This miniguide is the result of the work of all teams involved in the Comenius School Development Project “Special Needs for Special Students”, which tries to make the teachers, the parents and the other people and institutions who are involved in education to be more responsible in teaching Gifted Students and helping them to develop in the manner they need and deserve.
This is the second part of the “Miniguide for discovering Gifted Students”. It is one of our final products for the second year of the project. Part I of the mini-guide was one of the final products from first year of the project.
The teams involved in this project are from:
· LICEUL „MATEI BASARAB” RAMNICU VALCEA (ROMANIA) - coordinator
· Isparta Merkez Bağlar İlköğretim Okulu (Turkey)
· DEVETO OSNOVNO UCHILISTE “PEJO JAVOROV’” of BLAGOEVGRAD (BULGARY)
· TELEKI-WATTAY MŰVÉSZETI ISKOLA POMÁZ of POMAZ (HUNGARY)
· MERKEZ GÜLCÜ İLKÖĞRETİM OKULU of ISPARTA (TURKEY)
· VIZ VRTEC MAVRICA IZOLA of IZOLA (SLOVENIJA)
· INFANZIA SAN TEREZO of SAN TERENZO (ITALY)
· PRIMO CIRCOLO DIDATTICO G. VERGA of SCORDIA-CATANIA (ITALY)
The second part of the “Mini-guide for discovering gifted students” is formed by: The curricula, the form and our observations regarding Gifted students, and some of the results of the commune activities: The seasons, The window and Music. All the partner schools collaborated to make this guide by making at least one curricula for Gifted Students, making notes regarding the behavior of a Gifted Student, filling in the forms regarding the topics of the project etc.
This guide can be used by different teachers, not only for the exceptionally gifted students, but also for the practice during regular classes because it provides ideas regarding original methods and activities which can bring out the best in our students.
The guide reflects the opinion of the teachers from the team of the project, result of our teaching experience.
We want to thanks to all the teachers involved in the activities of the project and their students.
Slovenia
Comenius development project
“Special needs for special students”
INDIVIDUAL CURRICULA
Comenius team:
Nada Fornazarič
Ana Vončina
Oljeta Mikac
Vanja Pirih Kravanja
Ksenija Dujec
1 THE CURRICULA GOALS FOR THE KINDERGARTENS
o More opened and variable curricula in different programmes for preschool children.
o More variegated and diversified offer at the all fields of subjects for the preschool education in the kindergartens.
o More balanced offer at the various subjects for the preschool education in the kindergartens which at the same time don't makes impossible the deeper view on the certain fields.
o Greater allowing of individualities, diversities and choices in contrast of the group routine.
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE REALIZATIONS THE CURRICULA GOALS FOR THE KINDERGARTENS
The principles of the equal possibilities and of considerations of diversities among children and the principles of the multicultures:
- Allowing equivalent conditions for the optimal development of each child.
- Consideration of the individual’s differences in the progress and in the learning.
The principles of allowing choices and diversities:
- On the levels of planning activities and on the level of the organization as the space and as the time, which allows to children to choose among different activities and contents regard to their wishes, interest, capabilities, moods etc., where it’s very important that goes for a choice between alternative activities and contents, and not for a choice between cooperation and non-cooperation, activity and non-activity, "class-instruction" and freely game.
The principles of active learning and ensuring possibilities of the verbalization and others modes of expressing:
- Permanent care for ensuring comfortable and for learning stimulative environment which allows assuring from teacher’s planned and unplanned guidance, like also from children’s self-initiative petitions.
SUBJECTS IN THE KINDERGARTEN
MOVEMENT
Adult role
- It’s important that activities are planned and based on the knowledge and comprehension of children’s development and of its needs. Children are successful only when the individual’s characteristics are considered, because the success it’s relative about individual interests and capabilities of children which are helped to perceive its own progress like the success without pay attention to others success.
- Particular attention should be dedicated to the children who are explicitly gifted in the motion field and are leaded to develop their gift.
LANGUAGE
Global goals
- Stimulation of the creativity.
Adult role
- Adults carefully listen to the communication between children and try to expand and to deepen those which were initiated by children.
- Encourage of child to discussing and to telling about they were read through.
- Provide the possibility to the child to be creative in the language.
- Provide possibility to the children to create their own book, strip.
ART
Global goals
- Developing the creativity and the specific art ability.
Goals
- Nursing and developing of the individual’s creative potentials in experiencing, imagining, expressing, communicating phases and enforcing at the art field.
- Detection and nursing of the specific art’s abilities and gifts.
Adult role
To identify children’s specific potentials and limits which are shown through artistic activities. Identified artistic gifts are supported and according to needs taken care for them or are advised for the additional education.
