Extended Curriculum Program Plan
Created During SY 07-08
PO Box
37
Pray, MT 59065
Adam Galvin (chair)
Tina Libsack (secretary)
Naomi Benzel
Kyle Parker
Colleen Story
Miranda Bly (contributor)
Table of Contents
Program Philosophy
Overview & Research Base
Identification Process
Nomination and Screening
Initial Assessment
Acceptance
Notification
Individual Learning Needs
Teacher Professional Development
Ongoing Assessment
Support Services
Parent Involvement
Appendix A: Parent Request for Extended Curriculum Program Consideration (form)
Appendix B: Extended Curriculum Program Nomination (form)
Appendix C: Frasier’s Traits, Attributes, and Behaviors (form)
Appendix D: Extended Curriculum Observation and Permission for Consideration (form)
Appendix E: Extended Curriculum Early Entrance to School Request (form)
Appendix F: Extended Curriculum Confirmation of Acceptance Letter
Appendix G: Extended Curriculum Student Handbook Language
Appendix H: Parent Learning Log Journal
Appendix I: Extended Curriculum Teacher Reflection Form
Appendix J: Extended Curriculum Program Timeline &
Overview
Program
Philosophy:
The school’s Gifted Program Policy 2166 proscribes “to the extent possible, within the resources available, all gifted and talented students shall have an opportunity to participate in appropriate education programs…the program shall establish procedures consistent with state guidelines for nominating, assessing, and selecting children of demonstrated achievement, and potential ability in terms of general intellectual ability and academic aptitude”. This plan sets forth such procedures and has been developed by the Arrowhead School Gifted & Talented Council during the school year of 2007-2008. The plan will be reviewed annually and updated as necessary.
Overview &
Research Base:
Our program was developed using as a primary reference of scientifically based research; the book Re-Forming Gifted Education; How Parents and Teachers Can Match the Program to the Child, by Karen B. Rogers, Ph.D., Great Potential Press, Inc. 2002. There are five major domains of giftedness and talent; intellectual ability, specific academic ability, creative/productive ability, psychosocial/leadership ability, and visual performing arts abilities.(p. 27) Each domain has associated research-based behavior characteristics. Through a standardized identification process the Arrowhead School Extended Curriculum Screening Team will admit children in grades k-8 into the school’s Gifted & Talented program. Giftedness which refers to “the innate ability or capacity in some domain or ability” and talent which refers to “an extraordinary performance in a field of human endeavor” are both considered when choosing students for the program. (p. 32) Somewhere between gifts and talents lie factors known as catalysts. Catalysts are “the various important aspects of the child’s environment, both external and internal”. (p. 34) Catalysts can be influenced by family, school, and society. Gifted and talented children are unique and may respond to different catalysts to enhance the developments of their gifts or talents. Our program seeks to identify the unique gifts and talents of our children, quantify and describe their abilities, provide learning opportunities that act as a catalyst to improve their educational and curriculum offerings and maximize their abilities to reach their high potential.
Because of the negative stigma children may experience with
peer relationships by being labeled “gifted and talented” we are naming our
program the Arrowhead School Extended
Curriculum Program.
Identification
Process:
A) Nomination and
Screening:
Currently our program only admits students based on intellectual ability and specific academic ability domains and not on the basis of the other three domains. The domains of creative/productive ability, psychosocial/leadership ability, and visual performing arts abilities may be considered for addition in the future. According to the generally accepted statistics used by the state of Montana Office of Public Instruction approximately 5%-10% of children in a given school population are likely to qualify as gifted and talented. Given this expectation we have designed a nomination and screening process which seeks to admit a relatively small number of students into our gifted program and will in general not exceed 10% of our current overall school population. Students are nominated for the program in the Spring to allow time for necessary testing and to allow teachers time to prepare for their educational needs in the coming academic year. If a new student enrolls in the school and there is proof in their records they have been previously identified as gifted and talented their status as such will be accepted for our program and every effort will be made to continue meeting their needs. Once a student is accepted into our program they will remain in the program without further testing unless they are withdrawn with parent permission or unless a behavior issue prevents them from taking advantage of the program services. Such a decision would be made by the administrator in consultation with the screening team and parent of the child.
