Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Middle School Gifted Programs

Our school district is undertaking a study of the middle school-level gifted programs in an effort to improve them. They are telling the task force to "dream big" as to what we would like to see. What do you like / dislike about your gifted programs at the middle school level? If you could have anything, what would it be?

Currently the school district offers gifted classes for math (one-year and two-year acceleration), science (enrichment) and language arts (enrichment).

We are only looking at programs and NOT how gifted children are identified.

Starting last school year, the district my DD is in sent qualifying middle school kids (mostly 8th graders) to the high school to take math, science, and/or world language (you had to sign up to do at least two of the three). The parents would drop the kids off at the high school for first period and a bus would take them to middle school to finish out their day.
I thought it worked quite well.
--S.F.

Our districts MS have 3 classes of Math for each grades:


6th grade 7th grade 8th grade
Regular 6 7 8
Accelerated mid 6-7 late 7 and 8 Algebra
TAG mid 7-8 Algebra Geometry

http://www.roundrockisd.org/Departm...ed_round_rock_curriculum/math__gr__6-8_/

LA has 2 different classes: Regular and TAG. TAG is more rigorous but there is no clear grade level acceleration. Still, TAG LA will be on track on get AP English III and IV credits. Science and social studies are more vigorous/ enrichment than regular class.

Then again, those acceleration are sort of cookie cutter and it may not fit for everyone. Some kids (especially PG) still need skipping those classes. But the district is pretty good at accomodating (as long as the kiddo can pass the test).

My DD's middle grade experiences were mostly non-enriched, but the one bright spot was/is the use of a language arts enrichment ELECTIVE based upon the inquiry-based Great Books program.

It was truly transformative in the hands of a masterful teacher who understands gifted students well.


The math was just acceleration into high school topics. Science and social studies were not really differentiated.


My own middle school GT program, back in the golden era (1970's) was amazing.

- differentiated (tracked) sections in the core subjects (science, math, English, Social Studies-- though the latter, I have my doubts)

- electives, electives, electives for EVERYONE, not just GT, and they were COOL-- cartography, legal process and laws re: juveniles in the state, anthropology, accounting, psychology, etc.

- special electives (of choice) JUST for GT, which is how I learned Mendelian genetics well enough to help my friends through that class in, er, college...analyzed dramatic works saw plays at a professional and internationally renowned theater, and studied ornithology, French cuisine and ASL.

Honestly, I have no idea HOW my junior high managed it. But it was sure amazing.

At a SECOND junior high school, the options were good, (tracking again, but no real math acceleration... though I do know how to hand crank a square root, old school-- and hey, is THAT ever a skill I've never used since...) but more limited in scope. This school year was set up on a 3-1-3 school year, and the "mini-term" was in January. The mini-term is where ALL electives happened, and this included the GT offerings, which weren't specifically limited enrollment, but clearly some things are not going to draw heavily on anyone else. Things like "Speed Reading" and "Game theory." I liked certain things about that immersion environment (you took 3 "electives" during the miniterm, but only one the rest of the year, and the classes were taught in longer blocks), but the level of the undifferentiated coursework was not very good, tracking or no.

If I could choose a system, I'd pick the one that my first junior high school offered. This was NOT a huge district, nor a huge school-- the total enrollment of the school was perhaps 250 students. But teachers were encouraged to develop courses for electives in their areas of interest. There were NO grade differentiations in terms of electives, either-- so electives were more fluid in terms of placement, and this worked very well for the gifted students, who could take the "hardest" electives from 7th grade on.

When I was in middle school, we had a self-contained gifted class that worked on a lot of different theme-based projects. Those I remember are: individual science fair projects, Amnesty International (social awareness, letter writing, global concerns), card playing (math, risk-taking, odds of winning, gambling even), paleontology, architecture (designing our dream house, scale, modeling), etc.

Our public sd no longer has anything for gifted middle schoolers, but a couple of years ago they offered robotics or online foreign language classes.

Personally I love the idea of all these enrichment opportunities to explore more nontraditional subjects, but if I had to choose between that and accelerated/enriched core subjects, I would have to choose the acceleration. As my DD has said, no one gifted class could make up for sitting through mind-numbing core classes below her ability level.

Thank you for all these great suggestions. It is extremely helpful. The idea of having electives where they can explore more in-depth is something which they haven't touched on yet. I know they offer some electives, but I am unsure what they are. My children are still in grade school, but I feel serving on this task force is a great investment in my child's education as they will be there soon.

I'm not sure why they don't offer accelerated science and LA like they do with math. I suspect it might be because once they hit high school those in the accelerated math programs continue on a different math path than the general students. They don't have this for LA and science as all freshmen take the same freshman level classes for LA and science.

