Introduction :- Welcome to Talented & Gifted, an interactive computer-based instruction course designed to help you achieve a better understanding of the talented and gifted student, methods used in identification, and strategies for instruction of these students in an inclusive classroom. Talented & Gifted provides information on the history of the exceptional in relation to education, current law, and accepted methods for referral, assessment, and identification of these students. The course also covers methods of differentiating instruction to meet the rate and level of learning of those students identified. The course gives you an understanding of ways to meet the affective needs of the gifted and talented student in the regular classroom. This computer-based instruction course is a self-supporting program that provides instruction, structured practice, and evaluation all on your home or school computer. Technical support information can be found, in the Help section of your course. Level of Application :- This course is designed to be an informational course with application in work or work-related settings. The intervention strategies are designed to be used with gifted and talented students ranging in age from approximately five years to early adolescence. Some alterations may be needed if working with younger children. Course Objectives :- Upon successful completion of this course, students will: Have become familiar with common practice in relation to identification of and service to gifted and talented students. --- Have gained working knowledge of common school practices in the identification of TAG process Be familiar with tools used in assessment for identification purposes in TAG education. --- Have learned techniques for assessing level and rate of learning. --- Be familiar with the characteristics and needs of typical talented and gifted students from special populations Be able to select appropriate programming based upon individual student needs. --- Have gained a working knowledge of common models of delivery of instruction that meet TAG needs. --- Become familiar with methods of differentiating curriculum for talented and gifted students Have developed an understanding of the social and emotional needs of TAG students (affective domain). Course Description :- Talented & Gifted provides information on the history of the exceptional student in relation to education, current law, and accepted methods for referral, assessment, and identification of these students. Included are major program models and methods of differentiating instruction to meet the rate and level of learning of identified gifted students. Meeting the affective needs of the gifted and talented student in the classroom is emphasized. Due to the structure of this course, it is suggested that you complete each section in order. The course will allow you to move ahead to various chapters, but completing the course out of sequence may cause difficulty with your understanding of the materials. It will also make it more difficult to pass the examinations and the course itself. Student Expectations :- As a student you will be expected to: Complete all information sections covering talented and gifted education, showing a competent understanding of the material presented. --- Complete all examinations, showing a competent understanding of the material presented. Complete a review of any section on which your examination score was below 70%. --- · Retake any examination, after completing an information review, to increase that examination score to a minimum of 70% (maximum of 3 attempts). --- Complete all course journal article and essay writing assignments with the minimum word count shown for each writing assignment. --- Complete a course evaluation form at the end of the course. Course Overview :- Chapter One: What Does Gifted & Talented Mean? If you’ve ever had a highly gifted student in your classroom, you certainly know what a blessing or what a handful that child can be. Sometimes you may think there is no way to keep up with this student while meeting the educational needs of all the others in your classroom. This student might challenge you at every turn, might decide to “just get by,” or might become a real joy for you to work with. This chapter will help you start to identify characteristics of gifted and talented students in order to be a more effective teacher. Chapter Two: Identification & Assessment The identification and assessment of talented and gifted students can be controversial. For that reason, we will look at several sources to gain information about identifying talented and gifted students. If these seem contradictory at times, you will start to understand the controversy. Chapter Three: Curriculum & Modifications One of the myths of teaching gifted students is that you can just give them harder work, or more work. More accurately, as with any student who learns differently, we need to look at differentiating the curriculum. We differentiate curriculum for our students who are considered special education, for our students who are learning English as they are learning content—why not for our gifted students? We will spend time in this section of the course looking at ways to differentiate the curriculum. Chapter Four: Resources for Parents This chapter of the course consists entirely of public domain documents for parents of talented and gifted children. These will contain valuable information for you in the classroom. However, the primary purpose of this chapter is to give you resources that you have freedom to copy and give to parents. All of these documents contain valuable information. Examinations :- At the end of each course section, you will be expected to complete an examination designed to assess your knowledge. You may take these exams a total of three times. Your last score will save, not the highest score. After your third attempt, each examination will lock and not allow further access. The average from your exam scores will be printed on your certificate. However, this is not your final grade since your required writing assignments have not been reviewed. Exceptionally written or poorly written required writing assignments, or violation of the academic integrity policy in the course syllabus, will affect your grade. As this is a self-paced computerized instruction program, you may review course information as often as necessary. You will not be able to exit any examinations until you have answered all questions. If you try to exit the exam before you complete all questions, your information will be lost. You are expected to complete the entire exam in one sitting. Source : VESI webpage : http://www.virtualeduc.com.