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Check out this Presentation designed by Rebecca McLelland-Crawley.

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INSIDE THE MIND OF GIFTED MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

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INSIDE THE MIND OF GIFTED MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

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Update: In order for students to have a voice, and to learn how to advocate for their gifted needs, I constantly ask the students to name the things they wish the teachers understood about gifted learners. Here are the most recent items they listed for educators to know:

I asked them to write things they wish their teachers knew about gifted students in middle school. I asked them to tell me what they need from school from their perspective. They responded in bold colors, with heartfelt messages. PRISM students came back all day to add to the wall to have their unique voices heard.

*In the days following this activity, the writing remained on the board and the students and I reflected on their messages. Over the course of 4 days, the students have re-read their statements and some have said that their frustrations made their comments sound meaner than their original intent. Nonetheless, when we give students a voice, we need to listen. Their feedback was honest and as their champion I am giving them a place to share and learn how to be empowered advocates for their needs as gifted learners. Links to resources for each statement have now been added as a caption and our hope is that educators will take this opportunity to reflect on their own practices to ensure all of our students are being given the opportunities they deserve to flourish in our schools.

Links for more information:

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Inside the mind of gifted middle school students

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Update: In order for students to have a voice, and to learn how to advocate for their gifted needs, I constantly ask the students to name the things they wish the teachers understood about gifted learners.

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Practical Recommendations for Teachers from the University of Delaware

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Practical Recommendations for Teachers from the University of Delaware

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Joy Lawson Davis -  Bright, Talented and Black

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The Campaign. National education organizations and individuals interested in promoting equity and excellence in our Nation's homes, schools, and communities can support the campaign by actively promoting and sharing key information about the nature and needs of gifted children amongst others in their networks. The Campaign begins with awareness building about children with gifts and talents and will grow into a movement to National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) organized the Giftedness Knows No Boundaries improve policies and practices that create supportive environments where these children can thrive.

Please visit www.GiftednessKnowsNoBoundaries.org often as NAGC will regularly update the site with new resources and information.

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The Campaign. National education organizations and individuals interested in promoting equity and excellence in our Nation's homes, schools, and communities can support the campaign by actively promoting and sharing key information about the nature and needs of gifted children amongst others in their networks.

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Gifted children are just like your typical child with the same needs and wants. However, their potential is the true gift, so trying to find ways to tap into this and teach them to use it to the best of their ability throughout their life is the challenge of many teachers and parents of gifted kids.

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Curriculum Compacting- Six Steps to Make it Work

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Curriculum Compacting- Six Steps to Make it Work

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Curriculum Compacting- Six Steps to Make it Work

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You now know all about the what and the why of curriculum compacting (and if you don't check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series). Next, it's time to talk about how to make it actually work in classroom with students and your unique situation.

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New Jersey Association for Gifted Children

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National Association for Gifted Children |

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NAGC works to support those who enhance the growth and development of gifted and talented children through education, advocacy, community building, and research

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SENG - Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted

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Supporting the social & emotional needs of the gifted, talented, and twice-exceptional since 1981.

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Curriculum compacting is a technique for differentiating instruction that allows teachers to make adjustments to curriculum for students who have already mastered the material to be learned, replacing content students know with new content, enrichment options, or other activities. Researchers recommend that teachers first determine the expected goals of the unit or lesson in terms of the content, skills, or standards students must learn before assessing students to determine which ones have already mastered most or all of the specified learning outcomes. [1]

Elementary teachers can eliminate from 24%-70% of high-ability students' curriculum by compacting without any negative affect on test scores or performance. [2]? In fact, curriculum compacting can have a positive affect on students' performance. Because many talented students receive little differentiation of instruction from their peers, they spend a great deal of time in school doing work that they have already mastered. Curriculum compacting allows these students to avoid having to relearn material they already know, which research has shown can lead to frustration, boredom and, ultimately, underachievement. [3]

Researchers have reported that when classroom teachers eliminated between 40%-50% of the previously mastered regular curriculum for high-ability students, no differences were found between students whose work was compacted and students who did all of the work in reading, math computation, social studies, and spelling. [4] In an analysis of gifted education literature on the topic, another researcher found curriculum compacting to be very effective overall in mathematics, science, and foreign languages. [5]

