Gifted and Talented Academy Year 2

HAEAnet-public Password: education0309 Gifted and Talented AcademyYear 2 Curriculum and Instruction Session 3

Agenda • Welcome/Check In • Processing Home Play • Iowa Code updates • Content/Standards Focus • Curriculum Documents • Team Planning • Closure

Sign In To… • Google docs • Pbworks • Your team Wiki • aea11gt Wiki

Processing Home Play • Form mixed district triads • Share • An overview of your team’s work so far • What’s working? • What’s frustrating? • What questions do you have?

Iowa Code Updates • Chapter 59 • Chapter 98 (Categorical Funding) • Senior Year Plus These documents and the link are found on the Academy Year 2 Wiki page.

Rationale for a Standards Focus Standards will… …ensure students learn what they need to know for success in the 21st century …ensure educational quality …provide guideposts …provide a curriculum template VanTassel-Baska, p. 37-9 Common Core Standards

Checking the “Standards” • Are they really just objectives? • Skill based, instead of concept-based? • Discreet skill instead of big ideas? • Do they challenge students to go beyond factual thinking – knowledge and comprehension?

Standards as Core Curriculum • Basic content areas are the organizational framework for schools • Content-based instruction provides natural context for curriculum planning • Gifted spend majority of time in traditional subject-matter disciplines • Giftedness is often conceptualized as domain-specific • Applying higher-level skills to content enhances transfer --VanTassel-Baska, p. 39-40

Problems with Standards • Teachers don’t perceive standards as helpful in differentiation for most able students. • Standards are perceived as low-level. • Perception that standards are content-based and, therefore, inappropriate for gifted. • Assessments have been found to be narrow, less demanding, and tied to factual material. • Effectively implementing strong standards-based education benefits students but requires stronger teacher planning.

Curriculum for the Gifted • Acceleration • Complexity • Depth • Challenge • Creativity Five Key Features

Adapting Standards for Gifted • Many are already high-level, so tasks for gifted can be developed directly from the standard • Unpack the standards to determine scope and intent • Use essence of the standard as rubric for assessment • Organize by HOTS across subject areas • Accelerate within standard after pretesting • Select materials that address the intent – not just content – of the standard

This requires… …the use of effective teaching and learning models e.g., Richard Paul’s Reasoning Model …flexible grouping practices

Gifted educators will be able to defend their practice only when they thoughtfully implement a standards-based curriculum that is adapted and modified for gifted learners. When such action is taken, gifted education becomes a part of general education reform rather than an endeavor separate from it. --VanTassel-Baska, p. 51

Ascending Levels of Intellectual Demand • Escalates one or more facets of curriculum • Takes into consideration students’ • Cognitive abilities • Prior knowledge • Schema • Opportunities to learn • Learning rate • Developmental differences • Levels of abstraction ALID

Why ALID? • To honor student differences • Address varying levels of prior knowledge, varying opportunities, and cognitive abilities • To ensure optimal levels of academic achievement • To support continuous learning • To ensure intrinsic motivation • To provide appropriate challenge • Provides “mental sweat”

MEMORY MINGLE • What advantages do gifted educators gain by embracing standards rather than rejecting them? What about advantages for students? • Share in triads • Identify connections and/or conclusions • Share with large group

Curriculum Framework • Review Fairfax County Curriculum Framework (Ch. 4, p. 56-60) • What do you notice about this document? • What are its essential features? • What purposes might it fulfill? • See “Student Goals and Outcomes” found on the Wiki. • How would turning this into a curriculum framework document make it more meaningful and useful?

Thoughts on a Curriculum Framework Document • Outlines what students will gain from gifted programming and services • Integrates gifted into general education • Applicable to all content areas • Your thoughts?

Scope and Sequence Scope – expansiveness and comprehensiveness of a curriculum Sequence – organizing and ordering of curriculum experiences to maximize learner effects In what ways – if at all – might scope and sequence for gifted learners be different from that for typical learners?

Scope at the Course Level Comprehensive Curriculum for Gifted Learners, p. 47

Sequence Considerations Comprehensive Curriculum for Gifted Learners, p. 49

Designing Curriculum Starting From the Big Idea • What are the principles or concepts we can explore? • What are the essential questions that can be asked about these concepts? • What content would best illustrate these concepts? • Which processes should be taught or applied?

What types of skills will students need to be able to demonstrate? • What instructional products might be used to demonstrate understandings? • What activities will help the students “uncover” the “big idea?”

Team Planning • Begin curriculum development. Keep connections to Iowa Core Curriculum in mind. http://www.corecurriculum.iowa.gov • Identify actions to be accomplished by session 4

Home Play • Continue curriculum development work. • Read Chapters 7, 8, & 9 in Curriculum Planning & Instructional Design for Gifted Learners (These will be posted on the Wiki by next week.) • Continue to update your team Wiki • Develop the outline of final product your team will submit and add to your Google planning doc

Could, Should, Would Could all kids do this? Should all kids do this? Would all kids want to?

Gifted and Talented Academy Year 2