Gifted Learners at Sawyer Road

Talent Development

Students in K-2 are identified by teacher or referred by parent who are candidates for the gifted program and pulled out weekly for talent development by Gifted Teacher.

For more information about the Gifted Education program at Sawyer Road, please contact Sterling Garner at SGarner@marietta-city.k12.ga.us.

Models of Gifted Education

The Resource Model

• All students are gifted in these classes.
• STEM Design Challenges
• Critical and Divergent Thinking
• Curriculum has an academic content foundation, but focuses on interdisciplinary enrichment activities.
• Two segments per week.

The Collaboration Model

• Gifted specialist and classroom teacher collaborate in the development of challenging assignments that substitute for or extend core MATH and ELA standards.
• Direct instruction provided by classroom teacher, but there is collaborative planning between the classroom teacher and the gifted specialist
• Teachers document curriculum modifications through time log of collaborative planning with Gifted Specialist, for example:
• Lesson planning
• Gifted lessons, provided and modeled by gifted specialist
• Observation of gifted lessons taught
• Differentiated Homework in Math & ELA:
• Challenge Book Study in Reading w/ Gifted Specialist
• IB Summative Assessments
• STEM Design Challenges embedded in IB Planners

The Cluster Model

• Gifted students placed as a group into a heterogeneous regular classroom
• Regular classroom teacher has gifted endorsement.
• Teacher documents curriculum modifications made for gifted students in individual student contracts in ELA & Math:
• Differentiated Homework in Math & ELA
• Challenge Book Study in Reading w/ Gifted Specialist
• IB Summative Assessments
• STEM Design Challenges embedded in IB Planners