ALPHA Spotlight

All ALPHA and Gifted Collaboration teachers have been given the ALPHA Annual Review Forms to complete before Monday, May 20th. Please complete the highlighted items on the form and return them to Mrs. Danielle Jones at the Grady Education Center through inter-office mail at your school.

Probation letters will be sent home to those students not receiving an 85% in a "gifted-labeled" class. I will check Y1 grades for each child when grades are stored before sending out probation letters. It is no longer an average of the 4 academic classes. The policy is that students must maintain an 85% average in his/her "gifted-labeled" class.

We will be having our ALPHA Blast Week (celebration) during the week of May 13-17th during our scheduled ALPHA times. Students (1st-5th grade) will be receiving an ALPHA certificate and elementary students will get a bookmark with summer experience options on it. Our 6th-8th grader teachers will receive ALPHA Certificates in their teacher mailboxes this week to pass out to our middle-school ALPHA students.

Design the character's room. Each item in the room must reveal an attribute about the character. Consider their change over time. Design this room on paper, create a diorama, or build the room in Google Drawing.

The Updated Version

In order to aim for the Analyze level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, I’ll bring in a second character who has a similar goal. Students will think about the similarities and differences between these two similar characters.

Part 1 – Rewrite the initial prompt to be clearer.

1. What is this character’s main goal?
2. What items in the character’s bedroom would hint at this goal?

Part 2 – Now, I bring in a second character so we can move to Analyze.

1. What character from another story has a similar desire?
2. What items would they have in their room?
3. What items in their room would not fit with Character A’s personality?

Part 3 – Students think from Character A’s point of view.

1. Character A visits Character B’s room. Which items would they immediately connect with in Character B’s room? Write out some of their thoughts.
2. Which item(s) would surprise Character A? Write out their reaction.

Part 4 – Finally, Character A writes a diary entry, reflecting on their encounter with Character B. How has this changed (or not changed) their dream?

Now, we can get to that original final product if we want. Students can film skits or create dioramas. But, because we’ve climbed Bloom’s, the product will reflect students’ thinking, not just their artistic skills.

Make sure to sign up for the "GIFTED TEACHERS" community group! When discussions are posted, it will alert your email and let you know.

Email: da.jones@grady.k12.ga.us
Website: www.grady.k12.ga.us
Phone: 229-307-1710 (office) or 229-378-4288 (cell)