The first step for entrance into the program is nomination. During the months of February and March the school will accept nominations for students to enter the program. Nominations are submitted by a teacher, administrator, or parent. If a parent wishes to make a request for the program they may complete a Parent Request for Extended Curriculum Program Consideration Form (Appendix A) and submit it to the classroom teacher or principal between February 1st and March 15th. The form will be considered by the screening team and they will make a determination to nominate or not. The parent will be promptly informed in writing of the nomination decision by the Screening Team.
A teacher, administrator, or screening team makes a nomination by completing an Extended Curriculum Program Nomination Form (Appendix B). The form includes information regarding demographics, achievement test history, student’s intellectual/academic characteristics, and classroom performance. The teacher or administrator will submit with the form a completed Frasier’s’ Traits, Attributes and Behaviors (TABS) Observation Form. (Appendix C) Both of these forms must be submitted to the administrator by the last day of March preferably before March 20th. The teacher or administrator will concurrently also contact the nominated child’s parents, inform them of the program, inform them they are nominating their child, and provide them with a Parent Observation and Permission for Consideration Form. (Appendix D) This form needs to be completed and submitted to the school no later than April 1st. This form asks parent for permission for group intelligence testing and individual intelligence testing if necessary.
All received nomination forms will be reviewed by the Extended Curriculum Program Screening Team in early April. The team is composed of at least one administrator, two members of the certified teaching staff including the classroom teacher, and the school counselor or psychologist if available.
During the month of February and March until March 15th the school will also accept nomination forms for future students who are below the required age of matriculation into kindergarten. The school does consider early entrance to kindergarten before the required age as an option for students who qualify for the Extended Curriculum Program. The parent of the child must complete an Extended Curriculum Program Early Entrance to School Form. (Appendix E) Please note early entrance will be considered if and only if the child meets criteria included in Appendix E and the school administration determines this is an appropriate placement for the child. The family seeking early entrance is responsible for all expenses incurred by the district in testing. Early admittance is solely at the discretion of the school board and the district may refuse early entrance for any reason, regardless of the testing results.
B) Initial Assessment:
In late April the screening team meets to determine acceptance into the program. The team will provide an initial screening of nominations in early April to determine if all the necessary paper work is complete and to plan for gathering intelligence test data. All properly nominated applicants will partake in a group administered intelligence test know as the SAGES II test. This intelligence test produces individual results but can be administered to multiple students in one sitting. Individual intelligence tests may be necessary. This test is called the Stanford Binet. Once intelligence testing data is complete the team will meet again to determine acceptance into the program.
C) Acceptance:
The team reviews admittance criteria in three categories; academic achievement (school based assessments which may include the CRT, Open Court, Everyday Math, IOWA, DIBELS) intelligence test ( which may include SAGES II, Stanford Binet, Woodcock Johnson, WISC, Ravens Coloured Matrices) and parent and teacher attributes and behavior characteristic rankings. When using quantifiable testing measures a child can only be accepted into the program if the majority of their scores are above the 95th percentile. The 95th percentile for norm referenced tests, 95% for criteria referenced tests, and a score of 4 for Everyday Math tests, these may be changed in the future if it leads to over identification and over enrollment in the program.
D) Notification:
The team will provide parents of each nominated child with
a written confirmation of acceptance or non-acceptance to the program by May 1st.
(Appendix F) If the parent provides written notice no later than May 15th
they will participate then the child
will be admitted to the program beginning the next academic year. Parents will
receive annual notice through the student handbook of our Extended Curriculum
program and the nomination and identification process as well as associated
timelines, deadlines, and required forms. The nomination forms will include all
necessary parent authorization for testing.
Parents may receive upon request the entire Extended Curriculum Plan from
the district according to established public document procedures. Documentation
of the student’s participation in our program will be included in the
student’s permanent file to increase communication of program to other schools
when the child moves to high school or if they transfer to another school.
