and critical-thinking opportunities, and other approaches designed to add depth and
complexity to the curriculum. Significantly, the professional development investment in
these differentiation skills benefits the entire student spectrum. It is particularly important
in schools without gifted and talented programs, often in low-income communities, where
students are dependent on the regular classroom teacher to meet their needs.
Assessment is a critical component of teaching and learning and, therefore, teachers
and other key personnel should be familiar with a range of student assessment tools to
ensure that students are able to transfer and apply learned content. Assessments should also
measure student knowledge of above grade-level standards in order to make instructional
modifications necessary to ensure that advanced students are continuing to learn new
material and concepts every day.
The new math and language arts standards provide an opportunity for advanced students
to succeed, with the support of rigorous curriculum, teaching strategies to adjust the
depth and complexity, and assessments that measure the true level of student knowledge.
Standards and accompanying instructional materials that consider their needs will help gifted
students and their classmates succeed.Source
National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). nd. Application of Common Core State Standards for Gifted and
Talented Students. Washington, DC: Author.A synthesis of research (Rogers 2007) on the education of students identified as gifted and
talented suggests that they should be provided the following:
- Daily challenge in their specific areas of talent
- Regular opportunities to be unique and to work independently in their areas of passion and
talent - Various forms of subject-based and grade-based acceleration as their educational needs require
- Opportunities to socialize and learn with peers with similar abilities
- Instruction that is differentiated in pace, amount of review and practice, and organization of
content presentation
Instruction for advanced learners should focus on depth and complexity. Opportunities to engage
with appropriately challenging text and content, conduct research, use technology creatively, and
write regularly on topics that interest them can be especially valuable for advanced learners; these
experiences allow students to engage more deeply with content and may contribute to motivation.
Instruction that focuses on depth and complexity ensures cohesion in learning rather than piecemeal
“enrichment.”
As discussed in chapter 2 in this ELA/ELD Framework, assessments and tasks vary in their
cognitive complexity, or the “depth of knowledge” (often referred to as DOK) called upon (Webb
2005). Depth of knowledge levels include, from least to most complex, the following: recall and
reproduction (Level 1), skills and concepts (Level 2), strategic thinking/reasoning (Level 3), and
extended thinking (Level 4). The more complex tasks, those at DOK levels 3 and 4, generally require
more time and involve the use of more resources. Advanced learners—and all students—should
have ample opportunities to engage in a mixture of tasks with particular attention to those most
cognitively engaging and challenging; that is, tasks involving strategic thinking/reasoning and
extended thinking.
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