Skyview Upper Elementary School

The Skyview Upper Elementary Challenge Program

Instructors/Staff:

Kathleen Clark (5th Grade: Social Studies and 6th Grade: Geography)

Marc Shatzman  (6th Grade: Geography/Reading)

Elizabeth Santucci (Gifted Department Coordinator: K-6)                    

Program Description:

The Challenge Program is one component of the overall educational programming for children identified by a Certified School Psychologist as mentally gifted.  Identification is based on a multi-criteria evaluation that includes building level evaluations of academic performance and teacher observations, along with a norm-referenced achievement and reasoning quotients assessment administered by school personnel.  If a child meets the minimum requirements at the building level gifted screening, individual achievement and intelligence testing is performed by a school psychologist. Students may be referred for screening by a teacher and/or this screening may be requested in written form by a parent.  Once a student is identified, a team of parents and school personnel called a “G.I.E.P. Team” meets and agrees upon individual goals and specially designed instruction for that student.

The main purpose of the Challenge Program is to motivate each student to achieve to his/her highest potential by working to meet the goals and outcomes agreed upon by the G.I.E.P. Team.  Students will participate in a variety of structured and independent activities which foster the development of problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, research/technological skills, divergent thinking, leadership skills, public speaking skills, organization/study skills, and goal setting.  While the focus of the curriculum will target the “Big Ideas” and “Essential Questions” of the regular education curriculum, adaptations to the delivery of instruction such as: unit-based cooperative learning projects, short and long-term independent study projects, higher-level questioning and response, connecting the concepts to real-world and current events, and compacting and pacing based on student performance, will be utilized.  Challenge students in the fifth grade meet daily for social studies. Challenge students in the sixth grade meet daily for both geography and reading classes.

Curriculum Highlights:

Program Design:  The fifth and sixth grade Challenge Program correlates with the fifth grade social studies curriculum, and the sixth grade geography and reading curricula respectively.  The students are clustered in a select number of the regular education homeroom classes. Challenge students attend Challenge social studies, geography, and/or reading class with the Challenge teachers at the same time that the students’ homeroom class attends regular education courses.  Accordingly, there is no make-up work required as the students will not be missing any subject instruction during their time in Challenge. All students will meet the standards set forth by the State of Pennsylvania for fifth grade social studies, sixth grade geography, and sixth grade reading. However, the curriculum for the gifted students has been differentiated in both breadth and depth of content to accommodate the needs a gifted learner.  The activities and assignments have been designed to allow the students to utilize their higher order thinking skills as well as further develop each student’s G.I.E.P. goals.

Fifth Grade Social Studies Curriculum Highlights:

Native Americans and Early Explorers

Colonization of North America

Road to War and the American Revolution

The Formation of a New Nation

Westward Movement

Sixth Grade Geography Curriculum Highlights:

Handbook Unit

North America

South America

Europe

Africa

Asia

Current Events

Sixth Grade Reading Curriculum Highlights:

In depth study of anthology texts, novels, and nonfiction texts

Project-based curriculum focusing on both independent and collaborative work

Studies of the elements that define different genres

Building upon student vocabulary

Engaging with public speaking skills