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Curriculum models appropriate for gifted and talented education
Classification of the gifted and talented for educational purposes
Classification of the gifted and talented for educational purposes
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Abstract
The education of the gifted and talented student is often neglected in this country. The neglect is not done on purpose but it is sometimes due to the lack of information on the education of this particular student. Teachers must first understand the gifted and talented student, familiarize themselves on more appropriately educating the student and learn to work with parents, guardians and other teaching professionals to provide for the academic needs of the gifted and talented student.
The Gifted and Talented Student
There can be a great deal of mystery surrounding gifted and talented students. Sometimes they are handled with kid gloves as if they are so fragile that they might break under the weight of the slightest challenge. Other times, they are treated as freaks or aliens who are unable to relate to their regular classroom peers. It is the job of teachers to accurately screen and place students into gifted and talented programs, and to provide curriculum to encourage student development.
Even the student who is labeled as gifted and talented has a difficult time defining himself. His tastes in almost everything from music, movies, literature and hobbies are often more mature than his peers. He feels misunderstood and is often times picked on by classmates. The gifted and talented student feels the burden of keeping in touch with the social aspects of being a student while maintaining his academic focus.
According to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, the term “Gifted and Talented”… means "students, children or youth who give evidence of high achievement in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily p...
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...reativity and providing challenging curriculum, teachers can help these gifted and talented students maintain success and feel validated and normal, which is how all students want to feel.
Works Cited
Banks, James A. and Mc-Ghee Banks, Cherry A. (2007). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives, Sixth Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons
Ford, Donna and Thomas, Antoinette (1997). Underachievement among Gifted Minority Students The ERIC Clearing House on Disabilities and Gifted Education. ERIC EC Digest #E544 www.hoagiesgifted.org/ERIC/e544.htm
Gearheart, Bill R., Weishahn, Mel W. and Gearheart, Carole J. (1995). The Exceptional Child in the Regular Classroom, Sixth Edition. Pearson Education
Turnbull, Ann, Turnbull, Rud and Wehmeyer, Michael L. (1995). Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools, Sixth Edition. New Jersey: Merrill
New York: Cambridge University Press. Ryser, G. R., & McConnell, K. (2003). Scales for Identifying Gifted Students. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Hehir, T. (2009). New directions in special education: Eliminating ableism in policy and practice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Cloran (n.d.) suggest teachers need to have a broad understanding of giftedness and learning disabilities, a variety of identification measures and the ability to modify the curriculum and implement differentiated teaching strategies to meet the unique needs of all students. A graduate teacher recognises that students learn in their own way and should understand and be able to identify a number of teaching strategies to differentiate and meet the learning needs of all students. They may create groups based on previous assessment results and set clear or modified instructions for each group based on ability or learning styles. To address the specific learning needs of all student abilities, multi-sensory strategies using charts, diagrams, outside lessons and videos, as well as posters around the room or information on the desk could be used. Tomlinson (1999) suggests that differentiated instruction aims to build on student’s strengths and maximize their learning by adjusting instructional tasks to suit their individual needs. Ensuring teaching and instructions are clear, revising and prompting students during lessons and providing templates and assisting student in breaking down tasks into achievable, systematic chunks are some additional examples. Lucas, (2008) suggests highlighting key vocabulary within the text to focus students on the central concepts within the text. Quick finishing students should be provided with the opportunity to extend themselves with extension tasks that have a specific purpose and
Board of Education outlawed educational segregation, the Illinois School District had created a completely different gifted program for Hispanic students, separate from the White students’ gifted program. Ford found that in 2009 and 2001, the RDCI (The Relative Difference in Composition Index) researched and concluded “at least one half million African American and Hispanic students combined are not identified as gifted” (Ford 145). While African American Students are rising to be the majority race in public education, the percentage of African Americans even being recognized as gifted or academically accelerated, is not proportionally increasing (Ford). Society hold precedents with people who have superior intelligence over those who do not, but how can superiority even be concluded when all people are not given the opportunity to have an enriching education? African Americans are not able to increase their percentage of gifted students because African American students are not given the chance to be even recognized as worthy or capable of such achievements. As society advances further academically and leaves African Americans with an unquail education, the percentage of African Americans attending college and entering professional careers
The problem associated with how students are chosen to join a gifted and talented program stems from the way that we define giftedness. Because there are countless ways in which any individual can define talent, the government created a federal task force in 1972 to study gifted education in order to standardize the way in which schools choose students for and implement their gifted and talented programs. The task force’s results are known as the Marland Report and include much information as a result of their research, including a decision that a public school’s gifted and talented programs should aim to serve between 3 and 5 percent o...
Whitney, C. S. & Hirsch, G. (2011). Helping Gifted Children Soar. A Practical Guide for
Ormsbee, C. (2001). "Ending Discrimination in Special Education/Achieving Educational Equity (Book Review)." Intervention in School & Clinic; Sep2001, Vol. 37 Issue 1, p48.
The Gifted program exists to provide more academic opportunities for those who qualify as “gifted.” “’Gifted means performing or demonstrating the potential for performing at significantly higher levels of accomplishment in one or more academic fields due to intellectual ability, when compared to others of similar age, experience, and environment’” (Quoted in “Gifted”). In order to make it into the program the student must show higher intellectual ability than the average student at his or her age, but what determines that factor? The student must take a multidimensional test and score in the 98th percentile. However, the most weighted part of the test remains an average IQ test. Intelligence test scores should not be the primary qualification for admittance into the gifted program. They should not remain the primary qualification because it allows the minorities and the economically disadvantaged to be underrepresented, it proves insufficient when compared to other means of testing, and it fails to accurately reflect a student’s intelligence.
The Integrated Curriculum Model has three main dimensions advanced content, process/product, and issues/themes. The first dimension, advanced content, is content that it at a higher level. In English Language Arts the readings are usually two grade levels above. Within advanced content, diagnostic-prescriptive approaches are used to promote new learning. Teachers are to continually pre-assess students before teaching content to make sure they are teaching at the appropriate level for the gifted students. In the second facet of the model it ensures that the students are thinking and processing information at higher complex levels. The third dimension of the Integrated Curriculum Model centers gifted and talented students learning around major issues and themes. To connect the themes and issues to real world applications is creating a deeper understanding of the material.
Donovan, M. Suzanne and Christopher T. Cross (2002, August). Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy2.library.drexel.edu/lib/drexel/-docDetail.action?docID=10032383.
One of the most controversial things about gifted and talented education is the criterion educators use to identify the gifted and talented. In the past, a student’s intelligence, based on an I.Q. score, was considered the best way to determine whether or not they qualified as gifted. As a result of using this method of identification, many gifted and talented students are not discovered nor are they placed in the appropriate programs to develop their abilities. Talents in the arts or an excellent ability to write are not measured on an I.Q. test but are abilities that may certainly qualify a student as gifted or talented.
Mazurek, K. & Winzer, M.A. (Eds.). (1994). Comparative Studies in Special Education. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Heward, W. L. (2013). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
The identification and definition of giftedness have been controversial for many, many decades. Originally, IQ test scores were the only way of determining giftedness. An IQ test would be given and some number score, such as 12-, would be the point of cut-off (Cook, Elliott, Kratochwill, & Travers, 2000). More recently, intellectual giftedness is usually identified and defined by the specific school systems’ ideas and perspectives. There is no generally accepted definition of giftedness, but the Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act defines it as:
Turnbull, R., Turnbull, A., Shank, M., Smith, S.J. (2004). Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.