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Gifted

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Welcome to the Gifted Resource at Charles F. Patton Middle School
where minds explore and soar . . .
 

Mission Statement: To meet the needs of each gifted student through an enrichment program that will provide challenging learning opportunities. As advocates for our students, we emphasize the encouragement of self awareness, self motivation and life long learning in a nurturing environment.

Education - helping people understand the past in order to invent the future . . .

Teachers:
Mrs. Mary Jo Knauer - mknauer@ucfsd.net

Mr. Brian Kelley - bkelley@ucfsd.net

PA Gifted Webinars - Important Parent Information
U-PRISE Parent Information session on Gifted in UCFSD

Summer Reading information for incoming 7th graders:  Book Recommendation List:  Check out this Link

AT - 7th Grade - Summer Reading

7th Grade AT students are asked to choose two mystery books as part of their summer reading.  One of them needs to be an Agatha Christie Mystery, the other is your choice - but it must be a mystery and must be something other than an Agatha Christie!  These are instead of other books, not in addition to.

We will be doing several activities with the mystery books next year - you will need to be pulling information from the books, so read carefully and thoughtfully.

Have a fun summer!!

Suggestions:

Miss Peregrine’s Series by Ranson Riggs

Kingdom Keepers - Disney at Dawn series

The Blackthorn Key series by Kevin Sands

Serefina & The Black Cloak by Beatty

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Other mystery writers:  John Grisham, Stephanie Oaks, Gennifer Choldenko, MT Anderson, April Henry and Karen McManus

 

You can also check out the CFPMS Library web page - under books by category there is a link to Mystery Books.  

QOTW

Questions of the Week!

https://forms.gle/6y7TFnQievDqvmkx6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents

AT - 7th Grade - Summer Reading

7th Grade AT students are asked to choose two mystery books as part of their summer reading.  One of them needs to be an Agatha Christie Mystery, the other is your choice - but it must be a mystery and must be something other than an Agatha Christie!  These are instead of other books, not in addition to.

We will be doing several activities with the mystery books next year - you will need to be pulling information from the books, so read carefully and thoughtfully.

Have a fun summer!!

Suggestions:

Miss Peregrine’s Series by Ranson Riggs

Kingdom Keepers - Disney at Dawn series

The Blackthorn Key series by Kevin Sands

Serefina & The Black Cloak by Beatty

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Other mystery writers:  John Grisham, Stephanie Oaks, Gennifer Choldenko, MT Anderson, April Henry and Karen McManus

 

You can also check out the CFPMS Library web page - under books by category there is a link to Mystery Books.  

 

News

News

Book Recommendation List:  Check out this Link

John Hopkins - Good Books to Give a Bright Kid This Holiday - check out the link!

 

 

Congratulations to the team of Eric Steuber, Aryan Abbaraju, Josh Vallabhaneni and Akash Patel who represented Patton Middle School in the Chester County STEM Challenge. They came away with a 2nd Place award.

Congratulations to the 30+ Patton Middle School students who qualified to participate in the National Geographic School Bee. The School Champion was Arnab Sircar (3 years in a row) who represented Patton Middle School in the State Bee - Arnab took 1st place and will be representing the state of Pennsylvania in Washington DC this May!

Congratulations to the following students who represented Patton Middle School at the Chester County Science Research Competition: Saanvi Garg, Arnab Sircar, Chirag Choudhary, Marissa Lux, Kristian Tolbert, Hilary Knipe, Sree Yedida, Claire Rawlins, Teddy Eskander, Roshni Singh, and Ria Saxena .

 

Saanvi Garg, Arnab Sircar, Chirag Choudhary, Marissa Lux and Sree Yedida all qualified to continue on to the DelVal Science Research competition. Many came away with special awards.

 

Congratulations to the following students who represented Patton Middle School in the Chester County Computer Fair on April 6, 2018: Xander Wunsch, Allison Van, Grace Zou, Ryan Zhuge, Erik Chou, Arnab Sircar, and Aria Zutshi.

