The following is a brief summary of three curriculum models designed to support the gifted learner used by the teacher. Finding the right interventions for gifted learners at differing stages of development can be a challenge for the teacher, student, and parent alike. The risk of knowing when should teachers be asking gifted students to do independent studies like the Parallel Curriculum Model, or service-learning like the Integrated Curriculum Model, and other interventions that require some maturity and independent learning habits such as Multiple Menu Model as discussed below. The models below are not exhaustive but serve as a basic guide to strengthen the efforts to identify and support the gifted learner.
Curriculum Models
Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM): uses Core, Connections, Practice, and Identity as the basis to develop lesson plans as presented by Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson. The core factor is associated with providing the essential understanding necessary to learn the skill. The Connection factor is the what helps the student connect with the content and process by communicating the concept, principle and overarching concept. The Practice factor allows the student to apply what they have learned in a meaningful and substantial manner, reflecting what they understand. Identity is the factor which matches the student with interest and allows the student to reflect and for the teacher to properly assess, ability group and encourage the student in their preferred subject matter (Retrieved from https://macsaigteacher.weebly.com/parallel-curriculum-model.html).
PCM is a viable alternative model because it allows the teacher and the student to exercise flexibility, and the student to take the lead in discovering their talent and interest in various fields of study. The model lets the teacher modify the needs of the student by increasing levels of knowledge, skill, and understanding. Moreover, students are able to see and understand the whole unit versus in-part. See illustration below.
Multiple Menu Model: presented by Renzulii (1988) offers six related choices that are intended to guide teachers as they understand the application of curriculum, content and methodologies, and the instructional techniques to challenge learners on all levels. The menus are: the Knowledge Menu (Discipline), the Instructional Objectives and Student Activities Menu, the Instructional Strategies Menu, the Instructional Sequences Menu, the Artistic Modification Menu (Pedagogy and techniques), and the Instructional Products Menu (interaction with knowledge), which is composed of two interrelated menus, Concrete Products and Abstract Products Menu.
Knowledge, the level and function of, about and how to understand the field of study are based on reflective thought of important concepts such as purpose, underlying principles, representative topics, and methodology. The Instructional Objectives and Student Activities Menu focuses on the thinking and feeling processes that allows student to encode and recode activities associated with learning new material. The Instructional Strategies Menu uses specific teaching methods to present new material focused on multiple ways of learning and offering a full range of material. The Instructional Sequences Menu works like a rubric based on a fixed order of events as a guide. The Artistic Modification Menu occurs at any point of instruction when the teachers provide a personal perspective about the subject ensuing more interest in the subject. The Instructional Products Menu, which is composed of two interrelated menus is concerned with the outcome of behaviors of either concrete products or abstract behaviors that reinforce each other. Concrete Products and Abstract Products Menu reinforce each other by providing a product that in-turn cause the student to exhibit self-confidence (Retrieved from https://gifted.uconn.edu/mmm_differentiated_curriculum/
The benefit of using the MMM is the number of curriculum writing options that is relevant to the needs of the students. The model enhances the teaching and student learning process by using meaningful units of instruction. The gifted students are able to become first-hand inquires and explore how knowledge is interconnected. See illustration.
Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM): a presented by Joyce VanTassel-Baska address's the talent, intensity, and complexity of gifted students using higher-level thinking, process, and critical thinking skills in three dimensions. The dimensions are centered on concepts, advanced content, and process-product using ideas, understanding, and themes of pattern to model after real-world applications. The concept is the repeated patterns noticed which help students to make connections with the subject discipline. The advance placement is the higher, accelerated curriculum, above grade level but taught in a general classroom. The process-product focuses on the higher-order thinking and processing skills offering students the ability to navigate through a unit whereby creating a product that would help to strengthen concepts and essential understandings (Retrieved from https://mrbeasleysaigsite.weebly.com/integrated-curriculum-model.html).
The benefit of the ICM is that it is among the easier models to apply, allows the student to explore the most important ideas and crosses multiple disciplines. According to Van Tassel-Baska, (2005), ICM is "believed to make a difference in the nature and extent of learning that these students will amass" (Van Tassel-Baska, 2005). The model meets the range of needs of the gifted learner while raising the standards for the regular education students in the classroom.
