Are you a gifted education teacher who wants to ensure that you are serving the needs of your gifted and talented students? Well, you have come to the right place. In this short piece, I will list and discuss concepts and strategies for serving the whole gifted child.

Three Ring Model

A concept of gifted intelligence that visualizes giftedness with three rings: creativity, goal focus, and above-average ability. The concept was developed by Joseph Renzulli.

Asynchronous Development

The tendency of gifted children to be at a state of mental development beyond their age, physical development or other areas of development.

Personal Meaning

One of five aspects of a strong gifted program. The concept that students become more motivated and engaged in learning when they have the opportunity to choose their topic of study for a project and direct their learning and research.

Internal Consistency

An attribute of a strong, gifted program. Each element of the gifted program: the goal, student selection process, student services, and assessments, should all be consistent with each other.

Enrichment Cluster

A series of meetings planned around on a topic of interest to a group of students (not necessarily gifted students) to enhance student learning. The student group will meet with an adult expert in the area of interest for a period of 2 to 3 months.

Matrix Identification Models

Models that can be used to identify gifted children from minority or disadvantaged communities. These models combine information from multiple sources.

Baldwin Identification Matrix

A matrix identification model that has increased the identification of African-American students for gifted programs. It considers both objective and subjective criteria. This model was created by Baldwin.

Dynamic Assessments

Assessments in which a student is tested, instructed in test-taking skills by a teacher, then retested to assess the change in test score. This method of assessment is thought to identify gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds through their above-average improvement in score. Developed in Israel to assess immigrant students with learning disabilities.

Shelters

Persons that children can seek out whenever their safety or survival needs are threatened. These persons most often are used by gifted children who may feel intellectually, socially, or developmentally threatened. Ideally, a shelter should be an empathic counselor who is aware of the local conditions related to economic status and ethnic backgrounds and who is genuinely concerned about a child’s welfare.

Gifted Disabled

Individuals who are capable of having high achievement academically despite other disabilities. These disabilities can include issues with their hearing, speech, or vision. They may also include emotional impairments, learning disabilities, and other health problems. A student needs to have only one of these issues to qualify as gifted disabled, though they may have a combination of them.

What concepts or strategies did I miss?