Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of how to create and maintain safe, productive, respectful
learning environments for students with gifts and talents that support trust among
diverse learners, encourage students to express diverse characteristics and behaviors
associated with giftedness, and communicate high expectations for all students.
- Demonstrate knowledge of a variety of research-based grouping practices for students
who are gifted and talented that allow them to interact with individuals who have
various gifts, talents, abilities, and strengths.
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based strategies for encouraging the active participation
of students who are gifted and talented in individual and group activities to enhance
independence, interdependence, and positive peer relationships.
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based strategies for establishing learning environments
that foster students' personal and social responsibility, self-efficacy, and leadership
skills, including opportunities for leadership in community settings to effect positive
change.
- Apply knowledge of cultural competence and respect when working with students with
gifts and talents, including modeling appreciation for and sensitivity to students'
diverse backgrounds and languages; modeling appropriate strategies for addressing
social issues such as bullying, discrimination, and stereotyping; and facilitating
opportunities for students to collaborate with peers from culturally diverse backgrounds
to achieve common goals.
Sample Item:
Tatiana is a sensitive, good-natured, seven-year-old who has been identified as
highly gifted. Tatiana is quiet, reflective, does not eagerly participate in class,
and prefers quiet and independent activities. She is happy at home, does well in
her schoolwork, and enjoys her differentiated activities, particularly if they involve
creativity. During a staff meeting, Tatiana's teacher mentions her traits to the
school's gifted education specialist and asks, "Should I be doing more to help correct
her tendency toward introversion?" Which of the following would be the gifted education
specialist's most appropriate response?
- "We should not rule out learning disabilities. It is possible that her intelligence
has masked the need for a further assessment."
- "Many children who are gifted and talented are introverted. Introversion is not
a flaw, but rather an aspect of her personality."
- "She's still a little girl and she's very gifted. She needs patient guidance and
she'll blossom into a more social individual."
- "Introversion is an aspect of asynchronous development. She will almost certainly
outgrow it by the time she reaches young adulthood."
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
B. According to the Duke University Talent Identification Program's Digest
of Gifted Research, the majority of gifted children are introverted, and
because of their heightened awareness of themselves and others, they are also likely
to be "sensitive." Parents and teachers can be supportive of an introverted child
by being empathetic about feelings of shyness and respectful of his or her personality
rather than trying to change it. A classroom climate that welcomes the diversity
of all students' learning styles and academic strengths and needs may boost the
student's involvement and social behaviors.
Descriptive Statements:
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based strategies for fostering students' personal, emotional,
academic, and creative growth, including maintaining high expectations for all students
with gifts and talents; providing opportunities for self-exploration, personal development,
and pursuit of interests, strengths, and gifts, and for the development of self-awareness
supportive of achievement; and providing feedback that focuses on effort, on evidence
of potential to meet high standards, and on mistakes as learning opportunities.
- Apply knowledge of principles and strategies for helping students with gifts and
talents develop social competence, including understanding their needs for both
solitude and social interaction; providing opportunities for interactions with intellectual
and artistic/creative peers as well as chronological-age peers; providing students
with examples of positive coping skills and opportunities to apply such skills;
and assessing and providing instruction in social skills needed for school, community,
and the workplace.
- Demonstrate knowledge of resources, technologies, and strategies for enhancing students'
oral, written, and artistic communication in various formats and learning experiences,
including students who have advanced communication skills, students who are English
language learners, students from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds,
and students who have disabilities that interfere with communication.
- Apply knowledge of how to provide students who are gifted and talented with opportunities
for the advanced development and maintenance of first and other languages and with
opportunities to use advanced communication tools to express higher-level thinking
and creativity.
Sample Item:
Mr. Allen is a new middle school principal who is interested in knowing more about
how to incorporate the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) to develop more opportunities
for students who are gifted and talented. He learns both the school and community
provide various Type 1 enrichment activities for students who are gifted and talented,
including field trips to the local museum. However, he feels the school could do
more to provide these students with Type 2 enrichment activities. Which of the following
activities is an example of a Type 2 enrichment activity?
- collecting money to buy books for preschools in impoverished areas
- attending a minicourse on prominent local historical figures
- studying primary resources from the era represented in a historical novel
- listening to an interview with an expert on Shakespeare before watching a performance
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. The Schoolwide Enrichment Model, or SEM, developed by Joseph Renzulli
and Sally Reis of the Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, divides
enrichment activities into three types. Type 1 consists of activities that expose
students to people and ideas that they might not encounter during the typical school
day, such as listening to an interview with an expert on Shakespeare. Type 2 is
defined by activities that promote the use of materials that help students to develop
problem-solving and creative skills as well as the ability to use and evaluate advanced
research materials. Studying primary resources that reflect the content of an historical
novel allows the student to develop greater insight into the novel's historical
context.
Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate familiarity with national curriculum standards, including the Common
Core State Standards, and how to align differentiated instructional plans for students
who are gifted and talented with these standards.
- Apply knowledge of how to adapt, modify, enhance, or replace the core or standard
curriculum to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents and those with special
needs, including students who have disabilities, students who are profoundly gifted,
and students who are English language learners.
- Demonstrate knowledge of elements that distinguish differentiated curricula from
general curricula for students with gifts and talents and knowledge of curricular
emphases for students with gifts and talents in various domains.
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based strategies for selecting, adapting, and designing
a variety of differentiated curricula that incorporate advanced, conceptually challenging,
in-depth, distinctive, and complex content; and of strategies for selecting curriculum
resources and product options that respond to students' cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic,
and intellectual differences.
- Demonstrate knowledge of resources and materials that are appropriate for students
who are gifted and talented and that support differentiation, including school and
community resources and content specialists.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for helping students with gifts and talents develop
knowledge and skills for living and being productive in a multicultural, diverse,
and global society, including developing and using challenging, culturally responsive
curriculum; integrating career exploration experiences into learning opportunities;
and using curriculum for deep exploration of cultures, languages, and economic and
social issues related to diversity.
Sample Item:
As the Common Core State Standards are adopted throughout the United States, gifted
education teachers will need to adapt and modify curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Which of the following additional goals is most important for gifted education teachers
to consider first?
- evaluating students' need for curriculum acceleration on a regular basis
- ensuring differentiation of required curriculum is sufficiently challenging
- adhering to the specific guidelines prescribed by the standards
- aligning new benchmarks with the current state curriculum framework
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. Ensuring that differentiated plans for students include the required
Common Core content is step one in an effective differentiation plan for gifted
and talented students. In addition to incorporating the Common Core Standards, the
teacher will still need to address the learning needs of students who are gifted and talented
by means such as pre-assessment, incorporation of metacognitive and higher-level
thinking strategies, and curricular material above grade-level.
Descriptive Statements:
- Apply knowledge of how to use pre-assessments and how to pace instruction according to the learning rates of students with gifts and talents; how to accelerate and compact learning as appropriate; and how to use information and assistive technologies to individualize instruction for students with gifts and talents, including students from special populations.
- Apply knowledge of how to select, adapt, and use a broad repertoire of evidence-based instructional strategies and materials that differentiate instruction for students with gifts and talents and respond to students' diversity and developmental level.
- Apply knowledge of how to provide opportunities for students with gifts and talents to explore, develop, and/or research their areas of interest and/or talent.
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based instructional strategies that support students who are gifted and talented in becoming independent investigators and decision makers and in solving real-world problems.
- Apply knowledge of how to design interventions for students with gifts and talents that foster their cognitive and affective growth, how to develop specialized intervention services for students with gifts and talents who are underachieving, and how to enable students to identify their preferred approaches to learning and expand upon them.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and features of differentiated instruction in regard to content, process, product/performance, and environment.
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based methods for fostering students' critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving, habits of inquiry, application of metacognitive strategies, and application of authentic research methodologies.
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based methods for fostering students' independent learning, time management, study skills, test-taking skills, and organizational strategies.
Sample Item:
A science teacher is collaborating with the gifted education specialist to write appropriate science curricula for moderately to highly gifted elementary school students. Which of the following instructional approaches would be most effective for meeting a variety of individual learning needs in science?
- a technology-based program that emphasizes high-level content and depth
- a module-based curriculum that includes pre-assessments to determine student entry level
- a higher-level secondary school curriculum modified to meet elementary school time and staffing constraints
- a range of learning objectives and experiences that emphasize inquiry, higher-level conceptual thinking, and problem-based learning
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
D. There is considerable difference between the abilities and learning needs of a moderately gifted child and a highly gifted child. The teacher of both moderately and highly gifted students will encounter a range of individual learning needs, skills, and aptitudes within the gifted population. By selecting learning experiences that emphasize inquiry, higher-level conceptual thinking, and problem-based learning, the content and learning targets can be appropriately differentiated according to student need, interest, and ability.
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