"Every garden needs a plan!"

In a field of students, gifted learners often blend in, but their growth patterns are different. We start by planning purpose: understanding why gifted learners need differentiation and how to cultivate their brilliance!

Objectives: Tending to Talent

Throughout this PD experience, educators will be equipped to:

  1. Understand how gifted learners emerge and evolve

  2. Use tools like compacting, inquiry, and project-based learning

  3. Differentiate content and process across subjects

  4. Respond to the emotional needs of advanced learners

  5. Reflect and revise lessons to promote intellectual risk-taking

  6. Collaborate with peers to build a garden of support in every grade level 

Goals: Cultivating Excellence

Instructional Growth Goals

  1. Identify barriers that limit the growth of advanced learners

  2. Implement tiered instruction that nourishes gifted potential

  3. Create lessons that allow students to bloom at their pace

  4. Integrate SEL to support the whole learner

  5. Build a school ecosystem where giftedness is recognized early and often

 

 

Rationale

In the educational garden of your classroom, every learner needs nurturing, but gifted students often grow fastest and get the least attention. They may appear fine, but many hide boredom with silence, mask anxiety with perfectionism, and underperform from a lack of challenge.

Research shows that without tailored differentiation, these learners risk becoming underchallenged and invisible (Kaplan et al., 2021; Miller et al., 2020). They need instruction designed to feed their roots and stretch their branches. This PD is the water, sunlight, and planning time we often wish we had. Let's grow together!

In many elementary schools, gifted learners are like fast-growing grass: They stretch early and deeply, but without enrichment, they can plateau or disengage. They need space, sunlight, and strong roots, not just speed.