Staff Resources - TAG

According to Tomlinson (1999), the following guiding principles encompass the foundation for differentiated instruction which guide teachers to differentiate based on content, product, and process according to students’ readiness, interest, and learning profile; as explained in the following tables:

Guiding Principles of Differentiated Instruction

• Respectful Tasks - Tasks should take into consideration students’ ability and motivation to proceed with learning activities that are interesting, important and engaging.  Student’s growth is supported by the classroom teacher. 
• Flexible Grouping - The grouping of students based on similar interests or ability.  Groupings change regularly according to the purpose or topic of a task.  
• Ongoing Assessment and Adjustment - Formative assessments are essential in order to address the instructional needs of students.  The information gathered through observations, discussion, and the analysis of student work is considered formative and helps teachers adapt their teaching and learning to meet student needs. 

Teachers Can Differentiate: 

• Content - What students learn and the material through which that is accomplished
• Process - The activities designed to ensure students use key skills in order to make sense of essential ideas and information
• Product - The ways to which students demonstrate and extend what they have learned
• Learning Environment - The approaches to learning

Differentiation Methods May Vary Based on Student:

• Readiness - A student’s entry point relative to a particular understanding or skill
• Interests - A students affinity, curiosity, or passion for a topic or skill
• Learning Profile -  The ways in which students learn which is shaped by intelligence preference, gender, culture or learning style

Resources:

• Differentiation: Resources & Strategies For TAG Programming
• Differentiation Overview (Tomilson, 2010)
• Most Difficult First Overview
• TriMind Template with Prompts
• Differentiation Strategies
• Differentiation Rubric
• Differentiation as a Part of Lesson Design
•  DI Instruction The Equalizer
• Ways to Tier Lessons [Small Group Instruction]
• [Blank] Tiered Task Organizer

The purpose of a Standards-Based Learning (SBL) System is to maximize the academic achievement and personal growth of each student by focusing on prioritized standards that ensure students develop skills necessary to live a life of infinite possibilities (MTSD).

In alignment with MTSD’s SBL implementation, TAG Programming works to meet students’ needs through differentiation at the universal, selected, and intensive levels.  The document below provides a variety of methods and strategies for differentiated instruction. 

Resource:

• SBL Implementation & Differentiated TAG Support

In order to ensure students think more deeply with more complexity, a variety of questions and critical thinking methods should be used to guide students into deep, thoughtful processes of learning to show what they know, understand, and are able to do  (Tomlinson, 2017).

Tier of Support & Rational for Use:
{Selected/Advanced}:  

• While all students have the right to think at high levels, some need more scaffolding or more opportunities to experience content in a more complex manner.

Resources:

• Applying Costas Across the Curriculum
• Questioning Six-Facet Question Starters
• Costa's Levels of Thinking
• Bloom's Taxonomy Action Verbs
• Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels

Pacing is the purposeful acceleration (or deceleration) of instruction based on student readiness in an effort to meet a particular standard.  Rigor remains a constant consideration while students demonstrate proficiency or mastery of content standards through the use of pre-assessments, adjustment of pace, and enrichment projects.  The use of acceleration must consider a student’s achievement which may be implicated by content rigor, alignment to assessment, and time attending to task acquisition (Heacox & Cash, 2014).

Tier of Support & Rational for Use:
{Intensive/Highly Advanced}

• Benefits learners who do well learning at a fast pace
• Allows student to complete grade-level coursework  in less time or grade level standards in less time to allow work on subsequent grade level content

Resources:

• The Compactor
• The Compactor Small Group Contract
• The Compactor Planning Guide
• Curriculum Compacting 2nd Edition

The Depth and Complexity framework provides valuable tools (i.e., icons) that empower learners to be independent thinkers and creative problem-solvers.  Centered around the content being taught, the icons serve as “lenses” or “concepts” that activate learning of content using higher-level thinking skills and initiate a more advanced & extensive understanding of subject matter. 

 The elements of Depth examine topics by determining the facts, concepts, generalizations, principles, and theories related to the content, while elements of Complexity motivate learners to see associations among diverse subjects, topics, or levels (The Center for Depth & Complexity).

Resources:

• Conceptual & Abstractness Model
• Facilitating the Understanding of Depth & Complexity
• Kaplan Depth & Complexity Prompts
• Kaplan Dept & Complexity Icons

Performance-based teaching and learning allows for the transfer of content and skills across and between disciplines.  When given opportunities to display knowledge, understanding, and skills through open-ended tasks, there is a heightened sense of student motivation and ownership for learning.  If the expectation is for students to apply and transfer their knowledge, educators must provide for both instruction and assessment similar to the experiences and challenges students encounter in real life situations outside school (Treffinger et al., 2008).  For instance, project-based learning (PBL) tasks place students in authentic, real-world situations that stretch-student thinking through the learning phases of meaning-making and transfer; meanwhile, emphasizing communication (e.g., listening, writing, and speaking), critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration.

Resources:

• Constructing a Task Scenario (GRASPS)
• GRASPS Design Sheets
• Reflective Questions for Designing Performance

Independent projects can allow for independent research in an effort to develop the talents within a specific domain. By providing well-designed learning experiences -  as well as the extension of topics from the regular curriculum or the exploration of a topic in more depth - students can explore their interests and increase their talents.  Projects should take into account a student’s interests and learning styles/preferences  (Robins, at el., 2020).