Individual
Learning Needs:
Once a child is accepted into the program the individuals who will be responsible for meeting the child’s extended curriculum needs will convene to consider instructional management, instructional delivery, and curriculum adaptation options that may be necessary for the child. Parents may be invited to participate in the process. Some additional student learning profile inventories may be utilized including but not limited to the Teacher Inventory of Learning Strengths (TILS), Attributes about School and Learning (ALS), How do You Like to Learn, Rogers Interest Inventory, and the Parent Inventory for Finding Potential (PIP). All five major domains of giftedness and talent will be considered for program offerings.
Instructional management is best understood as how children are organized for learning most effectively including but not limited to individualization, grouping and acceleration. Instructional delivery is best understood as what forms of instruction will take including but not limited to pacing, sequence, and process of instruction. Curriculum Adaptation is best understood as what will be taught and how learning will be demonstrated including but not limited to content, process, and product modifications also know as differentiated instruction.
The program endorses the use of the following Instructional Management practices; grade telescoping, curriculum compacting, mentoring, talent search participation, individual benchmark setting, ability/achievement grouping, similar ability grouping, partial pull out, early entrance to school, grade skipping, properly supervised independent study, and single subject acceleration.
The program endorses the use of the following Instructional Delivery practices; flexible deadlines, flexible tasks, learning contracts, accelerated pacing, conceptual discussions, personal goal setting, competitions, discovery learning, higher order thinking, individual projects, creative thinking, and problem based learning.
The program endorses the use of the following Curriculum Adaptation practices; content modifications including abstraction, complexity, variety, organization, study of people, method of inquiry, breath of inquiry; process modifications including problem solving, open ended thinking, proof and reasoning, discovery, organization training, communication training, social issues, ethical dilemmas, conflict resolution, service learning and social action; product modifications including real world problem solving, presentations, demonstrations, individual benchmark setting, and transformations.
Teacher
Professional Development:
Our program is focusing professional development efforts in
the area of program planning, student identification, testing implementation,
instructional management, instructional delivery, curriculum adaptations,
differentiated instruction, and in general teaching gifted children in the
regular classroom. We are using two primary texts as study group materials; Re-Forming
Gifted Education, How Parents and Teachers Can Match the Program to the Child
by Karen Rogers & Teaching Gifted Kids
in the Regular Classroom by Susan Winebrenner. We are also contracting the
services of the Gifted and Talented OPI specialist. Our first year of planning
included about six council meetings, three full staff gifted and talented
in-services, one of campus council full in-service day, as well as book study
and other informal meetings.
Ongoing
Assessment:
Our program will be evaluated in an on-going manner
coordinated by the Extended Curriculum Council but seeking the input of all
stakeholders including teachers, parents, and students. There will be a
summative and formative component of our assessment. (Appendix I) For summative
evaluation we have developed a five question survey to be given to parents,
students, and teachers in the program on an annual basis in the month of
January. This will allow the council time to evaluate the results of the survey
before beginning the next cycle of nomination and acceptance. For formative
evaluation we will keep portfolios of student work and teacher best practices
for each student in the program. This
will allow us to get a feel for the type of offerings we are providing and their
effectiveness. It will also provide an opportunity to share best practices and
develop a bank of useful strategies and activities for students in the program.
Support
Services:
Our program will include the support of the Extended Curriculum Council which is a standing council made up of administrators, teaches, parents and quite possibly gifted students in the future. This council meets regularly throughout the year. We will also have a Extended Curriculum Screening Team which is a standing team that will meet for the purpose of screening parent referrals for participation as well as all nominations. The team is composed of at least one administrator, two members of the certified teaching staff including the classroom teacher, and the school counselor or psychologist if available. The team will also contribute greatly to the planning of the program offerings for each participant. Additional support is being provided by the Park County Special Education Cooperative in the form of psychological services and assistance with test administration and professional development.
