Formative, criterion-referenced and normative assessment methods can work as a triage to diagnose the exceptional learner, with one as useful as the other depending on the goal. Those tools and techniques with the strongest base of research in utility and value will be the feature of this course. Through the use of technology, smart classroom strategy, and curricular design, formal and informal assessments will work to effectively diagnose student needs in order to prescribe a specific learning path. Formal and informal assessments will include intelligence testing, SLOs, formative assessments to include observational and anecdotal data, performance tasks, learning style inventories, behavioral assessment, criterion-referenced assessments, and standardized assessments. Data gleaned of these assessments will be used to differentiate with.
Course Outcomes:
- Identify and align proper, effective diagnostic tools and techniques for exceptional learners in classrooms.
- Understand how to evaluate the needs of students to align best instructional strategy to those needs.
- Through job-embedded participation, practice with multiple research-based assessments to analyze student needs, learning readiness, and needed instructional support.
- Use sound research-based strategy to plan for instruction and instructional intervention, or modify existing instructional plans, for the special needs and exceptional learners in classrooms.
This course is 20 hours
Participants will develop sound understanding of what differentiation of instruction is, and how to apply it in planning and teaching to gifted and talented students. After an introduction to several definitions of giftedness, participants will understand how to design curriculum, and how to teach it with fidelity. This course will propose various research-based strategies and concepts with a sound efficacy in schools. Through multiple exposure and practice, participants will develop the ability to apply and implement a differentiated curriculum, one that considers learning styles, for the gifted and talented students in their classrooms. Several self-reflections and a comprehensive unit plan later, participants will have the wherewithal to competently and rigorously teach the gifted and talented students in their classrooms. Competencies include theory and development of creativity, including elements of creativity such as fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration.
Course Outcomes:
- Apply theory to instructional plans, and embed strategies to differentiate for ability, readiness, learning style, and multiple intelligences.
- Design projects that consider learning styles for grouping, peer-to-peer interaction, self-reflection and assessment to develop a rigorous and comprehensive strategy-based curriculum that effectively teaches to gifted and talented students.
- Analyze several research-based sources, and add to the sources with their own action research.
This course is 20 hours
History and theory of gifted and talented education will interface with a number of activities geared toward introducing participants to multiple cognitive-based strategies with a strong research based and proven to work in gifted settings. Beginning with environment, participants will look at methods to nurture creativity by cultivating and employing “the art brain” in their students. Several theorists on creativity and education will be examined, along with those that speak specifically to cognition (Jensen, Immordino-Yang, Marzano, Martinez among others).
- Practice with multiple cognitive-based activities geared toward building and nurturing creativity of the gifted and talented.
- Examine multiple settings that nurture creativity and embed a plan for selected settings as they apply to gifted and talented students in classrooms.
- Plan for, and apply, a self-designed gifted curriculum into their classrooms in consideration of the social, emotional needs of students.
This course is 20 hours
This course provides an overview of the nature and historical evolution of gifted education. Significant events, policies, and procedures affecting the delivery of gifted education will be reviewed, as well as the cognitive, social, and emotional characteristics specific to students identified as gifted. Teaching to gifted students involves careful planning, the use of data in the planning stages, and a teamed approach that involves parents and all educational stakeholders to work into a child’s success. Beginning with individualized student plans, participants will develop their ability to analyze and plan with data to differentiate for multiple learner types and instructional support. Strategies for co-teaching using traditional and 21st century curriculum will result in a multiple-pronged approach to instructional success.
Course Outcomes:
- Practice with and use data and resources for planning and implementation of a broad and scaffolded curriculum focused on the needs of exceptional learners.
- Leverage new information, tools and resources to student readiness and differentiated approaches.
- Use evidence-based practices for a variety of learners, educational programs and classroom settings.
This course is 20 hours