GT Consulting Teachers:

Deborah S. Olson: dolson@wiscasset.k12.me.us 

Chapter 104

“Gifted and talented children” shall mean those children in grades K-12 who excel, or have the potential to excel, beyond their age peers, in the regular school program, to the extent that they need and can benefit from programs for the gifted and talented. Gifted and talented children shall receive specialized instruction through these programs if they have exceptional ability, aptitude, skill, or creativity in one or more for the following categories:

1.      General Intellectual Ability as shown by demonstrated significant achievement or potential for significant accomplishment above their age peers in all academic areas

2.      Specific Academic Aptitude as shown by demonstrated significant achievement or potential for significant accomplishment above their age peers in one or more academic area(s)

3.      Artistic Ability as shown by demonstrated significant accomplishment or potential for significant accomplishment above their age peers in the literary, performing, and/or visual arts.

        Our curriculum philosophy for the gifted and talented recognizes, first of all, the importance of quality curriculum for all students at all stages of development. Second, it recognizes that differences exist among individual learners at given stages of development that can be best addressed through differentiated curriculum experiences. Third, our philosophy acknowledges that the gifted are one population for which such developmental differences in cognition must be addressed in curriculum areas. Moreover, we advocate differentiated curriculum for gifted learners on the basis of their advanced accomplishments, knowledge, interests, and potential that require different content and different opportunities.

        For intellectually gifted learners, the resultant curriculum modifications needed would be comprehensive and affect all curriculum areas in the school program. For students talented in only one or two areas, modifications would be limited to those areas. Our curriculum for gifted learners would ensure a balanced focus on opportunities for accelerated and/or enriched experiences within traditional areas of learning, opportunities for learning the skills underlying the thinking process, opportunities for experiences that promote an understanding of the world’s people and their relationship to each other, opportunities for exploring personal relationships to each other, opportunities for exploring personal futures, opportunities for independent quest for knowledge in areas of interest to the student.

        We believe that gifted and talented students have the right to educational experiences commensurate with their needs. In providing for those needs, we address the whole child with a total curriculum that integrates realms of learning within and across planned experiences, that provides for a progressive development of knowledge and skills, and that enhances an appreciation of humanity.

To learn more about gifted education in Maine go to: Maine Educators of the Gifted & Talented:   http://www.megat.org/

To learn more about gifted education on the national level go to:  National Association for Gifted Children:  http://www.nagc.org/