In a national study of curriculum compacting, the students who received compacting in science and mathematics actually scored significantly higher on achievement posttests than their peers in the control group, suggesting the benefits of compacting for increases on standard achievement assessments. Analyses of data related to students' thoughts about replacement activities indicated that the students viewed the new curricular options as much more challenging than standard material. [6]

Some concerns have arisen regarding the need to train teachers in the compacting process. In one study focused on curriculum compacting, almost all classroom teachers participating learned to use compacting, but needed coaching and help to substitute appropriately challenging options. [7] When interviewing teachers about the instructional methods used in fast-paced classes, other researchers found that few teachers mentioned curriculum compacting as a strategy used to eliminate instruction. [8] Teachers in a small study looking at compacting with first-grade students stated that they were "eager to continue implementing curriculum compacting in the future" because of the benefits toward students, but it was determined that further in-service and other training opportunities were needed to help them modify instruction and find replacement activities. [9]

[1, 3] Renzulli, J. S., & Reis, S. M. (2014). The schoolwide enrichment model: A how-to guide for talent development (3rd ed.). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
[2, 4, 7] Reis, S. M., Westberg, K. L., Kulikowich, J. M., & Purcell, J. H. (1998). Curriculum compacting and achievement test scores: What does the research say? Gifted Child Quarterly, 42, 123-129.
[5] Rogers, K. B. (2005, November). A content analysis of gifted education research and literature. Paper presented at the annual convention of the National Association for Gifted Children, Louisville, KY.
[6] Reis, S. M., Westberg, K. L., Kulikowich, J., Caillard, F., Hébert, T. P., Plucker, J. A., ... & Smidst, J. (1993). Why not let high ability students start school in January? The curriculum compacting study (Research Monograph 93106). Storrs: University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.
[8] Lee, S. Y., & Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (2006). A study of instructional methods used in fast-paced classes. Gifted Child Quarterly, 50, 216-237.
[9] Stamps, L. S. (2004). The effectiveness of curriculum compacting in first grade classrooms. Roeper Review, 27, 31-42

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Curriculum Compacting | National Association for Gifted Children

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Curriculum compacting is a technique for differentiating instruction that allows teachers to make adjustments to curriculum for students who have already mastered the material to be learned, replacing content students know with new content, enrichment options, or other activities. Researchers recomm…

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Using Curriculum Compacting To Challenge the Above-Average

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Curriculum compacting is a flexible, research-supported instructional technique that enables high-ability students to skip work they already know and substitute more challenging content. As the dialogue about better ways to restructure our schools goes on, teachers still face the challenge of providing equitably for the broad differences in students' abilities, interests, and learning styles.

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Curriculum Compacting - Student Perspective PAGE 2011

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Curriculum Compacting - Student Perspective PAGE 2011

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One way to help advanced students move ahead and learn at their own level.

Professional development. What thoughts and feelings do those words conjure up for you? Excitement? Boredom? A chance to improve your skills and learn new, interesting teaching strategies? Or a painful time of listening to someone talk about a topic you already know?

We've all been there-sitting in a required in-service class listening to someone go over Bloom's Taxonomy or some other concept or strategy that we've been using effortlessly for years. We grumble our way through the session, irritated that we have to sit on our butts "re-learning" a topic we could have taught just as well ourselves, if not better. Partly we're irritated because we have so much else to do! Many teachers would categorize a situation like this as wasted time.

Of course, not all professional development is like that. But I use the example because it is a great way to help teachers relate to what a gifted kid experiences when the material being taught in class is not at the right readiness-level for him or her. We don't like it when someone else puts us into that kind of a situation, yet we routinely do the same to the gifted students.

In part, we've been set up. Most college teacher preparation programs don't teach future teachers how to adequately meet the needs of the gifted students who will end up in our classrooms. Consequently, we walk into teaching missing some very important tools.

One of the handiest tools for teaching gifted children is "curriculum compacting." You could equate it to an adjustable hammer.

Curriculum compacting involves a few important steps, all with the aim of enabling students who have already mastered content to move on and learn new things.

