Advanced Academics: 6-8   (#7855040)

General Notes

This course is designed to enable exceptional students to acquire and apply the skills and abilities needed to enhance academic achievement through experiences which provide enrichment, in-depth learning, and /or accelerated study of academic curriculum requirements. Students who are gifted have learning needs that go beyond what is traditionally offered in the regular classroom.  The nature of their abilities, demonstrated or latent, requires differentiated learning experiences and opportunities for them to maximize their potential. Teachers need to develop the depth and quality of their students’ experiences while adjusting the pace to meet individual needs.

This course is meant to be used at each 6-8 grade level and has been designed for the teacher to select and teach only the appropriate standards corresponding to a student’s individual instructional needs.

Major Concepts/Content. The purpose of this course is to provide appropriately individualized curricula for students who are gifted.

The content should include, but not be limited to the following:

• higher-order thinking skills
• independent learning
• application of acquired knowledge
• high-level communication
• career exploration
• leadership
• self-awareness

English Language Development (ELD) Standards Special Notes Section:

Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate for social and instructional purposes within the school setting.   For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success. The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL’s need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/si.pdf.

Version Requirements

Instructional Practices

Teaching from well-written, grade-level instructional materials enhances students’ content area knowledge and also strengthens their ability to comprehend longer, complex reading passages on any topic for any reason. Using the following instructional practices also helps student learning:

 1. Reading assignments from longer text passages as well as shorter ones when text is extremely complex.

 2. Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.

 3. Asking high-level, text-specific questions and requiring high-level, complex tasks and assignments.

 4. Requiring students to support answers with evidence from the text.

 5. Providing extensive text-based research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).

Special Note: As students progress from one grade-level course to the next, increases should occur in the complexity of materials and tasks and in the students’ independence in their application and use. Scaffolded learning opportunities are to be provided for students to develop and apply the critical skills of discourse analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.