Parent
Involvement:
Parents can play a vital role in the education of their
gifted and talented child. Their first responsibility is to become informed of
our program structure. We will include a comprehensive summary of our program in
our Student~Family Handbook annually.
Parents will be allowed to directly request participation using the proper
referral forms and conforming to annual deadlines. There will be a parent
representative on our Extended Curriculum Council. When a child is nominated and
being screened parents will have the ability to give important insight into
their students individual learning needs through inventories and interviews. The
team will make every effort to set up an initial meeting with parents and
members of the team to gather pertinent information before beginning the
child’s extended studies. While extended curriculum is in place the parents
will be asked and encouraged to maintain a Parent ~ Child Home Support Log
(appendix H) which includes guided questions on the child’s participation in
his or her studies. Parents will be directly informed and consulted on their
child’s extended studies at regularly scheduled parent/teacher conferences
and/or through additional formal or informal meetings, notes, calls, and emails.
Report cards will include a progress report on their extended studies.
Appendix
A: Parent Request for Extended Curriculum Program Consideration
Parent Request for Extended Curriculum
Program Consideration
Student:
___________________________
Grade: _______ Age:
______
Teacher:
___________________________
Please Print Your
Name and Today’s Date: _____________________________
* Form reviewed
between 2/1 and 3/15 * return
to teacher or office
Student
Characteristic Profiles:
The scale below will help you estimate the student’s intellectual/academic characteristics:
Circle the frequency of each:
1- never
2 - seldom 3
– occasionally 4 -
frequently 5 - almost
always 6 – always
|
Interests |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Motivation |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Inquiry |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Insight |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Humor |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Communication |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Memory |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Reasoning |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Problem
Solving |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Imagination |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
Descriptions:
Interests:
intense (sometimes unusual) interests in a topic or activity: self-starter
pursues an activity unceasingly, beyond his/her peer group.
Motivation:
evidence of desire to learn;
persistent in pursuing/completing self-selected tasks; may be culturally
influence; evident in school or non-school activities; enthusiastic learner.
Inquiry:
asks unusual question for age; plays
around with ideas; extensive exploratory behaviors directed toward eliciting
information about materials, devices, or situations.
Insight:
exceptional ability to draw
inferences; quickly grasps new concepts and makes connections; is keenly
observant; heightened capacity for seeing unusual and diverse relationships,
integration of ideas
Humor:
conveys and picks up on humor well;
keen sense of humor that may be gentle
Communication:
highly expressive; unusually ability
to communicate; uses particularly apt examples, illustrations or elaborations.
Memory:
large storehouse of information about
school or non-school topics; 1-2 repetitions for mastery; pays attention to
details; manipulates information.
Reasoning:
logical approach to figuring out
solutions; ability to make generalizations, use metaphors and analogies;
critical thinker.
Problem
Solving: unusual ability to devise or adopt a systematic strategy for solving
problems and to change the strategy if it’s not working; creates new designs;
an inventor.
Imagination:
shows exceptional ability in using
everyday materials; produces many ideas; has wild, seemingly silly ideas;
flexible and fluent produce of ideas; highly curious.
Please
check all that best describes your child.
