How do immersion schools serve children who have been identified as gifted?
Children who have been identified as gifted often receive services in the same way that students with other special needs are serviced – by specialists with little or no knowledge of the immersion language and little or no understanding of immersion pedagogy. If the district has a gifted pull-out program, gifted immersion students will more than likely be a part of that program. Our practitioners did not necessarily feel this was the best option, but with budget constraints and staffing limitations, such services, in English, are often the only available options. Although there are ready-made resources available in English for classroom acceleration and enrichment activities aimed at gifted learners, immersion schools usually have to adapt or create materials to use in the target language. A better option to serve not only gifted children but all children in the regular immersion classroom may be to research staff training opportunities in differentiation of classroom instruction. Clas
