Enrichment News

Gifted Enrichment Update

• Design Thinkers Pringle Ringle Challenge
• January & February Enrichment Activities & Pics
• PRM Spelling Bee Champion
• Class Spelling Bee Pictures
• WIN Schedule
• Brain Bowl
• More Rubik's Cubes PLEASE!
• Gifted Testing & Identification

In Every Issue - General Information:

• Enrichment Pullout Groups
• Accelerated Math Program
• Gifted Education 101
• Great Sites to Check Out
  
• TEMOTAD :-)
  

PRM students that meet the state criteria to be identified as gifted in the area of Creative Thinking Ability meet every Friday for Design Time. Third graders meet from 9:10 to 9:55, while 4th, 5th, & 6th graders meet from 1:00 to 1:45.

During this time, we explore and apply the design process to challenging problem-based activities that incorporate Science, Technology, Ecology, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM).

Currently, students are working on the Pringle Ringle Challenge. Click the link below to see some of the lessons, and enjoy the pictures.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSFfd925Zl_RuW2H0drxIbW_mPRWp7A2oSUp-XQgpjcJjxhACeRgEbDqMkEAsmQ3mXtkMNv53KQiy8k/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

My job is to guide students in learning how to think, not what to think.

To do this, we focus on work that develops thinking and reasoning abilities.

Every enrichment session presents opportunities for my students to engage in activities that include verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal reasoning while practicing skills in communication, creativity, and collaboration.

I alternate the weekly focus between math and ELA, but always cover a range of tasks.

Below are slides and pictures from some of our recent lessons.

In enrichment, we work on our visual-spatial reasoning along with our communicaion skills.

For Spot The Difference, students must guide the eyes of the audience to the difference they see. Here is an excellent example of a first grade student explaining where one of the differences he found can be located.

Congratulations to IAN HOEKZEMA!

Ian is our school Spelling Bee champion and has qualified for the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee which will be held on Saturday, March 8th. We wish Ian all the best as he moves to the next level of the National Spelling Bee which is celebrating 100 years!

The new WIN (What I Need) schedule impacts my enrichment offerings for the second semester. Unfortunately, due to time, I am only able to pull students that I am serving for SCA (Superior Cognitive Ability) and Creativity.

If I was pulling your student during the first semester for SCA and/or Creativity, then they should still be coming to me for enrichment. (Second and Third graders should attend Monday-Thursday during their WIN time unless their teacher and I have discussed a modified schedule.)

Please check in with your student to see if they are still attending their enrichment sessions with me.

My schedule is posted below.

Geting ready to play Hyde Park. Our moderator was Nikolai Federov, a junior on the Walnut Hills Quiz Team. He does an incredible job moderating, and has great rapport with the students and the audience.

Our sixth graders were away at camp on February 27th, so the fourth and fifth graders had a chance to shine! Our team had five fourth graders and one fifth grader. Hyde Park came with 22 players, and played 12 of their sixth graders in the match.

PRM only lost by two points which gives you an idea of just how fabulous these kids are!

Here are our stats for the season so far:

PRM 29 Covedale 3

PRM 16 CANS 14

PRM 26 Covedale 10

PRM 23 Fairview 15

PRM 12 Hyde Park 14

We have a strong team. They work together so well and are very supportive of their teammates.

Special thanks to Coach David Woerner who is our logistics and stats guru. He also plans the lineups, gives great pep talks, takes the team outside to run off nervous energy, and is just a super person!

Ellie Woerner and Graham Marlow are our "honorary team members" as they assist when and where needed and are especially fantastic as official greeters to the visiting teams. Thanks for your help!

I also want to thank all the parents and family members who support us at each match, drive players across town, provide snacks and make sure the room is restored to a classroom after our home matches. Our team demonstrates the best team spirit and sportsmanship in the district because our parents model what that looks like. Thank you so much!!!!

Upcoming dates:

March 6 we play Dater Montessori (away)

March 12 we play Kilgour (home)

March 13 we play Spencer (away)

March 15 is the CPS Brain Bowl District Tournament!!!

All set up for our match against Hyde Park.

Former player Ivy Syroney stopped by to give the team a "Fine Arts Boot Camp" that helped them score 23 points against Fairview!

Brain Bowl families enjoyed an evening of trivia on Wednesday, February 12 at Hi-Wire Brewing. One of our PRM teams placed third out of more than a dozen competing teams. Way to represent PRM!