My 8th grade ds isn't home to answer at the moment, but if I asked for his input, I suspect his pie-in-the-sky dream would be classes that truly moved at an accelerated pace. Our school district offers "honors" classes and a HG track, subject acceleration in math and honors classes in LA / Science that can lead to subject-acceleration in high school, but none of those classes are truly accelerated in terms of the actual pace of the classes - they are basically just the same-pace classes offered a year or two ahead of schedule.

I'd add don't confuse gifted programming with an "opportunity to require higher levels of demanding homework". Kids still need a chance to be kids, take part in sports, hang-outs, etc after school rather than being swamped with huge levels of homework.

polarbear

My son is in a gifted middle school program where each grade level has ONE group of 23 kids. In this group of kids all the gifted kids are placed in the group and then they fill in up to 23 with additional non-identified kid who they think can hack it (but don't have the testing). Those kids have to apply to the program with an essay, recommendations, and application. At one point this was a middle school IB program but at some point they dropped that and made it this program.

This group of kids travels together from class to class as does a cart of Mac laptops. In this particular school it has been a godsend for my rule follower, quiet kid to be in class period after period with students who are high achieving and highly capable and deep thinkers. When put out into the wild mix of kids for electives, those classes been very stressful on him. Not that his academy kids don't ever act up but when you say do something and stop talking...they stop talking and do it. Or if you say talk about some particular thing, they do what you asked and only have to be minimally redirected from talking about hair or One Direction and they are not rude at all.

And I know for certain because I worked at the school last year and subbed for his class and tons of other classes.

Not all of the kids were globally advanced but they all had the ability to keep up, some having to work harder in one area than in others.

They do the regular curriculum at an honors level but a bit faster on the regular stuff because they learn faster which gives them time for additional projects, individual and group. They do tons of extended learning and projects.

Their electives are all different but their core classes LA, Math, Science and Social Studies are together. The school also has a Reading class that is mandatory and 6th and 7th grade they had that also...but it was officially labeled as an elective (a no choice elective). This year if you have a 5 on the NCLB testing (scale 1-5) in 8th grade you didn't have to have reading. His entire academy class had a 5 and so they made them up a creative writing class so they all have that elective together (it was supposed to be a mythology class but at the last minute that was changed to creative writing).

Long way of saying they have self-contained all the gifted kids and then filled in to make it a full class. They move quickly through the background learning which allows for lots of discussion, projects and extended learning. All of the teachers are gifted endorsed OR are making progress on being gifted endorsed (I think it is either 3 or 5 classes you take and then add it to your certificate in addition to your content certificate). Math is Algebra I in 8th grade with high school credit and Science is Physical Science in 8th grade with high school credit. There are a few other sections of both of those classes that aren't a part of the academy but the majority of the school is taking pre-algebra in 8th and 8th grade science.

To me, it makes sense that the gifted children are pulled into classes together that can move at the speed and/or depth needed to make sure they are challenged. However there are parents of the children not in the gifted classes complaining because they say it means their children are grouped with more of the children who need a slower pace than normal, so their child is not being educated at the appropriate level.

Has anyone had experience where their gifted children are in a mixed-ability classroom and still get an challenging, appropriate level instruction? How the teacher make this work?

So, do these parents think that their kids benefitted from being with the gifted kids? does it seem more like resentment that their kids weren't identified as gifted? Do they want ability tracking for their kids too?

I haven't heard this complaint in my personal experience. I've heard other parents complain that the gt program is elitist but a lot of them are relieved that their kids don't have to compete against my kid. DD13 is in a gifted middle school program. She has all of her core classes with the gt kids and is mixed with the traditional population for electives/specials. This set up has worked very well for her. The program is big enough that she doesn't have exactly the same people in all of her core classes. The sentiment that the gt kids tend to get from the traditional kids is pity, i.e. oh, you poor gt kids, you have to do more work or I'm so glad that I'm not in that program with all of those people. Whether this reflects their true feelings or their need to the gt program down, it's unclear, probably a little of both. None of them seem to be clamoring to have the gt kids in their classes.


DD has friends who were in her gt elementary program who chose to go the traditional route for middle school. The middle school offers an honors program in a heterogeneous classroom. The honors kids get different work while being in a classroom with all of the other kids. It has worked "ok" for the one self-motivated, introverted kid who doesn't care what other kids think and prefers working on her own or with one or two other kids. For the less self-driven and/or more extroverted kids, it hasn't worked as well.

The biggest problem with this model seems to be the social dynamics of middle school itself. The kids don't want to appear different and they want to be part of a group. For example, one mom said that her son sees no reason why he should have to do anything more difficult than his friend across the aisle. He is much happier coasting and sees the differentiated curriculum as a punishment. She also said that he has been subjected to verbal bullying for being one of the smart kids. Another mom complained that her daughter felt isolated from her friends in language arts because they weren't reading the same material at the same time. The girl had read the book that they were discussing a couple years ago but her comments were not welcome at the lunch table. The girl also missed having a bigger group to discuss her book.