A tip before you begin trying this strategy: Start small. Try it out first with a lesson you feel comfortable with. Be within (or close to) your own comfort zone for your inaugural attempts. This will help you to develop confidence in the strategy and in your ability to implement it, which will enable you to branch out from that point on.

So, what do you do? Well, first you have to determine which of your students are possible candidates for curriculum compacting. You probably don't need to get too far into the school year to get a sense of which students complete their work quickly (yet still accurately), seem to have a wealth of outside information, and consistently score well with little apparent effort. These kids are usually good prospects for curriculum compacting.

Your next step is to pre-test these potential candidates. The pre-test can be the one from the course book (or whatever curricular materials you're using), or it can be one that you create. It doesn't have to be extensive. To use spelling as an example, it can be as simple as pre-testing the kids on that week's words before they've been given the list. With other subjects, the pre-test should cover the main objectives that you want the students to learn in the unit.

By examining the pre-test results, you'll be able to see which students have already mastered all of or large portions of the content. Continuing with our spelling example: If a child scores a 100 percent on his spelling pre-test before you've even given him the list to study, before he's written the words ten times each, before he's used each of them in a sentence, before he's looked up all of their definitions, and before studying them at home with mom and dad-well, then, why the heck does he have to still jump through all those hoops throughout the week? He shouldn't have to. He's just proven to you that he has mastered that content. Now you can compact his curriculum.

In the case of spelling, he could be given a harder set of words, ones he hasn't mastered yet, and still do the same assignments with them. For other subjects, the compacting process can be more complex. Let's say a student shows through her pre-test that she has mastered six of the science unit's eight objectives. Well, in this case, the student has mastered much of the content, but not quite all of it. For the portions she hasn't yet mastered, she will be learning right along with the rest of the class. But for the portions she has mastered, she can now "buy time" (so to speak) to explore the topic in greater depth, do an independent project on a subject of interest to her, work with a mentor who can expand her horizons on the topic, move ahead in the curriculum, write an essay on the topic, etc. A thousand possibilities present themselves. Just which ones the student pursues will depend in part on available resources, available space, available time, the child's interests, and your own flexibility.

The essence here is that the child should be allowed to learn. If this student were forced to sit through all of the lessons on the content she has just proven she's mastered, then what exactly is she learning? That school is for jumping through hoops, whereas real learning takes place when she gets home and can read her books and conduct experiments in her homemade basement laboratory? School should be for learning, too! But unless we use strategies like curriculum compacting, it will continue to be a place where gifted kids mark time, re-learning information they had the first time.

You don't like to re-learn something you've already mastered, do you? Yet it's ironic, isn't it, that we place roadblocks in front of kids who want to learn something new. Let's start tearing down those roadblocks!

Vol. 02, Issue 01, Pages 22-23

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One way to help advanced students move ahead and learn at their own level. Professional development. What thoughts and feelings do those words conjure up for you? Excitement? Boredom? A chance to improve your skills and learn new, interesting teaching strategies? Or a painful time of listening to someone talk about a topic you already know?

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The Curriculum Compactor Assessment Form (See below) was developed to assess the quality of teachers' implementation of the curriculum compacting. The following procedure was used to provide an estimate of the instrument's reliability. First, a ten-item checklist for assessing completed compactors was developed. The items on the checklist reflected the elements of quality compactors advocated by curriculum compacting experts (Reis, Burns, & Renzulli, 1992).

Each item is given a score of 1 if the teacher has integrated it into the compacting process.

In order to become better acquainted with the compactor form and process complete the activity below. The time you spend on this will be worth the effort because you will develop a good sense of how to complete a compactor form for your student or group of students in Lesson 9.

Name of student _________________________

Now it is your turn! As you prepare to work with a student, remember how much students like to have the opportunity to work with a teacher one on one. You can change a life by participating in this research.

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The Curriculum Compactor Assessment Form | The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (1990-2013)

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The Curriculum Compactor Assessment Form (See below) was developed to assess the quality of teachers' implementation of the curriculum compacting. The following procedure was used to provide an estimate of the instrument's reliability. First, a ten-item checklist for assessing complete ...

