What is gifted?
In today’s classrooms, there are a diverse group of students being served across the United States and throughout the world. In terms of academics, there usually exist three commonly identified groups of individuals. These include lower level students, average students and above average students. These categories can also be varied across subject areas, as some students fall into one of the categories only in a particular curriculum strand. Educators and parents need to be familiar with the areas of strengths and weaknesses of the children in their care. They must also make every effort to create a positive and nurturing environment where each child can be successful.
Students who are identified as academically gifted are children who are considered to excel in one or more area of the curriculum taught. According to Barbara Clark (2013), in her book, Growing Up Gifted, the most recent definition of gifted and talented students was given through the Jacob K. Jarvits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act of 2002 {PL-100-297}. This definition states that gifted students are those “who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities {Title IX, Part A, Section 9101[22]} (Clark, 2013, p. 31).” These students fall into the same predicament of needing special instruction just as much as the lower level, struggling learners. Classrooms and schools must be prepared to meet the needs of these children academically, physically, and emotionally.
Students who are identified as academically gifted are children who are considered to excel in one or more area of the curriculum taught. According to Barbara Clark (2013), in her book, Growing Up Gifted, the most recent definition of gifted and talented students was given through the Jacob K. Jarvits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act of 2002 {PL-100-297}. This definition states that gifted students are those “who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities {Title IX, Part A, Section 9101[22]} (Clark, 2013, p. 31).” These students fall into the same predicament of needing special instruction just as much as the lower level, struggling learners. Classrooms and schools must be prepared to meet the needs of these children academically, physically, and emotionally.
According to Deborah Jensen, in her article, "Child Testing - IQ and Intelligence Testing", gifted children account for approximately 2.25% of all children tested. The article, posted on the School Psychology website gives an IQ distribution chart as shown above that correlates to the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children. According to this chart, "the orange section is where most children will score on each subtest (this is the average range). Gifted children fall within the yellow right hand section and those with disabilities will fall within the yellow left hand section of the graph" (Jensen, 2009). Using this information, gifted children are those whose intelligence quotient scores lie above 130.