Intellectually
Gifted
____ Intensely active mind; curiosity, concentration; capacity for sustained intellectual effort
____ Mental quickness and flexibility
____ Rapid insights into cause and effect
____ Tries to discover the how and why of things
____ Heightened need to seek understanding and truth, to
gain knowledge, to analyze/synthesize
____ Penchant for probing questions, problem solving; preoccupation with logic and theoretical
thinking
____ Very sensitive, sometimes in extreme
____ Extremely strong emotional connections to persons,
living things, and places
____ Compassion; responsiveness to others, empathy and
sensitivity in relationships
Specific
Academic Ability/Talent
Math:
____ Plays with numbers
____ Uses mathematical symbols to communicate thinking
____ Derives solutions and conveys thinking through the use of mathematical equations and
words
____ May develop unique mathematical techniques
____ Grasps concepts, makes quick valid generalizations
____ Problem solves with data
____ Likes logic and problem-solving games; can anticipate
ahead
____ Likes collecting data
____ Advanced computation skills
____ Reads advanced materials beyond age expectancy
____ Demonstrates comprehension through discussion of
materials read
____ Makes inferences
____ Analyzes content read
____ Silent reading for extended periods of time
____ Takes independent actions to solve reading problems
____ Extends vocabulary with new words encountered in print
____ Scans and skims reading
____ Advanced vocabulary
____ Reads carefully
Additional
Information:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix
B: Extended Curriculum Program Nomination
Extended Curriculum Program Nomination
Student:
___________________________
Grade: _______ Age:
______
Classroom Teacher:
___________________________
Circle area(s) of
referral: Intellectual
/ Specific
Academic (math/reading)
Please Print Your
Name and Today’s Date: _____________________________
Form Completed By:
____ teacher ____ principal
____ screening team
*Form due to office
by 3/31 preferably by 3/20
Was this student
nominated before? If yes, when? Explain results:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Test
History
Please record any test scores you believe may be helpful:
|
Test Name |
Date |
Score |
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The scale below will help you estimate the student’s intellectual/academic characteristics:
Circle the frequency of each:
1- never 2 - seldom 3 – occasionally 4 - frequently 5 - almost always 6 – always
|
Interests |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Motivation |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Inquiry |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Insight |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Humor |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Communication |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Memory |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Reasoning |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Problem
Solving |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
|
|
Imagination |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
Comments |
Descriptions:
Interests:
intense (sometimes unusual) interests in a topic or activity: self-starter
pursues an activity unceasingly, beyond his/her peer group.
Motivation:
evidence of desire to learn;
persistent in pursuing/completing self-selected tasks; may be culturally
influence; evident in school or non-school activities; enthusiastic learner.
Inquiry:
asks unusual question for age; plays
around with ideas; extensive exploratory behaviors directed toward eliciting
information about materials, devices, or situations.
Insight:
exceptional ability to draw
inferences; quickly grasps new concepts and makes connections; is keenly
observant; heightened capacity for seeing unusual and diverse relationships,
integration of ideas
Humor:
conveys and picks up on humor well;
keen sense of humor that may be gentle
Communication:
highly expressive; unusually ability
to communicate; uses particularly apt examples, illustrations or elaborations.
Memory:
large storehouse of information about
school or non-school topics; 1-2 repetitions for mastery; pays attention to
details; manipulates information.
Reasoning:
logical approach to figuring out
solutions; ability to make generalizations, use metaphors and analogies;
critical thinker.
Problem
Solving: unusual ability to devise or adopt a systematic strategy for solving
problems and to change the strategy if it’s not working; creates new designs;
an inventor.
Imagination:
shows exceptional ability in using
everyday materials; produces many ideas; has wild, seemingly silly ideas;
flexible and fluent produce of ideas; highly curious.
Appendix
C: TABS; Frasier’s Traits, Attributes, and Behaviors
See included document.
Appendix
D: Extended Curriculum Observation
and Permission for Consideration
Extended Curriculum Observation and
Permission for Consideration
Student:
___________________________
Grade: _______ Age:
______
Parent Name:
___________________________
Parent Address:
__________________________
Date:
_____________________________
Principal Signature:
___________________________
* return to teacher
or office no later than April 1st
Dear Parent,
Please be informed that your son/daughter has been nominated by a
teacher, administrator, or the screening team at the request of a parent to be
considered for
We hope you are already aware of the benefits of our Extended Curriculum Program for Gifted and Talented students, the details of which are included in your Student~Family Handbook. However, if you do not recall the program a brief synopsis is offered below.
Through a standardized
identification process the Arrowhead School Extended Curriculum Screening Team
will admit children in grades k-8 into the school’s Gifted & Talented
program. Gifted and talented children are unique and may respond to different
catalysts to enhance the developments of their gifts or talents. Our program
seeks to identify the unique gifts and talents of our children, quantify and
describe their abilities, provide learning opportunities that act as a catalyst
to improve their educational and curriculum offerings and maximize their
abilities to reach their high potential.