Aria will continue on to the PA State Computer Fair in May 2018.

Science Fair

Science Fair

2019 Science Fair Forms:

Form #1 - Checklist for Adult Sponsor

Form #1A - Student Checklist - Research Plan

Form #1B - Approval Form

Form #1C - Regulated Research Institutional/Industrial Setting Form 

Form #2 - Qualified Scientist Form 

Form #3 - Risk Assessment Form

Form #4 - Human Participants Form

Form #4 - Human Informed Consent Form

Form #5A & B - Vertebrate Animal Form

Form #6 - Human and Vertebrate Animal Tissue Form

Form #7 - Continuation

Any questions, see Mrs. Knauer in room 218.

Reminders:

Approvals are needed if you are working with any human subjects or with animals. PAPERWORK NEEDED BY NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Approvals are also needed if you are utilizing microorganisms with the study of bacteria, viruses, viroids, prions, rickettsia, fungi and parasites or if your project involves Recombinant DNA, human and vertebrate animal fresh tissues, blood and bodily fluids or any potentially hazardous biological agents MUST HAVE PRIOR APPROVAL!!!! PAPERWORK NEEDED

Make sure you keep a hand written log of all your activity.

The top projects from each grade will participate in the Chester County Science Fair in March 2018. Any questions, please see Mrs. Knauer in room 218.

Necessary Forms: All students who are participating in the school fair MUST complete forms 1, 1A, 1B and a Research Plan. (See attachments below).

 

 

 

Competitions

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A9cb055b2-c6b8-4713-a68a-b9b28a6b8df8

Competitions
In approximate chronological order throughout the school year:
Math Madness - October 2019 - March 2020 (invitation only)
AMC 8 - November 2019 and AMC10 - February 2020 (invitation only)
Science Fair - January 2020 - Please note, this is not a school wide Science Fair - students will need to present ideas and a selection will be made of the 15 projects that will participate in the County Competition.  More information will be passed along through science teachers. 
History Bee - January 2019
Geography Bee - January 2020
Science Bee - January 2019
Spelling Bee - January 2020 - Practice words
TCQB - February 2020 
TQAAC - April 2020
Forensics - Speech and Debate - May 2020
Knowledge Bowl - May 2020 (invitation only)
 

Writing Competition: Daughter's of the American Revolution:  This year's contest: 

2019 winner:  Suhan Neema, 8th grader 

 

Bio-Medical Essay and Poster competition: https://www.psbr.org/programs-19/essay-contest 

Writing Contest:  Jewish Federation of Philadelphia Writing Contest:  https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A9cb055b2-c6b8-4713-a68a-b9b28a6b8df8
 
Student and Parent Resources

 

Forensics - Public Speaking (Speech and Debate): May 2020. Will be held at the Technical College High School Brandywine Campus on Boot Road, Downingtown, PA - Judges are needed. If parents are able to judge, please contact me at jschuster@ucfsd.net.
 
Also, students will be able to register for a maximum of two events with the exception of debate and discussion.  If a student is participating in either debate or discussion, that will be their only event.

Forensics Events Overview

The upcoming middle school forensic tournament to be held on May 2019 at the Technical College High School - Brandywine Campus, Boot Road, Downingtown, PA.

 

Umbrella topic:  Check back - topic will be announced soon

 

(All events must pertain to the umbrella topic)

 

Debate: OPEN ONLY TO 7TH & 8TH GRADE STUDENTS: Public Forum Style, 2 person teams. Involves lots of research. Need to be organized. Requires the ability to present speeches on specific topics, ask questions, think and respond spontaneously. Must be very well prepared.

Debate topic:  The US Federal Government should increase it's quota of H1B Visas. See link for more information.

Discussion: Individual event. Involves research and organizing information. Present ideas, and facts to back up ideas, on a specific topic among a group of students.

