CURRICULUM AND STRATEGIES - REFLECTION

Describe how participation in the Gifted In-field Endorsement Program has changed your
approach toward curriculum development and your ability to effectively instruct gifted
students. (Include student work from strategies implemented in the Curriculum and
Strategies course.) (GEPO-K4, GEPO-K5, GEPO-K6, GEPO-S3, GEPO-S4, GEPO-S5,
GEPO-S7, GEPO-S8)
Participation in the Gifted In-field Endorsement Program has allowed me to add to my
repertoire of activities and strategies that I use as a teacher. I now use strategies in my
regular education classes that I did not know about before undertaking this endorsement
program.
At the beginning of my journey to gain the gifted endorsement I was teaching in a first
grade class. I found some of the earlier strategies that we were learning very challenging
for the average first grader. I felt that they needed a lot more work teaching the basics of
the strategy prior to using it in class, than may have been the case with older grade levels.
I can see that taking the time to teach the basic strategies and standards used in gifted
education, will serve all students well over the long term.
Towards the end of the program, I began teaching in third grade, with a much larger
percentage of my class having already been identified as gifted. The lessons that I
undertook with my third graders went much more smoothly, and in fact I was even able to
redevelop a mystery lesson that I taught with my first graders into a lesson that I used with
third graders. The difference was significant. I felt that the third grade students
understood how to generate a hypothesis more effectively than my first graders, and were
also able to give evidence to support their opinions more easily than my first graders.
Under the TAG Reflections and Evidence tab: Curriculum & Strategies, I have included
the lessons that I have taught, and at the end of each lesson, student work and individual
lesson reflections can also be found.
As I continue teaching and learning additional strategies which can be integrated into the
existing curriculum, I can see advantages of using these strategies to encourage the use
of higher order critical thinking skills, creativity, creative problem solving, and advanced
communication skills for all students, not just those identified as gifted.