PEERS Javits Training – Gifted Education

1. PEERSJavits Training – Gifted Education Paulding Elementary School May 21, 2008

2. Purpose of PEERS JAVITS • The purpose of this PEERS group was to provide high quality professional development in gifted education to Paulding Elementary teachers. Teachers learned about and discussed such topics as screening and identification, rule, law, district plan, social and emotional needs, acceleration, and differentiation of the gifted population.

3. Resources • Resources used for this training was available through the Javits training online module, Department of Education website, materials obtained through OAGC conferences I attended this year, and the Internet.

4. Team members Randi and Kristi accessing the JAVITS site on the Internet

5. Top 10 Things Teachers Should Know About Our Gifted and Talented Students • 1. Gifted students don’t look the same • 2. Gifted students need support. • 3. Know your students. • 4. Know the program • 5. Classroom behaviors of gifted • 6. Asynchronous Development • 7. Abstract and Complex • 8. Perfectionism • 9. Multi-potentiality • 10. Problem Solvers

6. Who is Gifted in Ohio by Law and Rule? • Children are gifted in Ohio in 4 major categories: superior cognitive ability, specific academic ability, creative thinking ability, and visual or performing arts ability. There are different eligibility criteria for each area. All tests and checklists used must be on an approved list prepared by the Ohio Department of Education.

7. Superior Cognitive Ability • Score two standard deviations above the mean minus the standard error of measurement on an intelligence test, perform at or above the 95th percentile on a basic or composite battery of a nationally normed achievement test, or attain an approved score on an above grade-level, standardized, nationally normed test.

8. Specific Academic Ability in a Field • Perform at or above the 95th percentile at the national level on a standardized achievement test of specific academic ability in that field. A child may be identified as gifted in more than one specific academic ability field.

9. Creative Thinking Ability • Score one standard deviation above the mean minus the standard error of measurement on an intelligence test and attain a sufficient score, as established by the Department, on a test of creative ability or a checklist of creative behavior.

10. Visual or Performing Arts Ability • Demonstrate to a trained individual through a display of work, an audition, or other performance or exhibition, superior ability in a visual or performing arts area and attain a sufficient score, as established by the Department, on a checklist of behaviors related to a specific arts area.

11. Testing Policy at PEVS • Students are screened, tested, and identified with the CogAT in second grade. • Students will be screened, tested, and identified with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in seventh grade. • Referrals

12. WEP (Written Education Plan) • Each gifted student that is being served shall be guided by instruction documented in a Written Education Plan.

13. Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Students

14. Team members Mary Ellen and Ruby working on a presentation for social and emotional needs of gifted children

15. Academic and Career Guidance • All students need academic and career guidance. Gifted students are no different, but it is easy to assume that they will figure things out for themselves.

16. Asynchronous Development • Asynchronous means out of sync. • Cognitive, emotional and physical development occur at different rates which creates unique problems. • Although his emotions and body may be in sync with age peers, a gifted student’s mind functions more quickly and at higher cognition levels. • He may be eight chronologically as he rides his bike, twelve while playing chess and fifteen while working through his algebra homework.

17. Gender Issues and the Gifted Child • Both genders tend to underachieve, yet they do so in different ways and for a variety of reasons. • Be alert for students who score high on standardized tests but who exhibit much lower grades. • Look for social isolation in adolescence, particularly among females. • Females may exhibit eating disorders, while males may resort to acting out in class to mask their boredom. • Both sexes may display signs of low self-confidence or self-esteem. • Adolescents may engage in risky behaviors by experimenting with alcohol and/or drugs.

18. Peer Relationships • The gifted students often do not have an opportunity to find a true peer. • Students often struggle to balance the expectations of family, teachers and friends. • Students often view themselves as different from their age peers, which can be either positive or negative. • Awareness of social norms can lead to a desire for conformity. • True peers for minority gifted students may be limited.

19. Perfectionism • Students often set unrealistic standards for themselves and others. • Students believe that others expect them to be perfect. • Fear of failure or procrastination may keep students from starting or completing work or trying new things. • Workaholism and an inability to say “no” are common. • Perfectionists are prone to depression and stress that may be a function of asynchronous development.

20. Twice-Exceptional: Gifted and Learning Disability • GT/LD students may show above average or below on IQ tests or be misdiagnosed as underachieving. • Outside of school, students generally have a higher level of self-confidence, often speaking with enthusiasm about their abilities and areas of interest. • Students maybe aware of their difficulties in learning, and over-generalize feelings of academic failure. • Students may exhibit behaviors like being off-task, act out, daydream, or complain of headaches and stomachaches. • Frustration, anger, resentment, and relations with family and peers often influence behavior. • Students often use their creative abilities to avoid tasks.

