Gifted Education Program Supports - Eagle County School District Re-50J

Academic Supports

Our gifted services include academic supports at three levels, or “tiers,” for identified gifted students, as well as those who demonstrate high ability or potential in one or more academic areas.

Tier 1: Universal

This tier includes differentiated instruction that deepens learning to maximize the achievement of advanced learners in a general education setting with the classroom teacher. Gifted specialists support classroom teachers by providing advanced level resources and strategies to deliver this differentiation through flexible grouping, problem-based learning, and student-centered instruction and activities. Instructional decisions are guided by assessment data, and there are multiple avenues for students to demonstrate their mastery of content.

Tier 2: Targeted

This tier parallels the content of the general education classroom with added depth, complexity, abstraction, and pace. Instruction is based on individual student needs, however the interventions may be delivered in small groups of students with similar academic strengths. Gifted specialists work with small groups of students, once or twice a week. These groups are flexible and are guided by student observation and classroom data; students may move about them throughout the year. Targeted interventions include real-world independent and group inquiry, specialized curriculum, skills-based and conceptual learning, and abstract and high-level thinking.

Tier 3: Intensive

Some students require a curriculum that significantly differs from their same-age peers. Intensive tier instruction may take place in addition to the differentiation options offered within the other two tiers. Acceleration and individualized learning plans, together, best meet the needs of highly gifted students who require programming that allows them to continue to grow to their full potential. Acceleration options include single-subject or whole-grade acceleration, early entrance to kindergarten or first grade, concurrent enrollment, and online learning.

Social-Emotional Supports

Meeting the social-emotional needs of gifted students is imperative to their success. Small groups are offered for gifted students up to eighth grade. Group conversations foster personal and social responsibility, multicultural competence, and interpersonal and technical communication skills. These groups encourage:

Personal Competence

Growth in competence and disposition for exceptional academic and creative productivity. These include self-awareness, self advocacy, self-efficacy, confidence, motivation, resilience, independence, and curiosity.

Social Competence

Students develop positive peer relationships & social interactions.

Leadership Skills

Students learn and demonstrate personal and social responsibilities to practice their leadership skills.

Cultural Competence

Students learn to value their own and others’ language, heritage, and circumstance. Students use positive strategies to address social issues, including discrimination and stereotyping.

Communication Skills

Students demonstrate advanced oral and written skills, bi- and multi-literacy, and creative expression. Students display fluency with technologies that support effective communication.

Gifted students in high school meet individually with a gifted specialist to discuss and set personal goals based on National Association for Gifted Children Standards, with consideration to their strengths, interests, needs, and plans after high school.

Exploratory Classes

Gifted middle school students are encouraged to participate in an exploratory class, which uses project-based learning to develop student skills and interests through individual or small group inquiry. Exploratory classes also offer students the opportunity to enter competitions in areas of skills and interests, such as Model United Nations, Science Olympiad, or Battle of the Books.

College-Career Supports

Gifted secondary students have the opportunity to receive college, career, and post-secondary planning support via individual meetings with the high school gifted specialist.

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