greetings from DPI “Growth Happens When Kids Are
Challenged” Musically Julie Palkowski, Arts and Creativity Education Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Education is a won- derful and fulfilling profession. It has its flashes of joy and its head scratching moments. These moments press us to find out what strategies and tools will best address the
needs of the young people in our care. Reaching all of our students takes plan- ning and time to understand our diverse community of learners. Common practice in our music classroom is to have multiple instructional strategies, tools and assess- ments to meet the needs of the students in front of us. We plan and facilitate engag- ing and meaningful learning through mul- tiple ways, differentiating our instruction to meet the needs of our students. At least that is what we aim to do. What happens when we have a student who exhibits skills and knowledge well beyond his/ her peers? This article is focused on “Ad- dressing Contemporary Learning Needs,” specifically our students who exhibit high ability/high potential in our music classes. The students for this article’s focus may also fit into a formal distinction of gifted and talented in a school.
Let’s look at what we mean by gifted and talented students. First, in all Wisconsin
public schools, “Gifted and Talented” is a distinction where pupils show “evidence of high performance capability in intel- lectual, creative, artistic, leadership, or specific academic areas and who need services or activities not ordinarily pro- vided in a regular school program in order to fully develop such capabilities” (Wis. § 118.35). For identification, school districts take specific steps to review multiple fac- tors while following their district’s gifted and talented plan. This plan considers several pieces of evidence that show the student is exhibiting skills beyond their current placement and provides a case that the student may require more “appropri- ate programming” to challenge and help them grow.
Areas reviewed for “Gifted and Talented” include five key domains: general intel- lectual, specific academic, leadership, creativity, and visual and performing arts. Schools often test students in the first two domains, however, visual/performing arts is identified less often. Researchers have found links between academic and artistic giftedness. Clark and Zimmerman (1998) found these links and share that high abil- ity is unlikely to be limited to one domain. The arts can be useful in revealing these connections by revealing previously un- recognized high-ability artistic learners (Goldberg, 2006). Students in the arts
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may be identified as gifted and talented based on their work, through an audition, performance or nomination.
Thankfully, there is a resource you may consider using to learn more about the identification of students as gifted and talented in music: Music Identification Handbook for Educators, Coordinators, and Administrators in Wisconsin Public Schools. This handbook was created through a Wisconsin team and created to assist teachers and gifted/talented pro- fessionals. The writing team includes statewide representatives, including music and gifted educators, administrators, Wis- consin Music Educators Association staff, and a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction content consultant. The re- source encourages standardized processes and criteria for gifted and talented iden- tification in music. Within the resource, there is an assessment tool that lifts four areas to review for giftedness in music – musical awareness and discrimination, creative interpretation, musical behavior and performance, and intensity. These assessment criteria need to be collected from multiple contexts such as school, the home and the community to get a broader view of the student’s skills and abilities in music. When you have a student who may exhibit skills beyond their peers in music, please connect with your gifted and talented district coordinator and check out this resource for guidance.
There are two more resources to use in building your understanding of gifted and talented students in the arts. The first is an opportunity to dive into learning with col- leagues through the Professional Learn- ing Communities Arts Education page at
https://drive.google.com/file//0B4LM DPvLeFzLY2J6OVlpVXA1b0U/view. This guides small teams through several resources about gifted and talented.
April 2021
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