciplinary component.

Content and/or grade acceleration is provided for students with high academic ability who consistently exceed grade level expectations. The goal of acceleration is to adjust the pace of instruction to a student’s capacity. Because of its linear structure, mathematics lends itself to this strategy.

AP Strategies engage students in active, high-level learning, thereby ensuring that every middle and high school student develops the skills, habits of mind, and concepts the need to succeed in college and beyond.

FOSS is a research-based science curriculum for grades K-8 developed at the University of California at Berkeley, dedicated to improving the learning and teaching of science. Materials are designed to meet the challenge of providing meaningful science education for all students in diverse classrooms and to prepare them for life in the 21^st century.

Science is an active enterprise, made active by our human capacity to think. Scientific knowledge advances when scientists observe objects and events, think about how they relate to what is know, test their ideas in logical ways, and generate explanations that integrate the new information into the established order. Thus the scientific enterprise is both what we know (content) and how we come to know it (process). The best way for students to appreciate the scientific enterprise, learn important scientific concepts, and develop the ability to think critically is to actively construct ideas through their own inquires, investigations, and analyses. The FOSS program was created to engage students in these processes as they explore the natural world.

This teaching framework used in grades K-5 language arts facilitates differentiated instruction in reading and writing, thereby challenging all students. Assessments pinpoint each student’s reading level, leveled libraries allow students to read at their level, and on-going individual student conferences allow teachers to extend each student’s writing skills. Strategies such as literature circles and book groups challenge students to make connections across pieces of literature and disciplines.

We believe this program’s teaching methodologies foster 21^st Century Skills such as curiosity, creativity, critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation), and the ability to effectively communicate and collaborate—skills essential to becoming an effective global citizen—while mastering social studies concepts. Unlike typical texts, the textbook readings are directly incorporated into the classroom activities, thus directly engaging the reader. Graphic organizers help students make sense of the material and interconnect the concepts, thus increasing their understanding and retention of the content. The TCI approach provides rigor while also providing differentiated instructional strategies to challenge all students.