The Room Meeting for G/T Students in an Inclusion Classroom

Abstract

Gifted and talented children have great potential at the primary level for self-direction and independent study in the regular classroom, and they can work effectively with children of low and average ability to make the regular classroom a place for creative and productive learning in the basic subject matters. We developed a system of individualized instruction for second grade (Feldhusen, 1993) that has been applied in all the different elementary grades and found to be an effective system for actively involving the gifted and talented as a cluster and as individuals in the regular classroom. The children work at their own individual achievement levels in reading, writing, and mathematics. One major aspect of the system is the weekly classroom meeting in which all children participate, but the gifted and talented are expected to take a leadership role.