GIFTED SERVICES

At the middle school level, gifted students have many academic and extra-curricular options from which to choose.

Non-verbally qualified students are offered a semester long exploratory class called Independent Investigations. However, any student who has qualified for gifted services may enroll in this class. Independent Investigations is designed to challenge the creative minds of gifted students. The curriculum changes every year so students may take this class each year they are in middle school. The topics covered are architecture, engineering, and photography and images. This class will directly attempt to build critical thinking skills and challenge your students to think “outside the box.” We will explore, in a hands-on way, introductions to various aspects of each of these content areas.

Verbally qualified students are clustered for Language Arts in the classroom. Professional assistance is provided by the gifted specialist to help the classroom teacher prepare challenging programs for each individual gifted student.

Quantitatively qualified students have the opportunity to participate in accelerated and/or advanced math classes. Students are given a math assessment to determine appropriate placement.

Gifted Services Specialist Middle School: Kortney Hohle

Elementary Students are serviced in one or more of the following areas: quantitative, verbal, and nonverbal.

Grades 1 & 2:
Clustering (placing identified gifted students in the same classroom in groups of 3-5) with professional assistance by the gifted specialist to help classroom teacher prepare challenging programs to meet the needs of each individual student.

Grades 3, 4 & 5
Services for quantitatively gifted are provided daily as a pull out class during regular grade level mathematic period. These classes are a replacement of the math curriculum. This means that students will be given curriculum that is commensurate with their ability through differentiation and pacing.

Services for the verbally gifted are provided 1 or 2 periods a week per grade level. These classes provide academic enrichment programs adding depth to grade level competencies. Enrichment is provided through a variety of activities and may be accomplished through extensions of the grade level curriculum and develop the following skills:

Logical thinking
Reasoning skills
Critical and creative thinking
Problem solving

Non verbal students receive services 1 period a week and focus on activities that develop visual and spatial skills. The Strategies Lab is used to provide hands-on board games, puzzles, and brain teasing activities to improve computational, sensory-motor, and visual/spatial skills while fostering higher-level thinking abilities.

Gifted Services Specialist Elementary: Pat Goessling