Gifted & Talented News - Elementary
Winter 2017: MAP and More
What does MAP tell us about our students?
To determine which students are newly identified as gifted using MOY MAP, look at your class list, sort by RIT score, and look for the percentile column. Any student scoring 95% or above is identified as gifted in that subject area. However, newly identified students do not receive services until next school year. Following the close of the testing window, identification letters will be sent home to families notifying them of the testing results.
Content Needed to Reach the 95% on MAP May Include Concepts and Skills Not Normally Taught at a Given Grade Level.
Questions To Consider:
- Did the GT students in my class exceed, come close to, or fall short of the GT identification score?
- What content do my students need beyond their grade level content to stay at or above the 95th percentile?
- What content do my gifted students need to have reinforced to get back to the 95th percentile?
- Do I have students that are close to scoring in the GT identification range?
Now is the time to consider what content your GT and advanced students may need to learn in order to stay within the gifted ID range, qualify as gifted on the spring MAP test, and, most importantly, be appropriately challenged. To reach the 95th percentile, students must be proficient with concepts that may not be taught in an assigned grade. It is important for teachers to be aware of concepts that will be assessed at the higher levels on the MAP test. By providing our high achieving students differentiated content they will have the opportunity to be successful and show growth on future MAP assessments.
Advanced Grade Level Standards
Depth and Complexity for Primary Grade Reading
Continued Resources for Primary Grades incorporating Depth and Complexity by Dr. Sandra Kaplan
Continuing on with one more of the icons in grades K-2, the Big Idea (Main Idea) can be easily done during Reading lessons. Gifted students may be reading at a higher level than their assigned class, but they still should be allowed to respond to the text as a typical child of their age. The link, which follows, leads you to a set of response graphic organizers for the icons, Depth and Complexity Organizers. They have been prepared for the Primary grades with two pages for each design: one for K-beginning of 1st grade and the second for middle of 1st through 2nd grade. The set includes all previous Depth and Complexity organizers plus the new set.
Depth and Complexity Icons:
- can be an answer to that question..."What are you doing for gifted students?"
- are visual cues (pictures) that guide student thinking and understanding.
- provide a low-prep way to meet individual learning needs.
- align with teaching standards to differentiate for ALL students and often fit with what you are already doing.
Getting Started with Depth and Complexity
Columbus City Schools 2017 Invention Convention
You can find out more about this fun and educational program by visiting the websites below!
Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children
Research suggests a strong link between giftedness and perfectionism. Emotional instability and underachievement are often inherent to this characteristic and create havoc on the gifted student's development. Sometimes, students will not submit work unless it is perfect, which in turn leads to poor grades. In terms of emotional stress, perfectionism may cause depression or a sense of worthlessness because they fail to live up to unrealistic expectations set by themselves or others.
Learning to live with perfectionism can be difficult. Teachers can help students by having students learn to change their thinking patterns. Encourage them to see things as opportunities to challenge themselves and learn new things as opposed to being expected to already know something new. Talk through criteria for success to use in self-evaluation of work and discuss when "good enough" is a better option than perfect. Teachers can also help students separate their studies from self-worth. If students become angry or frustrated when they don't receive the highest grade on a project, allow them to share their feelings then talk through what does and does not define the student's being and worth and the role of a grade in the grand scheme of things. Setting goals helps students develop a plan which can be monitored and can help students move from an overwhelming challenge from the unknown to learning of new knowledge and mastery of new skills.
A great resource for teachers is the book, When Gifted Kids Don't Have All the Answers: How to Meet Their Social and Emotional Needs, written by J. Galbraith & J.R. Delisle. Happy reading!!
Columbus City Schools Gifted & Talented Department
Website: www.ccsoh.us/GiftedandTalented1.aspx
Location: 1990 Jefferson Ave., Columbus, OH 43211
Phone: 614-365-6626
Twitter: @CCS_Gifted