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New Jersey Student Learning Standards

Gifted and Talented
Identification of Students who are Gifted and Talented 1. How does New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C.) define a student who is gifted and talented?
New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:8-3.1 defines students who are gifted and talented as those students who possess or demonstrate high levels of ability in one or more content areas when compared to their chronological peers in the local district and who require modification of their educational program if they are to achieve in accordance with their capabilities.
2. How should districts identify students who are gifted and talented?
The N.J.A.C. requires that students be compared to their chronological peers in the local school district. The New Jersey Department of Education has not established state-level criteria for identifying students who are gifted, such as mandated tests or assessments, grade point averages, or IQ scores. Local school districts must use multiple measures to identify students.
3. What does N.J.A.C. mean by "multiple measures?"
According to N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3., district boards of education must make provisions for an ongoing K-12 identification process for gifted and talented students that includes multiple measures. Some examples might include, but are not limited to, the following: achievement test scores; grades; student performance or products; intelligence testing; and parent, student, and/or teacher recommendation. Local school districts should ensure that the identification methodology is developmentally appropriate, nondiscriminatory, and related to the programs and services offered (e.g., using math achievement to identify students for a math program).
4. When should districts identify students for giftedness?
N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3.1(a)5 ii requires district boards of education to provide appropriate K-12 educational services for gifted and talented students. Therefore, the identification process and appropriate educational challenges must begin in kindergarten or upon entrance to the school or district. Local school districts are not obligated to identify students prior to their enrollment in the public school (e.g., three-year-olds, students enrolled in community early childhood programs or private kindergartens) or students attending nonpublic schools.
5. Since standardized assessments are not administered until grade three, how can we identify students in grades K-2?
District boards of education are required to identify students in grades K-12. The state does not require the use of standardized tests as part of the identification process. Local districts should use multiple measures to identify students who are gifted and talented (refer to question 3).
6. Must pre-k students be identified? Must a district identify students who are not age-eligible for school entrance?
The regulations are applicable to students in grades K-12 who are enrolled in a public school.

7. How can we learn more about the identification of English language learners who are gifted and talented?

The identification of English language learners as students who are gifted and talented may present some challenges. Districts should use multiple measures to identify all students who may be gifted and talented (refer to question 3). The National Association for Gifted Children has published a position statement regarding the identification of culturally and linguistically diverse students that might provide useful guidance for districts.
8. How can we learn more about the identification of students with unique learning needs who are also gifted and talented?
Students who are identified as "twice-exceptional" may have learning disabilities that mask their giftedness. These students may require different identification methods and program modifications to reach their full potential. It should not be assumed that students with disabilities cannot participate in gifted and talented programs. The National Association for Gifted Children has published a position statement regarding the twice-exceptional students.
9. Can parents/guardians refer their child for gifted and talented services?
All public school districts must have a board-approved gifted and talented identification process and provide services for identified students enrolled in the grades of that school district. Parents/guardians should contact their local school district to find out more information about the referral process.

Services / Programs
10. What services must a district provide?
According to N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3.1, all public school districts must have a board-approved gifted and talented identification process and provide services for identified students enrolled in the grades of that school district. The regulations require that identification and services be made available to students in grades K-12.
11. What types of instructional accommodations must be made for students identified as gifted and talented?
N.J.A.C. requires that district boards of education provide appropriate K-12 services for students identified as gifted and talented. This includes appropriate curricular and instructional modifications indicating content, process, products, and/or learning environments. District boards of education must also consideer the PreK-Grade 12 National Gifted Program Standards of the National Association for Gifted Children in developing programs for gifted and talented students. The standards are available at www.nagc.org.
12. Does the state require districts to use a specific program or model for elementary or middle-level students?
The state does not require a particular program or model. Program models might include, but are not limited to, pull-out programs, classroom-based differentiated instruction, acceleration, flexible pacing, compacted curricula, distance learning, advanced classes, or individualized programs.
13. As part of an accelerated approach, can middle school students take high school courses and receive credit towards high school graduation?
This is a local district decision. Every school district in New Jersey is required to have an
Option 2 policy. According to N.J.A.C. 6A: 8-5.1 a (2) ii district boards of education must establish a process for granting of credits through successful completion of assessments that verify student achievement in meeting or exceeding the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) at the high school level. Such programs or assessments may occur all or in part prior to a student's high school enrollment.
14. Can honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses be used to satisfy the requirements at the high school level?
Honors, Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) classes typically move at a faster rate than other classes, and they tend to have more advanced content. Enrollment in an IB, AP or honors class does not automatically show that a student's level of learning is being addressed.Whether a specific honors, AP or IB course meets the needs of a student identified as gifted in a district should be based on the student's unique needs and interests. The NJDOE does not define what constitutes an "honors" course.
15. Must gifted services be offered during the school day?
N.J.A.C. requires that district boards of education provide appropriate K-12 services for students identified as gifted and talented. This includes appropriate curricular and instructional modifications indicating content, process, products, and/or learning environments. Afterschool programs or clubs may provide exciting opportunities for students who are identified as gifted and talented but do not fulfill the expectations put forth in N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3.1.

