VISION:  The vision for the Riverside Community School District Talented and Gifted Program is to provide students consistent opportunity to learn new material and to develop the behaviors that allow them to experience the challenge of new learning.

DEFINITION:  From Iowa Code 257.44

Gifted and talented children are those identified as possessing outstanding abilities who are capable of high performance.  Gifted and talented children are children who require appropriate instruction and educational services commensurate with their abilities and needs beyond those provided by the regular school program.  Gifted and talented children include those children with demonstrated achievement or potential ability, or both, in any of the following areas or in combination:

1.      General intellectual ability

2.      Creative thinking

3.      Leadership ability

4.      Visual and performing arts ability

5.      Specific ability aptitude

89Acts, ch 135,  44

Riverside identifies and provides services for general intellectual ability and specific ability aptitude, while assisting with the location of services for other areas.

GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM GOALS

Riverside Community Schools Gifted Education program seeks to build on the following goals within a student's individual areas of strength as determined by interest and pre-assessment:

Students will understand and demonstrate:

• Cognitive skills:  Critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving
• Affective skills:  Self-understanding, respect and empathy for others
• Social/Behavorial skills:  Communication, organization and interpersonal/leadership skills

Within these achievement goals, standards and benchmarks have been developed that are incorporated into three possible instruction strands.  This model focuses on collaboration between classroom teachers and the program facilitator to better enable gifted and talented students to develop their unique abilities and high potential.  The three strands are:

• Exploration Strand--All students participate in classroom instructional activities led by the TAG facilitator.  The unique needs of students begin to emerge and are noted during these activities, as an aid in future identification.  This strand is primarily reserved for lower elementary grades, but may be incorporated at any level with collaboration of the instructor and the program facilitator
• Modification Strand--For students whose needs go beyond regular classroom instruction, the classroom teacher and the TAG facilitator collaboratively develop modifications.  These modifications will be implemented by the classroom teacher, with support from the facilitator, and may include differentiation options such as acceleration, curriculum compacting, independent study, assignment modification, and/or flexible grouping.
• Extension Strand--Students whose needs go beyond the modification strand will be identified and may participate in the "extension strand". This may be "pull-out" classes led by the TAG facilitator, independent study options or other advanced coursework, or application of knowledge to "real world" situations through service in the community and career exploration.