Instruction for GAP students involves accelerated pacing, subject areas beyond the prescribed curriculum and more.
Mt. Laurel Schools curriculum supervisor Alexis Bonavitacola presented the board of education with an overview of the district’s Gifted Academic Program at this week’s BOE meeting.
Under state law, boards of education in New Jersey must approve gifted academic programs for students who exhibit above-average proficiency in one or multiple areas of study in comparison to their peers.
According to Bonavitacola, in Mt. Laurel, differentiated instruction for GAP students involves accelerated pacing, an exploration into subject areas beyond the prescribed curriculum of other students, more complexity and abstraction in students’ lessons and providing opportunities to students not generally included in the base curriculum.
Bonavitacola described the goals of the program as providing students with a variety of learning experiences that are flexible and innovative while also challenging and supported by research-based curriculum models.
“Our teachers do professional development throughout the year to find out the best research strategies for gifted students,” Bonavitacola said.
For the district’s elementary GAP for grades one and two, Bonavitacola said students meet one hour a week with a GAP teacher, with first- and second-grade students sometimes working together on lessons while teachers collaborate.
With third- and fourth-grade students, Bonavitacola said the district’s GAP becomes more complex, with students meeting with GAP teachers for three to four hours a week and even more collaborative support for teachers.
In addition, students can become involved with “service learning” projects where students will research and design their own projects to serve their school and community, such as students making lunches for the Extended Hands Ministry in Mt. Holly or creating toys for the animals at the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees.
Students are also given time to focus on independent study and “passion projects” where students are allowed to research their own questions, from topics such as learning how to publish a book to determining what causes earthquakes and how to better protect buildings against them.
As students move on to grades five and six at Hartford School, Bonavitacola said the district’s gifted program is provided to students through their related arts classes.
For fifth-grade students, classes include music, Spanish, financial literacy and Science Technology Engineering and Math, and for sixth-grade students classes involve French art, public speaking and STEM.
Once in Harrington Middle School, Bonavitacola said GAP students in seventh and eighth grade are enrolled in advanced classes such as Lenape High School’s world language, algebra and geometry.
When it comes to choosing students for the district’s GAP, Bonavitacola said teachers and parents nominate students in March and April, with data collection, testing and other evaluation completed in May and June.
Once the district selects a student for GAP, the district sends notification to parents in August, with classes beginning in September of the new school year.