16. Does the state or federal government provide funding for gifted programs?
The state does not provide specific, dedicated funds for gifted programs. However, district boards of education are required to provide identification and services using state aid and local revenues.

17. Are local school districts obligated to accept the evaluation of a student's giftedness from another state, school district, or independent service?
N.J.A.C. does not set requirements regarding the identification of gifted and talented students. The measures that are used for the identification process are determined by the local school district. Therefore, a school district is not obligated to accept the evaluation from another state, school district, or independent service.
18. If I am moving to New Jersey from another state, how can I find out what programs are offered in a specific school or district?
All public school districts in New Jersey are required to identify gifted and talented students and provide services. The types of services may differ from district to district. For information regarding services available in a particular district, please contact the district or check its website. Contact information on schools and districts is available in the school directory. You may also find out more about gifted education in New Jersey on the NJ Association for Gifted Children's website.
19. How should gifted services be documented on a student's transcript or report card?
Student performance should be documented as in any other course using grades, narratives, or other means.
20. What should a parent/guardian do if he or she is not satisfied with the services that his or her child is receiving?
A parent/guardian may want to begin by reviewing the information that the district has provided regarding the gifted and talented services that it offers. This information may be found in the student handbook or district website. To ask questions or discuss the services currently being provided, a parent/guardian may want to reach out to his/her child's teachers or school counselor. If there are further concerns, he or she can contact a school or district administrator. If the issues are still not resolved, a parent/guardian can put the concerns in writing to the district administration with a copy to the county superintendent.
22. Does the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provide specific funding for students who are identified as gifted and talented?
ESSA funding goes directly to districts. The NJDOE will provide guidance support to help districts use ESSA funds to better meet student and educator needs, which may include supporting or expanding gifted and talented programs or providing professional learning opportunities to teachers of students identified as gifted and talented.

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Frequently Asked Questions Gifted and Talented Services

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New Jersey Student Learning Standards Gifted and Talented Identification of Students who are Gifted and Talented 1. How does New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C.) define a student who is gifted and talented?

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The first step in the compacting process is choosing curricular content and learning objectives. Teachers may refer to the formal curriculum guides issued by school districts or states, or the informal guides provided by textbook publishers. After locating the objectives, teachers must focus on those that are appropriate for their students. Oftentimes, there's a discrepancy between the objectives noted in the curriculum guides and those actually tested by the school districts. Other objectives may be redundant or overly ambitious. Clearly, teachers must narrow down the field of alternatives. To assist in the task, they may consider the following criteria:

1. To what extent do these objectives represent new learning?

2. Which objectives will best help students increase their use of this content area?

3. Which objectives can be applied to the workplace?

4. Which objectives deal with developing skills or concepts, as opposed to merely memorizing facts?

5. Which objectives are important for high ability students to understand?

6. Which objectives cannot be learned without formal or sustained instruction?

7. Which objectives reflect the priorities of the school district or state department of education?

Prioritizing Objectives

After the objectives are selected, they should be listed by priority. Because of their importance, the higher-ranked items are the ones teachers will concentrate on with the entire class, while the less relevant ones are prime candidates for compacting.