Discussion topic:  Building the Wall on the southern US border will do more harm than good.

Original Prose or Poetry: Present original work incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).

Oral Interpretation of Poetry: Present poetry, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).

Oral Interpretation of Prose: Present literary works, other than poetry, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).

Declamation: Memorize and present a speech written by a famous person, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).

Original Oratory: Write and present your own speech, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. Must pertain to the umbrella topic (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).

Impromptu: Individual event. Involves speaking about a randomly selected topic. Need to be organized and have the ability to write and present a speech “on the spot”. (may not exceed 5 minutes).

Areas that the impromptu topics will be  related issues.

NEW EVENT: Duo Interpretation: 2 person team memorize a script from plays, movie scripts, short stories or novels.

 

Information

Information


The Academically Talented Program at Charles F. Patton Middle School

. . . where minds explore and soar


OVERVIEW
The Gifted Support/Academically Talented (AT) program at Charles F. Patton Middle school is one that offers enrichment and challenge that focuses on providing new learning experiences for gifted students in accordance with District, State, and National Standards.

While we feel it is important for gifted students to have a time to meet and interact together, we also feel it is important to challenge them in the regular classroom. The Gifted Support teachers work with regular classroom teachers to help them provide differentiated and academically appropriate curriculum for gifted students.

DESCRIPTION
Students identified as mentally gifted are offered the opportunity to participate in enrichment and challenge activities through Gifted Resource, also known as AT (Academically Talented). The AT room is located within the regular school building in room 218 and students are grouped with other children in their grade levels who have also been identified as gifted. Sixth and seventh grade students are enrolled in a compacted Literacy (6th grade), or Non Fictional Writing Class (7th grade) for 4 days of the cycle and then meet for AT the other two days of the cycle for a total of 90 minutes per cycle. Eighth grade students participate in AT in place of another enrichment area class for a total of 180 minutes four times out of the six day cycle, for each marking period they elect to attend.

COMPETITIONS
See the competitions page for a brief look at many of the competitions available to students.

STYLE
Two Gifted Support teachers at the middle school develop curriculum around integrated units of study and project-oriented tasks. These teachers share a classroom and team-teach. Assignments, activities and projects are expected to be completed during class time. Unfinished work is done at home.

GROUPING
Active class participation is encouraged through individual/partner work and cooperative grouping. Grouping is designed according to the activity and students may have the opportunity to change groups on a regular basis. Through appropriate group and peer interaction, students may strengthen interpersonal skills while building self-awareness and self-acceptance in a safe and comfortable environment.

CURRICULUM
Gifted education at the middle school level is a supportive intervention enrichment program designed to develop complex thinking practices such as creative thinking, critical thinking, and problem solving skills. Curriculum is developed by establishing thematic integrated units of study and providing activities which focus on hands-on learning. Students and parents offer help developing the curriculum for Gifted Seminars by offering to share their interests and ideas. This amalgamation is implemented yearly according to grade level (6, 7, 8). A variety of teaching strategies are employed to accommodate the diverse learning styles of the students.

ASSESSMENT
Students are assessed through teacher, peer, and self -evaluation. We emphasize the self-evaluation piece because we value self-reflection as an effective assessment and developmental tool. We ask our students to draw conclusions and make judgments about his or her performance and development in the AT classroom. Learning logs, observation, and spoken and written response are some of the methods implemented. Sixth and seventh grade AT students receive Pass/Fail grades on their quarterly report cards and eighth grade students receive letter/number grades on their quarterly report cards.

Seminars

Seminars
GIFTED SEMINARS/COMPETITIONS ARE OPTIONAL OFFERINGS OF INTEREST FOR AT STUDENTS: Sign up in the AT Classroom!
 
SEMINAR I:
Fun With Logic: November 16, 2018 periods 1 or 10 - New seminar!!
 
SEMINAR 2:

 

SEMINAR 3:
 

SEMINAR 4: 
 

SEMINAR 5: