Talent Development, Academic Challenge & Gifted Support (TAG)

Providing rigorous and enriching opportunities

Your child will be challenged and engaged through the differentiated learning experiences offered through Talent Development, Academic Challenge and Gifted Support (TAG) programming. Students deserve and need challenging learning opportunities that help them discover their unique interests and strengths. Our programming is designed to meet the needs of all students, including those who have demonstrated high performance or show the potential for high performance relative to others of their age, experience or environment.

Main Contacts

DLA TAG Teachers

Kris Happe
HappeK@district279.org

Kim LeClaire
LeClaireK@district279.org

Katherine Nelson
NelsonKatherine@district279.org

Marji Olson
OlsonMarji@district279.org

Elementary services (grades K-5)

In order to provide the right services at the right time for each student, scholars are identified for services using multiple measures, including:

The CogAT 7 (Cognitive Abilities Test)
The NWEA/MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Reading and Math assessments
Teacher recommendation
Student interest

Level One (all students)

In Level One, rigorous and enriching opportunities are provided for all students. These opportunities may include classroom lessons, Makerspace, Genius Hour, engineering projects, guest speakers, community building or community service events. Lessons are focused on creative thinking skills, analogies, growth mindset and mindfulness.

Differentiated support is provided by the TAG specialist to classroom teachers in order to support all students with challenging learning opportunities that help them discover their unique interests and strengths.

All students are placed in heterogeneous classrooms. “Clustering” is used to create instructional groups in each third through fifth grade classroom. This practice will reduce the range of the instructional groups within a classroom, allowing the teacher to better provide a differentiated learning experience for each student. This “clustering” approach is based upon the Total School Clustering Model developed by Marcia Gentry at Purdue University.

Level Two (some students)

Enrichment and enhancement opportunities are provided through pull-out classes. These sessions focus on Verbal, Non-Verbal and Quantitative skills. Level Two services, while targeting specific ability areas, are designed to introduce and build "How to Learn" skills in our students. These skills include (but are not limited to):

Becoming creative thinkers, problem solvers, strategic researchers and skilled communicators
Efficiently using technology
Determining how to best share information with a targeted audience to produce a desired result

Level Three (some students)

Level Four (few students)

Students are involved in independent investigations which are designed to provide opportunities to investigate a special area of interest. Students will develop a project and share their findings. These independent study projects will be facilitated by the TAG Specialist. In addition to independent investigations, the following may be an option for some students:

Full grade acceleration
Single subject acceleration
Participation in advanced coursework through university partners or other agencies

Additional after-school enrichment opportunities are available at many sites, including:

Math Masters
Destination Imagination
District 279 Children’s Chorus
WordMasters
Community Education classes

Middle school services (grades 6-8)

The middle school approach for high-achieving students blends differentiation, rigorous curriculum and acceleration.

Differentiation

Cluster Classrooms

In order to facilitate differentiation, students in grades 6-8 are placed in classes with a cluster (core group) of students at their same instructional level and with teachers specifically trained to meet the needs of gifted adolescent learners.

This model narrows the range of instructional levels, allowing teachers to differentiate more effectively than they can in a classroom with a wide range of student abilities. Interdisciplinary teams will enhance the effectiveness of the cluster model. The small team of teachers works with the same number of students, allowing them to better know each student’s academic, social and emotional needs. In addition, every middle school has a differentiation specialist working with teachers to support effective differentiated teaching in every classroom.

Rigorous Curriculum and Acceleration

Offering rigorous curriculum means providing depth, flexible pacing, complexity, choice and increased student engagement and self-directed learning. The more challenging materials allow high-achieving students to go deeper with their learning than before. In every core class (English/language arts, math, social studies and science), teachers differentiate instruction so that students continue to go deeper to extend their mastery of the content they are expected to learn. Teachers identify students who can and should tackle more challenging work within a course.

Math

Students may qualify and elect to participate in the accelerated math course offerings. Students participating in some courses (Algebra I, Non-Linear Algebra, Geometry) may choose to earn high school credit.

World Language

Students who elect to participate in Spanish 1 or French 1 may choose to earn high school credit. Students should consult with their middle school counselor for more information about earning high school credit in middle school.

Search

Menu-portals

Main Navigation

Navigation - Utility Portals

Breadcrumb, don't delete

Landing-nav, don't delete

In This Section