Documentation for Gifted students

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Documentation for Gifted students

by Froggybee

Jul 26, 2012

I am the middle level TAG (GATE) Coordinator at my MS of about 800 students. I have approximately 150 identified students in grades 6,7,8. Each student is required, by law, to have a document that we call an ALP (Advanced Learning Plan) where we document services for the student. These services may include accelerated classes, social/emotional groups, leadership opportunities and/or within class differentiation. This last area is where I am struggling most. Teachers are given a list of TAG id'd students and their area of giftedness and are expected (and trained) to differentiate appropriately within the classroom setting. In the past, I've used the ALP to reflect on what differentiation has been given (if any). I have found that most teachers are not doing anything but giving choice (which I don't feel is true differentiation anyway). How can I change my way of utilizing the ALP as a reflective document to that of a pro-active document? In other words, how can I get my teachers to trul...See More

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Jamie Are teachers commonly pre-testing before each unit? I've found this to be rare, even when teachers were encouraged to do it for differentiation. Small, easy first steps involve pre-testing for math units and doing cross-grade-level grouping based on the results, with support from the gifted specialist and resource personnel when schedules permit. ...See MoreAre teachers commonly pre-testing before each unit? I've found this to be rare, even when teachers were encouraged to do it for differentiation. Small, easy first steps involve pre-testing for math units and doing cross-grade-level grouping based on the results, with support from the gifted specialist and resource personnel when schedules permit.

For example, if there are 60 kids in sixth grade in three classes, and all the teachers give the same pre-test before the unit, they collect the results. Students from all three home room classes would go to an assigned sixth grade class during math time for that unit for differentiated instruction, based on their pre-test mastery.

Another thought would be whether you can increase the frequency of differentiated instruction training for teachers who have identified TAG students? With all the demands placed on teachers, it can't hurt to get a refresher. How much training about differentiated instruction do they typically have? I would focus workshops on tiered lessons--I recently came across a website author who called this "layered curriculum" and she had examples of tiered lessons for secondary students.

Although it requires more initial support from gifted specialists, it's helpful if classroom teachers get comfortable compacting curriculum--replacing typical grade-level work with new material if the student has already mastered what the teacher plans to teach. It seems a bit daunting to set up, but once a teacher has worked with a couple of students, it typically works well. The only problem I've found is when the student in question isn't especially motivated, or struggles a lot with organization (and that's the case for 1/5 to 1/4 of our students), so that may not be a viable solution for every student.

In terms of paperwork, I wonder if you could require teachers to make some kind of action statement, similar to what we do with our student support teams. For those students, teachers measure baseline data, set a goal, select an intervention, and measure progress toward the goal over time. Although it might be overkill to require teachers to maintain graphs about each individual student, it might not hurt to ask teachers to at least track specific differentiation strategies they are using for their students, and set a goal to increase the frequency and/or level of difficulty and/or range of subjects. (Hope that made sense.)

Good luck!

On 7/26/12, Froggybee wrote: > I am the middle level TAG (GATE) Coordinator at my MS of > about 800 students. I have approximately 150 identified > students in grades 6,7,8. Each student is required, by law, > to have a document that we call an ALP (Advanced Learning > Plan) where we document services for the student. These > services may include accelerated classes, social/emotional > groups, leadership opportunities and/or within class > differentiation. This last area is where I am struggling > most. Teachers are given a list of TAG id'd students and > their area of giftedness and are expected (and trained) to > differentiate appropriately within the classroom setting. > In the past, I've used the ALP to reflect on what > differentiation has been given (if any). I have found that > most teachers are not doing anything but giving choice > (which I don't feel is true differentiation anyway). How > can I change my way of utilizing the ALP as a reflective > document to that of a pro-active document? In other words, > how can I get my teachers to truly differentiate for the > students? Thanks in advance for any/all suggestions!

Jul 26, 2012

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