Talented and Gifted Program

The Talented and Gifted Program

The West Haven School System believes that the talents of gifted students must be recognized and the gifted provided the opportunity to interact with other students equally talented. A stimulating learning environment is required to enable all gifted students to expand their creative and critical thinking abilities.

The goals of the Talented and Gifted Program are :

To assist the student in achieving higher levels of:
- Critical thinking
- Research skills Creative thinking
- Problem Solving
- Self-awareness and task commitment
To enhance a student's talents and gifts by providing:
- An opportunity for interaction with one's intellectual peers
- Access to a wide variety of resources
- An atmosphere of questioning and risk taking
- Opportunities for in-depth investigation and presentation
To support classroom teachers through:
- Consultation
- In service and workshops
- Materials and activities

The West Haven Board of Education has a teacher devoted to the needs of the talented and gifted students in Grades 5 and 6, Ms. Bethany Luna, who is stationed at Carrigan Intermediate School.

Identification

The Talented and Gifted Program is designed to serve students who exhibit exceptional learning ability characterized by high IQ, high achievement and high motivation. Students in the top 5% of grades 5, and 6 in the school system will be chosen to participate.

The following instruments will be used to select students:

Intelligence test
Objective Behavioral Rating Scale
Classroom performance, report cards and group test results
Teacher recommendation

Parent Resources

Books for Children

Encourage and assist your child in selecting books on topics of special interest to him or her. Any of the Newberry or Caldecott Award books are a good place to start. Nutmeg Award Books offers lists of recommended books.

Your public librarian can be a wonderful resource.

Games for Children
Below is a list games that allow students to use higher level thinking skills.

Checkers            Shuttles
Chess              Quatro
Mancala             Tantrix
Jig Saw Puzzles Chung Toi
Tangrams           Sudoku
Apples to Apples and other word games

Websites for Parents

To learn about the Connecticut Association for the Gifted and "Minds in Motion" workshops for children and adults click here. Connecticut Association for the Gifted

The West Haven School District also subscribes to Renzulli Learning, http://renzullilearning.com/default.aspx. Parents are welcome to log in and use those resources with their children.

Research Links

The following is a list of links that students in the program might find helpful in completing reseach projects.

Simple Machines

Clusty

Franklin Institute Hotlist

Kids Click!

BBC

West Haven Public Library

Daily Dose Of the Web

Reliable Resources

PBS

National Geographic