Our Goals

Goal #1: To provide a learning environment that nurtures the academic, social and emotional characteristics found in students demonstrating academic potential and to provide structures that ensures the interaction with their intellectual peers.

Goal #2: To establish a climate that reflects the value of gifted students while enhancing their intellectual ability, creativity, talent, and decision making.

Goal #3: To encourage and provide units of study that develops higher-level thinking and expands these skills in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation along with the provision of using them.

 

a. Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS will be the driving force for the curriculum and instruction in gifted programs. The National Association of Gifted Children’s statement to the release of the CCSS: It is imperative that gifted educators create a full range of supports for high-ability learners through differentiated curriculum, instruction, and assessments. In addition, it will become increasingly more important for gifted education coordinators, facilitators, and teachers to reaffirm and advocate for the need for specialized services for academically advanced and high-potential students.

 

b. Comprehensive Gifted Program teachers will provide daily enrichment activities that differ in pacing and depth from a regular classroom. A curriculum framework for gifted learners, developed by SEES with Dr. Joyce Van Tassel-Baska, was provided to all SEES schools for program support. Use of the curriculum is optional. The curriculum and instruction of CPS gifted programs is outlined in two blueprints. The curriculum blueprint outlines the differentiated curriculum through rates of learning, depth of content, complexity of thinking processes, and difficulty of products. The instructional blueprint outlines the instructional model of Differentiation. Provisions made in content, process, product to ensure acceleration is included, as well as the description of the learning environment through community. Instructional strategies Instructional strategies that are to be evident in gifted classrooms is real-world problem-solving with real-world application, creativity and innovation, critical thinking through the lens of Richard Paul’s Reasoning web, empathetic views on global awareness, and the study of human value systems in ethical reasoning and ethical drifts. REACH Domain 1: Planning and Preparation