Definition of Giftedness

The following represent a variety of definitions of "giftedness":

Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive disabilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. (The Columbus Group, 1991)

The term "gifted and talented students" means children and youth who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and how require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities. (US Congress revision of the Maryland report of 1972 in 1988 - P.L. 100-297, Sec. 4103, Definitions)

Sternberg's five "necessary and sufficient conditions that gifted persons have in common":

1. Excellence: A gifted person must be extremely good at something.
2. Rarity: He or she must posses a high level of an attribute that is uncommon relative to peers.
3. Productivity: The superior trait must (potentially) lead to productivity.
4. Demonstrability: The trait also must be demonstrable through one or more valid tests.
5. Value: The superior performance must be in an area that is valued by society.

(Davis and Rimm, 1998, p.23)

Joseph Renzulli's Three-Ring Model

"Gifted behavior...reflects an interaction among three basic clusters of human traits - these clusters being above average (but not necessarily high) general and/or specific ability, high levels of task commitment (motivation), and high levels of creativity. Gifted and talented children are those possessing or capable of developing this composite set of traits and applying them to any potentially valuable area of human performance." (quoted in Davis and Rimm, 1998, p. 19)

What is your definition of giftedness?

Creativity and Problem Solving

In the pursuit of "STRETCh'ing" student learning and meeting the needs of those students who are ready for the "Next STEP", The Center for Creative Learning has a wealth of resources for helping to engaged talented problem solvers. Many times students who are talented in the area of acquiring content knowledge quickly become disengaged with school out of boredom.

As schools shift to meeting the needs of 21st century learners, you will see more brain-based strategies and problem-solving application of content assessments.

Center for Gifted Education College of William and Mary

I found the following document that is an individual instruction plan "Menu" for the gifted child.

Click here to see the MENU

The vast majority of items on the list seem to be good for ALL children. I think programming for the gifted is not as simple as this list makes out.

With gifted students it is the asynchronous learning that needs to be accommodated for! 

It is not a one size fits all. The above model is not account for the asynchronous learning either. Tier 4 should be available as needed - not after formal identification.

As parents, you need to be armed with this information! If your child is great at Geometry and is working above grade level in that area only, you have a right to ask for their learning to be differentiated.