Simply having a set of learning objectives does not tell a teacher how or if these objectives can be adapted to meet students' individual needs. Teachers must know the subject matter, as well as their students' learning styles. Step two in the compacting process can help teachers make these evaluations.
Find an appropriate way to pretest the learning objectives Pretesting, as its name implies, is intended to measure students' skills and talents before instruction begins. It should provide teachers with precise information on:

1. Which objectives students have already met

2. Which objectives students have not yet attained

3. Any problems that may prevent student progress with the objectives

Objective-Referenced Tests
Ideally, a pretest should demonstrate whether a student has full, partial, or little mastery of an objective. Objective-referenced tests can do that effectively, as they usually assess one objective at a time through short answer or multiple choice responses. On a practical level, these "paper and pencil" tests appeal to teachers because they can be administered in large group settings, require little time to oversee or correct, and are readily available from textbook publishers or testing companies allowing teachers to keep records of students' progress.

Performance-Based Assessment
Performance-based assessment is a popular alternative to objective-referenced tests. By asking students to do oral, written, or manipulative work in front of them, teachers can observe and evaluate the process students use to arrive at an answer. This procedure is especially successful with younger children who are not yet ready for paper and pencil tests.

Students may be evaluated individually or in small groups, through conferences, interviews, or portfolios of completed work. As with objective-referenced tests, this requires preplanning. Teachers must take the time to locate or create the performance tests, making sure that they're aligned with the desired learning objectives.
Identify students who should take the pretests In step three, teachers identify students who should participate in the pretesting activity. To do this, teachers must first discern students' specific strengths. This step is critical for two reasons. First, it ensures that when students are excused from class for enrichment activities, they're absent only during their curricular strength times. Second, it eliminates the need to assign make-up work when the students return to the classroom. Academic records, standardized tests, class performance and evaluations from former teachers are all effective means of pinpointing candidates for pretesting. Another method is observation. Teachers should watch for students who complete tasks quickly and accurately, finish reading assignments ahead of their peers, or seem bored or lost in daydreams. Some students will even tell their teachers that the work assigned is too easy. Pretest students to determine mastery levels Pretests, both formal and informal, help teachers determine student mastery of course material. But what constitutes mastery? Since definitions of mastery vary so, teachers within the same school should strive to reach a consensus.
Administering Formal Pretests
Deciding how and when to pretest students can be a time-intensive exercise. One shortcut is to increase the number of students or objectives examined at one time; for example, if a chapter in a math text covers ten objectives, a small group of students, or the entire class could be tested on all ten objectives in one sitting.
Before starting the testing process, teachers should:

1. Point out that some students will already be familiar with the material.

2. Ask if any students would like to "test out" of some or all of the unit by demonstrating that they already know the objectives being taught.

3. Assure the students that they are not expected to be competent in all the objectives being tested.

4. Tell the students that their curriculum may be streamlined if they can exhibit mastery of some or all of the objectives.

5. Help the students understand that they will not be labeled "poor learners" if they can not pass one or more sections of the test.

Once students agree to the pretests, teachers can give instructions for completing them. Parts of the examination may be taken independently, reducing the amount of time teachers must serve as monitors.

If small group testing is not feasible, teachers can follow the same procedures with individual students. Some educators may want to install a permanent "testing table" for this purpose; others may let students score and record their own test results to save time.

Performance-Based Testing
Some teachers may want to use performance-based testing. If they choose this form of pretesting, they should observe students closely, by taking notes, tracing thought patterns, and posing open-ended questions to assess proficiency with the objectives.

Let's assume, for example, that the assignment is to write a persuasive essay. The instructions could be to actually create and submit an essay, which teachers would read and analyze for content; teachers could also ask students how they went about organizing their thoughts, to see if they truly understand the assignment.

Similar sessions can be held to assess other abilities, such as decoding rules, solving problems, or processing science skills. Through these evaluations, many teachers will discover the value of performance-based testing as a supplement to pretesting.

An Option: Pretest All Students in the Class
Pretests may also be administered to the entire class. Although it may entail more work for the teacher, it provides the opportunity for all students to demonstrate their strength in an area. In fact, involving everyone in the process can boost individual confidence and build a stronger sense of community in the classroom. Equipped with a matrix of learning objectives, teachers can fill in the test results and form small, flexible groups based on skill needs.
Securing Help for Pretesting
There are a number of resources that teachers can use to help conduct pretests:

Parent volunteers, aides, and tutors can lend a hand administering tests.

Reading, math, and other curriculum specialists can assist in identifying learning objectives and student strengths.