Tier of Support & Rational for Use:
{Selected/Advanced}:  

• Give students exposure to new ideas
• Allows teachers to differentiate content, process, and products
• Meets student’s needs

Resources:

• Independent Project Action Plan
• Research Model

To analyze is to look closely or examine; reason means to form conclusions or inferences based on what we know or experience.  Reasoning skills are a key component of critical thinking, involving the abilities to think logically, evaluate evidence, identify assumptions, and analyze arguments. For example, giving students a real problem to solve, and asking them to use reasoning skills to develop a solution can give practical context to the skills.  

Resources:

• Reasoning Web
• Reasoning About an Event
• Reasoning Questions
• Literature Web
• Literature Web Example

• Depth Analysis
• Depth Stem Reasoning Chart
• Depth Reasoning Chart Humanities

• Complexity Analysis
  • Visual Analysis Wheel
  • Social Studies Analysis Connections Wheel & Primary Sources Analysis Wheel
  • Stem Analysis Wheel
• ELA Analysis
  • ELA Analysis Agrumentative Writing Wheel
  • ELA Rhetorical Analysis Wheel
  • ELA Analysis Fictional Writing Wheel
  • ELA Text Analysis Wheel - Primary
  • Complexity Analysis Models - ELA

When students participate in discussions it requires them to actively engage in collaborative and respectful dialogue while utilizing feedback from their peers to gain additional insight.  Additionally, these discussions can help develop many other skills such as critical thinking, effective communication, and a deeper understanding of the content.

Resources:

• Academic Conversation Placemat
• Shared Inquiry
  • Practice in Follow Up Questions
  • Five Guidelines and Building Your Answer
  • Building Your Answer
• Socratic Discussion
  • Avid Questions for Socratic Dialogue
  • Teacher Reference: The Elements of Socratic Seminars
  • AVID: Socratic Seminar
  • Student Phrases for Open Discussion

• Mathematical Exemplars (Grades 6-8)
• Defined Learning (Performance-Based Tasks & Assessments)
• Open Middle - Math Challenges
• Beast Academy (Grades K-5)
• Think Tanks (Grades 1-5)
• Khan Academy–MAP Recommended Practice
• Continental Math League Problems

• Defined Learning (Performance-Based Tasks & Assessments)
• Junior Great Books & Shared Inquiry
• Jacob’s Ladder for Comprehension & Higher-Order Thinking

In MTSD, we currently identify in the following gifted and talented domains: 

• General Intellect  {starting in Grade 2}
• Subject Specific (math & reading) {Grades 3-8}
• Art  {Grades 6-8}
• Music {Grades 6-8}
• Creativity {in the coming years}
•  Leadership {in the coming years}

Recognizing that student needs may change over time, or be exhibited in a particular context, a more fluid approach to identification is most effective.  In that, multiple measures should be used to create a pupil profile.  Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) describe this as creating a "photo album" of a student rather than simply taking a "snapshot."  This comprehensive picture of a student's needs allows us to effectively match programming to meet those needs.

Data collected for identification: 1) includes both quantitative and qualitative sources, 2) be responsive to all students, and 3) match the purpose for which the information is being used.

Universal (all students): Appropriately challenging curriculum and instruction can lead to achievement for all students.  The belief that “a rising tide lifts all ships” provides all students with opportunities, resources, and encouragement to develop interests and talents as fully as possible (Renzulli, 1998).  

Selected (Advanced):   Levels of supports are meant to be viewed as “on and off ramps” in which supports are added when needed and removed when there is no longer the need.  In other words, as ability, achievement, and motivation fluctuate over time, varying types of support are warranted (Peters & Brulles, 2017).    

Intensive (Highly Advanced): Increased personalized instruction, goal setting, focused feedback and progress monitoring  can be met through an Advanced Learning Plan (as needed).   A team of stakeholders (e.g., TAG Coordinator, class/content teacher, administrator, and building specialists) will work together to establish an appropriate and measurable plan of support, as needed.

Options for Extension & Enrichment for All Identified Areas: 

It is worth noting, gifted behaviors can be found "in certain people (not all people), at certain times (not all the time), and under certain circumstances (not all circumstances)" (Renzulli, 1978).  That said, there are a myriad of outlets for gifted and advanced students to exercise their interests and talents:

Students' needs are met in the classroom through:

• Differentiation
• A critical and creative thinking curriculum taught to support and enhance knowledge acquisition and utilization of knowledge
• Projects that emphasize higher level thinking, including problem-based learning and inquiry projects

Differentiated Teaching & Learning 

Largely, this process begins with differentiation in the classroom where educators strive to meet a wide range of needs, and therefore, draw from multiple and varied approaches.  Based on continuous and ongoing classroom trends in teaching and learning to meet advanced learning needs, educators must advocate for differentiation of instruction.  Specifically, this differentiation includes content, process, or product (Tomlinson, 1999).  Largely, it is of critical importance that curriculum encompasses depth in content, flexibility in process, and a wide range of product choices to ensure that students remain challenged and engaged in their learning development.

According to Tomlinson (1999), the following guiding principles encompass the foundation for differentiated instruction which guide teachers to differentiate based on content, product, and process according to students’ readiness, interest, and learning profile; as explained in the following tables:

Guiding Principles of Differentiated Instruction

Teachers Can Differentiate: 
 

Differentiation Methods  May Vary Based on Student:

(Tomlinson, 1999)

• Wisconsin DPI - Gifted and Talented Education in Wisconsin
• Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted (WATG)
• National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)
• MTSD’s Talented, Advanced, and Gifted (TAG) page