SOCIETY Is not defined because this subject is integrated in all other subjects.
NATURE
Adult role
- Student’s mode of thinking and works methods are respected by adults who are teaching him/her how to describe own experience.
- By editing, arranging and comparing they cheer child to use own criterion and to comment selections.
MATHEMATICS
Adult role
- They have to observe child play that could help him/her in the most suitable moment (regarding to child’s progress and interest) to expand mathematics knowledge.
- All activities, which emerge as cases, are ideas for a work and have to be offered to child as the choices and as the activities which allow dynamic adapting of the task difficulty level.
- They cheer children to do more demanding task.
2 DEFINITION
Gifted children are those who are capable to do big results because of their above-average capabilities (Armstrong, 1999):
– General intellectually capability, / – Leading capability, art giftness,– Prominent gift for some subject, / – Above-average psyhomotoric capabilities
– Creatively mentality,
The most important thing for teachers is to understand children’s needs to help them to develop optimally. Such children have the following characteristic:
– Language capability
– They are able to read before they go to the primary school
– They know a lot about various things
– They understand cause-consequence relations
– They could quick observe, they like to listen or to watch the same thing for several times
– They are very curious, good observers
– They have good memory
– They are very independent, they like to cooperate, they often don’t listen to the teacher instructions
– Sense of humour
– Sleep less than peers
3 IDENTIFICATION
LETICIJA age 5,5
Subject: LANGUAGE
Preschool teacher's OBSERVATIONS:
- she encourage kids to tell story and help them in that / - she thinks out stories and is telling them to the whole group- she likes listening to the reading / - she likes books
- she likes listen adult and children telling / - she has sense of humour
- she loudly »read« book to the children / - she has reach vocabulary
- she is telling a lot about her own experiences, she is using dialogues and she describe situations very alive / - she leads conversation (problem solving)
- she starts conversation
ACTIVITIES:
- visiting Library / - enigmas- project »Fairy tales« / - searching the word which start with selected sound
- project »Travelling backpack« / - searching rhymes
- working out alphabet / - social games: recognising the voice. In which colour, animal or plant would you like be transformed ?
- working out book
Subject: ART
Preschool teacher's OBSERVATIONS:
- in the play she imitates animals, object, people….
- she is animating puppets, objects…
- active collaboration in the story's dramatizations
- she is changing in the improvised costumes
- she is preparing scene
- she is collaborating with her teacher in working out didactic material, decorating class, working out puppets….
- She works out her performance: distributes roles, thinks and directs happenings in the performance
ACTIVITIES:
- Visiting performances in the kindergarten and in the theatre
- Enigmas with gesture
- Role plays: doctor, store, theatre…
- Drama club
- Fairy tale club
- Project »Travelling Theatre«
4 FOLLOWING
Subject: LANGUAGE
Global goals:
- Language as game object and Stimulation of creativity
Goals:
- During the listening and telling story activities child develops capability of imaginative use of language.
- Child recognize, enjoy and has fun in the senseless story, rhyme, sounds and word games, jokes and at the same time child experienced sounds and rhythm.
- Child experiences and comprehends verbal communication as an source of fun and problem solving.
- Child learn how to independently retell.
- Child creatively express himself in the language.
Subject: ART
Goals:
- Nursing and developing individual creative potential in experiencing, imaginings, expressing and communicating phases.
- Detection and nurse of specific artistic capabilities and talent.
- Nurse and stimulation of reach and agitated response to the internal and external world.
CHARACTERISTICS
- Strong character
- She heavily subdue
- She wants explanation to the answer “WHY?” (arguments)
- She negotiates
- She is charismatic, organizer
- She don’t want be dirigible
- She is a competent leader
- She slept after the lunch until age 4,5
- She is always in the movement, almost hyper active
- Engrossed in the play
- Long concentration, many hours. Her mother told that she is able to play for many hours.
- She has noticeable face expression while she is retelling
- She talks with whole body (body language).
5 AN EXAMPLE WHAT SHE TOLD ABOUT HER THEATRE PERFORMANCE
Theatre in the Kindergarten
I love very much the theatre. Many times I had been there. When I watch the performance, there are many beautiful things. I like puppets performance and those, where persons play.
I had invented the performance in the kindergarten. For first I invented the story about the king, queen and animals. Than I thought out puppets. Vladka was helping us to make them. She is able to make puppets from the paper and they can move. First you have to cut the paper, than you have to fold it and than to glue it. At the end you have to colour the puppet. I made the stage in the cube on the floor. I built enormous castle where the performance took place.
When I make the performance I fell happy and I enjoy and I invent the text which I will tell….. some kids think out, some stay in silent and doesn’t tell nothing. My performance is every time little different than previous because I forget, what I was telling in the last performance.
