Giftedness at

a GlanceCreated by

Valerie Geiler, Lucille Kenney,

Caryn Meirs, Renée Clarke

& Kristen Lange

Contact InformationAHAP Facilitator

Valerie Geiler 592-3052 vgeiler@hhh.k12.ny.us

AHAP Teachers

Valerie Geiler vgeiler@hhh.k12.ny.us

Lucille Kenney lkenney@hhh.k12.ny.us

Caryn Meirs cmeirs@hhh.k12.ny.us

AHAP Liaisons and Enrichment Teachers

Chestnut Hill Renée Clarke 592-3500 rclarke@hhh.k12.ny.us

Forest Park Lucille Kenney 592-3550 lkenney@hhh.k12.ny.us

Otsego Valerie Geiler 592-3600 vgeiler@hhh.k12.ny.us

Paumanok Kristen Lange 592-3650 klange@hhh.k12.ny.us

Signal Hill Renée Clarke 592-3700 rclarke@hhh.k12.ny.us

Sunquam Caryn Meirs 592-3750 cmeirs@hhh.k12.ny.us

Vanderbilt Kristen Lange 592-3800 klange@hhh.k12.ny.us

Academically High Aptitude Program

(AHAP) Mission Statement

“Half Hollow Hills Academically High Aptitude

Program ensures that students who possess

exceptional gifts and talents receive the necessary

resources to maximize their extraordinary potential.

Students will be challenged to become self-directed,

life long learners. Students will encounter an

individualized, diverse, and flexible curriculum.

Children will experience an enriched accelerated

education through which they will acquire skills to

lead responsible, constructive, and most importantly

exceptional lives.”

Academically High Aptitude Program

vs. Enrichment Services

Academically High Aptitude Program

•AHAP addresses the needs of students in grades three through five.

•It is a non-mandated district supported program.

•AHAP has objective defined criteria for entry. The first and most important

assessment utilized to determine a student’s eligibility is the InView Cognitive Skills

Test, similar to an IQ test. The second component used to determine eligibility is

scores obtained from the New York State English Language Arts and Mathematics

Assessments. Even if NYS ELA and Math Assessments scores are above average, a

child’s Cognitive Skills Index must meet the IQ requirement for that year in order to be

considered for the program.

•Students leave their home school to attend AHAP at the Fran Greenspan

Administration Center once each week for the entire school year. Third graders attend

AHAP for one half day, while fourth and fifth graders attend for a full day. Third grade

AHAP students also receive one period of Enrichment services each week in their

home building.

•Once a student is admitted to AHAP they are not retested for admission in subsequent

years.

Academically High Aptitude Program

vs. Enrichment Services

Enrichment Services

•Enrichment is a district supported, building level, non-mandated

service for second through fifth graders.

•Enrichment is open to all students based on standardized test scores,

enrichment teacher suggestion and classroom teacher recommendation.

•Enrichment is provided in each elementary school building in three

10-week cycles for the third through fifth grades. Two 10-week cycles

are provided for the second grade students. Students attend one cycle

per year.

•A student in enrichment one year is not guaranteed a place the

following year.

•Enrichment teachers serve as a liaison for administrators, teachers, and

students to further support teachers with additional differentiation in

their classrooms.

AHAP Courses

Below is a sampling of courses offered by the Academically High Aptitude

Program for the third through fifth graders in the district.

3rd Grade Courses

Fall

Spanning the Heights (bridges)

Skyscrapers

Project Iceberg (Antarctica)

Spring

Spanning the Heights, Part II

Econ-O-Mania

Stories from the Top of the World (science and mythology)

Fall

History on the March

Movers and Shakers

(inventors)

Endangered Animals

Highway to Health

Toy Story

Are You a Hobbit?

Spring

Movers and Shakers

Music ‘N’ Motion

Endangered Animals, Part II

Highway to Health

Journey to the Stars

Are You a Hobbit?

Lost! (Galapagos)

Mission to Mars

AHAP Courses

4th Grade

Fall

History Undercover, Part II

Newspaper

Alien Invaders (invasive species)

Music, Part II

Math & Matter

CSI - Forensic Science

Lego Robotics, FLL Competition

Toy Story II: Sally Ride ToyChallenge

Greek Mythology

Flight

Lost II

Spring

Great Debaters

Newspaper

Digit Squad (mathematics)

Art Colony III

Law & Order

Brainy Behaviors

Fairytales on Trial

Lego Robotics, Mars Rover

Edition

Once & Future Kings

Myth Busters Science Squad

AHAP Courses

All courses are inquiry and project based, and foster critical thinking,

deductive thinking, and creative thinking.

5th Grade

The “Twice Exceptional” Learner

On occasion, you may encounter a student that may appear

to have a high intellect, but are not a typical gifted learner.

This child may be categorized as a “twice exceptional”

learner; both gifted and disabled. It is difficult to describe

or list all the characteristics of gifted disabled people

because there are so many types of giftedness and so many

disabilities. The biggest challenge in identification is that a

disability often masks or inhibits the expression of

giftedness, so that it is difficult to tell whether a person's

abilities are outstanding enough to indicate giftedness. On

the other hand, giftedness can also mask a disability because

the person's abilities can help him or her overcome or

compensate for the disability.