District consultants and teachers of gifted children may be available to help with pretests and other aspects of compacting. This service is especially vital during the first few years, when teachers are trying to organize and implement the compacting program.

Companies are developing new computer technology to pretest and provide individual instruction to targeted students.

Streamline practice or instructional time for students who show mastery of the objectives Students who have a thorough grasp of the learning objectives should be allowed to take part in enrichment or acceleration activities. This exposes them, during class time, to material that is not only new and stimulating, but more closely aligned to their learning rates and abilities. For illustration purposes, let's say that a student has mastered three out of five objectives in a given unit. It follows, then, that the student should not take part in the classroom instruction of those three objectives. Depending upon the teacher, some students may be excused from specific class sessions (for example, the Monday and Wednesday portions of vocabulary building), while others may forego certain chapters or pages in the text or specific sets of learning activities. Provide small group or individualized instruction for students who have not yet mastered all the objectives, but are capable of doing so more quickly than their classmates How should teachers instruct students who qualify for compacting, but have not yet mastered all the objectives? An obvious solution is to have them engage in the same lessons as their classmates. If the brighter students progress at a faster pace, teachers can condense the material through "content compacting." Content compacting differs from skills compacting. As the name implies, it compresses overall course material that students have already mastered, or are able to master in a fraction of the normal time. Skills compacting, on the other hand, eliminates specific skills that students have already acquired. Content compacting is also designed for general knowledge subjects-social studies, science and literature-whereas skills compacting is intended for mathematics, spelling, grammar, and language mechanics. Skills compacting is easier to accomplish. Pretesting is a simpler process, and mastery can be documented more efficiently. Content compacting, on the other hand, is more flexible, as students can absorb the material at their own speed. In content compacting, the means of evaluation are also less formal; teachers may require an essay, an interview, or an open-ended short answer test. Offer academic alternatives for students whose curriculum has been compacted Alternatives often exist to provide acceleration and/or enrichment for students whose curriculum has been compacted. This step has proven to be the most challenging and the most creative for teachers. The possibilities for replacement activities include:

Providing an accelerated curriculum based on advanced concepts

Offering more challenging content (alternative texts, fiction or non-fiction works)

Adapting classwork to individual curricular needs or learning styles

Initiating individual or small group projects using contracts or management plans

Using interest or learning centers

Providing opportunities for self-directed learning or decision making

Offering mini-courses on research topics or other high interest areas

Establishing small seminar groups for advanced studies

Using mentors to guide in learning advanced content or pursuing independent studies, or

Providing units or assignments that are self-directed, such as creative writing, game creation, and creative and critical thinking training

Teachers will have to decide which replacement activities to use and their decisions will be based on factors such as time, space, resources, school policy, and help from other faculty (such as a gifted program teacher or a library media-specialist). While practical concerns should be considered, what should ultimately determine replacement activities are the degree of academic challenge and students' interests. When students understand that if they demonstrate proficiency, they will earn some time to pursue their own interests, they will often work to earn this opportunity. Our role as teachers is to escalate the challenge level of the material students are pursuing to be able to provide adequate academic challenges. Many additional suggested alternatives for students are provided after Step Eight.
Keep records of the compacting process and instructional options for compacted students Any differentiated program requires added record keeping. Unlike a regular classroom where all students are on the same page or exercise at any given time, teachers who provide a compacted curriculum have students doing different assignments at different levels and different times. Keeping concise records, then, is essential, and can be time-consuming without proper planning. Teachers and administrators should collectively decide how the compacting process should be documented. Regardless of form, all written documentation should contain these basics:

1. Student strength areas, as verified by test scores or performance

2. The pretests used to determine mastery, and the learning objectives that were eliminated

3. Recommended enrichment and acceleration activities

The Compactor was designed expressly to track the compacting process. Teachers employed in states or provinces with mandates for gifted education can substitute the compactor form for the Individual Education Plan (IEP), thus curbing the paperwork required for state-funded services.

No matter what record keeping vehicle they use, it is critical that teachers thoroughly chronicle the compacting process. The facts and figures they compile can be used in parent-teacher conferences. They can also be included in students' permanent academic files. The information can even help win support for compacting when the idea is being "sold," since people tend to react more favorably to issues presented in a written format.

