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Gifted Education

Copiah County School District Gifted Education Philosophy/Mission Statement

To Provide unique and individual opportunities that will meet the needs of our Intellectually Gifted Students, and help them become more productive and well-rounded citizens in an ever-changing society.

Characteristics of Intellectually Gifted Students

  • Gifted children are concept learners rather than skill learners, and they often have their own interests.
  • Gifted children do not necessarily learn sequentially.
  • Some gifted children are perfectionists.
  • Gifted children are global learners who may learn the large concepts while neglecting the details.
Intellectual Characteristics Personality Characteristics Unique Concerns
  • Exceptional reasoning ability
  • Intellectual curiosity    
  • Rapid learning rate
  • Facility with abstraction
  • Complex thought processes
  • Vivid imagination
  • Early moral concern
  • Passion for learning
  • Insightfulness
  • Need to understand
  • Need for mental stimulation
  • Perfectionism
  • Need for precision/logic
  • Excellent sense of humor
  • Sensitivity/empathy
  • Intensity
  • Feeling different
  • Confusion about the meaning  of giftedness
  • Lack of understanding from others
  • Fear of failure
  • Perfectionism
  • Existential depression

 

(Silverman's Counseling the Gifted and Talented)

It is important to note that Intellectually gifted children can and do exhibit a wide variety of attitudes and interests and quite often do not fit into the anticipated “gifted child” stereotype. They do not always make the honor roll, are not always well-behaved, do not always do their homework, and are not gifted in all areas.

GIFTED EDUCATION REFERRAL PROCESS:

A student may be referred by a teacher, administrator, counselor, parent, peer, self or any other person having reason to believe that the student may be intellectually gifted.

Mississippi's Regulations for Gifted Education Programs delineate the identification process to be followed for each defined category of giftedness.  This process must include the use of both objective and subjective assessment measures and must provide an equitable opportunity for the assessment of all children, including disadvantaged, culturally different, learning and physically disabled.  The process is separated into five steps, which are:

  • Referral
  • Local Committee Review
  • Parental Permission for Testing
  • Assessment
  • Assessment Report Determining Eligibility

Regular Education Teachers should make every effort to introduce new skills when Gifted students are present.  On occasions when this is not possible, the teacher must be prepared to teach the new skills to the Gifted students at a later time.

Students should not be kept from attending recess, music, band, P.E., library, or any other extracurricular activities to complete work missed while attending gifted classes.  Gifted Students should be allowed to turn in all work missed the following day.

When going on a Gifted field trip, this will be their gifted time for the week if the required 5 hours of gifted time has been met during the field trip.