I am looking for more Rubik's Cubes for our Enrichment Program. If you have one collecting dust or would like to purchase one to donate to our program, it would be greatly appreciated.

My goal is to have at least 500 cubes in our collection so that students can design and build more mosaics.

CPS uses various assessment instruments to test for giftedness in specific academic areas.

MAP, i-Ready, and the Iowa Assessments are approved by the State of Ohio for gifted identification in Reading and Math. Students in grades 2-6 who score at or above the 95th percentile on a reading or math assessment will be identified as gifted.

Winter gifted testing including CogAT, i-Ready Math and i-Ready Reading assessments took place in December and January. Students newly identified as gifted should receive a letter from the district testing department.

I will also contact parents with notifications of new identifications by mid March. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to know more about the identication process.

In Ohio, public school districts are required to identify students in grades K-12 for gifted identification in the following areas:

• Superior Cognitive Ability
• Creative Thinking Ability
• Specific Academic Ability - Reading
• Specific Academic Ability - Math
• Specific Academic Ability - Science
• Specific Academic Ability - Social Studies
• Performing Musical Arts: Instrumental
• Performing Musical Arts: Vocal
• Performing Visual Arts
• Performing Arts: Dance
• Performing Arts: Drama

Unfortunately, school districts are not required to provide any form of service or enrichment to those identified students. In most cases, it is the responsibility of the classroom teachers or fine arts specialists to provide differentiation or enrichment opportunities to meet the needs of our gifted students during the school day.

Education Standards for the Classroom

Educators are expected to follow the state learning standards for the grades and content they teach. At PRM, our teachers also follow a Montessori curriculum which often provides gifted students the opportunity to explore content and express their understanding in unique and creative ways.

Gifted Education Standards for Enrichment

I use the National Standards for Gifted Education to develop my gifted and enrichment programming. These standards focus on creating and providing learning environments that encourage awareness and understanding of interests, strengths and needs, along with the development of cognitive, social, emotional, and psychosocial skills.

Gifted & Enrichment Pullout Groups

Students are pulled out of their regular classrooms for enrichment activities and gifted services. Some groups meet weekly, some monthly, or quarterly. Groupings and schedules are determined based on grade levels, area(s) of gifted identification, and need.

Superior Cognitive Ability

Students identified as gifted in Superior Cognitive Ability have unique characteristics and needs, often requiring additional support to fully develop their talent potential. Enrichment options and expectations are tailored to meet the specific needs of each student.

We are expanding our gifted services to include accelerated math!

In the 6-9 Montessori setting, informal math acceleration can occur naturally for first and second grade students but it becomes difficult to meet the needs of a third grader who is performing consistently above grade level. Formal math acceleration is most often the best option to meet the needs of these students. Starting this year, third grade students participating in the acceleration program will take fourth grade math with our Math Specialist, Ms. Alexa Fulmer in a daily 40 minute pullout class. Ms. Alexa will be the math teacher of record for these students, and will be responsible for providing math lessons, grades, and differentiation as needed. These students will take the fourth grade Math OST in the spring.

When these students rise to the 9-12 level classrooms, they will take fifth grade math as fourth graders, and sixth grade math as fifth graders. In sixth grade they will be enrolled in the middle school math class 7AA which is an accelerated math class covering both 7th and 8th grade math. The 7AA math class is taught by me in our gifted & enrichment room.

Eligibility for the program is determined through scores on a state mandated rubric, the Iowa Acceleration Scale. This instrument evaluates academic achievement in math, participation, attendance, academic self-concept, and completion of assigned work on time to a high standard.

A student can be referred for math acceleration at any time during the school year. If you are interested in learning more about math acceleration please reach out to me.

We have a beautiful new space for our gifted and enrichment program! This space will allow me to build the program that I have dreamed of for the past ten years. I am in the process of redesigning my curriculums and overall program model, so it will take a bit of time for all the pieces to fall into place. Once I have it worked out, we will have a program that will set standards of excellence for gifted programs in a Montessori setting.

I am so happy to be torturing, er, I mean working with the amazing students, staff, and families of Pleasant Ridge Montessori. I consider it a great honor to be given the opportunity to enrich the lives of this community and to help guide our future scholars, leaders, and creatives.

Since 1999, I have worked with more than 2000 gifted students in grades K through 8 in various public school settings.

Email: bonfiej@cpsboe.k12.oh.us

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