In this session participants will be introduced to the Integrated Curriculum Model. We will spend time with quality literature and will look at some concrete tools that students can use to align with the analytical, communication, and reasoning skills that they need in order to learn at high levels. Participants will engage in literary analysis as they explore content from Language Arts Curriculum developed at The Center for Gifted Education.
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Beginning in the 2017-18 school year, all Wisconsin public schools are required to provide their grade 6-12 students with Academic and Career Planning (ACP) services. If implemented effectively, ACP can be an incredible tool for identifying and meeting the needs of gifted students.
This session will explain the vision of ACP and how ACP can help schools better understand how to provide the experiences gifted students need to be challenged and continually challenge themselves. The session will also show how ACP can facilitate much deeper engagement of students in designing and executing their own learning plans and the critical role families and all teachers have in the ACP process.
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The Benchmark Excelling Exceptional Spelling (BEES) program is based on sequential phonics, includes sight words and is correlated to both the PALS Spelling and Words Their Way Spelling Inventory. Learn why this spelling program was developed and how this spelling program truly works to support students to not just memorize a word for Friday's spelling test, but to learn spelling rules that students can apply when writing and reading beyond Friday's spelling test.
BEES has 282 spelling lists so that every learner begins at their "good fit" list based on their score on the PALS Spelling or on the Words Their Way Spelling Inventory. Students then proceed at an individual pace to optimize their personal learning needs.
Spelling tests occur as students learn and apply the spelling rules. No more pretest Monday, spelling test Friday, repeat!
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Because problem solving can be difficult - even for gifted students - it is important for students to have a "tool-belt" of problem solving strategies. Many of the strategies presented in this session will force students to change their normal thinking patterns and approach each problem in a different way.
You will leave this session with many unique problem-solving techniques that will help all students be more successful in math contests and on tests. Each participant will leave the session with 10 problems they can take back and implement immediately in their classroom that will interest and challenge their students.
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Learn about FREE ACT Test Prep materials and how they can provide information about your students to personalize their learning utilizing case studies.
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NAGC Standards addressed in this session:
“Think deeply about simple things.” That’s the advice professor Arnold Ross of Ohio State University has for all of us. The most complex and enjoyable mathematical explorations begin with simple concepts that are mined for their richness and elegance. It is much more critical to add depth and complexity than to move quickly through textbooks.
How does one take a simple concept like 5+4=9 and motivate highly capable students to think deeply? Through creative math and innovative teaching!
In this session, attendees will be shown how to keep math exciting and challenging through digging deeper rather than by going faster. Most examples and resources are for teachers of students in gr. 3-6.
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Our path to Talent Development emphasizes inclusive practices, centered on personalized learning. Our processes emphasize identification of student potential and unmet needs, which in turn, drives programming in intellectual, academic, fine arts, leadership, creativity, and social emotional domains.
Our aggregate student population is high-achieving in relation to national norms, and as a result, student data is also considered in relation to local and subgroup norms to identify outliers within those contexts.
Our discussion will outline our Talent Development Handbook, a two year project designed to revolutionize the concept and reality of educational opportunity available to all students, K-12.
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You have 45 minutes to escape from this scenario!
Using your wits and the wits of your teammates, you will explore some basic information to find the clues you need to "breakout" and win the game!
After the game, participants will be shown how to create their own breakout box games to use as an anticipatory set in the classroom to pique student interest and get them intellectually and emotionally involved in learning!
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While personalized learning holds promise for meeting student needs, not all districts are ready to move to fully personalized learning environments. What can educators do when differentiation is challenging to implement and not enough to challenge advanced learners, but the district isn't ready for full-scale implementation of personalized learning?
Using personalized learning as a programming option for advanced learners can move student learning to new levels. Learn how you can personalize learning for advanced learners by setting data-driven targets and including student voice and choice in designing learning options. Students are engaged and are learning content deeply while developing college and career readiness skills to nurture collaborative 21st century learners.
I will share the process, data, and products of our journey, how I became a facilitator of student learning, and why this model can work for any classroom teacher or gifted education specialist.
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Our gifted children face many stresses in the educational environment that impact their capacity for joy. Some are external, some internal. Research in neuroscience has led to conclusive findings regarding the connection between joy and learning.
This session will discuss the importance of joy in a child’s education and life in light of recent brain research. We will also share strategies that will help parents and teachers increase joy in their gifted and talented children and teens.