For the first we perform in our group. Than we invited every day another group to the performance, even babies. Every time when I invent the performance is more beautiful than previous. For each performance I do my best and children are glade about.
Sources:
Armstrong, Thomas. 1999. Awakening your child's natural genius. http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm (15.5.2006).
Bahovec D., Eva. et altri. 1999. Preschool education. The Curriculum for the Kindergartens. Ljubljana: Pedagoška Obzorja.
Erženičnik Pačnik, M. 1994. Vzgojitelj, pobudnik otrokove aktivnosti. V: Nadarjeni, stanje, problematika, razvojne možnosti. Zbornik. Novo Mesto: Pedagoška obzorja (123-127).
George, D. 1997. Nadarjeni otrok kot izziv. Ljubljana: ZRSŠ.
Gardner, H. 1995. Razsežnosti uma. Ljubljana: Tangram.
GloGoveC, Zmaga in Žagar D. 1990. Nadarjeni otroci v vrtcu. Ljubljana: ZRSŠ
PRIMO CIRCOLO DIDATTICO
“G. VERGA”
SCORDIA (CT) - Italy
Curriculum
The subject of the curriculum
The subject of this curriculum is to verify the possibility to plan and to test a curriculum to upgrade the education of the gift students in a normal class.
THE FIRST LEVEL ( from 4 to 6 years)
AimsSubjects / Contents / Abilities / Competentions
ITALIAN LANGUAGE / · Dialogue
· stories
· fables
· The letters and the phonemes
· The words and their meanings / · To understand messages
· to Acquire the base instruments of reading and writing
· to widen the language / · He/she knows how to pay attention to simple communications.
· He/she understands communications: deliveries, commands, instructions, different messages ….
· He/she knows how to articulate brief sentences.
· He/she knows how to expose experiences.
· he/she has acquired the base instruments of the reading.
· He/she understands the global meaning of simple sentences.
· It is able of to use the base instruments of the writing.
· He/she is able of to operate with the sounds of the words.
· He/she produces effective texts and with personal and creative connotations to narrate his/her experiences.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE / Least conversation with simple and brief messages / · To start to a new linguistic code
· to Favour the informal and real communication / · To know the usual terminology of elements
· To Know how to use the usual terminology of elements
ARTS / · Primary colours
· secondary Colours Images
· Photos
· Slides
· Comic strip
· Cartoons / · To know the colours and to use them in suitable way
· To Decode the various types of images / · He/she reads his/her own texts.
· He/she knows the primary colours.
· He/she uses materials and techniques different.
· He/she analyzes and it describes an object.
· He/she produces spontaneous texts to narrate experiences.
Music / · Musical language
· record
· Codification / · To acquire ability of listening and representation of sonorous phenomena / · He/she perceives the sounds of the reality.
· He/she recognizes some sounds of the reality and her/his classification.
· He/she produces sounds with material different
PHYSICAL EDUCATION / · Spatial structuring
· General dynamic coordination
· Activity of game / · To acquire motor schemes of base.
· To understand the respect of the rules of the game / · He/she recognizes the principal concepts on his/her body.
· He/she participates in the activities of game respecting the rules of it.
MATHEMATICS / · Whole
· Systems of numeration
· operational (addition and subtraction)
· Techniques Recognition of figures / · To understand and to resolve simple problematic situations / · He/she orally individualizes concrete problems express from others.
· He/she associates the numbers to the quantity numerical correspondent
· He/she recognizes the line as border
· He/she recognizes the ownerships of the objects.
· He/she distinguishes between real situations and fantastic situations.
Sciences / · The vital cycle / · To observe, to set questions, to make hypothesis and to verify them
· to Know simple physical and biological phenomena / · He/she individualizes and it names some characteristics of the materials;
· He/she pays attention to simple phenomena of the surrounding environment;
· He/she describes the characteristics of the observed environment.
· He/she sets questions concerning facts and phenomena of the surrounding world.
Technology and computer science / · Keyboard, mouse, video and central unity / · To know the computer and the elements that compose it / · He/her knows the computer and its parts to Know how to use it
History Geography / · Information classifications
· Reconstruction of experiences and of lived
· Relationships with the territory
· Representations of environments
· the rules / · To understand and to know how to reconstruct simple events
· to Know how to represent thespaces
· to Share systems of rules / · to acquire the idea of linear time (succession)
· to acquire the idea of cyclical time (succession)
· to acquire the idea of the things that happen in the same time
· to acquire the idea of duration and the period
· to acquire the idea of historical' change'
THE SECOND LEVEL (from 6 to 7)