TALENTED AND GIFTED PROGRAM
TAG is an Encore class for high-achieving students--the top 10% of each grade. A college-preparatory class, TAG challenges students to use their minds, expand their knowledge base, and prepare themselves as life-long learners. TAG students are taught accelerated technological skills which enable them to conduct and present research on an advanced level. Most importantly, their creativity is channeled and encouraged in the preparation and sharing of comprehensive research projects.
A research venue being explored this year on the middle-school level is the formal interview. Museums, historical societies and historians all value a well-documented interview and it is a wonderful way to learn interpersonal skills.
Throughout the year, TAG students will read a selection of short nonfiction pieces. It's a way to provoke higher-order thinking skills, inspire research, stimulate curiosity, and slip in a little college-prep note-taking skills while students learn about topics that interest them: other children and cultures in the world, the environment, and animals.
Students will periodically read the news in TAG class and analyze the most interesting or relevant articles on current events through discussion groups. Participating in formal discussions is another college-prep skill that expands students' intellectual prowess as well as preparing them for speaking in public.
Eventually, TAG students will be collecting data or conducting research to discover for themselves some of the underlying principles of the natural world or human behavior.
In TAG class, students present newly-found scientific, sociological or historical information about our community or world in creative projects. Sometimes the venues are small-group generated, such as panel discussions, formal debates, plays, or they can be independent efforts such as PowerPoint presentations, writing projects, or scale models.
The goal of the TAG program to inspire a love of learning and a curiosity for discovery in the minds of students!
