What is the Gifted Curriculum?
The curriculum for all students in the State of Florida is based on the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS). Gifted students, like all others, need to demonstrate mastery on these standards in order to show progress in each of the content areas. These curriculum standards will be replaced in 2013-14 with the more-rigorous Common Core Standards. Although gifted students are required to demonstrate mastery on the NGSSS, in many cases they are able to demonstrate that mastery sooner, with less repetition, and in ways that show greater depth and complexity than more typically-developing students. Gifted education teachers have professional development in the differentiation of the general curriculum so that they can employ appropriate instructional strategies for gifted learners in how the content is organized and presented, how the students engage with the material, the products they develop and the assessments used to evidence mastery. Teachers may, for instance, employ preassessments to determine what knowledge and skills the students already have in order to “compact” the presentation to allow students opportunities to replace that content with either higher-level or more complex activities.
In addition to the NGSSS, Florida’s Framework for K-12 Gifted Learners should be part of the curriculum planning process for gifted students. The Frameworks contain seven goal areas (content, questioning, research, critical and creative thinking, leadership, goal-setting and achievement, and products) that can be used to differentiate the content, process, product and social/emotional aspects of the curriculum. The document takes the long view and may serve to guide teachers in helping to stretch gifted students beyond the general curriculum.
While specific topics are not mandated at certain grade levels (beyond those identified in the NGSSS) the Curriculum Council of the National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and Talented has recommended that curriculum for the gifted should:
- Present content that is related to broad-based issues, theme or problems
- Integrate multiple disciplines into the area of study
- Present comprehensive, related and mutually reinforcing experiences within an area of study
- Allow for the in-depth learning of a self-selected topic within the area of study
- Develop independent or self-directed study skills
- Focus on open-ended tasks
- Develop research skills and methods
- Integrate basic skills and higher level thinking skills into the curriculum
- Encourage the development of products that challenge existing ideas and produce “new” ideas
- Encourage the development of products that use new techniques, materials and forms
- Encourage the development of self-understanding, i.e., recognizing and using one’s abilities, becoming self-directed, appreciating likenesses and differences between oneself and others
- Evaluate student outcomes by using appropriate and specific criteria through self-appraisal, criterion-reference and/or standardized instruments
Answer provided by Martha Kesler, Instructional Support for Gifted Education, K-12,Orange County Public Schools