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Wisconsin currently has two active federal Javits grants for projects related to gifted students. Both focus on delivering appropriately challenging and culturally relevant instruction within the RtI framework.
Expanding Excellence is DPI’s grant on mitigating the excellence gap for low-income students and English Language Learners, especially at the primary level. The Smart Spaces grant to UW-Madison/WCATY expands access to high-quality blended curriculum for underrepresented gifted middle school students.
This session will provide an update on each project and will also provide numerous suggestions and strategies based on lessons learned that participants may find useful for implementing gifted programming in their own districts, schools, and classrooms. Issues addressed will include inclusive identification, programming within the RtI model, and parent involvement.
Participant Outcomes:
NAGC Standards addressed : 2, 3, 4, 5
(Exhibitor Session)
The greatest hurdle for incorporating project-based learning in the curriculum is that there is rarely enough time in the school calendar to devote to multiple project based learning experiences. For your gifted and talented students, you want them to have project based learning opportunities, but you just don’t know how to work it into your GT program. Until now.
In this session, Wisconsin Destination Imagination (DI) provides you with an experience every DI team member experiences at every team meeting: an interactive experience of project based learning that is completed within 15 minutes. Our session will provide you with our approach to rapid problem solving project based learning experiences that you can fit in multiple times during the school year.
In this session, you will learn skills – and have FUN!
Differentiation has been described as one of the most important aspects of effective teaching, especially in the field of gifted education. However, the limits of the process and the factors contributing to effective differentiation is vaguely defined. In this session, Dr. Bahar will discuss the results of his study on teachers' differentiation ability to meet the needs of mathematically gifted students.
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NAGC Standards:
Standard 1: Learning and Development:
Standard 3: Curriculum Planning and Instruction
Has your team been frustrated in trying to meet the needs of your highest readers? Do you find your curriculum is not providing opportunities for your advanced readers to grow? Do you struggle to measure your most advanced student’s progress in reading because standardized reading bench-marking makes it hard for the most advanced readers to show growth?
Our team has aligned our reading modules to the Jacob's Ladder Skill Progressions developed through the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary for all learners in the classroom. All students in the classroom are provided with modeling, practice, and assessment for each rung of Jacob’s Ladder.
During this session we will focus on planning process, a curriculum overview, as well as provide a sample unit, rubric, and assessment. We will share with you our data success stories and student writing examples. This session will leave you excited to get planning to meet the needs of all learners within your classroom.
Are you curious about creating a Makerspace? Or have you plunged in and are hoping to see what other schools are doing with their spaces?
Then please join us as we share our start up plans, current success stories as well as our honest frustrations as we fine tune our journey into this exciting world of collaboration, creation and differentiation.
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Have you wondered what you could be doing in your school to help your advanced learners reach the next level in their historical thinking? If so, you should consider starting a National History Day (NHD) competition at your school.
Middle School History teacher, Linda Garcia and Library Media Specialist, Kelly Steiner work together on their school's NHD program and they will be sharing all the tips and tricks they have learned after four years of implementation.
All 8th grade students complete a project, and then students with interest, passion, and talent are encouraged to continue on to school, regional, and even state level events. Students learn about analysis, crafting thesis statements, finding credible primary and secondary sources, and presenting their findings professionally.
The presentation will be an overview of how Jack Young Middle School is addressing the curriculum needs of its advanced learners. Topics of discussion will include, but not be limited to:
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Never have we seen such an explosion of quality young adult literature. Curating a classroom library or choosing new titles for your curriculum, however, can be a daunting task.
Let us help by providing you with an overview of over 30 titles published in the past five years that will captivate and challenge your advanced learners. Specifically, we will feature titles that work well across content areas and titles that feature culturally diverse representation. Everyone deserves a chance to see herself or himself represented in books!
Attendees will be provided with a guide for taking notes as we cycle through over 30 book talks.
Participant Outcomes: Our advanced learners are hungry for challenging and engaging books. Participants will leave empowered to better meet the needs of the adolescents in their life who love to read!
Wisconsin's population is growing and becoming more culturally diverse. Many of us find ourselves interacting with students who come from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. Yet, very often little is done to change the curriculum to address their educational and social-emotional needs. In addition, failing to meet the needs of CLD students also contributes to the issue of underrepresentation in gifted and talented programs.
In this interactive session, educators will engage in exploring the professional dimensions of the Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) model. The purpose of this session is to present CRT practices that enrich the curriculum, hence allowing CLD students to show their true potential. The session will offer educators an opportunity that will focus on the four principles of CRT:
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