A gifted/talented education

[merithyn]

Since so many people here seem to have gone through or otherwise dealt with a gifted/talented education, I'm coming to you for advice. I was asked to be on a committee that oversees the G/T program in our school district. At the elementary level, there are numerous self-contained classrooms for gifted kids. At the high school level, there are numerous Advanced Placement and Accelerated classes. At the middle school level, there is... Honors Reading and Honors Math.

Now, to me this seems pretty stupid. They have a student go through second, third, fourth, and fifth grade in a class full of academically gifted students. They're challenged, engaged, and learning mostly at their own levels. They take these kids and drop them into, basically, a remedial school from their perspective. Sure, there's honors reading and math, but considering these kids are in eight classes a day, that's a drop in the bucket. Then, after three years of sitting on their hands and learning not much, they're re-engaged at the high school level directly into college-level courses. Still, the district is shocked at how many "gifted" kids do poorly their freshman year. Unfortunately, the budget is a major issue.

What constructive things can I bring to the school board for the middle schools to do to bridge this gap that will require minimal money?

[Monoriu]

In Hong Kong, we sort students into different classes (in the same school) according to ability.  Say, we have 336 students in any single year.  So you need 8 classes of 42 students each to accommodate them.  What they do is they sort the best students into the same class, the worst students in the same class, and so on.  You still have 8 classes of 42 students each (meaning the cost is the same), but the best students are taught together, at a higher level. 

[Fate]

I went through Dallas TAG schools from elementary all the way through high school. I suppose inner city TAG programs are probably as close to a surburban white education as you can get, save going to private school.  I'm doubtful it was all that beneficial, especially for anything before high school.

AP classes are certainly worth the time and money invested, but you can't offer those to middle schoolers.

[Viking]

Be a good/neurotic mom. My parents had me doing extra math in elementary school. I had about 1 hour of extra homework from my parents each day during classes 1-6. Give them extra work and challenge them yourselves.


Edit: My mom was a Professor of Education, so she had a bit of an idea of what she was doing. 

[merithyn]

This is a district-wide initiative, not a Meri initiative. I'm looking for things that the school district can do for middle school gifted kids to enhance their education that won't cost them much money.

[DontSayBanana]

I'm probably not going to be much help- my additional schooling was in things like mock trials, aerodynamics, and avionics.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I went through this in high school. Was fun.
http://www.cgsva.net/cgs/default.aspx

[garbon]

I'm probably not going to be much help- my additional schooling was in things like mock trials, aerodynamics, and avionics.

And look at how far you've come.

[Monoriu]

My school had a policy like this.  First grade students would go through the second grade curriculum, and so on. 

[Martinus]

In Hong Kong, we sort students into different classes (in the same school) according to ability.  Say, we have 336 students in any single year.  So you need 8 classes of 42 students each to accommodate them.  What they do is they sort the best students into the same class, the worst students in the same class, and so on.  You still have 8 classes of 42 students each (meaning the cost is the same), but the best students are taught together, at a higher level.

[sbr]

In Hong Kong, we sort students into different classes (in the same school) according to ability.  Say, we have 336 students in any single year.  So you need 8 classes of 42 students each to accommodate them.  What they do is they sort the best students into the same class, the worst students in the same class, and so on.  You still have 8 classes of 42 students each (meaning the cost is the same), but the best students are taught together, at a higher level.

What's wrong with that idea?  You would rather have the bright kids and the mouth-breathers in the same class so the teacher has to bore the smart kids to death so she can teach down to the kids who are ignoring her anyway?

[DisturbedPervert]

In Hong Kong, we sort students into different classes (in the same school) according to ability.  Say, we have 336 students in any single year.  So you need 8 classes of 42 students each to accommodate them.  What they do is they sort the best students into the same class, the worst students in the same class, and so on.  You still have 8 classes of 42 students each (meaning the cost is the same), but the best students are taught together, at a higher level.

Ideally they'd even be in separate schools.

[Admiral Yi]

Teach them chess and bridge.

[Caliga]

I went through a gifted/talented program (which for us was called AMG (Academically and Mentally Gifted)).  Here's how ours was structured:

Elementary School: I tested into the program in second grade so I don't know what the first graders did, but from grades 2-3 we had this thing where they pulled us out of every other gym class to have a class with a gifted teacher, who went from school to school.  She did stuff like teach us French, how to paint, how to do algebra... basically, whatever she wanted to do and thought would stimulate us (no jokes PLZ, she was a lesbo. )  Grades 4-6 were the same, only we were pulled out of every other reading class and every other social studies class, and not gym... dunno why.

Middle School: Instead of having "normal" English, we all were in a special English AMG class, where the focus was less on grammar and such and more on literature and a bit on philosophy.  The creative shit from elementary school was not continued, except that we had a semester where we played chess every other day.

High School: We continued with English AMG, but by 11th grade you could opt for English AP and about half of the kids did so, including me.  English AMG was also more of a lit/philosophy course, but we did a number of special projects, some of which were self-directed.  For example, my final 10th grade project for that class was writing a computer game, which I did in Borland Turbo Pascal.

IMO the approach our district took was kind of unfocused, but at least they tried.  If you believe the media these days it seems like most of the focus now is on the fuckup kids who are probably beyond 'saving', and the gifted kids get mainstreamed and neglected.

[grumbler]

Meri, probably the cheapest and best way to deal with situations like your districts is to train the teachers to use differentiated teaching - teach things in a way that is perceived by students on the levels at which they operate.  One of the most powerful ways of doing this is to use analogies to "make the familiar unfamiliar" for the gifted kids.  The typical middle-school concrete thinker might have to compare a cell to a town, for instance (i.e. the cell's different parts function like the town's water system, police, etc) while the gifted student might have to compare the cell to, say, a building (and then find out things about buildings as well as cells).

It is hard to do this kind of thing consistently, but you can do it often enough to keep student interest up.

BTW, as an aside, AP courses (AP art courses excepted) are pretty much the opposite of what actual gifted students need.  Students who do well in AP courses are probably not gifted, just smart and motivated.