Common Myths About

Gifted Students

• Gifted students are a homogeneous group, all high achievers.

• Gifted students do not need help. If they are really gifted, they can manage on their own

• Gifted students have fewer problems than others because their intelligence and abilitiessomehow exempt them from the hassles of daily life.

• Gifted students are self-directed; they know where they are heading.

• The future of a gifted student is assured; a world of opportunities lies before the student.

• Gifted students are nerds and social isolates.

• Gifted students need to serve as examples to others and they should always assume extraresponsibility.

• The social and emotional development of the gifted student is at the same level ashis/her intellectual development.

• The primary value of the gifted student lies in his or her brainpower.

• The gifted student’s family always prizes his or her ability.

• Gifted students can accomplish anything they put their minds to; all they have to do isapply themselves.

• Gifted students are naturally creative and do not need encouragement.

• Gifted children are easy to raise and are welcomed addition to any classroom.

Truths About

Gifted Students• Gifted students are often perfectionists and idealistic. They may equate achievement and

grades with self-esteem and self-worth, which sometimes leads to fear of failure andinterferences with achievement.

• Gifted students may experience heightened sensitivity to over achievements or gradesperceived to be low.

• Gifted students are asynchronous. Their chronological age, social, physical, emotional, andintellectual development may be able to read and comprehend a third-grade book, but may notbe able to write legibly.

• Some gifted children are “mappers” (sequential learners), while others are “leapers” (spatiallearners). Leapers may not know how they got a “right answer.” Mappers may get lost in thesteps leading to the right answer.

• Gifted students may be so far ahead their chronological age mates, that they may know morethan half the curriculum before the school year begins! Their boredom can result in lowachievement and grades.

• Gifted children are problem-solvers. They benefit from working on open-ended,interdisciplinary problems; for example, how to solve a shortage of community resources.

• Gifted students often refuse to work for grades alone.

• Gifted students often think abstractly and with such complexity that they may need help withconcrete study and test-taking skills. They may not be able to select one answer in a multiple-choice question because they see how all the answers might be correct.

• Gifted students who do well in school may define success as getting an “A” and failure as anygrade less than an “A”. By early adolescence they may be unwilling to try anything where theyare not certain of guaranteed success.

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Each child deserves an individualizededucational experience that takes intoaccount each child’s individual needs,interests, strengths, and weaknesses.Continue to keep these intelligences in mindwhen getting to know the students in yourclassroom and planning for new learningopportunities.

In his theory, Howard Gardner outlines eight intelligences, whichinclude:

1. Linguistic intelligence – “word smart”

2. Logical-mathematical intelligence - “number/reasoningsmart”

3. Spatial intelligence – “picture smart”

4. Musical intelligence – “music smart”

5. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence – “body smart”

6. Interpersonal intelligence – “people smart”

7. Intrapersonal intelligence – “self smart”

8. Naturalistic intelligence – “nature smart”

9. Existential intelligence – “cosmos smart” *

* In 1999, Gardner added naturalist intelligence and proposedthat a ninth intelligence, existential intelligence, be considered forfuture inclusion.

Differentiation Strategies for

High-Level Learners

Curriculum Compacting

Curriculum compacting is the process of

identifying learning objectives, pretesting

students for mastery of these objectives,

and eliminating needless teaching and

practice if mastery can be documented. The

time saved through this process may be

used to provide enrichment for students.

Example of Chart Used for Compacting

by Joseph Renzulli and Linda H. Smith

Student’s Name: ____________________________________

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Differentiation Strategies for

High-Level Learners

Tiering Lessons

Tiering is an instructional approach

designed to have students of differing

readiness levels work with essential

knowledge, understanding, and skill, but to

do so at levels of difficulty appropriately

challenging for them as individuals at a

given point in the instructional cycle.

Tiering Activities Overview

How to plan 3 pathways to understanding:Struggling Learners:

Need extensive modeling and/or teacher instruction

Need color-coded elements/highlighted elements/exemplars

Need to review concepts/use manipulatives/use textbook

Need to study vocabulary lists/cards or pictures which show vocabulary/word bank

Will complete a provided graphic organizer/labeled outline/framed paragraph

On-Grade Learners:

Can complete on-grade expectations (with practice opportunities)/solve practice problems

Don’t need to review (as much)

Can make some decisions on their own regarding how to complete a task

Can create their own graphic organizer/chart/posters

Can draw/illustrate/explain key concepts

** Advanced Learners: These are your AHAP/Enrichment students.

Can work and create independently

Can engage in more advanced research/study in-depth

Will study key issues across time periods and cultures

Will be able to decide which skills to use

Can work with multi-step tasks and ideas in their mind

Can take a concept and expand upon it and work with mentors

2002 Judy Dodge

The Revised Bloom’s Thinking Skills