Gifted Education Program 2009-2010

Welcome to all of the families of gifted students at Burton Elementary School!
It is so great having all of the students together in one location. That location is in the east half of the west trailer. We have the entire half to ourselves this year! We have several large work tables and five computers on line.
This year students won’t be pulled out of Language Arts classes. Instead, they will receive their instruction in an enrichment based learning setting. I am the teacher of record for the fourth through sixth grade gifted students. This will simplify meeting some classroom teacher requirements and some gifted requirements. The students meet daily for an hour for Language Arts. They will meet all grade level requirements as a group for Reading, Spelling, and Language. The curriculum will differ from the regular classrooms in that the state standards for each grade will be taught by utilizing more higher level thinking skills than will be used in the regular classes. All of the state standards will be addressed as in the regular classrooms.
The gifted students will read many of the high quality books that are used in the regular classrooms due to the literary value of this material. However, the pace will be faster, and the interpretations and evaluations will focus on the higher level thinking skills. The classes will then be able to read other books suited to their individual interests and abilities. The vocabulary words will be derived from the content of the books being read.
The gifted students will not be required to participate in the “Reading Counts ” program. They will continue to read independently and report on this reading by completing individual book contracts, Bloom’s Higher Level Thinking Cycles, or selected culminating activities.
Instead of having a pre-determined spelling list each week, the gifted students will be selecting vocabulary words that they need to study. The words will come from their reading content for the week. The focus will be on word meanings, not spelling. Students will be tested on Thursday and should begin selecting words immediately, giving themselves as much of the entire week to prepare for the test. Students may write definitions or use the word correctly in context to demonstrate their mastery of the meanings. The purpose of this is for vocabulary development.
The gifted students in grades four through six will have the opportunity to “compact” their Social Studies curriculum if they wish and then research related topics of interest. I will be sending home literature explaining how “compacting” the curriculum works and how it can benefit gifted students.
Students will be able to do their research and complete projects in the gifted classroom while classes from other grades will be holding Language Arts with the gifted instructor. Computers will be available for students to use for research. The gifted area will serve both as classroom and resource room for the gifted students this year.
Brent Gardner