Externship for Students who are Gifted   (#7965030)

General Notes

The purpose of this course is to provide opportunities for students who are gifted to participate in a field experience with a community professional. This externship will provide an opportunity for field experience, research, and personal growth to enhance awareness of career options.

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 gifted course 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:

• independent learning
• application of acquired knowledge
• high-level communication
• collaboration with field experts
• application and utilization of appropriate technology
• documentation of acquired information from field experience
• career exploration  
• exploration of educational requirements, employment opportunities, and salaries in careers related to areas of externship

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

This entire course may not be mastered in one year. A student may earn multiple credits in this course. The particular course requirements that the student should master to earn each credit must be specified on an individual basis.

Instructional activities used to meet course requirements and address individual student needs may occur in schools, communities, museums, institutions of higher education, or other appropriate scientific or cultural organizations. Instruction in these settings may require that students acquire specialized knowledge and skills, including the use of advanced technology, special tools, and equipment; terminology; and methodologies essential to the student’s research.

It is necessary to implement a combination of research-based standards and strategies that have been proven successful in accelerating the development of research skills in gifted students. The instructional approaches should meet the needs of each student based on results of individual portfolios, assessments, and progress monitoring.