The purpose of gifted and talented recommendation letters is to assist students who easily excel in class, often at the primary school level, in being accepted into a special program that is designed to offer more challenging educational opportunities. Such programs may be offered in the middle school grades too. Sample: This sample gifted and talented recommendation letter is from a kindergarten teacher to a gifted program director at an elementary school on behalf of a student who exceled in the kindergarten curriculum.
The teacher is requesting that the student be tested for admittance into the gifted program beginning in first grade. Levine: I am writing this letter on behalf of Sally Little who is an active and inquisitive little girl in my kindergarten class. Her curiosity and eagerness to learn has made her a pleasure to teach this year. She is also polite and respectful to teachers and her peers, and is able to sit quietly and focus when a class activity requires her complete attention. Sally has shown a love and special aptitude for reading. She is able to read and recognize more than the recommended 100 high frequency words for kindergarteners including blended words. She has read all books in the kindergarten classroom, has also read the books I borrowed from the first grade class and has now started on the second grade books.
You can expect the gifted program to provide fundamentally different learning experiences from the regular academic program. The kind of learning experiences, the breadth and depth of content and delivery methods, and the pacing of the learning reflects the unique needs, interests, aspirations, and concerns of gifted learners.
In addition to excelling in reading, Sally is able to write complete sentences forming all letters in the alphabet correctly. She is able to apply the rules of sentence structure properly and put several sentences together to form a coherent thought or story. Sally enjoys writing sentences and has also shown a talent for including illustrations to enhance her stories. Both the art teacher and music teacher have communicated that Sally shows promise in those areas, and the Spanish teacher has indicated that she has shown above average ability to grasp the language.
Sally has mastered all mathematical concepts that have been presented in the kindergarten class up to this point. She is able to sort objects based on one or more attributes, create both simple and complex patterns and identify two and three dimensional shapes. She is able to correctly form all numbers and recognizes, names and assigns a value of numbers all the way up to 1,000.
Sally has demonstrated an understanding of basic probability concepts, fractions and graphs, and I expect her to continue to meet or exceed math concepts in future grades. She enjoys being challenged and tackles math problems with zeal and determination to find the solution. Although Sally is ahead of most of her peers in kindergarten, she does not display the disruptive characteristics that are common among children who are bored in class.
I highly recommend that Sally Little be tested for enrollment in the gifted and talented program next year. I believe she would meet the challenges with enthusiasm and thrive in the classroom.
Best Regards, Mary Ann Johnson Mary Ann Johnson Kindergarten Teacher Happy Acres Elementary School.
Notes on Translation The electronic translation service on the York Region District School Board's website is hosted by Google Translate. The quality of the translation will vary in some of the languages offered by Google. Google Translate is a free service and currently offers translation in over 50 languages, although an impressive number, this does not capture all languages or dialects.
The basic translation’s goal is to capture the general intention of the original English material. The York Region District School Board does not guarantee the quality, accuracy or completeness of any translated information. Before you act on translated information, the Board encourages you to confirm any facts that are important to you and affect any decisions you may make. The York Region District School Board is committed to parent, family and community engagement, and it is our hope that by providing this tool on our website that we are making our information more accessible to families whose first language is not English and thereby enabling better engagement in public education. Current YRDSB Students System-wide screening for the identification of Gifted YRDSB students takes place each year in late November to early December. This screening involves a two stage process: Stage One involves the administration of a group test of cognitive abilities, the Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test (CCAT) to all grade three students.
If a student meets the CCAT criterion, they will be referred for Stage Two in the process, an Intellectual Screening with a member of the YRDSB Psychological Services department. Those students who meet the YRDSB intellectual criterion of a score at, or above the 98th percentile rank on the General Ability Index of the intellectual screening measure (WISC V) will be considered by the IPRC (Identification Placement Review Committee). Students new to YRDSB who did not participate in the Grade 3 Gifted screening may also be screened for possible identification as a Gifted student at a post Grade 3 level. If a student demonstrates needs for additional services, the teacher is encouraged to bring information about the student to an In-School Team Meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to decide if it is reasonable to request a referral for further assessment with a member of the YRDSB Psychological Services department.
be completed by a psychologist or psychological associate who is registered with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. be completed when the child’s age was chronologically appropriate for grade three or later, or when the child was at least 8 years old. Contain at a minimum:.
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A measure of intellectual functioning (IQ test). A full academic assessment (must include, at minimum, assessment of core academic skills including reading, spelling, writing, reading comprehension and mathematics). A review of school based functioning. In order to determine whether a student not currently attending a YRDSB school meets YRDSB Gifted criteria, parents and guardians must:. Have a valid York Region address and provide proof of their address. Register their child at their regular YRDSB home school. The school locator can identify the home school based on home address.
Provide a thorough psychological assessment which must:. be completed by a psychologist or psychological associate who is registered with the College of Psychologists of Ontario.
be completed when the child’s age was chronologically appropriate for grade three or later, or when the child was at least 8 years old. Contain at a minimum:. A measure of intellectual functioning (IQ test).
A full academic assessment (must included, at minimum, assessment of core academic skills including reading, spelling, writing, reading comprehension and mathematics). A review of school based functioning.