Gifted Services

“Our goal is to encourage all children to succeed to their maximum potential regardless of their starting point.”

Services for All Carlin Springs Students

   Once or twice each month, the Resource Teacher for the Gifted will visit each Kindergarten through Grade Five homeroom class at Carlin Springs to present a lesson focusing on critical and creative thinking skills. The Resource Teacher will work to co-plan with the classroom teacher to incorporate the thinking strategy into content with which the class is currently working. Teachers will be encouraged to use that thinking strategy during other times of instruction, as well.

   Examples of critical and creative thinking strategies that may be emphasized for all students at Carlin Springs include:

  • De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
  • Plus – Minus -Interesting (PMI)
  • Mindmapping
  • Multiple Intelligences / Learning Styles
  • Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, and Elaboration
  • Higher-Level Questioning
  • Socratic Seminar
  • S.C.A.M.P.E.R.
  • Visualization
  • Synectics
  • Analogies
Services for Individuals and Small Groups

   The Resource Teacher for the Gifted works with classroom teachers at Carlin Springs to plan services for those students who are identified as gifted in different academic content areas. Decisions about services are made in the best interest of the child. Services may include:

  • Small-group instruction in the classroom to extend concepts and skills being studied in the regular classroom
  • Small-group work on a research project in a content area
  • Use of advanced novels during Language Arts
  • Classroom-wide or small-group use of extension materials provided for units in Social Studies and Science
  • Pre-assessment of all students to create and alter flexible groups for advanced instruction
How Can a Gifted Resource Teacher Benefit Our School?

On a school-wide level, the Resource Teacher for the Gifted helps to:

  • Coordinate the gifted identification process for students who are referred for services
  • Provide staff development about gifted education, differentiation, critical and creative thinking, etc.
  • Serve as Education Center / Gifted Services liaison
  • Disseminate information to staff about gifted conferences / workshops
  • Oversee the application process for gifted summer programs

A Gifted Resource Teacher can benefit teachers by helping to:

  • Plan/collaborate on lesson or unit development
  • Provide and model strategies for differentiating curriculum and instruction for highly able and identified gifted students
  • Gather resources to supplement and extend classroom lessons
  • Teach whole-class “thinking tools” lessons specific to applicable topics
  • Instruct small groups for special projects or extension lessons
  • Help coordinate class activities, field trips, or speakers
  • Provide support for parent contacts and conferences

A Gifted Resource Teacher can benefit students and parents by working to:

  • Assist with the needs of individual students
  • Provide guidance regarding summer programs
  • Inform families about community resources and opportunities
  • Communicate with parents about gifted services
Overview of Gifted Services in Arlington Public Schools

   Arlington Public Schools Division is dedicated to maximizing the strengths and potential of all students so they may become self-confident, well-rounded, responsible and productive citizens. Believing that each and every individual has merit, Arlington Public Schools Division recognizes that certain learners within the school population have unique abilities, interests, needs and potential for accomplishment. These characteristics necessitate systematic, continuous services to present unique and appropriately differentiated curricula responsive to individual learning rates, styles, and complexities.

   Gifted students need opportunities to think abstractly, work at various rates and levels of complexity, and pursue tasks independently. In addition, gifted students need opportunities to learn with others of like abilities, as well as opportunities to develop social relationships with others of all abilities. The Office of Gifted Services reflects this philosophy and complies with Virginia Regulations Governing Educational Services for Gifted Students based on the following concepts:

  • Giftedness is developmental; it is potential which must be nourished
  • Giftedness is a collection of behaviors which are interactive and dynamic
  • Gifted students share some characteristics with all other children
  • There is variability among the gifted

The goals of Gifted Services include the following:

  • to identify students in grades K-12 in Specific Academic Aptitude(s) and Visual/Performing Arts Aptitude
  • to provide appropriate differentiated services based on information provided in the identification process to meet the identified student’s unique learning needs
  • to train teachers and other professional educators who instruct gifted students in learning characteristics and behaviors of gifted children and differentiation of content, skills, activities, and product development
  • to encourage involvement of parents and the community-at-large in the educational program of gifted students.