21. Characteristics of Gifted Underachievement • Disorganized; schoolwork is often either missing or incomplete • Declining achievement or interest in school • Making excuses or blaming others for their problems • Over-socializing or social isolation • Showing emotional frustration and low self-esteem • Difficulty concentrating on the task at hand • Lacking skills in at least one subject area due to another identified exceptionality or disability • Lower socioeconomic background

22. Acceleration Policy “No individual or group should be excluded from the opportunity to learn, and all students are presumed capable of learning. Every Ohio student, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency, disability or giftedness shall have access to a challenging, standards-based curriculum.”

23. Jan and Leigh reading the Acceleration Policy

24. Options • Whole grade acceleration • Individual Subject Acceleration • Early admission to Kindergarten • Early High School Graduation

25. Acceleration Defined • Any educational intervention that permits students to progress through school at faster rates or at an earlier age than expected.

26. Research shows…… • Accelerated students show achievement scores similar to older grade peers. • Early entrants to kindergarten showed ½ year’s growth. • Single subject accelerants were 3/5 of a year ahead of age peers.

27. Acceleration Policies • Each district must design and adopt a plan for acceleration. Paulding Exempted Village Schools has adopted the state Model Accerlation Policy.

28. Acceleration Evaluation Committee • Composition: • Principal or assistant principal • Current teacher • Teacher from accelerated grade level • Parent or legal guardian • Gifted coordinator or teacher • Convened by principal of referred student or his designee.

29. Acceleration Policy • Any student may be referred. • Copies of policy must be available to staff and parents. • Principal obtains written permission. • Evaluation in advance of start of school year with a 60 day rule. • Parent notified of results. • Appeal process for parents.

30. Differentiation Strategies

31. Peers facilitator working on program development

32. Centers • Are distinct (science, math, writing centers). • Are self-contained learning locations; • Allow students to work on a task or collection of tasks to develop and reinforce knowledge and skills.

33. Compacting • Compacting is a method of identifying the content or skill for a particular unit, documenting what a student already knows and how prior knowledge was determined, and providing alternative tasks that extend learning and eliminate the repetition of mastered content or skills by students.

34. Curriculum Compacting: Steps • Identify learning objectives • Find or develop pre-test format • Pre-test students • Identify students for compacting option based on pretest results • Eliminate practice and instructional time • Streamline instruction or assignments • Offer enrichment or acceleration options • Keep records of process and instructional options offered to compacted students

35. Learning Contracts • Contracts are negotiated agreements between the teacher and students. • Contracts provide the student with some freedom in acquiring skills and understandings that the teacher deems important based on content standards. • Student choices can include: • What is to be learned (content) • Working conditions (process) • How information will be applied or expressed (assessment)

36. Cubing/Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs • Cubing is a differentiation tool based on readiness. • Cubing maintains the same goals of thinking processes and content interaction but asks students to enter the task at a complexity level that is a best fit. • Cubes are traditionally used with content that is not brand new to students so they will need some prior knowledge to help them complete the tasks. • Students will be grouped based on what you know about their strengths and weaknesses for a particular content or skill focus. • Students do not have to be physically sitting next to one another in this group as the cubes will serve as their assignment guide and where they sit is irrelevant.

37. Interest Inventories • Interest inventories are tools to identify student interests in a variety of areas. • Interest inventories are not necessarily content related but may look at many different interest areas. • Once these interested are identified learning experiences can be developed to provide opportunities for students to explore a fact of their area of interest.

38. Stations • Students work in different spots in room on various tasks. • All stations fall within a content area or topic. • Stations invite flexible grouping. Students go to different stations to work on different tasks and spend different amounts of time completing each task. • Assignments in stations can vary from day to day depending on who is in the station. • Stations offer a balance between student and teacher choice. Sometimes the teacher indicates a set task and other times there are choices that address the same idea but in different ways. • Stations are similar to circuit training – each stop adds to the learning goal but does not have to be completed in a set manner.

39. Tic-Tac-Toe Menus • This is a strategy that can be used for different purposes, including: • - for “I’m done” times when students complete regular activities in the classroom • - as a way to assess student learning at the completion of a unit or book study. This works well paired with a simple rubric that outlines expectations for completed work. • The tic-tac-toe menu is a tool to teach and support independent work skills. • The Tic-tac-toe menu allows students to select a series of activities to complete. • Students may also have the option completing an activity of their own creation.

40. Tiering • Tiering is an instructional strategy that provides instruction to match students with their individual needs.

41. The rationale for tiering: • Blends assessment and instruction • Allows students to begin learning where they are • Allows for reinforcement or extension of concepts and principles based on student readiness • Allows modification of working conditions based on learning style • Avoids work that is anxiety-producing (too hard) or boredom-producing (too easy). • Promotes success and is therefore motivating.

42. How will this project impact student achievement? • We want our advanced and our gifted and talented students to advance at least one or more years in achievement tests each year. Hopefully, with training and professional development of classroom and differentiation strategies, this will occur.