Gifted Program

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Welcome to the Gifted Support Program 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. Janet Schuster - jschuster@ucfsd.net
Mrs. Mary Jo Knauer - mknauer@ucfsd.net

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

Seminars will begin in October - check out the Seminar page - sign up in AT Classroom

Competitions

In approximate chronological order throughout the school year:

Student and Parent Resources

STEM Saturdays - CCIU

Forensics - Public Speaking (Speech and Debate): May 16, 2018. 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.

Forensics Events Overview

The upcoming middle school forensic tournament to be held on Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at the Technical College High School - Brandywine Campus, Boot Road, Downingtown, PA.

Umbrella topic: Martin Luther King's Legacy - 50th Anniversary. All pieces should have some connection to themes that MLK espoused, such as violence/guns, economic disparity, freedom of speech, affirmative action, civil disobedience, police misconduct.

(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: Resolved: Affirmative action programs to remedy effects of discrimination are justified.

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: Violent protest is more effective in achieving social change than nonviolent protest.

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 MLK related issues.

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

County Knowledge Bowl

Academic team competition (with buzzers)

May 1. 2018

News

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.

Program Info

Program 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.

Science Fair

2018 Science Fair Forms - will be published once I have a new link

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

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).

Guide to Science Research Plan and Experiment.pdf

Science Forms Cheat Sheet and Paperwork Tips.pdf

Science Fair Rubric