We congratulate you on the accomplishments your child has already made
and look forward to better supporting their unique abilities and talents in the
future. We strongly urge you to discuss this opportunity with your child and to
sign/return the form ASAP. We will
provide you with written notification by May 1st as to whether or not
your child is accepted. If accepted we will ask for your consent by May 15th
and invite you to a meeting to allow you to help plan for your child’s program
next year with us.
Parent Signature:
___________________________
Date:
_____________________________
P.O. Box 37 Pray, MT 59047
/ phone (406) 333-4359 / fax
(406) 333-4975
Appendix
E: Extended
Curriculum Early Entrance to School Request
Extended Curriculum Early Entrance to
School Request
Child:
___________________________
Birth
Date: _______________
Parent Name:
___________________________
Phone: ___________________
Parent Address:
__________________________
Date: ____________________
Pre-Schools
Attended, if any: ___________________________
* Form reviewed
between 2/1 and 3/15 * return
to teacher or office
If you have received this form you have expressed interest in your child entering school through our Extended Curriculum program as an exception to Board Policy 3110 below:
No pupil may be enrolled in the kindergarten or first grade whose fifth
or sixth birthday does not occur on or before the tenth (10th) day of September
of the school year in which the child registers to enter school.
Early entrance to school can be highly beneficial to gifted children between the ages of three and six who may be operating six months or more ahead of their similarly aged peers in academic achievement, both socialization and self-esteem can be improved with early entrance. Our selection criteria are based on Cognitive Functioning, Personal Characteristics, Learning Preferences, and Interests. More information about our criteria is outlined on the back of this page along with questions for you and your child’s preschool teacher to complete. If a child is admitted early they will be evaluated very frequently during their first year by the Gifted and Talented Screening Team which includes the administrator and classroom teacher. The first six months are considered a trial period, and offered with the understanding that if it is not working a change can be made, up to and including withdrawal of early entrance status. Evaluation will indicate if the child is progressing as well as brighter students in the class in most academic areas, if the child is comfortable with the school routine and teacher, if the child has made friends in the class, and if the child sees his or her self generally as a good learner.
We greatly appreciate your interest; however, we need to make the requirements of such admission very clear before you make your request by completing and sending the form back:
Parent Signature:
___________________________
Date:
_____________________________
P.O. Box 37 Pray, MT 59047 / phone (406) 333-4359 / fax (406) 333-4975
Cognitive Functioning: Students accepted for early entrance must be processing and achieving well above age peers and score as moderately or highly gifted on intelligence tests (>130)
Do you have any completed intelligence tests for your child? Yes / No (if yes please include)
Will you permit the district to arrange these tests for
your child at your expense, pending your agreement on price?
Yes /
No
Personal Characteristics: Students accepted for early entrance must be independent and motivated, want to start school, be highly motivated to learn, comfortable with older children, have a longer attention span than age peers, be socially mature, emotionally stable, perceptive, confident and independent in action.
Do all of the above characteristics apply to your child? Yes / No ( if no please indicate below which ones do not apply, if yes please elaborate on your observations)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Learning Preferences: Students accepted for early entrance must enjoy visual and small motor activities, have a preference of reading and math activities, demonstrate consistent participation in small motor activities and close range visual tasks, like being challenged and perceive school as a place to learn.
Do all of the above preferences apply to your child? Yes / No ( if no please indicate below which ones do not apply, if yes please elaborate on your observations)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interests: Students accepted for early entrance must like academic work and have exhausted what preschool can offer, like reading and math activities, and have wide ranging interests in previous preschool situations.
Do all of the above interests apply to your child? Yes / No ( if no please indicate below which ones do not apply, if yes please have your child’s Preschool Teacher elaborate on observations)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Appendix
F: Extended Curriculum Confirmation of
Acceptance Letter
Extended Curriculum Confirmation of
Acceptance Letter
Student:
___________________________
Grade: _______ Age:
______
Parent Name:
___________________________
Parent Address:
__________________________
Date:
_____________________________
Principal Signature:
___________________________
* Please tear the
bottom part of the form and return by May 15th
Dear Parent,
We are pleased to inform you that your son/daughter has been accepted into the Arrowhead School Extended Curriculum Program. This program is provided for children who qualify under our District’s standards as Gifted and Talented or who have been identified at another school district as Gifted and Talented. By signing this form below you are giving us permission to begin providing Extended Curriculum programming to your son or daughter. This programming will not begin until next school year. That will allow teachers plenty of time to identify what areas of extension with most benefit your child’s unique gifts and talents.
We will inform you of every opportunity to participate in your child’s
program. This includes meetings both formal and informal, parent teacher
conferences, report card updates, and a Parent Learning Log Journal. Your
participation can greatly strengthen the outcome of our program for your child.
We congratulate you on the accomplishments your child has made and look
forward to better supporting their unique abilities and talents in the future.
Participation in this program continues each year your child is enrolled. Major
behavior issues can disqualify them temporarily or permanently from
participation, you will be informed in this event. Please return this form to
the office or your child’s teacher May 15th and stand by for more
information about how you can help with the program for your child. If you have
any questions please contact Mr. Galvin or your child’s teacher at your
convenience.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
__________________________ grant my child _________________ permission to
participate in the
Parent Signature:
___________________________
Date:
_____________________________
P.O. Box 37 Pray, MT 59047
/ phone (406) 333-4359 /
fax (406) 333-4975
Appendix
G: Extended Curriculum Student
Handbook Language
Through a standardized identification process the Arrowhead School Extended Curriculum Screening Team will admit children in grades k-8 into the school’s Gifted & Talented program. Gifted and talented children are unique and may respond to different catalysts to enhance the developments of their gifts or talents. Our program seeks to identify the unique gifts and talents of our children, quantify and describe their abilities, provide learning opportunities that act as a catalyst to improve their educational and curriculum offerings and maximize their abilities to reach their high potential.
There is a detailed nomination, screening, assessment, acceptance, and notification process associated with this program. The full details of which are available in our Extended Curriculum Program Plan. Students are nominated for consideration for the program by teachers or principal during the months of February and March no later than March 31st. Parents may request consideration for the program directly by submitting a request form between February 1st and March 15th. Students are assessed with intelligence tests during the month of April and the Screening Team reviews each nomination thoroughly to make a determination of acceptance by May 1st. Parents may, through a standardized and very restrictive process, apply for early entrance to school under the guidelines of this program.
Once a student is accepted they remain in the program as long as they are enrolled unless behavior issues prevent participation. Students who come to school and have records of official identification are placed in the program immediately. If you are interested in the program you may contact the school at any time for information. However, students are only considered for acceptance in the months between February and March.
Appendix
H: Parent Learning Log Journal
***Inset here***
Appendix
I: Extended Curriculum Reflection Form
Extended
Curriculum Reflection Form
Instructor:
____________________Date: _________________
Activity/Subject:_____________________________________
Grade Level: _______
Student Participants:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Likes:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dislikes:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix
J: Extended Curriculum Program Timeline & Overview
February 1st – March 31st: Acceptance is considered through teacher or principal nomination. Teachers are encouraged to have their nomination forms turned in by March 20th.
February 1st – March 15th: Parents may directly request consideration for the program through the Screening Team. Parents will be promptly notified of the team’s decision.
April 1st – May 1st: Nominated students will be assessed with intelligence tests by qualified staff.
May 1st: The parents of nominated students will receive written notice of acceptance or non- acceptance into the program.
May 15th: Parents must return written and signed permission of program participation for accepted students. Program participation will start at the beginning of the next school year.
February 1st – May 31st:
The Screening Team will meet as necessary for the following functions:
review and respond to parent requests for program consideration, review
nomination forms, coordinate assessment needs, review assessment results, make
program acceptance determinations, notify parents of acceptance status, and plan
for implementing programs for students. Likely meeting dates will be 2/15, 3/31,
4/25 and 5/20.