Back: Providing Acceleration and Enrichment Options

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The Eight Steps to Curriculum Compacting | The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (1990-2013)

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Step One Select relevant learning objectives in a subject area or grade level The first step in the compacting process is choosing curricular content and learning objectives. Teachers may refer to the formal curriculum guides issued by school districts or states, or the informal guides provided ...

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Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE)

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What is Giftedness?

Giftedness, intelligence, and talent are fluid concepts and may look different in different contexts and cultures. Even within schools you will find a range of beliefs about the word "gifted," which has become a term with multiple meanings and much nuance.

Gifted children may develop asynchronously: their minds are often ahead of their physical growth, and specific cognitive and social-emotional functions can develop unevenly. Some gifted children with exceptional aptitude may not demonstrate outstanding levels of achievement due to environmental circumstances such as limited opportunities to learn as a result of poverty, discrimination, or cultural barriers; due to physical or learning disabilities; or due to motivational or emotional problems. This dichotomy between potential for and demonstrated achievement has implications for schools as they design programs and services for gifted students.

NAGC does not subscribe to any one theory of the nature of human abilities or their origins. We assert that there are children who demonstrate high performance, or who have the potential to do so, and that we have a responsibility to provide optimal educational experiences to fully develop talents in as many children as possible, for the benefit of the individual and the community.

Definitions of Giftedness

Definitions provide the framework for gifted education programs and services, and guide key decisions such as which students will qualify for services, the areas of giftedness to be addressed in programming (e.g., intellectual giftedness generally, specific abilities in math), when the services will be offered, and even why they will be offered. There is no universally accepted definition of giftedness.

National Association for Gifted Children

"Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains. Domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol system (e.g., mathematics, music, language) and/or set of sensorimotor skills (e.g., painting, dance, sports)."

Read NAGC's position paper, Redefining Giftedness for a New Century: Shifting the Paradigm.

State Definitions of Gifted and Talented

Nearly every state has its own definition of gifted and talented students. Some define giftedness based on a comparison to others of the same age. Others base the definition on needs beyond what is offered in the regular classroom. Not all states require that school districts follow the state definition.

Compare the state definitions.

Federal Definition of Gifted and Talented

"The term 'gifted and talented," when used with respect to students, children, or youth, means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in such areas as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities."

Prominent Theories of Giftedness

Among many theoretical conceptions of giftedness are those of Francoys Gagné and Joseph Renzulli. Others include Robert Sternberg's Theory of Successful Intelligence and Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

Gagné: The Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent proposes a clear distinction between giftedness and talent. In his model, the term giftedness designates the possession and use of untrained and spontaneously expressed natural abilities (called aptitudes or gifts) in at least one ability domain to a degree that places a child among the top 10% of his or her age peers. By contrast, the term talent designates the superior mastery of systematically developed abilities (or skills) and knowledge in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places a child's achievement within the upper 10% of age-peers who are active in that field or fields. His model presents five aptitude domains: intellectual, creative, socioaffective, sensorimotor and "others" (e.g. extrasensory perception). These natural abilities, which have a clear genetic substratum, can be observed in every task children are confronted with in the course of their schooling.

(Gagné, F. (1985). Giftedness and talent: Reexamining a reexamination of the definitions. Gifted Child Quarterly, 29, 103-112.)
Renzulli: Gifted behavior occurs when there is an interaction among three basic clusters of human traits: above-average general and/or specific abilities, high levels of task commitment (motivation), and high levels of creativity. Gifted and talented children are those who possess or are capable of developing this composite of traits and applying them to any potentially valuable area of human performance. As noted in the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, gifted behaviors can be found "in certain people (not all people), at certain times (not all the time), and under certain circumstances (not all circumstances)."

(Renzulli, J. S. (1978). What makes giftedness? Re-examining a definition. Phi Delta Kappa, 60, 180-181.)

From NAGC http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/definitions-giftedness

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Definitions of Giftedness - Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE)

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Giftedness, intelligence, and talent are fluid concepts and may look different in different contexts and cultures. Even within schools you will find a range of beliefs about the word "gifted," which has become a term with multiple meanings and much nuance.

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National Association for Gifted Children

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